Tho' cold like you, unmov'd and filent grown, She proceeds to enumerate the effects, which Abelard's relation of their misfortunes has had upon her; yet notwithstanding what she fuffers from them, fhe intreats him still to write. + Yet write, O write me all! that I may join Griefs to thy griefs, and echo fighs to thine. This is from the Letters-" Per ipfum itaque -Chriftum obfecramus; quatenus ancillulas ipfius & tuas, crebris literis de his, in quibus adhuc fluctuas, naufragiis certificare digneris, ut nos faltem quæ tibi folæ remanfimus, doloris vel gaudii participes habeas ‡. On the mention of letters, fhe breaks out into that beautiful account of their use, which is finely improved from the latin. epithets * "Forget thyself to marble" is an expreffion of Milton, as is alfo, Caverns fhagg'd with horrid thorn ;" and the pale-eyed, and twilight," are firft ufed in the fmaller poems of Milton, which POPE had juft perhaps been reading. + V. 41. Epift. i. Heloiff. pag. 46. Q92 Heaven *Heaven firft taught letters for fome wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or fome captive maid; They live, they fpeak, they breathe, what love Warm from the foul, and faithful to it's fires t; "De quibufcunque autem nobis fcribas, non parvum nobis remedium conferes; hoc faltem uno, quod te noftri memorem effe monftrabis." She then quotes an unneceffary * V. 51. It is to be hoped, that fome of the fair fex, of the abilities of Eloifa, for we have two or three fuch at present in Great Britain, will answer the ingenious, but paradoxical philofopher of Geneva, who has vented many blafphemies against the pation of love. "Il faut diftinguer, fays he, le MORAL du phyfique dans le fentiment de l'amour. Le phyfique eft ce defir general qui porte une fexe a s'unir a l'autre ; Le moral eft ce qui determine ce defir, & le fixe fur un feul objet exclufivement; ou qui du moins lui donne pour cet objet preferè un plus grand degrè d' energie. Or il eft facile de voir que le moral de l' amour est un sentiment factice; nè de l' ufage de la focietie, & celebrè par les femmes avec beaucop d'habilitè & de foin, pour etablir leur empire, & rendre dominant le fexe qui devroit obeir." DISCOURS fur L'origine de l'INEGALITE parmi les hommes-Par J. J. Rouleau. Amfterdam, 1755. p. 78. It is not to be wondered at that he who has written a fatire against human fociety, fhould fatirize its greatest bleffing. « Si imagines paffage of Seneca, and adds, nobis amicorum abfentium jucundæ funt, quæ memoriam renovant, & defiderium abfentiæ falfo atque inani folatio levant; quanto jucundiores funt literæ, quæ amici abfentis veras notas efferunt*?" The origin of Eloifa's paffion is, with much art and knowledge of human nature, afcribed to her admiration of her handsome preceptor: this circumstance is particularly poetical, and even fublime; † My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind, Some emanation of th' all-beauteous mind. How oft, when prefs'd to marriage, have I faid, Before true paffion all these views remove, These sentiments are plainly from the letters, "Nihil unquam, deus fcit, in te, nifi te requifivi; te purè non tua concupifcens. Non matrimonii fœdera, non dotes aliquas expectavi. * Ibid. + V. 61. V. 73. Et Et fi uxoris nomen fanctius ac validius videtur, dulcius mihi femper extitit amicæ vocabulum, aut, fi non indigneris, concubinæ vel scorti *. -POPE has added a very injudicious thought, †The jealous God, when we profane his fires, And again, ‡ Love free as air, at fight of human ties, It is improper for a perfon in the fituation of Eloifa to mention Cupid; mythology is here out of its place. The Letters also furnished the next thought: Not Cæfar's emprefs would I deign to prove, "DEUM teftem invoco, fi me Auguftus, univerfo prefidens mundo, matrimonii honore dignaretur, totumque mihi orbem confirmaret in perpetuo præfidendum, charius mihi & † V. 81. * Epift. i. Heloiff. pag. 49. ‡ V. 75. § V. 87. dignius dignius videretur, tua dici meretrix, quam illius imperatrix *." Next fhe describes their unparalelled happiness in the full and free enjoyment of their loves; but all at once ftops short, and exclaims with eagerness, as if she at that inftant faw the dreadful scene alluded to, † Alas how chang'd! what fudden horrors rife! One * Epift. i. Heloiff. pag. 50. + V. 100. It was difficult to speak of this catastrophe that befel Abelard with any dignity and grace: our poet however has done it. I know not where caftration is the chief caufe of diftrefs, in any other poem, except in a very extraordinary one of Catullus, where Atys, ftruck with madness by Berecynthia, in a fit of enthusiasm, inflicts this punishment on himself. After which he laments his condition in very pathetic strains. The poem has been fo little remarked on, that I shall take the liberty of inferting the following paffage in the speech of Atys, which is very dramatic, full of fpirit, and fudden changes of paffion. Egone a meâ remota hæc ferar in nemora domo ? Abero foro, palestrâ, stadio, gymnafiis ? Mifer, ah mifer, querendum eft etiam atque etiam, anime, Quod |