principles your sight is not so piercing as that of Lynceus; you will not however therefore despise being anointed, if you are sore-eyed nor because you despair of the muscles of the invincible Glycon,' will you be careless of preserving your body from the knotty gout. There is some point to which we may reach, if we can go no further. Does your heart burn with avarice, and a wretched desire of more? Spells there are, and incantations, with which you may mitigate this pain, and rid yourself of a great part of the distemper. Do you swell with the love of praise? There are certain purgations which can restore you, a certain treatise being perused thrice with purity of mind. The envious, the choleric, the indolent, the slave to wine, to women-none is so savage that he can not be tamed, if he will only lend a patient ear to discipline. 8 It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom, to have lived free from folly. You see with what toil of mind and body you avoid those things which you believe to be the greatest evils, a small fortune and a shameful repulse. An active merchant, you run to the remotest Indies, fleeing poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames. And will you not learn, and hear, and be advised by one who is wiser, that you may no longer regard those things which you foolishly admire and wish for? What little champion of the villages and of the streets would scorn being crowned at the great Olympic games, who had the hopes and happy oppor 7 The commentators tell us, from Diogenes Laertius, that Glycon was a philosopher who had made himself famous by his dexterity and skill in athletic exercises. But more probably the poet alluded to a statue, which is still preserved in Rome, and of which Montfaucon speaks thus: Hercules of Farnese, the finest of all, is a master-piece of art. It is the performance of Glycon the Athenian, who hath immortalized his name by putting it at the bottom of this admirable statue. It is a common language to say of pictures and statues, that is a Titian; this an Apelles. FRAN. 8 Before the reduction of Egypt and Arabia, the passage to India was unknown to the Romans. Strabo tells us that while Elius Gallus governed Egypt, in the year 727, a fleet of twenty-six merchantmen set sail from the Red Sea for India. The Romans, attentive to their interests, flattered by an immense profit arising from this trade, and allured by the rich and beautiful merchandize which it brought home, applied themselves earnestly to this commerce, from whence the poet reproaches them with excessive covetousness. SAN. 9 Horace, in imitation of Pindar, calls the Olympic games "magna," great, because they were the most famous of all that were celebrated in 66 tunity of victory without toil? Silver is less valuable than gold, gold than virtue. "O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first; virtue after riches:" this the highest Janus1 from the lowest inculcates; young men and old repeat these maxims, having their bags and account-books hung on the left arm. You have soul, have breeding, have eloquence and honor: yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting to complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a plebeian." But boys at play" cry, "You shall be king, if you will do right." Let this be a [man's] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no guilt. Tell me, pray, is the Roscian law best, or the boy's song which offers the kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and Camilli? Does he advise you best, who says, "Make a fortune; a fortune, if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means"-that you may view from a nearer bench the tear-moving poems of Puppius: or he, who still animates and enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty fortune? If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I do not enjoy the same sentiments with them, as [I do the same] porticoes, nor pursue or fly from whatever they admire or dislike; I will reply, as the cautious fox once answered the sick lion: "Because the foot-marks all looking toward you, Greece. "Coronari Olympia" may be considered as a Greek phrase, or we may understand inter or ad. "Vincere Olympia" is found in Ennius, and "qui Pythia, Isthmia, Nemea, Olympia vicit," in Festus. TORR. 10 The Latins sometimes gave the name of "Janus" to those grand arcades which crossed their streets, like triumphal arches, and under which they walked. They had many of this kind in the different streets of Rome, but we are expressly told by Livy, that there were three in the forum. "Forum porticibus tabernisque claudendum, et Janus tres faciendos locavere." Here the bankers, merchants, and usurers had their shops. SAN. 11 Plebs eris. Horace here speaks according to the law of Roscius Otho, by which a Roman knight was to be possessed of four hundred thousand sesterces (about 3,1257. of our money), and a senator, of eight hundred thousand. Augustus afterward raised the sum to twelve burdred thousand. A sesterce is here computed at one penny, half-penny, farthing, half-farthing of our money. ED. DUBL. 12 We can not justly say what this game was. Torrentius, with much probability, conjectures that it was the Urania of the Greeks. in which bail was thrown into the air, and the boy who struck it oftenest, bofore it fell to the ground, was called king of the game. ED. DUBL. Thou art a monster with and none from you, affright me." many heads. For what shall I follow, or whom? One set of men delight to farm the public revenues: there are some, who would inveigle covetous widows with sweet-meats and fruits, and insnare old men, whom they would send [like fish] into their ponds: the fortunes of many grow by concealed usury. But be it, that different men are engaged in different employments and pursuits: can the same persons continue an hour together approving the same things? If the man of wealth has said, "No bay in the world outshines delightful Baiæ," the lake and the sea presently feel the eagerness of their impetuous master: to whom, if a vicious humor gives the omen, [he will cry,]-" to-morrow, workmen, ye shall convey hence your tools to Teanum," Has he in his hall the genial13 bed? He says nothing is preferable to, nothing better than a single life. If he has not, he swears the married only are happy. With what noose can I hold this Proteus, varying thus his forms? What does the poor man? Laugh [at him too]: is he not forever changing his garrets, beds, baths, barbers? He is as much surfeited in a hired boat, as the rich man is, whom his own galley conveys. If I meet you with my hair cut1 by an uneven barber, you laugh [at me]: if I chance to have a ragged shirt under a handsome coat, or if my disproportioned gown fits me ill, you laugh. What [do you do], when my judgment contradicts itself? it despises what it before desired; seeks for that which lately it neglected; is all in a ferment, and is inconsistent in the whole tenor of life; pulls down, builds up, changes square to round. In this case, you think I am mad 13 The nuptial bed was consecrated to Genius, the god of nature, who presided over the birth of human kind. It was placed in the "aula," or "atrium," the hall, where the statues of the ancestors of the family were ranged, and where the women generally sat, to let the public be witnesses of their domestic industry. "Matres familias vestræ in atriis operantur domorum, industrias testificantes suas." Arnobius. ED. DUBLIN. 14 Curatus. This is the reading of all the manuscripts. The Romans used " curare capillos" for "tondere, secare;" "cura" and " curatio capillorum" for "capillorum sectio" and "tonsura." Curtatus," which hath been received by very many editors, is entirely useless, and can by no means agree with the poet's thought. He is not ridiculous because the barber hath cut his hair too short, but because he hath cut it un equally, "inæqualis tonsor." BENT. CUN. SAN. in the common way, and you do not laugh, nor believe that I stand in need of a physician, or of a guardian assigned by the prætor; though you are the patron of my affairs, and are disgusted at the ill-paired nail of a friend that depends upon you, that reveres you. In a word, the wise man is inferior to Jupiter alone, is rich, free, honorable, handsome, lastly, king of kings; above all, he is sound, unless when phlegm is troublesome.' 15 He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and WHILE you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Præneste have perused over again the writer of the Trojan war; who teaches more clearly, and better than Chrysippus and Crantor, what is honorable, what shameful, what profitable, what not so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have thus concluded. The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue, Greece is stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians, contains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor gives his opinion for cutting off the cause of the war. What does Paris? He can not be brought to comply, [though it be in order] that he may reign safe, and live happy. Nestor 15 This ridicule will appear in a stronger light by reading a passage of Epictetus, which hath been preserved to us by Arrian. "Can there be a providence," cries an Epicurean, "or could it suffer this continual defluxion to torment me thus?" "Slave as thou art," says Epicurus, "why are you formed with hands? Were they not given you to wipe your nose?" "Yes; but were it not better," answers the disciple, that there was no such thing as phlegm in the world?" "And is it not better," replies Epicurus, "to wipe your nose, than deny the being of providence?" FRAN. 16 Lollius, who was consul in the year 736, had two sons, one of whom was the father of the empress Lollia Paulina. Horace writes this epistle to the elder brother, Maxime Lolli, and while he directs him in what manner to read Homer, he gives him some excellent precepts to guard him against envy, avarice, debauchery, and anger. ED. DUBL labors to compose the differences between Achilles and Agamemnon love inflames one; rage both in common. The Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly." Within the walls of Ilium, and without, enormities are committed by sedition, treachery, injustice, and lust, and rage. Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he has propounded Ulysses an instructive pattern: who, having subdued Troy, wisely got an insight into the constitutions and customs of many nations; and, while for himself and his associates he is contriving a return, endured many hardships on the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of adversity. You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and Circe's cups of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk along with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and senseless slave under the command of a prostitute: he had lived a filthy dog, or a hog delighting in mire. We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of the earth; like Penelope's suitors, useless drones; like Alcinous' youth, employed above measure in pampering their bodies; whose glory was to sleep till mid-day, and to lull their cares to rest by the sound of the harp. Robbers rise by night, that they may cut men's throats; and will not you awake to save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health, you will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy; and unless before day you call for a book with a light, unless you brace your mind with study and honest employments, you will be kept awake and tormented with envy or with love. For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt your eyes, but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it from year to year? He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith. He who postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will flow, ever rolling on. Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children, 17 The people suffer for the folly of their kings. Thus in the Iliad, the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles causes the latter to withdraw himself and his forces from taking any active part in the war, and the result is that the Grecians are routed and driven within their entrenchments by the Trojans. M'CAUL |
