Imatges de pàgina
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light. The gradual opening and improvement of this sense, and that of hearing, their connexion with the higher faculties of the mind; sense of beauty and order and harmony annexed to them. From the latter, our delight, in eloquence, poetry, and music derived. -Office of the taste and smell.-Internal sense of reflection, whereby the mind views its own powers and operations, compared to a young wood-nymph admiring herself in some fountain.-Admission of ideas, some by a single sense, some by two, others by every way of sensation and reflection. Instance in a person born blind, he has no ideas of light and colours; but he has those of figure, motion, extension, and space, (objects both of the sight and touch.) Third sort, those which make their entrance into the mind by every channel alike; as pleasure, and pain, power, existence, unity, and succession. Properties of bodies, whereby they make themselves known to us. Primary qualities: magnitude, solidity, mobility, texture, and figure. * * *

DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI.

LIBER PRIMUS.

AD FAVONIUM.

A UNDE Animus scire incipiat: quibus inchoet orsa
Principiis seriem rerum, tenuemque catenam
Mnemosyne: Ratio unde rudi sub pectore tardum
Augeat imperium; et primum mortalibus ægris
Ira, Dolor, Metus, et Curæ nascantur inanes,
Hinc canere aggredior. Nec dedignare canentem,
O decus! Angliacæ certe o lux altera gentis!
Si quà primus iter monstras, vestigia conor

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Signare incerta, tremulâque insistere plantâ *

a Plan of the Poem.

b Invocation to Mr. Locke.

* It has been already observed in the note on Letter XVII. p. 38, that Mr. Gray's hexameters, besides having the variety of Virgil's pauses, closed also with his elisions. For Virgil, as an attentive reader will immediately perceive, generally introduces one elision, and not unfrequently more, in those lines which terminate the sense. This gives to the versification its last and most exquisite grace, and leaves the ear fully satisfied. Mr. Gray could not fail to observe, and of course to aim at this happy effect of elisions in a concluding line: of which the present poem, in particular, affords indubitable and abundant proofs.

Quin potius duc ipse (potes namque omnia) sanctum
Ad limen, (si ritè adeo, si pectore puro,)
Obscuræ reserans Naturæ ingentia claustra.
Tu cæcas rerum causas, fontemque severum
Pande, Pater; tibi enim, tibi veri magne Sacerdos,
Corda patent hominum, atque altæ penetralia Mentis.
Tuque aures adhibe vacuas, facilesque, Favonî,
(Quod tibi crescit opus) csimplex nec despice carmen,
Nec vatem: non illa leves primordia, motus,
Quanquam parva, dabunt. Lætum vel amabile quicquid
Usquam oritur, trahit hinc ortum; nec surgit ad auras,
Quin ea conspirent simul, eventusque secundent.
Hinc variæ vitaï artes, ac mollior usus,
Dulce et amicitiæ vinclum: Sapientia dia
Hinc roseum accendit lumen, vultuque sereno
Humanas aperit mentes, nova gaudia monstrans,
Deformesque fugat curas, vanosque timores:
Scilicet et rerum crescit pulcherrima Virtus.
Illa etiam, quæ te (mirùm) noctesque diesque
Assiduè fovet inspirans, linguamque sequentem
Temperat in numeros, atque horas mulcet inertes;
Aurea non aliâ se jactat origine Musa.

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Undas quisque suas volvens, cursuque sonoro

In mare prorumpunt: hos magno acclinis in antro

c Use and extent of the subject.

e Office of the nervous system.

d Union of the soul and body. f Sensation, the origin of our ideas.

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Undique Lætitia florent mortalia corda,
Purus et arridet largis fulgoribus Æther.
Omnia nec tu ideò invalidæ se pandere Menti
(Quippe nimis teneros posset vis tanta diei
Perturbare, et inexpertos confundere visus)
Nec capere infantes animos, neu cernere credas
Tam variam molem, et miræ spectacula lucis:
* Nescio quâ tamen hæc oculos dulcedine parvos
Splendida percussit novitas, traxitque sequentes;
Nonne videmus enim, latis inserta fenestris
Sicubi se Phœbi dispergant aurea tela,

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Sive lucernarum rutilus colluxerit ardor,

& The touch, our first and most extensive sense.

h Sight, our second sense.

i Digression on light.

* Sight, imperfect at first, gradually improves.

Extemplo hùc obverti aciem, quæ fixa repertos
Haurit inexpletum radios, fruiturque tuendo.
Altior huic verò sensu, majorque videtur
Addita, Judicioque arctè connexa potestas,
Quod simul atque ætas volventibus auxerit annis,
1 Hæc simul, assiduo depascens omnia visu,
Perspiciet, vis quanta loci, quid polleat ordo,
Juncturæ quis honos, ut res accendere rebus
Lumina conjurant inter se, et mutua fulgent.
Nec minorm in geminis viget auribus insita virtus,
Nec tantum in curvis quæ pervigil excubet antris
Hinc atque hinc (ubi Vox tremefecerit ostia pulsu
Aëriis invecta rotis) longèque recurset;
Scilicet Eloquio hæc sonitus, hæc fulminis alas,
Et mulcere dedit dictis et tollere corda,
Verbaque metiri numeris, versuque ligare
Repperit, et quicquid discant Libethrides undæ,
Calliope quotiès, quotiès Pater ipse canendi
Evolvat liquidum carmen, calamove loquenti
Inspiret dulces animas, digitisque figuret.

n At medias fauces, et lingeæ humentia templa Gustus habet, quà se insinuet jucunda saporum Luxuries, dona Autumni, Bacchique voluptas.

• Naribus interea consedit odora hominum vis, Docta leves captare auras, Panchaïa quales: Vere novo exhalat, Floræve quod oscula fragrant Roscida, cum Zephyri furtim sub vesperis horâ Respondet votis, mollemque aspirat amorem.

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Ideas of beauty, proportion, and order.

Hearing also improvable by the judgment.

n Taste.

P Reflection, the other source of our ideas.

• Smell.

4 Nec verò simplex ratio, aut jus omnibus unum
Constat imaginibus. Sunt quæ bina ostia norunt;
Hæ privos servant aditus; fine legibus illæ
Passìm, quà data porta, ruunt, animoque propinquant.
* Respice, cui a cunis tristes extinxit ocellos,
Sæva et in æternas mersit natura tenebras:
Illi ignota dies lucet, vernusque colorum
Offusus nitor est, et vivæ gratia formæ.
• Corporis at filum, et motus, spatiumque, locique
Intervalla datur certo dignoscere tactu :

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Ulla nec orarum circumcæsura coërcet.
Hæc conjuncta adeò totâ compage fatetur
Mundus, et extremo clamant in limine rerum,
(Si rebus datur extremum) primordia. Firmat
Hæc eadem tactus (tactum quis dicere falsum
Audeat?) hæc oculi nec lucidus arguit orbis.

Inde potestatum enasci densissima proles ;
Nam quodcunque ferit visum, tangive laborat,
Quicquid nare bibis, vel concava concipit auris,
Quicquid lingua sapit, credas hoc omne, necesse est
Ponderibus, textu, discursu, mole, figurâ
Particulas præstare leves, et semina rerum.
Nunc oculos igitur pascunt, et luce ministrâ

9 Ideas approach the soul, some by single avenues, some by two,

others by every sense.

r Illustration.-Light, an example of the first.

• Figure, motion, extension, of the second.

t Pleasure, pain, of the third.

■ Also, power, existence, unity, succession, duration.

✓ Primary qualities of bodies.

w Magnitude, solidity, mobility, texture, figure.

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