No More Learning

The speech of Leonard to the cursory
reader may perhaps sometimes appear careless, and sometimes turgid and
stiff. That speech, however, is an attempt at the imitative and
sentimental harmony, and with the judicious he rests its fate. As the
translation in this instance exceeds the original in length, the
objection of a foreign critic requires attention. An old pursy Abbe,
(and critics are apt to judge by themselves) may indeed be surprised
that a man out of breath with running should be able to talk so long.
But, had he consulted the experiences of others, he would have found it
was no wonderful matter for a stout and young cavalier to talk twice as
much, though fatigued with the chase of a couple of miles, provided the
supposition be allowed, that he treads on the last steps of his flying
mistress.

[587] _Hence, ye profane. _--We have already observed, that in every
other poet the love scenes are generally described as those of guilt and
remorse. The contrary character of those of Camoens not only gives them
a delicacy unknown to other moderns, but, by the fiction of the spousal
rites, the allegory and machinery of the poem are most happily
conducted.

[588] _Spread o'er the eastern world the dread alarms. _--This admonition
places the whole design of the poem before us. To extirpate
Mohammedanism, and propagate Christianity, were professed as the
principal purpose of the discoveries of Prince Henry and King Emmanuel.
In the beginning of the seventh Lusiad, the nations of Europe are
upbraided for permitting the Saracens to erect and possess an empire,
which alike threatened Europe and Christianity. The Portuguese, however,
the patriot poet concludes, will themselves overthrow their enormous
power: an event which is the proposed subject of the Lusiad, and which
is represented as, in effect, completed in the last book. On this
system, adopted by the poet, and which on every occasion was avowed by
their kings, the Portuguese made immense conquests in the East. Yet, let
it be remembered, to the honour of GAMA, and the first commanders who
followed his route, that the plots of the Moors, and their various
breaches of treaty, gave rise to the first wars which the Portuguese
waged in Asia.
On finding that all the colonies of the Moors were
combined for their destruction, the Portuguese declared war against the
eastern Moors, and their allies, wherever they found them. The course of
human things, however, soon took place, and the sword of victory and
power soon became the sword of tyranny and rapine.

[589] _Far o'er the silver lake of Mexic. _--The city of Mexico is
environed with an extensive lake; or, according to Cortez, in his second
narration to Charles V. , with two lakes, one of fresh, the other of salt
water, in circuit about fifty leagues. This situation, said the
Mexicans, was appointed by their God Vitzliputzli, who, according to the
explanation of their picture-histories, led their forefathers a journey
of fourscore years, in search of the promised land. Four of the
principal priests carried the idol in a coffer of reeds. Whenever they
halted they built a tabernacle for their god in the midst of their camp,
where they placed the coffer and the altar. They then sowed the land,
and their stay or departure, without regard to the harvest, was directed
by the orders received from their idol, till at last, by his command,
they fixed their abode on the site of Mexico.

[590] _Before the love-sick Roman. _--Mark Antony.

[591] _The beverage--the fountain's cooling aid confess'd. _--It was a
custom of the ancients in warm climates to mix the coolest spring water
with their wine, immediately before drinking; not, we may suppose, to
render it less intoxicating, but on account of the cooling flavour it
thereby received. Homer tells us that the wine which Ulysses gave to
Polyphemus would bear twenty measures of water. Modern luxury has
substituted preserved ice, in place of the more ancient mixture.

[592] _Music, such as erst subdued the horrid frown of hell_,
etc.