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NOTES TO THE CURSE OF MINERVA.

Note 9, page 84, line 28.

And folly's praise repay for wisdom's hate!

Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.

BOILEAU.

Note 10, page 85, line 4.

And own imself an infant of fourscore, etc.

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Mr West, on seeing the Elgin collection» (I suppose we shall hear of the Abershaws' and Jack Shephards' collection next), declared himself a mere Tyro in art.

Poor Crib

if it was not

Note 11, page 85, line 8.

And marvel at his lordship's « stone shop there.

was sadly puzzled when exhibited at Elgin house, he asked a stone shop»: he was right, it is a shop.

Note 12, page 85, line 22.

Some calm spectator as he takes his view, etc.

Alas! all the monuments of Roman magnificence, all the remains of Grecian taste, so dear to the artist, the historian, the antiquary, all depend on the will of an arbitrary sovereign; and that will is influenced too often by interest or vanity, by a nephew or a sycophant. Is a new palace to be erected (at Rome) for an upstart family,—the Coliseum is stripped to furnish materials. Does a foreign minister wish to adorn the bleak walls of a northern castle with antiques,—the temples of Theseus or Minerva must be dismantled, and the works of Phidias or Praxiteles be torn from the shattered frieze. That a decrepid uncle, wrapped up in the religious duties of his age and station, should listen to the suggestions of an interested nephew, is natural: and that an oriental despot should undervalue the master-pieces of Grecian art, is to be expected; though in both cases the conse

Abershaw, a notorious highwayman; Jack Shephard, à no less notorious housebreaker. They were both hanged, not for stealing statues abroad, but for breaking the statutes at home.-(Editor.)

2 A celebrated pugilist, and ci-devant champion of the prize-ring.-(Editor.)

quences of such weakness are much to be lamented-but that the minister of a nation, famed for its knowledge of the language, and its veneration for the monuments of ancient Greece, should have been the prompter and the instrument of these destructions, is almost incredible. Such rapacity is a crime against all ages and all genera

tions; it deprives the past of the trophies of their genius and the title deeds of their fame; the present, of the strongest inducements to exertion, the noblest exhibitions that curiosity can contemplate; the future, of the master-pieces of art, the models of imitation. To guard against the repetition of such depredations is the wish of every man of genius, the duty of every man in power, and the common interest of every civilized nation. Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy,

p. 269.

This attempt to transplant the temple of Vesta from Italy to England, may, perhaps, do honour to the late Lord Bristol's patriotism or to his inagnificence; but it cannot be considered as an indication of either taste or judgment. Ibid. p. 419.

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HOURS OF IDLENESS;

A

SERIES OF POEMS,

ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED,

BY GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON,

A MINOR.

Μήτ' ἄρ με μάλ' αΐνες, μήτε τι νείκει.

HOMER. Iliad. 10.

He whistled as he went for want of thought.

DRYDEN.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

FREDERICK, EARL OF CARLISLE,

KNIGHT OF THE GARTER, ETC. ETC.

THESE POEMS ARE INSCRIBED,

BY HIS OBLIGED WARD,

AND AFFECTIONATE KINSMAN,

THE AUTHOR.

VOL. VII.

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