e in Scotland and America, but
vanishing before cricket.

[69] _Silly_ means _innocent_, and therefore _blessed_; ignorant of evil,
and in so far helpless. It is easy to see how affection came to apply it
to idiots. It is applied to the ox and ass in the next stanza, and is
often an epithet of shepherds.

[70] See _Poems by Sir Henry Wotton and others. Edited by the Rev. John
Hannah_.

[71] "Know thyself."

[72] "And I have grown their map."

[73] The guilt of Adam's first sin, supposed by the theologians of Dr.
Donne's time to be imputed to Adam's descendants.

[74] The past tense: ran.

[75] Their door to enter into sin--by his example.

[76] He was sent by James I. to assist an embassy to the Elector
Palatine, who had married his daughter Elizabeth.

[77] He had lately lost his wife, for whom he had a rare love.

[78] "If they know us not by intuition, but by judging from circumstances
and signs."

[79] "With most willingness."

[80] "Art proud."

[81] A strange use of the word; but it evidently means _recovered_, and
has some analogy with the French _repasser_.

[82] _To_ understood: _to sweeten_.

[83] He plays upon the astrological terms, _houses_ and _schemes_. The
astrologers divided the heavens into twelve _houses_; and the diagrams by
which they represented the relative positions of the heavenly bodies,
they called _schemes_.

[84] The tree of knowledge.

[85] Dyce, following Seward, substitutes _curse_.

[86] A glimmer of that Platonism of which, happily, we have so much more
in the seventeenth century.

[87] Should this be "_in_ fees;" that is, in acknowledgment of his feudal
sovereignty?

[88] _Warm_ is here elongated, almost treated as a dissyllable.

[89] "He ought not to be forsaken: whoever weighs the matter rightly,
will come to this conclusion."

[90] The _Eridan_ is the _Po_.--As regards classical allusions in
connexion with sacred things, I would remind my reader of the great
reverence our ancestors had for the classics, from the influence they had
had in reviving the literature of the country.--I need hardly remind him
of the commonly-received fancy that the swan does sing once--just as his
death draws nigh. Does this come from the legend of Cycnus changed into a
swan while lamenting the death of his friend Phaeton? or was that legend
founded on the yet older fancy? The glorious bird looks as if he ought to
sing.

[91] The poet refers to the singing of the hymn befor