Note 23 — PARAPHRASE OF GRAY’s ALCAICK ODE, WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE GRAND CHARTREUSE, ON HIS WAY BACK TO ENGLAND, AFTER HAVING VISITED THE ITALIAN CITIES WITH MR WALPOLE.[23]

This attempt is boldly paraphrastic. It appeared to the translator that Gray must mean more than he has, at least, perspicuously expressed, when he says, in this latin ode, that “the sublime scenery round the Chartreuse inspires him with more religious reverence than the statues of Phidias, adorned with gold.” Strange indeed, if it did not; since, though such objects may excite admiration of human skill, they have no obvious tendency to inspire devotion. Surely that was saying too little for those awful monuments of their Creator’s power, which inevitably lift the serious and feeling heart to its God. The above English version ventures to make the poet say what he must have meant;—that he there more powerfully feels the presence of the Deity, than amid the pomp of the Romish altars, adorned with pictures, and statues, steaming with incense, and blazing with gold. The translator also takes the liberty to add another, and more pious idea to that, with which Gray’s latin ode somewhat abruptly concludes.