But the hare or the kid, the handmaids of Jove, and the noble In their nest but, thence, the mature progeny, when 85 While thus, therefore, Centronius dwells, he diminished his estate, He impaired his wealth, nor yet was the measure of the remaining Part small: his mad son confounded all this, While he raised up new villas with better marble. Some chance to have a father who fears the Sabbaths, 90 95 89. With Grecian, &c.] Finished in the most superb taste with Grecian and other kinds of foreign marble. 90. Temple of Fortune.] There was one at Rome built of the finest marble by Nero-but here is meant that at Præneste. brary. ·Of Hercules.] At Tibur, where there was a very great li 91, Eunuch Posides, &c.] A freedman and favourite of Claudius Cæsar, who was possessed of immense riches; he built on the shore at Baiæ some baths which were very magnificent, and called, after him, Posidianæ. Our capitals.] Of which there were several, besides that at Rome, as at Capua, Pompeia, and other places. But the poet means particularly the capitol at Rome, which, after having been burnt, was rebuilt and beautified most magnificently by Domitian. 92. While thus, &c.] While he thus builds and inhabits such expensive and magnificent houses, he outruns his income. 93. Nor yet, &c.] Nevertheless, though he lessened his fortune, yet there was no small part of it left. 94. His mad son, &c.] His son, who, from the example of his father, had contracted a sort of madness for expensive building, confounded the remaining part of his father's fortune, when it came to him after his father's death. 95. Raised up new villas, &c.] Endeavouring to excel his father, and to build at a still greater expense, with more costly materials. This instance of Centronius and his son is here given as a proof of the poet's argument, that children will follow the vices and follies of parents, and perhaps even exceed them (comp. 1. 53.); therefore parents should be very careful of the example which they set their children. 96. Some chance, &c.] Sortiti-i. e. it falls to the lot of some. Nil præter nubes, et cœli numen adorant : 100 105 96. Fears the Sabbaths.] Not only reverences the seventh day, but the other Jewish feasts, which were called Sabbaths. The poet having shewn, that children follow the example of their parents in vice and folly, here shews, that in religious matters also children are led by their parents' example. 97. Beside the clouds.] Because the Jews did not worship images, but looked toward heaven when they prayed, they were charged with worshipping the clouds, the heathen having no notion but of worshipping some visible object. The Deity of heaven.] Juvenal, though he was wise enough to laugh at his own country gods, yet had not any notion of the ONE TRUE GOD, which makes him ridicule the Jewish worship. However, I doubt much, whether, by numen cæli, in this place, we are not to suppose Juvenal as representing the Jews to worship the material heaven, "the blue ætherial sky," (as Mr. Addisson phrases it in his translation of the 19th Psalm,) imagining that they made a deity of it, as he supposed they did of the clouds-this I think the rather, as it stands here joined with nubes, and was likewise a visible object. See TAGIT. Hist. v. initio. As for the God of Heaven, he was to Juvenal, as to the Athenians, vas Deos, (see Acts xvii. 23.) utterly unknown; and therefore the poet could not mean him by numen cœli." After the "wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God." 1 Cor. i. 21. 98. Savine's flesh to be different from human.] They think it as abominable to eat the one as the other. Here he ignorantly ridicules their observance of that law, Lev. xi. 7, &c. 99. The father, &c.] He treats it as a matter of mere tradition, as if the son only did it because his father did it before him. Soon they lay aside, &c.] Here he ridicules the right of circumcision, which was performed on the eighth day after their birth, according to Gen. xvii. 10, et seq. 100. Used to despise, &c.] It being their wonted custom and practice to hold the laws of Rome, relative to the worship of the gods in particular, in the highest contempt. See Exod. xxiii. 24. 101. They learn.] From their childhood. Ediscunt--learn by heart. And keep.] Observe. They adore nothing beside the clouds, and the Deity of heaven: From which the father abstain'd; and soon they lay aside their fore skins: But used to despise the Roman laws, 100 They learn, and keep, and fear the Jewish law, Whatsoever Moses hath delivered in the secret volume : Not to shew the ways, unless to one observing the same rites, 105 101. And fear.] And reverence 102. Whatsoever Moses, &c.] i. e. Whatsoever it be that Moses, &c. From this passage it appears, that Moses was known and acknowledged, by the heathen, to be the lawgiver of the Jews. Secret volume.] By this is meant the Pentateuch, (so called from TETE, five, and Tɛuxos, a book or volume,) or five books of Moses. A copy of this was kept, as it is to this day, in every synagogue, locked up in a press, or chest (arca), and never exposed to sight, unless when brought out to be read at the time of worship in the synagogue, and then (as now) it was returned to its place, and again locked up. This is probably alluded to by Juvenal's epithet of ar cano, from arca-as Romanus, from Roma. See AINSW. Arcanus-a-um.--Volumine, from volvo, to roll, denotes that the book of the law was rolled, not folded, up. See sat. x. 126, note. 103. Not to shew the ways, &c.] They were forbidden certain connexions with the heathen-but when the poet represents them so monstrously uncharitable, as not to shew a stranger the way to a place which he was inquiring after, unless he were a Jew, he may be supposed to speak from prejudice and misinformation. So in the next line 104. To lead, &c.] He supposes, that, if a man, who was not a Jew, were ever so thirsty, and asked the way to some spring to quench his thirst, they would sooner let him perish than direct him to it. But no such thing was taught by Moses. See Exod. xxii. 21; and ch. xxiii. 9. Verpos, like Horace's apella, is a word of contempt. 105. The father, &c.] Who, as the poet would be understood, set them the example. -Every seventh day, &c.] Throughout the year this was ob served as a day of rest, the other sabbaths at their stated times, The poet ignorantly imputes this merely to an idle practice, which was handed down from father to son, not knowing the design and importance of the divine command. 106. Meddle, &c.] i. e. He refrained from all business, even such as related to the necessaries of common life. The Jews carried this to a superstitious height-they even condemned works of necessity Sponte tamen juvenes imitantur cætera : solam Hesperidum serpens, aut Ponticus: adde quod hunc, de and charity, if done on the Sabbath. See John vii. 23. declared self-defence to be unlawful on the Sabbath-day. Univ. Hist. vol. x. p. 272. 110 115 They also See ANT. 107. Young men, &c.] The poet now begins on the subject of avarice, in order to shew how this also is communicated from father to son but here he makes a distinction. As to other vices, says he, youth want no force to be put upon them to incline them to imitation; whereas, this of avarice, being rather against their natural bent towards prodigality, requires some pains to be taken, in order to instil it into their minds. -The rest.] The other vices which have been mentioned. 108. Commanded, &c.] They have much pains taken with them to force them, as it were, into it, against their natural inclinations. 109. Vice deceives, &c.] They are deceived at first, by being taught to look upon that as virtuous, from its appearance, which in truth, in its real nature and design, is vicious. Nothing is more common than for vice to be concealed under the garb of virtue, as in the instance which the poet is about to mention. In this sense it may be said-Decipimur specie recti. HoR. de Art. 1. 25. 110. Sad in habit, &c.] The poet, in this line, in which he is describing vice, wearing the garb, and putting on the semblance, of wisdom and virtue, has probably in his eye the hypocrites, whom he so severely lashes at the beginning of the second Satire. See sat. ii. 1-1-20. Habitu here means outward carriage, demeanour, manner. Sad -triste-grave, pensive, demure. Severe in countenance, &c.] A severity of countenance, and a negligence in dress, were supposed characteristic of wisdom and virtue, and were therefore in high esteem among the philosophers, and those who would be thought wiser and better than others. Hence, in order to deceive, these were assumed by vicious people. See Matt. vi. 16. 111. Doubtfully praised, &c.] Nobody doubts his sincerity, or that he is other than his appearance bespeaks him, viz. a frugal man, and careful of his affairs, which is certainly a laudable charac ter. Young men, nevertheless, imitate the rest of their own accord; only 110 As a thrifty man, and a safeguard of his own affairs, This man, of whom I speak, the people think an excellent, and venerable 115 Artist, for to these workmen' patrimonies increase: But they increase by whatsover means, and become greater Sic timidus se cautum vocat, sordidus parcum. SEN. 113. More certain, &c.] At the same time he is acting from no better principle, than that of the most sordid avarice, and takes care to hoard up and secure his money-bags in such a manner, as that they are safer than if guarded by the dragon which watched the garden of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas, from whence, notwithstanding, Hercules stole the golden apples; or by the dragon, which guarded the golden fleece at Colchos, in Pontus, from whence, notwithstanding, it was stolen by Jason. 114. Add.] We may also add to this account of the character here spoken of, that he is in high estimation with the generality of people, who always judge of a man by what he is worth. At bona pars hominum, decepta cupidine falsâ, HOR. lib. i. sat. i. l. 61, 2. "Some self-deceiv'd, who think their lust of gold FRANCIS. 115. The people think, &c.] They reckon this man, who has been the fabricator of his own fortune to so large an amount, an excellent workman in his way, and to be highly reverenced. 116. To these workmen, &c.] Fabris here is metaphorical, and is applied to these fabricators of wealth for themselves, because those who coined or made money for the public were called fabri, or monetæ fabricatores. Faber usually denotes a smith-i. e. a workman in iron and other hard materials, a forger, a hammerer: so these misers, who were continually at work to increase their wealth, might be said to forge and hammer out a fortune for themselves, and in this sense might be called fabri. To such as these, says the poet, riches increase. 117. By whatsoever means.] They were not very scrupulous or nice, as to the means of increasing their store, whether by right or wrong. 118. By the assiduous anvil, and the forge, &c.] The poet still |