NOTE 60. Page 214.

The introduction of Alexander the Great, Socrates, and a Roman emperor, is a strange jumble of times and persons.

NOTE 61. Page 223.

"Beware that you lose not the THREAD."

A fine moral, which might be oftener remembered with advantage. The Gospel is to the Christian, what the ball of thread was to the knight: pity that it should so frequently be lost!

NOTE 62. Page 224.

"Here seems to be an allusion to MEDEA's history."-WARTON. It is surely more analogous to the story of the Minotaur, and the clue furnished by Ariadne to her lover. Warton should have explained the resemblance he has fancied.

NOTE 63. Page 234.

My friend, let us go through the world as other knights are wont to do."

"Sicut cæteri milites." Here we discover those

features of chivalry, so admirably ridiculed by Cer

vantes. But, in times of oppression, when every

one followed

"the simple plan,

That he may take who has the power,
And he may keep who can,"

the wandering hero, ever ready to risk his life in defence of the injured, was governed by a noble and useful institution.

NOTE 64. Page 236.

"If the end be well, all is well."

"Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit." This gives us the origin, probably, of the proverb, "All's

well that ends well."

similar character.

"Finis coronat opus," is of a

NOTE 65. Page 239.

The interpretation of the language of birds, is clearly an oriental fiction; several instances of which are furnished by the Arabian Tales. It has since been made the vehicle of many instructive fables. See Spectator, Vol. VII. No. 512. which is copied from the "Story of the two Owls," in the Turkish Tales.

NOTE 66. Page 250.

This fable has crept in our story-books.

NOTE 67. Page 273.

We have here a new version of an Æsopian fable.

NOTE 68. Page 280.

"This is the fable of Parnell's HERMIT, which that elegant and original writer has heightened with many masterly touches of poetical colouring, and a happier arrangement of circumstances. Among

other proofs which might be mentioned of Parnell's genius and address in treating this subject, by reserving the discovery of the angel to a critical period at the close of the fable, he has found means to introduce a beautiful description, and an interesting surprise."-WARTON.

That the reader may compare the two stories the more readily, it is inserted here.

"THE HERMIT.

"FAR in a wild, unknown to public view,

From youth to age a reverend hermit grew,

The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well:
Remote from men, with God he pass'd his days,
Pray'r all his business, all his pleasure praise.

"A life so sacred, such serene repose,
Seem'd heaven itself, till one suggestion rose;
That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey,-
This sprung some doubt of Providence's sway:
His hopes no more a certain prospect boast,
And all the tenour of his soul was lost :
So when a smooth expanse receives imprest
Calm nature's image on its wat'ry breast,

Down bend the banks, the trees depending grow, And skies beneath with answering colours glow: But if a stone the gentle sea divide,

Swift ruffling circles curl on every side,

And glimmering fragments of a broken sun,
Banks, trees, and skies in thick disorder run.

"To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight,
To find if books, or swains, report it right,
(For yet by swains alone the world he knew,
Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew)
He quits his cell; the pilgrim's staff he bore,
And fix'd the scallop in his hat before;
Then with the sun a rising journey went,
Sedate to think, and watching each event.

"The morn was wasted in the pathless grass, And long and lonesome was the wild to pass ; But when the southern sun had warm'd the day, A youth came posting o'er the crossing way! His raiment decent, his complexion fair, And soft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair. Then near approaching, Father, hail! he cried, And hail, my son, the rev'rend sire replied; Words follow'd words, from question answer flow'd, And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road, "Till each with other pleas'd, and loth to part, While in their age they differ, join in heart. Thus stands an aged elm in ivy bound,

Thus youthful ivy clasps an elm around.

"Now sunk the sun; the closing hour of day, Came onward, mantled o'er with sober grey : Nature in silence bid the world repose; When near the road a stately palace rose; There by the moon thro' ranks of trees they pass, Whose verdure crown'd their sloping sides with It chanc'd the noble master of the dome,

grass.

Still made his house the wand'ring stranger's home:
Yet still the kindness, from a thirst of praise,
Prov'd the vain flourish of expensive ease.
The pair arrive; the liv'ry'd servants wait;
Their lord receives them at the pompous gate.