which has been appropriated from Milton's "Comus:".

"Two such I saw, what time the labour'd ox

In his loose traces from the furrow came."

Another thought in Milton's

"Paradise

Lost,"

"At whose sight all the stars

Hide their diminish'd heads,"

has been transferred by Pope to one "Moral Essays:"

"Ye little stars, hide your diminish'd rays."

of his

Before we take leave of Pope, it is but right that we should restore to him the original thought of a Latin hexameter, which is commonly ascribed to Horace. We allude to the oft-quoted :—

"Indocti discant et ament meminisse periti ;"

the history of which is given in an interesting little volume by M. Edouard Fournier, entitled, "L'Esprit des Autres."

This verse appeared for the first time as an epigraph to President Henault's "Abrégé Chronologique;" and it was much admired both for its appositeness and its Horatian elegance. For some time the good president chuckled in secret at the blundering and want of memory of the admirers of Horace. In 1749, however, on the

appearance of the third edition of his work, he took occasion to state in the Preface that the much-admired epigraph was not written by Horace, but by himself; and that he had given it as a translation of the following couplet in Pope's "Essay on Criticism:"

"Content if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew."

This revelation took the critics by surprise. Henault's claim, however, was soon forgotten; and to this day, whenever the hexameter is quoted, as it frequently is on the title-page of works on education, to Horace, and not to Henault, is the merit of it invariably assigned. And thus it comes to pass that the poor rhymster's mite, which constitutes his whole riches, is swallowed up by the literary Croesus.

Considering the slender productions of his muse, there is no English poet whose versified maxims are so often quoted as those of Gray :—

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

Thoughts that breathe and words that burn."

"His hoary hair stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air." "The still small voice of gratitude."

"And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

"Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind." "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

These, and many others of like significance, are in everybody's mouth. But, as generally happens, the more beautiful the thought, the more likely it is to have been borrowed. Gray's most remarkable poem, the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," is said to have been picked out, thought by thought, if not word by word, from other poets. The very first line,

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,"

has been adopted from the following passage in Dante's "Purgatory:"

"Se ode squilla di lontano

Che paja 'l giorno pianger che si muore."

Giannini has translated the Elegy into Italian; and it is worthy of notice that his version of the first line coincides with Dante's words:

"Piange la squilla 'l giorno, che si muore."

giorno che

The principal thought in Dante, the "
si muore," is further traceable to Statius's

"Jam moriente die."

One of the finest stanzas in the Elegy is but a free translation of the Latin couplet :

"Plurima gemma latet cæca tellure sepulta;
Plurima neglecto fragrat odore rosa."

Gray's lines are:

"Full many a gem, of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full
many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Bishop Hall has a parallel to the first two lines:

"There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen, nor ever will be."

The last line occurs in the same words in Churchill:

"Nor waste their sweetness in the desert air."

"Which else had wasted in the desert air."

Another borrowed stanza in the Elegy is the following:

"For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care:

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share."

This is adopted from Lucretius :

At jam non domus accipiet te læta; neque uxor
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Præripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent."

Gray's appropriations are not confined to the Elegy. In his "Ode to Vicissitude," he has the following:

"The hues of bliss more brightly glow,

Chastised by sober tints of woe;

And, blended, form with artful strife

The strength and harmony of life."

The last two lines are taken from Pope's "Essay on Man :"

"The lights and shades whose well-accorded strife

Gives all the strength and colour of our life."

Then we have the couplet in the "Fatal Sisters:"

"Iron sleet, of arrowy shower,

Hurtles in the darken'd air."

Which is adopted from this passage in "Paradise Regained:"

"How quick they wheel'd, and, flying, behind them shot Sharp sleet of arrowy shower."

Next comes the line in "The Bard:"

"Give ample room and verge enough."

Which is taken from a passage in Dryden's "Don Sebastian:"

"Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me!
I have a soul that, like an ample shield,

Can take in all, and verge enough for more."

In the same poem we have the comparison of the "streaming meteor;" but whether borrowed from Cowley or from Milton, seems uncertain. Cowley, speaking of the Angel Gabriel,

says:

"An harmless flaming meteor shone for haire,
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care."

And Milton, in " Paradise Lost:"

"Th' imperial ensign, which full high advanced,

Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind."