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often have threatened it. The matrons are in dread of you on account of their young lads; the thrifty old men are in dread of you; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your beauty should slacken the affections of their husbands.

ODE IX.

TO TITUS VALGIUS.

He comforts his friend grieving for the loss of his

son.

SHOWERS do not perpetually pour down upon the furrowed fields, nor do hurricanes for ever harass the Caspian sea; nor my friend Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed throughout all the months in the regions of Armenia: nor do the Garganian oaks always labour under the northerly winds, and the ash-trees are not always widowed of their leaves. But you continually pursue Mystes, who is taken from you, with mournful measures: nor do the effects of your love for him cease at the rising of Vesper, nor when he flies the rapid approach of the sun. But the three-aged old man (Nestor) did not lament for the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life: nor did his parents, or his Trojan sisters, perpetually bewail the blooming Troilus. At length then desist from your tender complaints; and rather let us sing the fresh trophies of Augustus Cæsar, and how the frozen Niphates, and the river Medus, added to the van

Intraque præscriptum Gelonos
Exiguis equitare campis.

CARMEN X.

AD LICINIUM MURENAM.

Hortatur ut mediocritate contentus æquanimitatem retineat.

RECTIUS vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo; neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimiùm premendo
Littus iniquum.

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti

Sordibus tecti, caret invidendâ

Sobrius aulâ,

Sæpiùs ventis agitatur ingens

Pinus; et celsæ graviore casu

Decidunt turres; feriuntque summes
Fulmina* montes.

Sperat infestis, metuit secundis

Alteram sortem benè præparatum
Pectus. Informes hiemes reducit

Jupiter; idem

Submovet. Non, si malè nunc, et olim

Sic erit: quondam cithar↠tacentem
Suscitat Musam, neque semper arcum
Tendit Apollo.

Rebus angustis animosus atque
Fortis appare: sapienter idem
Contrahes vento nimiùm secundo
Turgida vela.

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quished nations, roll more humble tides, and the Gelonians ride within a small tract of land, and pass not the bound prescribed them.

ODE X.

TO LICINIUS MURENA.

He advises him to be content with a mean, and to maintain an evenness of temper.

O LICINIUS, you will lead a better course of life by neither always pursuing the main sea, nor, while you cautiously are in dread of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever loves the golden mean is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated cell, and is too prudent to have a palace that might expose him to envy. The lofty pine is more frequently agitated with winds, and high towers fall down with a heavier ruin; and thunderbolts strike the summits of the mountains. A well-provided breast hopes in adversity, and fears in prosperity. It is the same Jupiter, that brings the hideous winters back, and that takes them away. If it is bad with us now, it shall not be so hereafter. Apollo sometimes rouses the silent lyric muse, nor does he always bend his bow. In narrow circumstances, appear in high spirits, and undaunted. In the same manner you will prudently contract your sails, which are apt to be too much swollen in a prosperous gale.

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CARMEN XI.

AD QUINTIUM HIRPINUM.

Animam Quintii à publicis privatisque curis ad hilaritatem convertit.

QUID bellicosus Cantaber, et Scythes,
Hirpine Quinti, cogitet, Hadriâ

Divisus objecto, remittas

Quærere: nec trepides in usum
Fugit retro

Poscentis ævi pauca.

Levis juventus et decor; aridâ
Pellente lascivos amores

Canitie, facilemque somnum.

Non semper idem floribus est honos
Vernis neque uno Luna rubens nitet
Vultu: quid æternis minorem
Consiliis animum fatigas?

Cur non sub altâ vel platano, vel hâc
Pinu jacentes sic temerè, et rosâ
Canos odorati capillos,

Dum licet, Assyriâque nardo,

Potamus uncti? Dissipat Evius
Curas edaces. Quis puer ociùs
Restinguet ardentis Falerni

Pocula prætereunte lymphâ?
Quis devium scortum eliciet domo
Lyden? eburnâ, dic age, cum lyrâ
Maturet, in comptum* Lacænæ
More comam religata nodum.†

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A. Incomptum. Al. Incomptam. t Nodo. Tor. Bent.

ODE XI.

TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS.

He endeavours to divert the mind of Quintius from public and private solicitudes, to a taste for gayety and enjoyment.

O QUINTIUS HIRPINUS, forbear to be inquisitive what the Cantabrian, and the Scythian, divided from us by the interposition of the Adriatic, is meditating; neither be fearfully solicitous for the necessaries of life, which requires but a few things. Youth and beauty fly swift away, while sapless old age expels the wanton loves and gentle sleep. The same glory does not always remain to the vernal flowers; nor does the ruddy moon shine with one continued aspect: why, therefore, do you fatigue your mind, unequal to eternal projects? Why do we not rather, (while it is in our power,) thus carelessly reclining under a lofty plane-tree, or this pine, with our hoary locks made fragrant with roses, and anointed, with Syrian perfume, indulge ourselves with generous wine? Bacchus dissipates preying cares. What slave is at hand here instantly to cool some cups of ardent Falernian in the passing stream? Who will tempt the vagrant wanton Lyde from her house? See that you bid her hasten with her ivory lyre, not staying to dress her hair, but being content to have it collected into a careless knot, after the Spartan fashion.

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