righteousness of the world in which they lived. Hence we find the great apostle of the Gentiles, Acts xvii. 28. quoting a passage from his countryman, Aratus of Cilicia, against idolatry, or imagining there be gods made with hands. We find the same apostle" reproving the vices of lying and gluttony in the Cretans, by a quotation from the Cretan poet Epimenides, whom he calls "a prophet of their own,” for they accounted their poets writers of divine oracles. Let this teach us to distinguish between the use and abuse of classical knowledge, when it tends to inform the judgment, to refine the manners, and to embellish the conversation; when it keeps a due subordination to that which is divine, makes us truly thankful of the superior light of God's infallible word, and teaches us how little can be truly known by the wisest of men, without a divine revelation; then it has its use: still more, if it awakens in us a jealousy over ourselves, that we duly improve the superior light with which we are blessed, lest the very heathen rise in judgment against us. If, on the contrary, it tends to make us proud, vain, and conceited, to rest in its attainments as the summit of wisdom and knowledge; if it contributes to harden the mind against superior information, or fills it with that sour pedantry which leads to the contempt of others; then I will readily allow, that all our learning is but "splendid ignorance and pompous folly."

66

n Tit. i. 12.

• 1 Cor. i. 20, 21.

P Luke xii. 47, 48.

DECIMI

JUNII JUVENALIS

AQUINATIS

SATIREÆ.

SATIRA I.

ARGUMENT.

JUVENAL begins this satire with giving some humourous reasons for his writing: such as hearing, so often, many ill poets rehearse their works, and intending to repay them in kind. Next he informs us, why he addicts himself to satire, rather than to other poetry, and gives a summary and general view of the reigning vices and follies of his time.

SEMPER ego auditor tantum ? nunquamne reponam,
Vexatus toties rauci Theseïde Codri ?
Impune ergo mihi recitaverit ille togatas,

Satires.] Or satyrs. Concerning this word, see CHAMBERS's Dictionary.

Line 1. Only a hearer.] Juvenal complains of the irksome recitals, which the scribbling poets were continually making of their vile compositions, and of which he was a hearer, at the public assemblies, where they read them over. It is to be observed, that, sometimes, the Romans made private recitals of their poetry, among their particular friends. They also had public recitals, either in the temple of Apollo, or in spacious houses, which were either hired, or lent, for the purpose by some rich and great man, who was highly honoured for this, and who got his clients and dependents together on the occasion, in order to increase the audience, and to encourage

He

the poet by their applauses. See sat. vii. 1. 40-4. Persius, prolog. 1. 7. and note. HoR. lib. i. sat. iv. 1. 73, 4.

Repay.] Reponam here is used metaphorically; it alludes to the borrowing and repayment of money. When a man repaid money which he had borrowed, he was said to replace it-reponere. So our poet, looking npon himself as indebted to the reciters of their compositions for the trouble which they had given him, speaks as if he intended to repay them in kind, by writing and reciting his verses, as they had done theirs. Sat. vii. 1. 40-4. PERSIUS, prolog. 1. 7. HOR. lib. i. sat. iv. 1. 73, 4.

2. Theseis.] A poem, of which Theseus was the subject.

THE

SATIRES

OF

JUVENAL.

SATIRE I.

laments the restraints which the satirists then lay under from a fear of punishment, and professes to treat of the dead, personating, under their names, certain living vicious characters. His great aim, in this, and in all his other satires, is to expose and reprove vice itself, however sanctified by custom, or dignified by the examples of the great.

SHALL I always be only a hearer ?-shall I never repay, Who am teiz'd so often with the Theseis of hoarse Codrus? Shall one (poet) recite his comedies to me with impunity,

Hoarse Codrus.] A very mean poet; so poor, that he gave rise to the proverb, Codro pauperior." He is here supposed to have made himself hoarse, with frequent and loud reading

his poem.

3. Comedies.] Togatas-so called from the low and common people, who were the subjects of them. These wore gowns, by which they were distinguished from persons of rank.

mented with purple, and worn by magistrates and nobles. Hence the comedies, which treated of the actions of such, were called prætextatæ. In our time we should say, genteel comedy.

Thirdly, The Palliata; from pallium, a sort of upper garment worn by the Greeks, and in which the actors were habited, when the manners and actions of the Greeks were represented. This was also a species of the higher sort of co

There were three different sorts of co-medy. medy, each denominated from the dress of the persons which they represented.

First, The Togata; which exhibited the actions of the lower sort; and was a species of what we call low comedy.

Secondly, The Prætextata; so called from the prætexta, a white robe orna

It is most probable that Terence's plays, which he took from Menander, were reckoned among the palliatæ, and represented in the pallium, or Grecian dress: more especially too, as the scene of every play lies at Athens.