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his purple robe; but dressed in any thing, will go through the most frequented places and without awkwardness support either character: the other will shun the cloak wrought at Miletus with greater aversion than [the bite of] dog or viper: he will die with cold, unless you restore him his ragged gar- I ment: restore it, and let him live like a fool as he is. To perform exploits, and show the citizens their foes in chains, reaches the throne of Jupiter, and aims at celestial honours. To have been acceptable to the great, is not the last of praises. It is not every man's lot to gain Corinth. He [prudently] sat still, who was afraid lest he should not succeed: be it so; what then? Was it not bravely done by him, who carried his point? Either here therefore, or no where, is what we are in-ple vestigating. The one dreads the burden, as too much for a pusillanimous soul and a weak constitution; the other undertakes, and carries it through. Either virtue is an empty name, or the man who makes the experiment deservedly claims the honour and the reward.

7

The man who carries a cudgel, wears a double coat, and feeds upon air. This last expression means a sophist, who, according to Aristophanes, lives upon the clouds. However, Horace probably meant only a double mantle, or one as thick as two; a coarse, heavy coat, in opposition to purpureum amictum. Servius explains duplicem ex humeris rejecit amictum, in Virgil, in the same manner. ED. DUBL.

5 Aristippus engaged Diogenes to go with him into the bath, and, coming first out of the water, took the cynic's mantle, and left him his purple robe. But Diogenes declared he would rather go naked out of the bath than put it on. DAC.

Suidas informs us, that the danger and difficulty of going into the ports of Corinth gave rise to a proverb. Horace makes use of it, to show that all people have not talents proper for succeeding in a court, and to raise the glory of those who have courage to attempt and address to conquer the difficulties there. Others apply the proverb to Lais, a famous Corinthian courtezan; but such an application is too light and trivial for the solemnity of these lines, nor is it just to the poet's thought. If money could purchase her favours, it required no great degree of courage to attempt them. SAN.

"Se

This is the decision which necessarily results from the proofs. The poet introduces a person, who may be supposed to object that, if it be so difficult to succeed at court, a wise man had better not attempt it. dit, qui timuit." Horace acknowledges the force of this objection, "esto," but draws from it a very different conclusion; that, if there be difficulty or danger, he certainly deserves the highest praise who tries to succeed, experiens vir;" and, if virtue be any thing more than a chimerical name, he may with justice claim a reward proportionable to his merit, "rectè petit." ED. DUBL.

Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their lord, will gain more than the importunate. There is a great difference between modestly accepting, or seizing by violence. But this was the principle and source of every thing, [which I alleged]. He who says, "My sister is without a portion, my mother poor, and my estate neither saleable nor sufficient for my support," cries out [in effect], "Give me a morsel of bread:" another whines, "And let the platter be carved out for me with half a share of the bounty." But if the crow could have fed in silence, he would have had better fare, and much less of quarrelling and of envy.

A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the pleasant Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the roads and the bitter cold and rains, or laments that his chest is broken open and his provisions stolen; resembles the wellknown tricks of.an harlot, weeping frequently for her necklace, frequently for a garter forcibly taken from her; so that at length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses. Nor does he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up a vagrant with a [pretended] broken leg; though abundant tears should flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris, 10 he says, "Believe me, I do not impose upon you; O cruel, take up the lame." "Seek out for a stranger," cries the hoarse neighbourhood.

"11

8 This importunate not only teases his patron with perpetual requests, but provokes others to make the same demands. The poet compares them to beggars in the street, and gives the same language, for "quadra" signifies the plate upon which they received their bread at a public distribution. ED. DUBL.

9 Planum. In Greek this signifies a vagabond. Decimus Laberius first Latinized it, and Aulus Gellius blames the boldness of it. But Cicero and Horace refute the censure of the grammarian. BOND.

10 Osiris was the god of vagabonds, and brother of Isis, whose power of healing distempers was so universally believed, that, as Juvenal expresses it, she maintained the painters by votive pictures to her honour, "Pictores qui nescit ab Iside pasci ? Torr.

11 This was a trick so frequent among beggars, that it produced a proverb, "Tollat te qui non novit." ED. DUBL.

EPISTLE XVIII.

TO LOLLIUS.

He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favour of great men; and concludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind. IF I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you will beware of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself a friend. As a matron is unlike and of a different aspect from a strumpet, so will a true friend differ from the toadeater. There is an opposite vice to this, rather the greater [of the two]; a clownish, inelegant, and disagreeable bluntness, which would recommend itself by an unshaven face and black teeth; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true sincerity. Virtue is the medium of the two vices; and equally remote from either. The one is over-prone to complaisance, and a jester of the lowest couch,12 he so reverences the rich man's nod, so repeats his speeches, and catches up his falling words; that you would take him for a school-boy saying his lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an underpart: another often wrangles about a goat's hair, and armed engages 13 for any trifle: "That I, truly, should not have the first credit; and that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sentiment-[upon such terms,] another life would be of no value." But what is the subject of this controversy? Why, whether [the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be the cleverer fellow; whether the Minucian, 14 or the Appian, be the better road to Brundusium?

12 Imi derisor lecti, i. e. a buffoon, who is invited to an entertainment for the amusement of the host and his guests, that never has an opinion of his own, but merely supports the sentiments of others, and serves as an auxiliary to his host, when he fails in conversation. Imi-lecti refers to the place where such persons were stationed; scil. on the lowest couch. Hence in Sat. ii. 8, 40, Nomentanus and Porcius, Nasidienus' jesters, are termed "imi lecti convivæ." M'CAUL.

13 But, says Torrentius, "they who divide the word propugnat, to construe it pugnat pro nugis, lose the beauty of the passage: nugis armatus, armed with trifles and nonsense.' "" So also Orelli.

14 There were two roads to Rome from Brundusium, the Appian, which went along the Tuscan Sea; and the Minucian, which crossed over the country of the Sabines and Samnites, joining the Appian road at Bene

Him whom pernicious lust, whom quick-despatching dice strips, whom vanity dresses out and perfumes beyond his abilities, whom insatiable hunger and thirst after money, whom a shame and aversion to poverty possess, his rich friend (though furnished with a half-score more vices) hates and abhors; or if he does not hate, governs him; and, like a pious mother, would have him more wise and virtuous than himself; and says what is nearly true: "My riches (think not to emulate me) admit of extravagance; your income is but small: a scanty gown becomes a prudent dependant: cease to vie with me.' Whomsoever Eutrapelus had a mind to punish, he presented with costly garments. For now [said he] happy in his fine clothes, he will assume new schemes and hopes; he will sleep till daylight; prefer a harlot to his honest calling; run into debt; and at last become a gladiator, or drive a gardener's hack for hire.

Do not you at any time pry into his secrets; and keep close

what is intrusted to you, though put to the torture, by wine or passion. Neither commend your own inclinations, nor find fault with those of others; nor, when he is disposed to hunt, do you make verses. For by such means the amity of the twins, Zethus and Amphion, broke off; till the lyre, disliked by the austere brother, was silent. Amphion is thought to have given way to his brother's humours; so do you yield to the gentle dictates of your friend in power as often as he leads forth his dogs into the fields and his cattle laden with Ætolian nets, arise and lay aside the peevishness of your unmannerly muse, 15 that you may sup together on the delicious fare purchased by your labour; an exercise habitual to the manly Romans, of service to their fame and life and limbs: especially when you are in health, and are able either to excel the dog in swiftness, or the boar in strength. Add [to this], that there is no one who handles martial weapons more gracefully. You well know, with what acclamations of the spectators you sustain the combats in the Campus Martius: in fine,

ventum. This last had its name from the consul, Tiberius Minucius, who made it in 448, seven years after that of Appius. SAN.

15 Senium depone Camœnc. The muse is here called inhumanæ, from the peevishness of poets when they are interrupted in their poetical studies; or because they generally love solitude and retirement from company. TORR.

as yet a boy, 16 you endured a bloody campaign and the Cantabrian wars, beneath a commander, who is now replacing the standards [recovered] from the Parthian temples: 17 and, L if any thing is wanting,18 assigns it to the Roman arms. And that you may not withdraw yourself, and inexcusably be absent; though you are careful to do nothing out of measure and moderation, yet you sometimes amuse yourself at your country-seat. The [mock] fleet divides the little boats into two squadrons]: the Actian sea-fight 19 is represented by boys under your direction in a hostile form: your brother is the d foe, your lake the Adriatic; till rapid victory crowns the one or the other with her bays. Your patron, who will perceive that you come into his taste, will applaud your sports with both his hands.20

Moreover, that I may advise you, (if in aught you stand in need of an adviser,) take great circumspection what you say fr to any man, and to whom. Avoid an inquisitive impertinent, for such a one is also a tattler, nor do open ears faithfully

16 Lollius, to whom Horace writes, was with Augustus in his expedi tion against the Cantabrians, when he was very young, puer. But t Augustus departed from Rome in 727, when Lollius, the father, had been some years in Galatia, where he was governor after the death of Amyntas, whose kingdom became a province of the Roman empire. He returned to Rome in 732, and entered upon his consulship in the beginning of the year following. It is, therefore, impossible that he could have been with Augustus in the war of Spain, and consequently this letter could not have been written to him. CARDINAL NORRIS.

17 All our commentators agree, that refigit is in almost all the manuscripts. It is of more than ordinary value, because it determines the precise date of this Epistle in 734, when Phraates restored the Roman eagles to Augustus. Horace was then forty-five years of age.

18 Nunc et si quid abest. Nunc must be construed with refigit, as appears by the best copies; sic enim distinguunt potiora exemplaria."

BENT.

19 This little sea-fight is well introduced by our poet, and does much honour to Lollius. Augustus, in memory of the battle of Actium, instituted a tournament, under the name of Actian games, which were annually celebrated every 1st of August. Sanadon thinks it probable, that this naval engagement of Lollius gave the Romans a first idea of those naumachia, with which they were afterwards entertained by their emperors. FRAN.

20 A metaphorical manner of speaking, taken from the arena. When a gladiator was thrown in fighting, the people asked his life by turning down their thumbs, or his death by lifting them up. "Cùm faveamuse pollices premere etiam proverbio jubemur." PLIN. TORR.