NOTES ΟΝ ΤΗΕ ODE TO SUPERSTITION. NOTE I. Page 94. Thy touch, thy deadening touch, &c. An allufion to the facrifice of Iphigenia. NOTE 2. Page 94. When, with a frown that froze the peopled earth, Thou darted thy huge head from high— Humana ante oculos fœde cum vita jaceret In terris oppreffa gravi fub religione, Qua caput a coli regionibus oftendebat, Horribili fuper afpectu mortalibus inftans, &c. LUCRETIUS, 1. i. v. 63. 1 NOTE 3. Page 95. The fur-clad favage, ere he guides his deer— When we were ready to fet out, our hoft muttered fome words in the ears of our cattle. See a Voyage to the North of Europe in 1653. NOTE 4. Page 96. By thee infpir'd, on India's fands, &c. The Bramins voluntarily expofe their bodies to the intense heat of the fun. NOTE 5. Page 96. His Spirit laughs in agonies. Ridens moriar. The conclufion of an old Runic ode, preferved by Olaus Wormius. NOTE 6. Page 96. To die is to be bleft. In the Bedas, or facred writings of the Hindoos, is this paffage :" She, who dies with her husband, fhall live for ever with him in heaven." NOTE 7. Page 96. The Sifters fail in dusky state. The Fates of the Northern Mythology. See MALLET'S Antiquities. NOTE 8. Page 97. While the lone Shepherd, near the shipless main- An allufion to the Second Sight. NOTE 9. Page 97. The ftatue, waking with immortal powers See that fine defcription of the fudden animation of the Palladium in the fecond book of the Æneid. NOTE 10. Page 98. And bids the God of Thunders hail. NOTE II. Page 98. Scaly monarch of the Nile! The Crocodile. Note 12. Page 98. But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee? according to an ancient proverb, it was in that country lefs difficult to find a god than a man. NOTE 13. Page 98. Lock'd up in characters as dark as night. The Hieroglyphics. NOTE 14. Page 99. Thofe long, long labyrinths The Catacombs, in which the bodies of the ear lieft generations yet remain without corruption, by virtue of the gums that embalmed them. |