tly pass my careless days,
Pleased in the silent shade with empty praise;
Enough for me, that to the list'ning swains
First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains.[186]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Notwithstanding the many praises lavished on this
celebrated nobleman as a poet, by Dryden, by Addison, by Bolingbroke, by
our Author, and others, yet candid criticism must oblige us to confess,
that he was but a feeble imitator of the feeblest parts of Waller. After
having been secretary at war, 1710, controller and treasurer to the
household, and of her majesty's privy council, and created a peer, 1711,
he was seized as a suspected person, at the accession of George I., and
confined in the Tower. Whatever may be thought of Lord Lansdowne as a
poet, his character as a man was highly valuable. His conversation was
most pleasing and polite; his affability, and universal benevolence, and
gentleness, captivating; he was a firm friend and a sincere lover of his
country. This is the character I received of him from his near relation,
the late excellent Mrs. Delany.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 2: Thus Hopkins, in his History of Love:

Ye woods and wilds, serene and blest retreats,
At once the lovers' and the Muses' seats
To you I fly.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 3: Originally thus:

Chaste goddess of the woods,
Nymphs of the vales, and Naiads of the flood,
Lead me through arching bow'rs, and glimin'ring glades,
Unlock your springs.--POPE.

Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 245:

Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring.

AEn. x. 241:

Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 4: Neget quis carmina Gallo? Virg.--WARBURTON.]

[Footnote 5: Evidently suggested by Waller:

Of the first Paradise there's nothing found,
Yet the description lasts.--HOLT WHITE.

Addison's Letter from Italy:

Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng,
I look for streams immortalised in song,
That lost in silence and oblivion lie;
Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry;
Yet run for ever by the muse's skill,
And in the smooth description murmur still.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 6: There is an inaccuracy in making the flame equal to a
grove. It might have been Milton's flame.--WARTON.

Addison's Letter from Italy:

O, could the muse my ravished breast inspire
With warmth like yours, and raise an equal fire.--WAKEFIELD.]