The Power of Solitude/Notes on the Second Part

by Joseph Story

NOTES

ON THE SECOND PART.

NOTE I.

In floating visions round your Darwin's head.

DR. Erasmus Darwin, the author of the Botanic Garden. Well may he exclaim with Lucretius

   ———Juvat integros accedere fonteisAtque haurire; juvatque novos decerpere flores;Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam;Unde prius nulli velârunt tempora musæ.LIB. I. 921.

 

NOTE II.

In domes, that reasoned, and in groves, that thought.

The Stoa, or Porch was the school of the divine Zeno; and the academic grove, here alluded to, has ever been celebrated, as the nursery of Grecian glory.

NOTE III.

Thus when the host of warlike Nicias bled,And Syracuse entombed the Grecian dead.

"Amidst this dark, and dreadful scene of cruelty and revenge, we must not omit to mention one single example of humanity, which broke forth, like a meteor in the gloom of a nocturnal tempest. The Syracusans, who could punish their helpless captives with unrelenting severity, had often melted into tears at the affecting strains of Euripides, an Athenian poet, who had learned in the Socratic school to adorn the lessons of philosophy with the charms of fancy. The pleasure, which the Syracusans had derived from his inimitable poetry, made them long to hear it rehearsed by the flexible voice and harmonious pronounciation of the Athenians, so unlike and so superior to the rudeness and asperity of their own Doric dialect. They desired their captives to repeat the plaintive strains of their favorite bard. The captives obeyed: and affecting to represent the woes of ancient kings and heroes, they too faithfully expressed their own. Their taste and sensibility endeared them to the Syracusans, who released their bonds, received them with kindness into their families, and, after treating them with all the honorable distinctions of ancient hospitality, restored them to their longing and afflicted country."

GILLIES' GREECE II. 412. Lond. Edit. 1792.

O! sacer et magnus vatum labor: omnia fatoEripis, et populis donas mortalibus avum.LUCAN. PHARSALIA IX.

 

NOTE IV.

Or calmly perish at the Grecian Strait!

Nothing could exceed the noble devotion of Leonidas and his three hundred brave Spartans at the straits of Thermopyla. Deserted by all the other Grecian forces, they disdained flight, and after maintaining a glorious, tho unequal contest, with the whole Persian army, all perished in the defence of the liberties of their country.

"Happy shades! one day witnessed your glory; the same day it was perfected. Your laurels were green on your brows; they had not time to wither;• and now they never can. Happy shades! you did not survive your glory; your passport to fame was thro the splendor of your renown. The moment in which you. were all you could be, you ascended to heaven. Happy shades! your monument is more durable, than marble; more honorable, than human art has yet raised; yours is erected in the hearts of your countrymen. Happy shades! tho you were forbidden to swell the triumph of your fellow citizens; tho no heavenly vision of your country's approaching liberty softened the agonies of death, and enraptured your departing spirits; yet you did not depart without your glory; you did not depart without your triumph. The indignant spirit of your country had declared, that her sons had lived, as long as life was honorable; you were demanded a sacrifice; your obedience consummated your glory; your fall triumphed over death."

The above quotation is from an Oration pronounced at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the anniversary of the battle of Bunker's Hill, by William Austin, A. B.: an oration which deserves remembrance from its impartiality, its spirit, and its eloquence. It would not have disgraced the reputation of those Grecian orators, of whom Cicero says, "grandes erant verbis, crebri sententiis, compressione rerum breves."

 

NOTE V.

So Scotia's queen, while yet with matchless grace, &c.

From the influence of solitude Mary of Scotland acquired that tender firmness, which shed such diștinguished lustre over the horrors of her closing life. She was confined nineteen years by the haughty Elizabeth in the castle of Fotheringay, and during that time wrote many beautiful pieces in prose and verse. For her death and character consult Hume's England V. Russell's Modern Europe III. and Robertson's Scotland II.

NOTE VI.

Too dearly purchased by Montgomery slain!

General Montgomery was killed at the siege of Quebec on the last day of December, 1775. He was an officer of high reputation for generous spirit, and military talents. Beloved by his friends, admired by his enemies, and lamented by the whole world, he fell in the flower of life with his honors thick upon him.

  ———Manibus date lilia plenis;Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotisHis saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inaniMunere. ANEID. VI. 883.

NOTE VII.

How sleep the brave, who gently sink to rest.

Imitated from the exquisite little ode of Collins, beginning

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,By all their country's wishes blest!

NOTE VIII.

Immortal Howard bends his heavenly way.

This gentleman, who sacrificed his fortune, and at length his life in the cause of humanity, has be-queathed to posterity a melancholy history of their species in the enlightened era of the eighteenth century!! See the history of the Lazarettos, &c. and Aikin's Life of Howard.

NOTE IX.

Can the dark dungeon e'er those souls confine,Who draw rich transport from invention's mine?

Many beautiful illustrations of the composure of men of genius under the most rigorous confinement will readily occur to the classic reader, and forcibly prove the doctrine here inculcated, that solitude gives energy to invention and cheerfulness to the heart, even under the greatest calamities. Perhaps none are more striking, than the singular felicity of Voltaire composing his Henriad, when immured in the Bastile, for aught he knew, for life; and the merry fortitude of Cervantes depicting the humors of Quixote during a gloomy captivity.

 

NOTE X.

What buoyed Roland, when o'er the opening dayStern desolation swept with sanguine sway?

Madame Roland, the eloquent compatriot of the divine Charlotte Cordé, wrote her admirable "Appeal to Posterity," during her confinement in the Abbaye Prison. Perhaps her best eulogium is to declare, that the sublimity of her sentiments was even surpassed by the firmness of her actions. See Desodoard's Histoire de la Revolution de France, tom IV. 72.

NOTE XI.

So injured Raleigh, (merit's sad return!).

"During the thirteen years imprisonment, which he suffered, the sentiments of the nation were much. changed with regard to him. Men had leisure to reflect on the hardship, not to say injustice, of his sentence; they pitied his enterprising spirit, which languished in the rigors of confinement: they were struck with the extensive genius of the man, who being educated amidst military and naval enterprises, had surpassed in the pursuits of literature, even those of the most recluse and sedentary lives; and they admired his unbroken magnanimity, which at his age and under his circumstances, would engage him to undertake and execute so great a work, as his history of the world."

NUME'S ENGLAND, VI. 98.

NOTE VII.

As struck with life, the fierce Palladium stood.

Vix positum castris simulacrum; arsêre coruscaLuminibus flammæ arrectis; salsusque per artusSudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mirabile dictu)Emicuit, parmamque ferens hastamque trementem.ÆNEID. IL. 172

 

NOTE XIII.

And daring Corde bared her righteous blade.

"Mary Charlotte Cordé was born at Saint Saturnin, in the department of Orné. Leading at home a retired life, she spent much time in reading ancient history, whence she imbibed a zeal for liberty. Some family affairs had drawn her to Caen, at the time when the young men of that town were enrolling under Wimpfen in order to release the majority of the convention from the overruling jacobins. The idea struck her that a single victim might save many. "I considered, (said the heroine, in a letter, which she wrote from her prison) that so many brave youths were going to Paris for the head of a single man, who did not merit such an honor; and that the arm of a woman might be sufficient." On the scaffold she exhibited the same dignified deportment, and died an illustrious example of virtue, independence, and patriotism. See Desodoard's Histoire Philosophique de la Revolution de France, &c. III. 235.

NOTE XIV.

Most dark that hour, when o'er the loitering SeineStern murder sat, in hellish glooms serene.

These, and the subsequent lines, allude to the fall of the Girondists; which cannot better be described, than in the fine picture of the Monthy Reviewers.

"When the revolutionary tribunal declared its fatal sentence, Valazé in a transport of indignation poignarded himself in the hall. Brissot, Vergniaud, Gensonné, Lasource, Fonfrede, Ducos, and the others, were led to the scaffold on the next day; Vergniaud, foreseeing the event, had provided poison for himself: but, observing his young companions Fonfrede and Ducos involved in his misfortune, he gave away the poison, and said, that he would die with them. Altho no one of the sufferers was deceived by a vain hope, their minds were so much elevated by the splendor of their sacrifice, that it was impossible to approach them with the common place expressions of vulgar consolation. Brissot, grave and calm, behaved like the sage struggling with adversity. The silent Gensonné disdained to sully his lips even with the names of his accusers. Vergniaud, often cheerful, would repeat to them from Corneille or others the fine verses with which his memory was stored, or pour forth the last gushes of that powerful eloquence, of which the feeblest stream made tyranny turn pale. The brothers in law, Ducos and Fonfrede, created if possible a yet livelier interest. Their youth, their intimate friendship, their personal beauty, their accomplishments of mind; concurred to render odious the worthlessness of their enemies. Ducos had escaped, but chose to return to prison to share his brother's fate. The tears would burst from their eyes, when they talked of the widows they should leave behind, and of the children about to suffer ruin for their father's deeds. Each had a young family, and a considerable fortune. This was the first time, says Riouffe, that so many extraordinary persons were massacred together. Youth, beauty, genius, wisdom, virtue, and whatever is estimable among men; was cut down at a blow; yet who would not be content so to die, in order so to have lived?"

MONTHLY REVIEW 1797. VOL. 23.

NOTE XV.

So cherished still beyond the farthest Tweed,Linger the awful forms of Celtic creed.

The truth of this illustration of the effect of local scenery is beautifully shewn by Dr. Beattie, and Dr. Drake. Concerning the superstitions, here alluded to, I cannot do better, than to refer the reader to the dissertations on this subject in the "Literary Hours" of the latter gentleman. A few quotations are subjoined to explain some of the less obvious lines.

"No country better exemplifies these observations, than Scotland, in which while a peculiar system of superstition, sublime and awful in its general texture, and strongly indicative of the country, has long reigned in the Highlands of that kingdom, in its Lowland districts a mild and more sportive vein of fabling (like the lighter Gothic) prevails, well adapted to the beautiful and pastoral scenery of that delightful region." 2. DRAKE. 209.

NOTE XVI.

Roll the grey mists along the lonely grave.

"The funeral elegy was one of the most important rites of ancient Caledonia; and no greater misfortune could occur to a hero, than to have it omitted over his tomb: for without this sacred song his soul could claim no admission into the airy, halls of his fathers, but was condemned, until this ceremony was performed, to reside amidst the mists of the Lake of Lego; where it was deemed the office of the spirit of the nearest relative "to the warrior's grave to roll the mist, a grey dwelling to his ghost, until the song arise." OSSIAN'S TEMORA VII. 6. 2 DRAKE 237.

NOTE XVII.

There too in grisly state the Kelpie sits.

"That a spirit also dwells in the waters and directs their destructive fury, is an opinion coeval with the earliest records of tradition in Scotland, and still forms a part of the populace creed. This spirit is called by the vulgar the Water Wraith or Kelpie or Water Fiend. 2 DRAKE 249. Collins in his most beautiful Ode on the Superstition of the Highlands, has clothed this belief in most tremendous imagery.

NOTE XVIII.

Hence oft the Thane from Bendoran's huge brow.

An allusion is here made to the Scottish second sight. "To this day the same credulity exists, and the mountains of Bendoran (the highest inhabited parts of Scotland) are still considered by the country, as enchanted mountains." 2 DRAKE.

NOTE XIX.

True to the site, a gentler genius reigns.

The reader is referred to the essay of Dr. Drake on the Gothic superstitions for an illustration of the subsequent lines. The light mythology of the Goths seems to vary but in small degrees from the Oriental and Arabic fictions.

NOTE XX.

Disturb the ghostly hours of Halloween.

"Halloween is thought to be a night, when witches, devils, and other mischief making beings, are all abroad on their baneful, midnight errands; particularly those aerial people, the fairies, are said on that night to hold a grand anniversary." Burn's (Robert) Poem entitled "Halloween."

NOTE XXI.

Lead the wild corpse light round the omened grave.

A short time before the death of any person, it is generally believed, that a light is seen proceeding from the house, or even from the bed, where the sick person lies, and pursues its way to the place, where the corpse is to be buried. In Wales this is called the Canwyll corph, or the corpse light. In Scotland it is thought to be some ghost. "The account given to this day among the vulgar," says Mr. Macpherson, "is very poetical. The ghost comes mounted on a meteor, and surrounds twice or thrice the place destined for the person to die; and then goes along the road, thro which the funeral is to pass, shrieking at intervals; at last the meteor and the ghost disappear above the burial place."

2 DRAKE 234. BINGLEY'S Tour in North Wales, II. ch. 12. COLLINS' Ode on the Superstition of the Highlands.

NOTE XXII.

So Numa loved the consecrated grots.

Numa, previous to his election, as king of the Romans, spent his days in the acquisition of wisdom in solitude. His recluse of life and religious gravity gave early rise to the singular fable of his intercourse with the goddess Egeria, of which he afterwards made such masterly use to give sanction to his laws and institutions. LIVY. I. 19. PLUT. NUMA,

NOTE XXIII.

The darkbrowed druids spelled his troubled rites.

The religion of the Druids was to the last degree sanguinary. Human victims were offered on their polluted altars; and their pretended prophetic powers in some instances made the engines of wanton barbarity. Yet they are said to have cherished many institutions, calculated for public happiness, and among other doctrines taught the immortality of the soul. See Casar's Commen. bell. Germ. VI. c. 13. Pliny XVI. c. 44.

NOTE XXIV.

Which thro the desert wilds St. Francis led.

The holy St. Francis of Assisi was born in the year 1182. From a most profligate life he suddenly changed to a rigid enthusiasm, and wild devotion. He retired into the forests and there remained a great while, practising those holy penances, which establish the right to canonization. In the calendar of saints the Institutor of the order of Franciscans is no insignificant worthy.

 

NOTE XXV.

By passion's ties round lovelier Armelle twined.

Armelle Nicholas, the beautiful French enthusiast, and pattern of sanctity, was born at Campenac in the diocese of St. Malo, 1606. Her soul appears to have been formed for tenderness, and she is reported to have died of 'an excess of divine love. The convent of Vannes in 1671 witnessed the death of this sweet saint, whose religious fervors partook all the voluptuousness of the most bewitching affection.

ZIMMERMAN ON SOLITUDE.

NOTE XXVI.

Led hindoo's damsel to the funeral pile,A willing victim of religious guide.

The religious writings of the Hindoos not only authorise a wife to sacrifice herself upon the funeral pyre of her husband; but promise the deluded martyr an immediate admission into the highest joys of paradise.

NOTE XXVII.

Cursed was that hour, when first the passions brewed,Their cowled fiend, monastic solitude!

The influence of monastic institutions has ever been deemed destructive of social happiness. The holy flagellations, the penant rites, and the superstitious follies even of the best among these fanatics, have given a darkness and horror to religion, which must appal the benevolent mind. But devotion was unfortunately seldom the companion of the ascetics The most unnatural vices, the in the latter ages, most debauched passions, and most profligate intercourses, disgraced the holy fathers, and stained the purity of the vestal veil.

Thomassin (tom III.) has drawn a picture of these violations of decorum and sanctity, which must scandalize the delicacy of every christian reader.

NOTE XXVIII.

Slaughtered with Charles, with Innocent betrayed.

Charles IX. of France, the infamous perpetrator of the massacre of the Huguenots on the eve of St. Bartholomew; and Pope Innocent III. the author of the inquisition, that terrible scourge of the human race.

NOTE XXIX.

Why pensive Thomson wooed the willing muse.

"The autumn was Thomson's favorite season for poetical composition, and the deep silence of the night the time he commonly chose for study: so that he was often heard walking in his library, repeating what he was to correct or write out the next day."

 

NOTE XXX.

So Gibbon loved, retired from censure's ken,To muse with wisdom on the deeds of men!

This immortal historian wrote the greater part of his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" in his sweet retreat at Lausanne, in Switzerland. "It was among the ruins of the capitol," says he, "that I first conceived the idea of a work, which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life." Gibbon's Decline, &c. XII. 432. Those, who may have curiosity to learn the gradual developement of human excellence, will read with rapture the precious life of this great man, as written by himself.

See Gibbon's Miscellanies. tom. I.

NOTE XXXI.

The Northern warriors dwell in gloomy state.

"A circumstance, related by Priscus in his history of the embassy to Attilla king of the Huns, gives a striking view of the enthusiastic passion for war, which prevailed among the barbarous nations. When the entertainment, to which that fierce conqueror admitted the Roman Ambassadors, was ended, two Scythians advanced towards Attilla, and recited a poem, in which they celebrated his victories, and military talents. All the Huns fixed their eyes with attention on the bards. Some seemed to be delighted with the verses; others, remembering their own battles and exploits, exulted with joy; while those, who were become feeble thro age, burst into tears, bewailing the decay of their vigor, and the state of inactivity, in which they were now obliged to remain." ROBERTSON'S CHARLES v. tom. I. note III. C. sect. I.

A devotion to the female sex, bordering on enthusiasm, was a prevailing trait in the characters of the Northern nations; and their mythologic belief was a singular mixture of ferocity and tenderness.

 

NOTE XXXII.

While Charles's Minstrels raise their epic lay.

These lines refer to Mrs. Morton and Mr. Paine of Boston, Massachusetts, the former, the author of 'Oûabi,' 'Beacon Hill,' and the "Virtues of Society, poems, which for beauty of diction and felicity of sentiment have received much applause: the latter, the author of the 'Invention of Letters," The Ruling Passion,' and other micellaneous productions of high estimation for energy and elegance. 'Beacon Hill,' and the 'Invention of Letters' delineate with great eloquence, strength, and truth the prominent characteristics of Washington.

NOTE XXXIII.

He tracks with daring steps the Chamois Goat.

"Who could imagine," says Mons. Saussure, “this chase of the Chamois would be the object of a passion absolutely insurmountable. I knew a well made, handsome man, who had married a beautiful woman; "my grandfather," said he to me, "lost his life in the chase: so did my father: I am persuaded, I too shall die in the same manner: this bag, which I carry with me, when I hunt, I call my grave clothes, for I am sure, I shall have no other; yet if you should offer to make my fortune on condition of abandoning the chase of the Chamois, I could not consent." VOYAGE dans les ALPES. tom. III.

NOTE XXXIV.

Here Spain's famed monarch, humbled to dust,Pines lone and friendless in austere St. Just.

After Charles V. had retired to the monastery of St. Just he became a prey to religious mortifications. "An illiberal and timid superstition depressed his spirit. He had no relish for amusements of any kind. He endeavoured to conform in his manner of living to all the rigor of monastic austerity. He desired no other society, than that of monks, and was almost continually employed with them in chanting the hymns of the missal. As an expiation for his sins, he gave himself the discipline in secret with so much severity, that the whip of cords, which he employed as the instrument of his punishment, was found after his decease tinged with blood." ROBERTSON'S CHARLES v. tom. III. 317.

NOTE XXXV.

Great Haller kneels with superstitious glare,And moody Tasso parleys with the air.

I would refer the reader to the lives of these great men for a picture of deep melancholy and strange infatuation.

NOTE XXXVI.

The curse of fame deserted Lucan prove,And Grey bewail the hour, that crowned her love.

The ingenious author of the 'Pharsalia' lost his

life in consequence of a competition in poetic powers with the vain, jealous, and sanguinary Nero.

Lady Jane Grey, whose talents deserved a better fate, was beheaded in the tower in 1554. On the day of her execution she refused to take leave of her hus- band from a fear, that her tenderness might overcome' her fortitude. "Our separation," added she, "will be but for a moment; we shall soon rejoin each other in a scene, where our affections will be forever united, and where death, disappointment, and misfortune can no longer disturb our felicity.”

MODERN EUROPE tom. II. 346.

NOTE XXXVII.

As erst I wandered round Chamouni's vale.

This romantic valley, situated at the foot of Mount Blanc, is peculiarly the region of wild imagery. At one glance the eye may behold the frozen. Glaciers, peering their heads over the clouds, finely contrasted with the sloping vales, which appear ever On the whole, the scenery new and delightsome. forms an exhibition of the sublime, the picturesque, and the beautiful, beyond the utmost eloquence of description.

MOORE'S TRAVELS in SWITZERLAND. I. 198. VOYAGE dans les ALPES par SAUSSURE.

NOTE XXXVIII.

Arun's fair banks with sainted Otway tread,And garland laurels round young Collins head.

The pathetic Otway and the tender Collins were nurtured on the banks of the Arun in Sussex.

NOTE XXXIX.

Hymning, "oh drop the briny tear with me,"My true love sleeps beside yon willow tree.

Imitated from Chatterton's "Minstrel's Song in Ælla."

"O! synge untoe my roundelaie, O! droppe the brynie teare wythe mee,Daunce ne moe atte hallie daíe, Like a reynynge ryver bee:  Mie love ys dedde,  Gone to hys deathe-bedde, Al under the wyllowe tree."

NOTE XL.

Whence silver streams enamoured Arno pours.

On the banks of the Arno, the Troubadours, or Provençal poets first sung their legendary and romantic songs.

 

END OF THE NOTES ON THE SECOND PART.

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