NOTES. 1 P. 3. On St. Gothard's hoary top.]-St. Gothard is the name of the highest mountain in the canton of Uri, the birthplace of Swiss independence. 2 P. 8. Brunnen's plain.]—Brunnen, at the foot of the mountains, on the borders of the lake of Uri, where the first Swiss patriots, Walter Furst of Uri, Werner Stauffacher of Schwitz, and Arnold of Melchtal in Underwalden, conspired against the tyranny of Austria in 1307, again, in 1798, became the seat of the Diet of these three forest cantons. 3 P. S. Treason made the victors slares!]-By the resistance of these small cantons, the French General, Schawenbourg, was compelled to respect their independence, and gave them a solemn pledge to that purport; but no sooner had they disarmed, on the faith of this engagement, than the enemy came suddenly upon them with an immense force; and with threats of extermination compelled them to take the civic oath to the new constitution, imposed upon all Switzerland. 4 P. 8. Underwalden was the heart.]-The inhabitants of the Lower Valley of Underwalden alone resisted the French message, which required submission to the new constitution, and the immediate surrender, alive or dead, of nine of their leaders. When the demand, accompanied by a menace of destruction, was read in the Assembly of the District, all the men of the Valley, fifteen hundred in number, took up arms, and devoted themselves to perish in the ruins of their country. 5 P. 10. And through Sempach's iron field.]—At the battle of Sempach, the Austrians presented so impenetrable a front with their projected spears, that the Swiss were repeatedly compelled to retire from the attack, till a native of Underwalden, named Arnold de Winkelried, commending his family to his countrymen, sprang upon the enemy, and, burying as many of their spears as he could grasp in his body, made a breach in their line; the Swiss rushed in, and routed the Austrians with a terrible slaughter. 6 P. 10. These who loved us,-these beloved.-Many of the Underwalders, on the approach of the French army, removed their families and cattle among the Higher Alps; and themselves returned to join their brethren, who had encamped in their native Valley, on the borders of the Lake, and awaited the attack of the enemy. 7 P. 12. Stantz.]-The capital of Underwalden. 8 P. 14. As they sank beneath the flood.-The French made their first attack on the Valley of Underwalden from the Lake: but, after a desperate conflict, they were victoriously repelled, and two of their vessels, containing five hundred men, perished in the engagement. 9 P. 14. Inspiration to my tongue!-In the last and decisive battle, the Underwalders were overpowered by two French armies, which rushed upon them from the opposite mountains, and surrounded their camp, while an assault, at the same time, was made upon them from the Lake. 10 P. 16. Married at thine allar, Death.-In this miserable conflict, many of the women and children of the Underwalders fought in the ranks by their husbands, and fathers, and friends, and fell gloriously for their country. 11 P. 16. Lo! a band of Switzers came.]—Two hundred self-devoted heroes from the canton of Switz arrived, at the close of the battle, to the aid of their brethren of Underwalden,—and perished to a man, after having slain thrice their number. 12 P. 16. Devastating all below.]—The Lavanges are tremendous 'torrents of melting snow, hat tumble from the top of the Alps, and deluge all the country before them. 13 P. 52. Before me in Agrippa's glass.]—Henry Cornelius Agrippa, of Nettesheim, counsellor to Charles V. Emperor of Germany, the author of "Occult Philosophy," and other profound works, is said to have shown to the Earl of Surrey the image of his mistress Geraldine in a magical mirror. 14 P. 67. An eastern plant, ingrafted on the soil.]-The cane is said to have been first transplanted from Madeira to the Brazils, by the Portuguese, and afterwards introduced by the Spaniards into the Charibbee Islands. 15 P. 77. His meek forerunners waned, and pass'd away.]—The context preceding and following this line alludes to the old Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, who flourished long before the Reformation, but afterwards were almost lost among the Protestants, till the beginning of the eighteenth century, when their ancient episcopal church was revived in Lusatia, by some refugees from Moravia.-See Crantz's "Ancient and Modern History of the Brethren." Histories of the missions of the Brethren in Greenland, North America, and the West Indies have been published in Germany: those of the two former have been translated into English.-See Crantz's "History of Greenland," and Loskiel's " History of the Brethren among the Indians in North America." It is only justice here to observe, that Christians of other denominations have exerted themselves with great success in the conversion of the Negroes. No invidious preference is intended to be given to the Moravians; but, knowing them best, the Author particularised this society. 16 P. 143. 17 P. 152. 18 P. 159. 19 P. 159. 20 P. 159. 21 P. 162. 22 P. 162. Faithful alone amidst the faithless found.]—— "So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found Among the faithless, faithful only he."--Par. Lost, Book v. 23 P. 181. They fear'd their God, and knew no other fear.]—" Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte."-RACINE. 21 P. 183. 25 P. 188. When the hand wrote his judgment on the wall.-Daniel v. 1-31. Shook, like Eliphaz, with dissolving fright.]-Job iv. 12-21. 26 P. 189. Hades is moved to meet thee from below.]-This passage, the reader will perceive, is an imitation of some verses in the fourteenth chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah, which are applied to the fall of the King of Babylon. 27 P. 191. "Where is the God of Enoch now ?" he cried.]-" And he (Elisha) took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters (of Jordan), and said,—Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over."-2 Kings ii. 14. 28 P. 193. When all the mountain round the prophet blazed.—2 Kings vi. 17. 29 P. 209. Such emanating splendours fill the air.] The Geysers, or boiling fountains of Iceland, have been so frequently and so happily described, that their phenomena are sufficiently familiar to general readers not to require any particular illustration here. The Great Geyser, according to Dr. Henderson (the latest traveller who has published an account of Iceland), is seventy-eight feet in perpendicular depth, and from eight to ten feet in diameter: the mouth is a considerable basin, from which the column of boiling water is ejaculated to various heights; sometimes exceeding one hundred feet. 30 P. 210. Those cliffs, these waters, shall be sought in vain.]—This imaginary prophecy (1733) was fulfilled just fifty years afterwards, in 1783. The Schapta, Schaptka, or Skaftar Yokul, and its adjacencies, were the subjects of the most tremendous volcanic devastation on record. 31 P. 215. Were here becalm'd in everlasting space.]-The incidents described in this canto are founded upon the real events of the voyage of the Missionaries, as given in Crantz's History. 32 P. 223. The Ice-Blink rears its undulated head.]—The term Ice-Blink is generally applied by our mariners to the nocturnal illumination in the heavens, which denotes to them the proximity of ice mountains. In this place a description is attempted of the most stupendous accumulation of ice in the known world, which has been long distinguished under this peculiar name by the Danish navigators. 33 P. 242. That crisis comes: the wafted fuel fails.]—Greenland has been supplied with fuel, from time immemorial, brought by the tide from the northern shores of Asia, and other regions, probably even from California, and the coast of America towards Behring's Straits. This annual provision, however, has gradually been decreasing for some years past (being partly intercepted by the accumulation of ice) on the shores of modern Greenland, towards Davis's Straits. Should it fail altogether, that country (like the east) must become uninhabitable; as the natives themselves employ wood in the construction of their houses, their boats, and their implements of fishing, hunting, and shooting, and could not find any adequate substitute for it at home. 34 P. 246. Till the Black Death through all the region reigns.]—The depopulation of Old Greenland is supposed to have been greatly accelerated by the introduction of the plague, which, under the name of the Black Death, made dreadful havoc throughout Europe towards the close of the fourteenth century. 35 P. 253. "Thus Love which soothes this heaven, all kindly fits The torch to take his flame !"] Beatrice addresses this remark to Dante. 36 P. 251. The sun that lights mine eyes.]—Beatrice. London:-Printed by Richard Clay, Bread Street Hill. |