"They live, they fpeak, they breathe what "Love infpires, "Warm from the foul, and faithful to its "fires, "The virgin's wish without her fears impart, "Excufe the blufh, and pour out all the heart, Speed the foft intercourfe from foul to foul, "And waft a figh from Indus to the Pole." From these beautiful encomiums on the pleafures of epiftolary intercourse, fhe makes a natural transition, and expatiates on the more keen and fenfible delights of perfonal communication; which the paints with all the warm and rapturous glow of the most amorous imagination. The first dawn of her paffion is not only artfully introduced, but its progrefs traced from principles which could only influence one of nice fenfations and delicate fentiments: fhe defcribes the early impreffions which Abelard, her comely and graceful preceptor, made upon her mind, with an enthusiasm which is exquifitely affecting, poetical and fublime. "Thou know'ft how guiltlefs first I met thy "flame, "When Love approach'd me under friendship's name; "My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind, L 4 "Guiltlefs "Guiltless I gaz'd, heav'n liften'd while you fung; "And truths divine came mended from that "tongue." She then gives a loose to the wantonnefs of amorous fancy, and avows the unreftrained licence of her love, in the most extravagant and paffionate defcription. "How oft, when prefs'd to marriage, have "I faid, "Curfe on all laws but those which Love "has made? Love, free as air, at fight of human ties, Spreads his light wings, and in a moment "flies." "Should at my feet the world's great mafter 66 fall, "Himself, his throne, his world, I'd fcorn "Not Cæfar's emprefs would I deign to prove; "Oh! happy ftate! when fouls each other "draw, "When love is liberty, and nature, law." She She then indulges herself in the recollection that Abelard and the were once in this happy ftate, on which the expatiates with exquifite fondness and fenfibility: but from these scenes of rapture, her mind is fuddenly recalled, and turned to the horrid change which her lover's cruel fate has induced. "Alas! how chang'd! what fudden horrors "rife! "A naked Lover bound and bleeding lies! "Where, where was Eloïfe? her voice, her "hand! "Her ponyard had oppos'd the dire command. "Barbarian, stay! that bloody ftroke restrain; "The crime was common, common be the “pain.” It is impoffible to read thefe pathetic lines, without admiring the oblique and delicate allufions with which the glances at the nature of her lover's deplorable difafter. The lively emotions, the fudden ftarts of paffion, the broken hints which rage dictates, and fhame fuppreffes, all confpire to awaken the reader's fympathy, and to place the horror of the fcene alluded to, in the most affecting point of view. From this fcene of woe, her recollection is led to another fcarce lefs difmal: And, in the moft moving strain of lamentation, fhe reminds Abelard of the facrifice they made at the foot of the the altar; and of the dreadful omens which attended the celebration of those awful rites. "Canft thou forget that fad, that folemn day, "When victims at yon altar's foot we lay? "Canft thou forget what tears that moment "fell, "When, warm in youth, I bade the world "farewell? "As with cold lips I kifs'd the facred veil, "The fhrines all trembled, and the lamps grew "pale." In the two laft lines particularly, there is scarce a fingle epithet which is not happily appropriated, and has not a peculiar beauty and force. Her kiffing the veil with cold lips, ftrongly marks her want of that fervent zeal and devotion, which fhould influence thofe votaries, who renounce the world. The prefages likewise which attended the rites, are finely imagined. The trembling of the fhrine, the pallid hue of the lamps, as if they were confcious of the reluctant facrifice the votaries were making, are inftances of a ftrong poetical fancy, judiciously displayed in the choice of the most appofite and ftriking imagery. Thefe circumftances likewife are premised with great addrefs and fingular propriety, to introduce the confeffion fhe afterwards makes, that in the midft of this folemn fcene, her fondnefs for Abelard prevailed over every other idea. "Yet "Yet then, to thofe dread altars as I drew, Her paffion then fwelling in a full tide of amorous transport, breaks forth in the following rapturous invocations. "Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve 66 my woe; "Thofe ftill at leaft are left thee to bestow; "Still on that breast enamour'd let me lie, "Still drink delicious poifon from thy eye, "Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be prefs'd; "Give all thou canft---and let me dream the "reft." Perhaps the excefs of amorous fondness never was expreffed with a greater degree of fenfibility and delicacy. With what paffionate regret and defpair, yet with what becoming modefty, the repeatedly hints at her lover's irreparable misfortune. Having exhaufted every fource of fond fentiment in this violent guft of amorous paffion, she is naturally recalled to a sense of her present condition, and, by a beautiful transition, fuddenly checks the extravagance of her raptures. "Ah no! instruct me other joys to prize, "With other beauties charm my partial eyes, "Full in my view fet all the bright abode, And make my foul quit Abelard for God.' |