the remotest Gelonians, shall know: me, the learned Spaniard shall study, and he that drinks the waters of the Rhone. Let there be no dirges, or shameful lamentation, or bewailings, at my only seeming funeral: suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honours of a sepulchre. THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. ODE I. That happiness consists not in honours and riches. I ABOMINATE the uninitiated vulgar, and drive them off. Give a religious attention: I, the priest of the muses, sing to virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread sovereigns is only over their own subjects,* that of Jupiter, glorious for his conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over sovereigns themselves. It happens that one man plants trees, in regular rows, to a greater extent than another. This man comes down into the Campus Martius as a candidate of a better family, while another vies with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior number of dependents; but death, by the impartial law of nature, is allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure: the capacious urn keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a deli * Literally flocks. Homer is fond of terming kings shepherds of the people. Thus the true Gon entitles himself the shepherd of his people, and them, the sheep of his pasture: the expression therefore is not too low for the pomp of the strophe. cious relish to that man over whose impious neck the naked sword impends: the songs of birds or the lyre will not restore his sleep. Gentle sleep disdains not the humble cottages of peasants, and the shady bank; he disdains not Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus setting, or of the rising kid; nor his vineyards beaten down with hail, and a deceitful farm, his plantations at one season blaming the rains, at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds; at another, severe winters disturb him. The fishes perceive the seas contracted by the vast foundations that have been laid into the deep: hither numerous undertakers, with their men, and lords disdainful of the land, send down mortar: but anxiety, and the threats of conscience, ascend by the same way as the possessor: nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-beaked galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Seeing then neither the Phrygian marble nor the use of purple, more dazzling than the sun, nor the Falernian vine, nor the Persian perfume, composes a troubled mind, why should I set about a lofty edifice, with envy-exciting columns, and in the modern taste? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for wealth that is attended with more trouble? * Alluding to the story of Damocles. + It is presumed that commentators upon this passage might have succeeded better had they remembered Seneca's expression, clarum mundi sidus, speaking of the sun. The sun, in many languages, is frequently and emphatically termed the star. Clarior, here rendered dazzling, refers not at all to the colour of the purple, but only to the use of it as a badge of dignity and office. ODE II. TO HIS FRIENDS. He praises military bravery, probity, and fidelity, in the keeping of a secret. LET the robust youth, my friends, learn to endure pinching want in the active exercise of arms, and an expert horseman, dreadful for his spear, let him harass the fierce Parthians; let him lead a life exposed to the open air, and in familiarity with dangers. Him the consort and marriageable virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the hostile walls, may sigh-alas! lest the royal husband, unacquainted with the state of the battle, should provoke, by a touch, this terrible lion, whom rage hurries through the midst of slaughter?* It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country: death even pursues the man that flies from him; nor does he spare the trembling. knees of effeminate youth, nor the coward back. Virtue, unknowing of base repulse,† shines with immaculate honours; nor does she assume or lay aside the ensigns of her dignity, at the capricious veering of popular air. Virtue, throwing open heaven to those who deserve not to die, directs her progress through paths of difficulty, and spurns, with a rapid wing, grovelling crowds * Which he spreads wherever he goes. + Virtue, as independent of factions and parties, can suffer no diminution of its native honours by popular caprice. Cato's virtues are here supposed to be alluded to, and how did they Through the dark cloud of ills that covered him, Break out and burn with more triumphant brightness? and the slabby earth. There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I will prohibit that man, who shall divulge the sacred rites* of mysterious Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or from setting sail with me in the same precarious vessel: for Jupiter, when he is slighted, often joins a good man in the same fute with a bad one. It is seldom that punishment, though lame of foot, hath failed to overtake a villain. ODE III. He privately dissuades Augustus from any thoughts of transferring the seat of empire to Troy. Nor the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect of a threatening tyrant, can shake from his settled purpose the man that is just, and determined in his resolution; nor can the south wind, that tumultuous ruler of the restless Adriatic, nor can the mighty hand of thundering Jupiter: if a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins would strike him undismayed. By this means Pollux, by this the wandering Hercules, arrived at the starry citadels; amongst whom Augustus hath now taken his place, and quaffs nectar with impurpled lips. Thee, O father Bacchus, meritorious for this virtue, thy tigers carried, drawing the yoke with indocile neck; by this, Romulus escaped Acheron (death) on the horses of Mars. Juno spoke what the Gods in full council approved: "Troy, Troy, a fatal and *The Eleusinian mysteries, so named from Eleusis, in Attica, where they were celebrated. |