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NOTES

ON THE

EPISTLE TO A FRIEND.

NOTE 1. Page 72.

Oft o'er the mead, at pleasing distance, pass—

COSMO of Medicis, preferred his Apennine villa, because all that he commanded from his windows was exclusively his own.

How unworthy of his character; and how unlike the wise Athenian, who, when he had a farm to sell, directed the crier to proclaim, as its best recommendation, that it had a good neighbourhood!

Plut. in Vit. Themist.

NOTE 2. Page 72.

And, through the various year, the various day

Horace commends the house,

-longos quæ prospicit agros

And I think he is right. Distant views, if there be a good foreground, are generally the most pleasing; as they contain the greatest variety, both in themselves, and in their accidental variations.

Mr. GILPIN on the Highlands of Scotland, i. 259.

NOTE 3. Page 73.

Small change of scene, small space his home requires

Many a great man, in passing through the apartments of his palace, has made the melancholy reflection of the venerable Cosmo: "Questa e troppo gran casa a si poco famiglia." Mach. 1st. Fior. lib. vii.

"I confess," says Cowley, "I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a very little feast."

So also says the conqueror of Silesia!

Petit bien, qui, ne doitrien,

Essay vi.

Petite maisou, petite table, &c.

When Socrates was asked why he had built for himself so small a house, " small as it is," he replied, "I wish I could fill it with friends." PHAEDRUS, l. iii. 9.

These indeed are all that a wise man would desire to assemble; "for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love." BACON's Essays, xxvii.

NOTE 4. Page 73.

From every point a ray of genius flows!

By this means, when the heavens are filled with clouds, when the earth swims in rain, and all nature

wears a lowering countenance, I withdraw myself from these uncomfortable scenes into the visionary worlds of art; where I meet with shining landscapes, gilded triumphs, beautiful faces, and all those other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas, &c. ADDISON. It is remarkable that Anthony, in his adversity, passed some time in a small but splendid retreat, which he called his Timonium, and from which probably originat ed the idea of the Parisian Boudoir, that favourite apartment, ou l'on se retire pour etre seul, mais ou l'on ne boude point.

STRABO, 1. xvii. PLUT. in Vit. Anton,

NOTE 5. Page 74.

O mark! again the coursers of the sun,
At GUIDO's call, &c.

Alluding to his celebrated fresco in the Rospigliosi palace at Rome. It has been engraved by Jac Freii, and by Morghen.

NOTE 6. Page 74.

And still the few best loved and most revered―

The dining-room is dedicated to conviviality; or as Cicero somewhere expresses it, "Communitati vitæ atque victus." There we wish most for the society of our friends; and, perhaps, in their absence, most require their portraits.

The moral advantages of this furniture may be illustrated by the pretty story of an Athenian courtezan, "who, in the midst of a riotous banquet with her lovers, accidentally cast her eye on a portrait of a philosopher,

that hung opposite to her seat, the happy character of temperance and virtue struck her with so lively an image of her own unworthiness, that she instantly quitted the room; and retiring home, became ever after an example of temperance, as she had been before of debauchery."

WEBB'S Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting, p. 33.

NOTE 7. Page 74.

Rise round the board, &c.

"A long table, and a square table," says Bacon, ct seem things of form, but are things of substance; for at a long table a few at the upper end, in effect, sway all the business." Essay xx.

Perhaps Arthur was right, when he instituted the order of the round table. In the town-house of Aix-laChapelle is still to be seen the round table, which may almost literally be said to have given peace to Europe in 1748. Nor is it only at a congress of plenipotentiaries that place gives precedence.

NOTE 8. Page 74

Read ancient books, or woo inspiring dreams.

The reader will here remember that passage of Horace,

Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno, &c.

which was inscribed by Lord Chesterfield on the frieze of his library.

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