prise? It discloses secrets; commands our hopes to be ratified; pushes the dastard on to the fight; removes the pressure from troubled minds; teaches the arts. Whom have not plentiful cups made eloquent? Whom have they not [made] free and easy under pinching poverty?

I, who am both the proper person and not unwilling, am charged to take care of these matters; that no dirty covering on the couch, no foul napkin contract your nose into wrinkles; and that the cup and the dish may show you to yourself; that there be no one to carry abroad what is said among faithful friends; that equals may meet and be joined with equals. I will add to you Butra, and Septicius, and Sabinus, unless a better entertainment and a mistress more agreeable detain him. There is room also for many introductions: but goaty ramminess is offensive in over-crowded companies.

33

Do you write word, what number you would be; and setting aside business, through the back-door give the slip to your client who keeps guard in your court.

EPISTLE VI.

TO NUMICIUS.

That a wise man is in love with nothing but virtue.

To admire nothing is almost the one and only thing, Numicius, which can make and keep a man happy. There are e who view this sun, and the stars, and the seasons retiring at certain periods, untainted with any fear. What do you think of the gifts of the earth? What of the sea, that enriches the remote Arabians and Indians? What of scenical shows, the applause and favors of the kind Roman? In what manner do you think they are to be looked upon, with what appre

33 Locus est et pluribus umbris. It was a civility paid to an invited guest among the ancients, to let him know, whatever stranger came with him should be welcome. This was done, says Plutarch, in imitation of those who, sacrificing to some god, sacrificed at the same time to all the gods that inhabited the temple in which he was worshiped, although they did not call any of them by their names. FRAN. For "umbris," cf. Sat. ii. 8, 22.

hensions and countenance? He that dreads the reverse of these, admires them almost in the same way as he that desires them; fear alike disturbs both ways: an unforeseen turn of things equally terrifies each of them: let a man rejoice or grieve, desire or fear; what matters it-if, whatever he perceives better or worse than his expectations, with downcast look he be stupefied in mind and body? Let the wise man bear the name of fool, the just of unjust; if he pursue virtue itself beyond proper bounds.

Go now, look with transport Jupon silver, and antique marble, and brazen statues, and the arts: admire gems, and Tyrian dyes rejoice, that a thousand eyes are fixed upon you while you speak: industrious repair early to the forum, late to your house, that Mutus may not reap more grain [than you] from his lands gained in dowry, and (unbecoming, since he sprung from meaner parents) that he may not be an object of admiration to you, rather than you to him. Whatever is in the earth, t'me will bring forth into open day light; will bury and hide things, that now shine brightest. When Agrippa's portico," and the Appian way, shall have beheld you well known; still it remains for you to go where Numa and Ancus are arrived. If your side or your reins are afflicted with an acute disease, seek a remedy from the disease. Would you live happily? Who would not? If virtue alone can confer this, discarding pleasures, strenuously pursue it Do you think virtue mere words, as a grove is trees? Be it your care that no other enter the port before you; that you lose not your traffic with Cibyra, with Bithynia. Let the round sum of a thousand talents be completed; as many more; further, let a third thousand succeed, and the part which may square the heap. For why, sovereign money gives a wife with a [large] portion, and credit, and friends, and family,

35

34 Porticus Agrippa. It was called the arcade of good luck, Porticus boni eventûs, and situated near the Pantheon, at the entrance of the Campus Martius. This Epistle must have been written after the year 729, when the arcade was finished. ED. DUBL.

35 If riches and honors can not cure the body, much less can they cure the disorders of the soul. But if you think that religion and virtue are mere creatures of our imagination, then pursue the pleasures of life; give a loose to the passions; and enter into trade, that you may get wealth to support them.

FRAN.

36 Rotundare and quadrare were terms of the Treasury to signify a complete sum. Cicero says, quadrare sestertia. ED. DUBL.

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and beauty; and [the goddesses], Persuasion and Venus,
grace the well-moneyed man. The king of the Cappadocians,"
rich in slaves, is in want of coin; be not you like him. Lu-
cullus, as they say, being asked if he could lend a hundred

38

cloaks for the stage, "How can I so many ?" said he: "yet

I will see, and send as many as I have;" a little after he
writes that he had five thousand cloaks in his house; they
might take part of them, or all. It is a scanty house, where
there are not many things superfluous, and which escape the
owner's notice, and are the gain of pilfering slaves. If then
wealth alone can make and keep a man happy, be first in be-
ginning this work, be last in leaving it off. If appearances
and popularity make a man fortunate, let us purchase a slave
to dictate [to us] the names [of the citizens], to jog us on
the left-side, and to make us stretch our hand over obsta-
ples. This man has much interest in the Fabian, that in
the Veline tribe; this will give the fasces to any one, and, in-
defatigably active, snatch the curule ivory from whom he
pleases add [the names of] father, brother: according as
the age of each is, so courteously adopt him. If he who
feasts well, lives well; it is day, let us go whither our appe-
tite leads us let us fish, let us hunt, as did some time Gar-
gilius who ordered his toils, hunting-spears, slaves, early in
the morning to pass through the crowded forum and the peo-
ple: that one mule among many, in the sight of the people,
might return loaded with a boar purchased with money.
Let
us bathe with an indigested and full-swollen stomach, forget-
37 These people were so born for slavery, that when the Romans of-
fered them freedom they refused it, and said, they were not able to sup-
port liberty. They were so poor, that in the time of Lucullus an ox was
sold for four pence, and a man for about sixteen pence. But they loved
their slavery and poverty with the same ardor with which others pursue
liberty and riches. All things considered, says Mr. Sanadon, they were
perhaps more happy. A remark well worthy of a Cappadocian or a
Frenchman. FRAN.

38 These robes were probably wanted for some such entertainment
as we find in the first Epistle of the second Book; though Plutarch tells
us, Horace calls them five thousand, that he may enliven his tale by
such an exageration, for the real number was two hundred.

39 Trans pondera dextram porrigere. The streets of Rome were crowded with coaches and wagons: the Nomenclator, qui dictet nomina, directs his master to turn these impediments to his advantage, by making an acquaintance with those who are stopped with him, or by crossing to those who are on the other side of the way. SAN.

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ting what is becoming, what not; deserving to be enrolled among the citizens of Care;* like the depraved crew of Ulysses of Ithaca, to whom forbidden pleasure was dearer than their country. If, as Mimnermus" things, nothing is pleasant without love and mirth, live in love and mirth.

Live: be happy. If you know of any thing preferable to these maxims, candidly communicate it: if not, with me make use of these.

EPISTLE VII.

TO MÆCENAS.""

He apologizes to Maecenas for his long absence from Rome; and acknowl edges his favors to him in such a manner as to declare liberty preferable to all other blessings.

HAVING promised you that I would be in the country but five days, false to my word, I am absent the whole of August** But, if you would have me live sound and in perfect health, the indulgence which you grant me, Mæcenas, when I am ill, you will grant me [also] when I am afraid of being ill while [the time of] the first figs, and the [autumnal] heat graces the undertaker with his black attendants; while every father and mother turn pale with fear for their children; and while over-acted diligence," and attendance at the forum, bring on

40 The Cærites having received the vestal virgins and tutelary gods of Rome when it was sacked by the Gauls, the Romans in gratitude gave them the privileges of citizens. But having engaged in the cause of Tarquin, they were deprived of the right of voting at elections, and a particular roll was made for their names, to which those of other infamous citizens were afterward added. From thence came a manner of speaking, "dignus Cæritum tabulis: Cærite cerâ digni.” TORR

41 Mimnermus was an Ionian poet, who lived about six hundred years before the Christian era. He had a peculiar happiness in descriptions of tenderness, pleasure, and love. His style was easy, rich, and florid. ED. Dubl. 42 This epistle was probably written in 31, when our author was in his forty-second year. SAN. 8.6.13

43 Sextilem. The Romans began their year at March, from whence the sixth month was called Sextilis, even after January and February were added to the calendar of Romulus. It afterward took the name of Augustus, "mensis Augustus," as the month before was called "mensis Julius," from Julius Cæsar. ED. DUBL.

44 Officiosa sedulitas. That earnestness and assiduity of making our

แ

46

fevers and unseal wills."5 But, if the winter shall scatter snow upon the Alban fields, your poet will go down to the sea-side, and be careful of himself, and read bundled up;" you, dear friend, he will revisit with the zephyrs, if you will give him leave, and with the first swallow.

sir."

9947

You have made me rich, not in the manner in which the Calabrian host bids [his guest] eat of his pears. 66 Eat, pray, "I have had enough." "But take away with you what quantity you will." "You are very kind." "You will carry them no disagreeable presents to your little children." "I am as much obliged by your offer, as if I were sent away loaded. "As you please: you leave them to be devoured to-day by the hogs." The prodigal and fool gives away what he despises and hates; the reaping of favors like these has produced, and ever will produce, ungrateful men. A good and wise man professes himself ready to do kindness to the deserving; and yet is not ignorant, how true coins differ from lupines. I will also show myself deserving of the honor of being grateful. But if you would not have me depart any whither, you must restore my vigorous constitution, the black locks [that grew] on my narrow forehead: you must restore court to the great. Opella forensis, the pleadings, and business of the courts. DAC.

45 Testamenta resignat. "Puts us to death;" for wills were never opened until the death of the testator.

46 Contractusque leget. These words have been very differently explained by different commentators. Some think it a metaphorical expression taken from a mariner's furling the sails in a tempest. The poet must then mean, that he will read with less application and earnestness, et sibi parcet." Others believe, that he would image to us a man chilled with cold, who collects and brings himself into less compass, "frigore duplicatus." Sanadon translates it, "shut up, and warmly clothed," against the severity of the weather. Yet in his notes he thinks contractus may signify "contracto in loco; in augusto conclavi," because small apartments are less cold, and consequently more proper for winter. FRAN. 47 Bene and benignè were words of politeness and modesty among the Romans, as kaç and traivi among the Greeks when they refused any thing offered to them. DAC.

48 Lupina, a sort of pulse, used for play-house money. Plautus in his Pœnulus, Act iii. scene 2:

AGAM. Agite, inspicite: aurum est. COL. Profectò, spectatores, comicum. Macerato hoc pingues fiunt auro in Barbariâ boves.-Agam.

"AGAM. Hold; see; it is gold. COL. Yes, truly, the gold of comedy. This is the gold, with which, when it is well watered, they fatten oxen in Italy." ED. DUBL.