"Illic te invenio, quanquam regionibus abfis; "Sed non longa fatis gaudia fomnus habet.”

Thefe lines are thus tranflated:

“'Tis thou art all my care and my delight, My daily longing, and my dream by night: "Oh night more pleafing than the brightest day,

"When fancy gives what abfence takes away, "And, drefs'd in all its vifionary charms, "Reftores my fair deferter to my arms !"

There is fomething inexpreffibly fond, tender, and poetical in thefe plaintive lines. Indeed, the whole tranflation breathes fuch paffionate and pathetic fentiments, as are worthy of the exquifite fenfibility of the celebrated and amorous Sappho*: and the verfification is, in point of melody, next to that of the paftorals. The two following verfes, as the effayift obferves, in which alliteration is fuccefsfully used, are perhaps the most harmonious of any in our language, in rhyme.

"Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow, "And foftly lay me on the waves below!"

* She is fuppofed to have described the violent fymptoms attending the paffion of love, in fo ftrong, lively and accurate a manner, that the phyfician Eripratus is faid to have d'fcovered the fecret malady of the prince Antiochus, who was in love with his mother-in-law Stretonice, merely by examining the symptoms of his patient's diftemper by this defcription.

But

But the most pathetic fubject for elegiac epiftle, is that of Abelard and Eloifa, who flourished in the twelfth century, and were two of the most diftinguifhed perfons of their age.

Abelard was reputed the moft handsome, as well as most learned man of his time. An old . chronicle, quoted by Andrew du Chefne, informs us, that fcholars flocked to his lectures from all quarters of the Latin world: and his cotemporary, St. Bernard, relates, that he numbered among his difciples many principal ecclefiaftics and cardinals, at the court of Rome. Abelard himself boafts, that when he retired into the country, he was followed by fuch immenfe crowds of scholars, that neither lodging nor provifions were to be had fufficient for them. Being embroiled in controverfy, he met with the fate of many learned men, to be accused of herefy; for, by the influence and authority of St. Bernard, his opinion of the Trinity was condemned, by a council held at Sens, 1140. But the talents of Abelard were not confined to theology, jurif prudence, philofophy, and the thorny paths of fcholafticifin; for he gave proofs of a lively genius by many poetical performances.

It is to be regretted that we have no exact picture of Eloifa's perfon. Abelard himself fays, that he was, "facie non infima :" But her uncommon learning is confirmed by many circumftances. She indifputably underflood the Latin, Greek and Hebrew tongues: Her literature, as Abelard tells us, "made her the most celebrated

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" of

" of any lady in the kingdom." And her literary merit attached him to her more powerfully.

But this extraordinary pair were for nothing more famous, than for their unfortunate paffion : and their diftreffes were of a most singular and peculiar kind. After a long feries of calamities, they retired each to a feveral convent, and confecrated the remainder of their days to religion. It was many years after this feparation, that a letter of Abelard's to a friend, which contained the hiftory of his misfortune, fell into the hands of Eloifa. This awakening all her tenderness, occafioned those celebrated letters, out of which the following poem, which prefents fo lively a picture of the struggle of grace and nature, virtue and paffion, is partly extracted.

The folemnity of the exordium, is admirably adapted to induce a difpofition for receiving fuch fenfations as the poet would wish to imprefs. Eloifa, who is fuppofed to be furveying the gloom around her, and meditating on the fubject of her forrow, thus breaks forth

"In thefe deep folitudes and awful cells, "Where heav'nly-penfive Contemplation "dwells,

"And ever-mufing Melancholy reigns,

"What means this tumult in a Veftal's veins? Why rove my thoughts beyond this last re"treat?

66

Why feels my heart its long-forgotten

"heat?"

Then

Then hinting at the caufe which revived thefe tumultuous ideas, that is, Abelard's letter, the determines not to pronounce that dear fatal name, nor yet to write it. But the manner in which he is involuntarily impelled, is beautifully and pathetically defcribed in the following broken ftarts of paffion.

"O write it not, my hand-the name appears "Already written---wafh it out, my tears!"

The picture fhe draws of the Convent is finely painted, and her own defpondent condition in that dreary fcene of confinement, is defcribed in the most moving accents.

"Relentless walls! whofe darkfome round

"contains

“Repentant fighs, and voluntary pains:

"Ye rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn; "Ye grots and caverns fhagg'd with horrid "thorn!

"Shrines! where their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep,

"And pitying faints, whofe ftatues learn to "weep!

“Tho' cold like you, unmov'd and filent grown,

"I have not yet forgot myself to ftone *."

* The learned reader will probably recollect that this beautiful thought is borrowed from Milton, in his Il Penferofo, where, in his invocation to Melancholy, he saysForget thyfelf to marble."

The various emotions fhe feels on opening Abelard's Letters, and on meeting with her own, are feelingly expreffed; and the deplorable fate of those reluctant victims, who are deftined to bid adieu to the world, before their hearts are weaned from the profpect of its pleafures, is ftrongly imaged in the following plaintive exclamation.

"Now warm in love, now with'ring in my “bloom,

"Loft in a convent's folitary gloom !"

But fuch is the enthufiafm of her love, that notwithstanding all the painful fenfations which the perufal of Abelard's letters occafions her, the yet defires him to write.

"Yet write, oh write me all! that I may join "Griefs to thy griefs, and echo fighs to "thine."

This naturally leads her to an admirable digreffion, in which the breaks forth in praise of the delightful advantages arifing from epiftolary correfpondence ;---with a fond partiality, expreffive of her character and fituation, fhe extols the ufe of letters as they ferve amorous purposes only, and fuppofes them to have been the gift of heaven.

"Heav'n firft taught Letters for fome wretch's "aid,

"Some banish'd lover, or fome captive maid;

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"They