Perhaps in this neglected fpot is laid Some heart, once pregnant with celestial fire; But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Full many a gem, of purest ray ferene, Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast Th' applaufe of lift'ning fenates to command, Their lot forbad: nor circumfcrib'd alone The The ftruggling pangs of confcious truth to hide, • Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, VARIATIONS. The thought!efs world to Majefty may bow, But more to innocence their fafety owe, Than Pow'r or Genius e'er confpir'd to blefs. And thou, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead, Hark! how the facred Calm, that breathes around, No more, with reafon and thyself at strife, But through the cool fequefter'd vale of life And here the Poem, fays Mr. Mafon, was originally intended to con clude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed Swain, &c. suggested itself to the Author. The third of thefe rejected ftanzas is not in ferior to any in the whole Elegy. Yet ev❜n these bones from infult to protect With uncouth rhymes and shapeless fculpture deck'ḍ, Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse, And many a holy text around fhe ftrews, For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, On fome fond breast the parting foul relies, Awake and faithful to her wonted fires. "Thus (fays Mr. Mason) it flood in the first and fome following "editions, and I think rather better; for the authority of Petrarch ❝ does For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead < There "does not deftroy the appearance of quaintness in the other: the "thought however is rather obfcurely expreffed in both readings. He "means to fay, in plain profe, that we wish to be remembered by our "friends after our death, in the fame manner as when alive we wished ❝to be remembered by them in our abfence: this would be expreffed "clearer, if the metaphorical term fires was rejected, and the line run "thus: "Awake and faithful to her firft defires." In Chaucer's Reve's Prologue, v. 3880, Yet in our afhen cold is fire yrekin. There is, fays Mr. Tyrwhitt, fo great a resemblance between this line and the above, that I should certainly have confidered the latter as an imitation, if Mr. Gray had not referred us to the fonnet of Petrarch as his original. VARIATION. e On the high brow of yonder hanging lawn. After which, in the first manuscript, followed this ftanza : There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, • Hard by yon wood, now fmiling as in fcorn, Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, up the lawn, nor at the wood, was he; • The next with dirges due in fad array, Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne, 'Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay, 'Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn f. Him have we feen the greenwood fide along, While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done, With wiftful eyes pursue the setting fun. The "I rather wonder (fays Mr. Mason) that he rejected this stanza, as "it not only has the fame fort of Doric delicacy which charms us pe"culiarly in this part of the poem, but also completes the account of "his whole day whereas, this evening scene being omitted, we have "only his morning walk and his noontide repose.” f Between this line and the epitaph, Mr. Gray originally inferted a very beautiful ftanza, which was printed in fome of the first editions, but |