Shrines, where their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep;
And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep!
Tho' cold like you, unmov'd and silent grown,
I have not yet forgot myself to stone!*

She proceeds to enumerate the effects which Abe

lard's relation of their misfortunes has had

upon

her; yet, notwithstanding what she suffers from them, she intreats him still to write :

† Yet write, O write me all! that I may join
Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.

This is from the Letters" Per ipsum itaqueChristum obsecramus; quatenus ancillulas ipsius & tuas, crebris literis de his, in quibus adhuc fluctuas, naufragiis certificare digneris, ut nos saltem quæ tibi solæ remansimus, doloris vel gaudii participes habeas. On the mention of letters, she breaks out into that beautiful account

of

* "Forget thyelf to marble," is an expression of Milton; as is also, "Caverns shagg'd with horrid thorn :" and the epithets "pale-eyed, and twilight," are first used in the smaller poems of Milton, which POPE had just, perhaps, been reading.

+ V. 41.

Epist. i. Heloiss. pag. 46.

of their use, which is finely improved from the

Latin.

Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,*

Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid;

They live, they speak, they breathe, what love inspires,
Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires ;†
The virgin's wish without her fears impart;
Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart.

VOL. I.

X

* Ver. 51.

"De

+ It is to be hoped that some of the fair sex, of the abi lities of Eloisa, (for we have two or three such at present in Great Britain,) will answer the ingenious, but paradoxical, philosopher of Geneva, who has vented many blasphemies against the passion of love. "Il faut distinguer (says he) le MORAL du physique dans le sentiment de l'amour. Le physique est ce desir général qui porte un sexe à s'unir à l'autre : Le moral est ce qui détermine ce desir, & le fixe sur un seul objet, exclusivement; ou qui du moins lui donne pour cet objet préféré un plus grand degré d'énergie. Or il est facile de voir que le moral de l'amour est un sentiment factice; né de l'usage de la societé & célébré par les femmes avec beaucoup d'habilété & de soin, pour établir leur empire, & rendre dominant le sexe qui devroit obéir." DISCOURS sur l'Origine de l'INEGALITE parmi les Hommes.-Par J. J. Rousseau. Amsterdam, 1755. p. 78.

It is not to be wondered at, that he who has written a satire against human society, should satirize its greatest blessing.

"De quibuscunque autem nobis scribas, non parvum nobis remedium conferes; hoc saltem uno, quod te nostri memorem esse monstrabis." She then quotes an unnecessary passage of Seneca, and adds, "Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium jucundæ sunt, quæ memoriam renovant, & desiderium absentiæ falso atque inani solatio levant; quanto jucundiores sunt literæ, quæ amici absentis veras notas efferunt ?" The origin of Eloisa's passion is, with much art and knowledge of human nature, ascribed to her admiration of her handsome preceptor: this circumstance is particularly poetical, and even sub

lime:

My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind,
Some emanation of th' all-beauteous mind.

§ How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made!
Let wealth, let honour wait the wedded dame;
August her deed, and sacred be her fame;
Before true passion all these views remove;
Fame, wealth, and honour, what are you to love!

These

* Epist. p. 47.

† Ibid.

V. 61.

§ V. 73.

These sentiments are plainly from the letters, "Nihil unquam, deus scit, in te, nisi te requisivi; te purè non tua concupiscens. Non matrimonii fœdera, non dotes aliquas expectavi. Et si uxoris nomen sanctius ac validius videtur, dulcius mihi semper extitit amicæ vocabulum, aut, si non indigneris, concubinæ vel scorti.*--POPE has added a very injudicious thought:

The jealous god, when we profane his fires,
Those restless passions in revenge inspires.

And again,

Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,
Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

It is improper for a person in the situation of Eloisa to mention Cupid; mythology is here out of its place. The letters also furnished the next thought:

§ Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;
No, make me mistress of the man I love.

"Deum testem invoco, si me Augustus, universo presidens mundo, matrimonii honore dignaretur, totumque mihi orbem confirmaret in perpetuo præsidendum, charius mihi & dignius videretur, tua dici meretrix, quam illius impe ratrix."* Next she describes their unparalleled happiness in the full and free enjoyment of their loves; but all at once stops short, and exclaims with eagerness, as if she at that instant saw the dreadful scene alluded to,

† Alas, how chang'd! What sudden horrors rise!
A naked lover, bound and bleeding lies!
Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand,
Her poniard had oppos'd the dire command!
Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke restrain;
The crime was common, common be the pain.‡

It was difficult to mention this catastrophe that befel Abelard with any dignity and grace; in which there is still something indelicate, notwithstanding all the dexterity and manage. ment of our poet, in speaking of so untoward a circumstance. I know not where castration is the chief cause of distress, in any other poem, except in a very extraordinary one of Catullus, where Atys, struck with madness by Berecynthia, in a fit of enthusiasm, inflicts this punishment on himself; after which he laments his condition in very pathetic strains. The poem has been so little remarked on, that I shall take the liberty of

inserting