That all in equal Friendship may unite,
Your Butra and Septicius I'll invite,
And, if he's not engag'd to better Cheer,
Or a kind Girl, Sabinus fhall be here.

Still there is Room, and yet the Summer's Heat
May prove offenfive, if the Croud be great:
But write me word, how many you defire,
Then inftant from the bufy World retire;
And while your tedious Clients fill the Hall,
Slip out at the Back-door, and bilk them all.

N

EPIST. VI. Ad NUMICIUM.

IL admirari, prope res eft una, Numici,
Solaque, quæ poffit facere & fervare beatum.
Hunc folem, & ftellas, & decedentia certis
Tempora momentis, funt qui formidine nullâ
Imbuti fpectant. Quid cenfes, munera terræ ?
Quid, maris extremos Arabas ditantis & Indos ?
Ludicra, quid, plausus & amici dona Quiritis ?
Quo fpectanda modo, quo fenfu credis & ore ?
Qui timet his adverfa, ferè miratur eodem

Quo

Admiration is one of the principal Sources of all our Follies, fince it is almoft the firft Mover of the Paffions. Some of the Philofophers, as they declared for an Apathy, or Infenfibility of the Miferics of Life, fo they afferted, that an Inadmiration, if the Word may be allowed, was the highest Proof of human Wisdom. They confidered Admiration as a Paffion, and then we may be bold to say, that an Excess or mistaken Application of it can alone prove criminal; for all our Paffions, when preferved in their original Purity, lead us to Virtue, and confequently to Happiness. Admiration, fays Plato, is the Mother of Wisdom, but when it is placed upon improper Objects, it lofes that amiable Title; and, when indulged to Excefs, becomes vicious, and confequently miferable. Not to admire is above the Wisdom of an human Creature, but not to place our Efteem upon what the Generality of Mankind admire, is the wife Man's higheft Character. Such are the pleafing and important Truths, which our Poet endeavours to prove in this Epiftle.

Verfe 2. Facere & fervare beatum.] All momentary Pleasures are a kind of falfe Reasoning arifing from falfe Principles. Man was created for Happiness; but Wisdom alone can put him into Poffeffion, and Virtue infure the Continuance of it.

4. Sunt qui.] Pythagoras, Democritus and Epicurus contemplated the Structure of the World without Admiration, because they

I

regarded

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N

EPIST. VI. TO NUMICIUS.

OT to admire, is of all Means the best,

The only Means, to make, and keep us bleft.
There are, untainted with the Thoughts of Fear,
Who see the certain Changes of the Year
Unerring roll; who see the glorious Sun,
And the fix'd Stars, their annual Progress run:
But with what different Eye do they behold
The Gifts of Earth; or Diamonds or Gold;
Old Ocean's Treasures, and the pearly Stores,
Wafted to fartheft India's wealthy Shores ?

Or with what Sense, what Language, should we gaze
On Shows, Employments, or the People's Praise ?
Whoever dreads the oppofite Extreme
Of Disappointment, Poverty, or Shame,

Is

regarded it as a Work of Chance. But were it not a Subject of Admiration, that Chance had produced fuch a Work?

SAN.

7. Ludicra.] If it is beneath the Dignity of a wife Man to admire the Works of Nature, he muft furely look with Contempt upon thofe of human Art. Yet it was a Stoical Maxim, Mr Jau μάζειν τὴν θέαν, Not to admire the public Shows. DAC.

9. Qui timet his adverfa.] Wealth, Power, and Popularity, have a kind of imaginary Value arifing from the Opinions of Mankind; but as we do not all view them in the fame Point of Light, we are not equally charmed with them. Riches preferve us from the Diftreffes of Poverty; public Entertainments are valued as Amusements; and Employments raife us above Contempt and Obscurity. Such is the Language of the World. But our Poet would convince us, that our Defires and our Fears arise from the same Principle, and are therefore equally vicious. SANI

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15

Quo cupiens pacto. Pavor eft utrobique moleftus,
Improvifa fimul fpecies exterret utrumque :
Gaudeat, an doleat, cupiat, metuatne; quid ad rem,
Si quidquid vidit melius pejufve fuâ fpe, F
Defixis oculis, animoque & corpore torpet?
Infani fapiens nomen ferat, æquus iniqui;
Ultra quàm fatis eft, virtutem fi petat ipfam.
I nunc, argentum & marmor vetus, æraque & artes
Sufpice; cum gemmis Tyrios mirare colores ;
Gaude, quòd fpectant oculi te mille loquentem ;
Gnavus manè forum, & vefpertinus pete tectum ;
Ne plus frumenti dotalibus emetat agris
Mutus, & (indignum quod fit) pejoribus ortus
Hic tibi fit potiùs, quàm tu mirabilis illi.
Quidquid fub terrâ eft, in apricum proferet ætas ;
Defodiet, condetque nitentia. Cùm bene notum
Porticus Agrippæ, & via te confpexerit Appî;
Ire tamen reftat, Numa quò devenit & Ancus.
Si latus aut renes morbo tentantur acuto,
Quære fugam morbi. Vis rectè vivere ? quis non ?
ᏚᎥ

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16. Ultra quàm fatis eft.] All Exceffes, even of Virtue itself, are vicious. Our best Studies ought, fays Cicero, to be extremely temperate; and if the Defires, which Virtue excites in our Hearts, be too violent, we should employ all our Wisdom to moderate them.

24. Quidquid fub terra eft.] This Admirer would excufe his Ambition and Avarice, by faying, that he values Riches and Employments only because they fupport the Dignity of his Family, and preferve him from the Pain of seeing fome low-born Scoundrel raised above him. But Jealousy and Envy are always vicious. They oppose the Course of Nature, and the Laws of Time, which hide fome illuftrious Families in Obfcurity, and raise others, as it were, out of the Earth, upon the Ruins of the former. DAC.

26. Porticus Agrippa.] It was called the Arcade of good Luck, Porticus boni eventus, and fituated near the Pantheon, at the Entrance

of

Is raptur'd with almost the same Defires,
As he, who doats on what the World admires;
Equal their Terrors, equal their Surprise,
When accidental Dangers round them rife:
Nor matters it, what Paffions fill his Breast,
With Joy or Grief, Defire or Fear oppreft,
With down-fix'd Eyes who views the varying Scene,
Whofe Soul grows ftiff, and ftupified his Brain.
Even Virtue, when purfu'd with Warmth extreme,
Turns into Vice, and fools the Sage's Fame.
Now go, Numicius, and with higher Gust
Admire thy treafur'd Gold, the Marble Buft,
Or bronze Antique, the Purple's various Glow,
And luftred Gem; thofe Works which Arts bestow.
Let gazing Crouds your Eloquence admire,

At early Morn to Court, at Night retire,
Left Mutus wed a Wife of large Estate,
While, deeper your Dishonour to compleat,
The low-born Wretch to You no Honour pays,
Though You on Him with Admiration gaze.

But Time fhall bring the latent Birth to Light And hide the prefent glorious Race in Night; For though Agrippa's awful Collonade, Or Appian Way, thy paffing Pomp furvey'd, It yet remains to tread the drear Defcent, Where good Pompilius, and great Ancus went. Would You not wish to cure th' acuter Pains, That rack thy tortur'd Side, or vex thy Reins? Would You, and who would not, with Pleafure live? If Virtue can alone the Bleffing give,

With

of the Campus Martius. This Epiftle muft have been written after the Year 729, when the Arcade was finished.