s were floating
silently back with the tide to the intended landing-place at the chosen
ascent to the Plains of Abraham, he repeated in low tones to the
officers around him this touching stanza of Gray's _Elegy_. 'Now,
gentlemen,' said Wolfe, 'I would rather be the author of that poem than
the possessor of the glory of beating the French to-morrow!' He fell the
next day, and expired just as the shouts of the victory of the English
fell upon his almost unconscious ears."

[364-16] Now, an aisle is the passageway between the pews or the seats
in a church or other public hall: in the poem it means the passageways
running to the sides of the main body of the church.

[364-17] A storied urn is an urn-shaped monument on which are inscribed
the virtues of the dead. Why should a _bust_ be called _animated_? What
is the _mansion_ of _the fleeting breath_?

[364-18] In this instance _provoke_ means what it originally meant in
the Latin language; namely, _call forth_.

[364-19] The line means, "Some heart once filled with the heavenly
inspiration."

[364-20] A poet or musician is said to sing, and the lyre is the
instrument with which the ancients accompanied their songs. _To wake to
ecstasy the living lyre_ is to write the noblest poetry, to sing the
most inspired songs.

[364-21] The books of the ancients were rolls of manuscripts. Did any of
those persons resting in this neglected spot ever write great poetry,
rule empires or sing inspiring songs? If not, what prevented them from
doing such things if they had the ability?

[365-22] At first this stanza was written thus:

"Some village Cato, who with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute, inglorious Tully here may rest;
Some Caesar guiltless of his country's blood."

It is interesting to notice that at his first writing Gray selected
three of the famous men of antiquity, but in his revision he substituted
the names of three of his own countrymen. Who were Hampden, Milton and
Cromwell?

[365-23] The three stanzas beginning at this point make but one
sentence. Turned into prose the sentence would read: "Their lot forbade
them to command the applause of listening senates, to despise the
threats of pain and ruin, to scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, and
read their history in a nation's eyes: their lot not only circumscribed
their growing virtues but confined their crimes as well; it forbade them
to wade through slaughte