And the squalid appearance of a criminal; an orphan calling to the laws His defrauder, whose girl-like hairs make his Countenance, flowing with weeping, uncertain. By command of nature we groan, when the funeral of an adult 135 [thy 140 And less than the fire of the pile. For what good man, or wor The secret torch, such as the priest of Ceres would have him to be, Thinks evils alien from himself? This separates us any From the herd of brutes, and therefore we alone having shared A venerable disposition, and being capable of divine things, 145 140. Less than the fire, &c.] i. e. Too little to be burnt on a funeral pile. See the last note. 140-1. Worthy the secret torch.] i. e. Worthy to be initiated. into, or to be present at, the sacred rites, which were celebrated in honour of the goddess Ceres. These rites were celebrated by night; the worshippers carried lamps, or lighted torches, in their hands, in memory of Ceres, who, by fire-light, had sought after her daughter Proserpine, when she was stolen by Pluto out of Sicily. Ceres is fabled to have lighted those fires, which have burned ever since, on the top of mount Etna. 141. Such as the priest of Ceres, &c.] None were admitted to the Eleusinian mysteries (for so the rites of Ceres were called, from Eleusis, a town in Attica, built by Triptolemus, who, being instructed by Ceres, taught the people to sow corn) but those, who by the priest were pronounced chaste and good, free from any notorious crime. 142. Thinks any evils, &c.] q. d. There is no real good man who can think himself unconcerned in the misfortunes of others, be they what they may his language will be like this in Terence. Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. HEAUT. act i. sc. i. 1. 25. This separates us, &c.] i. e. This distinguishes men from brutes, who know nothing of this. 143. And therefore.] i. e. For this may sympathize with others. very end and purpose, that we 144. Avenerable disposition.] A disposition and inclination to partake in others' sorrows, is deserving the highest esteem and reverence, and this has fallen to the lot of mankind alone. Capable of divine things.] A capacity to apprehend divine things is the property of man alone. This is a very great truth; but, alas! how sad an use the wise men of this world made of this gloriously-distinguished faculty, may be seen-Rom. i. 21, 22, et seq. 145. Apt for exercising, &c.] The invention, understanding, and Sensum a cœlesti demissum traximus arce, Cujus egent prona, et terrem spectantia. Mundi Tantum animas; nobis animum quoque, mutuus ut nos 150 155 ; exercise of the arts, whether mechanical, or others, are also peculiar to man. 146. We have drawn.] Traximus-i. e. we have derived, as we should say. Sense.] Moral sense, reason. Sent down.] Demissum-let down. Traximus demissum seems to be metaphorical, taken from the idea of a cord, or chain, let down from on high, which a person below takes hold of, and draws down to himself. 146. From the cœlestial top.] Arx signifies the top, peak, or ridge of any thing, as of a rock, mountain, or hill; also a palace, temple, or tower, often built on high. See sat. xiv. 1. 86—8. ven, or the residence of the gods, is called arx cæli. Nos tua progenies, cœli quibus annuis arcem. 147. Which.] i. e. Which moral sense. Hence hea Æn. i. 254. Prone things, &c.] Beasts, called prona, from their inclining, with the face stooping downward to the earth; whereas man is erect, and looks upward. Here seems to be an imitation of OVID, Met. lib. i. 1. 84-7. Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram, So Sallust. Omnes homines quise se student præstare cæteris animalibus, &c. que natura prona, et ventri obedientia finxit. Bell. Catil. ad init. 148. The common builder, &c.] i. e. Common nature, for Juvenal ascended no higher-the God of nature he knew not. Compare 1. 132-4. See Acts xvii. 23-9. To them.] i. e. To the brute creation. 149. Only souls.] Animas-a principle of mere animal life; which is called the spirit of a beast, Eccl. iii. 21. To us a mind also.] To us human beings nature has not only given a principle of animal life, but also a rational mind, by which we reflect, and judge, and reason. The anima, or soul, is Have drawn sense sent down from the cœlestial top, Which prone things, and things looking on the earth, want. The common builder of the world at the beginning indulged to them Only souls; to us a mind also, that a mutual affection Might command us to seek, and to afford help: To draw the dispersed into a people, to migrate from the old Another roof, that safe slumbers, by a neighbouring 150 [arms 155 Threshold, a contributed confidence might give: to protect with A fallen citizen, or one staggering with a great wound: To give signs with a common trumpet, to be defended with the same Towers, and to be secured by one key of the gates. that by which we live; the animus, or intellectual mind, is that by which we are wise above the brutes. See sat. yi. 1. 530, note. 149. A mutual affection.] The end for which this intellectual mind is given us, so far as it relates to the purposes of society, is, to incline us to bestow, as well as to require, mutual good offices towards each other; and therefore it disposes us to mutual affection. 151. The dispersed, &c.] To collect men, who are naturally dispersed, and bring them together into society. To migrate, &c.] To depart from the woods and forests, the ancient abodes of the earliest ages, where men lived in common with the beasts, and to coalesce and unite in civil society. See sat. vi. 1. 2-7. 153. To build houses.] For habitation, instead of living in dens and caves, like beasts. To join, &c.] To join our houses to one another, for the greater safety and convenience of the whole, against robbers, wild beasts, &c. 155. Threshold.] Limine stands here, per syn. for the house itself. A contributed confidence.] That by thus joining houses (the) original of cities and towns) each might receive and impart a confidential notion of safety, in the night time particularly, when men sleep, and, of course, are more exposed to dangers. To protect with arms, &c.] To protect in war, from the hands of the enemy, a fellow-citizen who had fallen, or was reeling with loss of blood from wounds. 157. To give signs, &c.] When on an expedition in time of war, to obey one common signal, given by the trumpet for battle. 158. Towers.] Turris signifies a tower, or any thing like it; so any fortified place. Secured by one key, &c.] To be enclosed within the same walls, and locked up in security by the same key of the gates. The poet, by what he has said, has shewn the great advantages of men above brutes, in having a rational mind, which can direct them Sed jam serpentum major concordia: parcit 160 165 Produxisse parum est; cum rastra et sarcula tantum Assueti coquere, et marris ac vomere lassi Nescierint primi gladios excudere fabri. Occidisse aliquem; sed pectora, brachia, vultum 170 to form societies, so that, by mutual help and assistance, they can secure and protect each other. All this is agreeable to the dictates of their common nature, and thus it ought to be; but such is the corruption and depravity of mankind, that, as the poet proceeds to shew, there is little of this to be found; on the contrary, beasts are not so cruel to their own species as men are. 159. Concord of serpents, &c.] These venomous creatures do not hurt their own species; they agree better than men now do with each other. 160. Spares his kindred spots.] The leopard recognises the leopard, and avoids hurting him, whom he sees, by his spots, to be related to the same species with himself. 165. But, &c.] The poet having, in several instances, shewn the harmony and agreement which subsist among the most fierce and savage beasts, now proceeds to apply this to his main argument in this place, which is to prove, that the concord between these creatures is greater than is to be found among the human race towards each other; and indeed, that man towards man is now so savage, as to fabricate weapons for their mutual destruction, and this without any remorse or concern. 166. To have produced, &c.] Lit. to have lengthened out deadly iron, &c.-i. e. by drawing it out, with hammering it on the anvil, into the length of a sword, a deadly weapon, and most fatal: the poet therefore calls the anvil on which it is made impious, as being instrumental to the forming of this mischievous weapon. Is little.] Is to be looked upon as a trifle, in comparison of what mankind are now capable of. See 1. 161--71. Whereas.] Cum-although, albeit. Being accustomed, &c.] The first smiths set up their trade only to forge instruments of husbandry, and made nothing else. Coquere signifies, here, to heat in the fire. AINSW. 167. Tired with mattocks, &c.] They wearied themselves daily in making hoes or mattocks, or ploughshares, for tillage. But now the concord of serpents is greater: a similar Beast spares his kindred spots. When, from a lion, Did a stronger lion take life? in what forest ever, 160 The Indian tyger observes a perpetual peace with a fierce Tyger: there is agreement with savage bears among themselves. 165 To have produced is little; whereas, being accustomed only to heat Rakes and spades, and tired with mattocks and the ploughshare,. The first smiths knew not how to beat out swords. We see people, to whose anger it does not suffice To have killed any one, but the breasts, the arms, the face, 170 They believed to be a kind of food. What therefore would he have said, Or whither would he not have fled, if now Pythagoras could have seen 168. Knew not how, &c.] So far from hammering iron into swords, they did not even know how to set about it. 169. We see people, &c.] Meaning the savage Tentyrites before mentioned, who ate human flesh, and looked upon it as a species of ordinary food. 172. Pythagoras.] The famous philosopher, who left his country Samos, then under the tyrant Polycrates, and travelled over India, through Ægypt, in search of knowledge. He forbad the eating of animals on account of the transmigration of souls; he would not allow himself to eat all sorts of vegetables, but abstained from beans, which he is supposed to have learnt from the Ægyptian priests, when he was in that country, who abstained from beans, and thought it unlawful to sow or to look upon them. HERODOT. Euterpe. What, says the poet, would Pythagoras have said, if he had seen these Egyptians, these Tentyrites, tearing and devouring human flesh to what part of the earth would not he have flown, to have avoided such a sight? who, so far from holding it lawful to eat hu man flesh, would not eat the flesh of any animal any more than he would have eaten the flesh of a man, nor would he indulge his ap petite with every kind of vegetable. The reason of this strange piece of superstition, of abstinence from beans, is not known; many causes have been assigned for it, which are full as absurd as the thing itself. The reader may find many of these collected in Holyday, note 14, on this Satire. See also ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 53, According to the story of his life, written by Iamblicus, we may suppose that neither Pythagoras, nor any of his followers, would ever reveal the cause of abstinence from beans.-It seems that Dionysius the tyrant, the younger, desiring to know the secret, caused two Pythagoreans to be brought before him, a man and his wife, |