187 NOTES TO THE POEMS. NOTE (A).- Page 152. In the course of the Rhine, from Cologne to Mayence, upwards of 125 miles, the combination of the grandeur, with the pastoral beauty, of Nature, developed in its scenery, contrasted with the dilapidated castles, and the utter wretchedness of the appearance of the villages and hamlets as we approached them, gave an impression to my mind as much of pain as of admiration; and I felt all the force of the following observation made by Rousseau :"All from the hands of Nature is perfect it is only from the "touch of Man that such perfection degenerates." : NOTE (B). - Page 179. An Arabian writer relates, that, in the time of the Moors' supremacy in Spain, there were 80 cities (whose remains now speak the genius of their architects), 300 of the second order, and on the banks of the Guadalquiver alone no less than 1200 villages. Hist. of Spain. NOTE (C).- Page 179. When the Moors were at last confined within the boundaries of Granada, they displayed their martial spirit unimpaired; near eight centuries elapsed from the commencement of their contentions, and 3700 battles were fought before this last of the Moors' kingdoms in Spain yielded to the Christian arms. - Hist. of Spain. NOTE (D).- Page 179. Every article of capitulation was eluded, or openly violated, by the Christians, and the Moors in course of time reduced to the alternative of embracing Christianity or abandoning their country.— TURQUET, book xxiii. NOTE (E).- Page 179. The Archbishops of Granada and Toledo were amongst the most zealous of the persecutors of the Moors. Span. Hist. NOTE (F).- Page 180. In 1613, the zeal of Philip III. for the Roman Catholic religion inflicted a severe wound on the prosperity of Spain by the banishment of the Moors, in which expulsion all the arts for which they were so highly celebrated were lost. - CLARKE's View of Spain. Rousseau, in one of his botanical excursions, meeting with the periwinkle, fell upon his knees, crying out,—“Ah! voilà de la pervenche!" It was because he had thirty years before brought home the same flower with him, in one of his rambles with Madame de Warens, near Chambery. It struck him as the same identical little blue flower that he remembered, and thirty years of sorrow and bitter regret were effaced from his memory! HAZLITT on the English Poets. THE END. LONDON: Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE, |