I know not what star it is certainly which tempers me with you. 55 This man, for Italian merchandizes under the recent sun, Has broken his joints, the branches of the old beech, Then, that their gross days have passed away, and the gloomy light, 60 And they have late bewailed the life now left to them. increase and grow. So sleep is to those who eat much, and sleep much; it makes them grow, and increase in bulk. 57. Indulges in the field.] In the sports and exercises of the Campus Martius. Or perhaps field-sports may be understood. Comp. Ho. ode i. 1. 3–6, and 1. 25-8. The die consumes.] Is ruined by gaming. Decoquit-metaph. from boiling away liquors over a fire. So the gamester, by continual play, consumes his substance. 58. For Venus.] i. e. Ruins his health-is in a manner rotten-by continual acts of lewdness and debauchery. Putris means also wanton, lascivious. Omnes in Damalim putres deponent oculos, Hor. lib. i. ode xxxvi. ). 17, 18, The stony gout.] So called from its breeding chalk-stones in the joints, when long afflicted with it. 59. Broken his joints.] Destroyed the use of them as much as if they had been broken, and are so to all appearance. The branches, &c.] Ramalia--seared or dead boughs cut from a tree, which may be looked upon, from their withered and useless appearance, as very strong emblems of a gouty man's limbs, the joints of which are useless, and the flesh withered away-(see sat. i. 97.)-so that they appear like the dead branches of an old decayed beech-tree. 60, Gross days.] Crassos-the days which they have spent in gross sensuality, as well as in thick mental darkness and error. Gloomy light.] Palustrem-metaph. from the fogs which arise in marshes and fenny places, which obscure the light, and involve those who live in it, or near them, in unwholesome mists. Such is the situation of those whose way of life is not only attended with ig norance and error, but with injury to their health, and with ruin of their comfort. 61. Late bewailed.] Too late for remedy. The life now left, &c.] They not only bemoan themselves, at the recollection of their past mispent life, but the portion of life which now remains, being imbittered by remorse, pain, and disease, becomes a grief and burthen, At te nocturnis juvat impallescere chartis, Cultor enim juvenum, purgatas inseris aures Fruge Cleautheâ. Petite hine, juvenesque senesque, Cras hoc fiet.' Idein cras fiet. • Quid! quasi magnum Cum rota posterior curras, et in axe secundo. 65 70 62. Grow pale, &c.] Your delight, O Cornutus, is to pass the time, when others sleep, in hard study, which brings a paleness on our countenance. See sat. i. 1. 124; and sat. iii. 1. 85, yo 63. A cultivator of youths ] Cultor-metaph. from colo, to till or cultivate the ground. q. d. As the husbandman tills or cultivates the ground, and prepares it to receive seed, and to bring forth fruit-so do you, Cornutus, prepare youthful minds to receive and bring forth wisdom. You sow their purged ears.] The metaphor is still carried on; as the husbandman casts the seed into the ground which he has prepared and cleaned, by tillage, from weeds-so do you sow the doctrines of moral philosophy, which were taught by Cleanthes, the disciple and successor of Zeno, in the ears of your pupils, after having purged away those errors, falsehoods, and prejudices, with which they were at first possessed, by your wise and well-applied instruction. You first teach them to avoid vice and error, and then to embrace and follow truth and virtue. Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima HOR. lib. i. epist. i. l. 41, 2, 64. Hence seek, &c.] Persius here invites both young and old to seek for wisdom from the Stoic philosophy, as taught by his friend and preceptor Cornutus; that, thereby, they might find some certain and fixed end, to which their views might be directed, and no longer fluctuate in the uncertainty of error. Certum yoto pete finem. HOR. Epist. lib. i. ep. ii. 1. 56. 65. Stores, &c.] Viatica, literally, are stores, provisions, things necessary for a journey; as money, victuals, &c. The poet here advises their learning philosophy, that their minds might be furnished with what would suffice to support them through the journey of life, and more particularly through the latter part of it, when under the miseries and infirmities of old age. 66. " To-morrow," &c.] Persius here introduces some idle young man, as if saying-" To be sure you advise very rightly, but give me a little time-to-morrow (q. d. some time hence) I will apply myself to the studies which you recommend.” 66 "The same will be done to-morrow."] When to-morrow. But it delights you to grow pale with nightly papers, "to-morrow"-" what! 65 "As a great thing truly do you give a day?"--" but when another "day comes, "We have already spent yesterday's to-morrow. "to-morrow Behold another "Has spent these years, and will always be a little beyond; "When you, the hinder wheel, do run, aud on the second axle." 70 comes, answers Persius, the same thing will be done; that is, you will want to defer it for a day more. 66. "What!" &c.] What! replies the procrastinator, won't you allow me another day before I begin?-what! do you make such a mighty matter of giving me a day, as if that were of so great consequence? 68. "Yesterday's to-morrow."] But, rejoins Persius, when another day comes, remember that yesterday, which was the morrow of the day before it, and which you wished to be allowed you, is passed and gone. "Behold another to-morrow."] This day, which is the morrow of yesterday, is now arrived, and is, with all the past morrows, exhausting and consuming these years of ours; and thus the time you ask for will always be put off, and stand a littic beyond the morrow you fix upon. 70. "Altho' near you," &c.] The poet, in allusion to the hind. wheel of a carriage, which is near to, and follows the fore-wheel, but never can overtake it, gives the young man to understand, that, though to-day is nearly connected with to-morrow, in point of time, yet it can't overtake it; the morrow will always keep on from day to day, and it can never be overtaken-thus shewing, that procrastinated time will always fly on, and keep out of his reach ; however near he may be to it, all his resolutions to overtake it will be in vain. "Under one beam."] Temo signifies the beam of the wain, or the draught-tree, whereon the yoke hangeth. Sometimes, by synec. the whole carriage.-q. d. Our days may be considered as the wheels by which our lives roll on; each day, as well as another, is joined to the space allotted us, like wheels to the same chariot. 71. "The felly."] Canthus properly signifies the iron wherewith the wheel is bound, or shod, on the outward circle, called the felly -here, by synec.--the wheel itself. 72. "The second axle."] Axis--the axle-tree on which the wheel is fixed, and about which it turns-the second, i. e. the hinder.--q. d. You will, like the hinder-wheel of a carriage, which can never Libertate opus est: non hâc, quâ, ut quisque Velinâ Possidet, Heu steriles veri, quibus una Quiritem 75 overtake the fore-wheel, be still following the time before you, but will never overtake it; therefore defer not till to-morrow, what you should do to day. The whole of the metaphor, 1. 70-2, is very fine, and well expressed. See Hor. lib. ii. ode xviii. 1 15, 16, I must confess that I cannot dismiss this part of my task, without mentioning that beautiful description of the slipping away of time, unperceived and unimproved, which we find in Shakespeare: "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools "The way to dusty death.- Macb. act v. sc, v. edit, STOCKDALE. 73. There is need of liberty,] The poet now advances to a discussion of that paradox of the Stoics--that "only the wise are free;" and that those, who would follow after, and attain to true li berty, must be released from the mental shackles of vice and error. -his treatment of the subject is exquisitely fine, and worthy our serious attention. --Not this. Not merely outward liberty, or liberty of the body, such as is conferred on slaves at their manumission. By which.] See. 1. 74, note 2. Every Publius.] The slaves had no prænomen; but when they had their freedom given them, they assumed one-so, for instance, a slave that was called Licinius, would add the name of his master to his own, and call himself, if his master's name werę Publius, Publius Licinius-they also added the name of the tribe into which they were received and enrolled; suppose the Velinan, then the freed man would style himself Publius Licinius Velinathus he was distinguished from slaves. 74. Been discharged.] i. e. From slavery-made free. Emeruit --metaph. from soldiers, who for some meritorious service were sent home, and discharged from going to war. Also from gladiators, who for their valour and dexterity at the theatre obtained their dismission from their perilous occupation, and were donati rude, presented with a rod, or wand, in token of their discharge and release. Hor. epist. i. lib. i. 1. 2. Juy. sat. vi. 113. These were styled Emeriti. So slaves were often made free, on account of their past services, as having deserved this favour-this is signified by emeruit here. Mouldy corn, &c.] Those who are thus admitted to freedom, and enrolled in one of the tribes, were entitled to all public doles and donations, on producing a little ticket or tally, which There is need of liberty: not this, by which every Publius in the Velinan tribe, 75 As soon as he has been discharged, mouldy corn with his tally Possesses. Alas! ye barren of truth-among whom one turn Makes a Roman! here is Dama, a groom not worth three farthings; A scoundrel, and blear-eyed, and a liar in a little corn: If his master turn him—in the movement of a top, he comes forth was given them on their manumission. The corn laid up in the public magazines was not of the best sort, and was frequently damaged, with keeping. The name of the person, and of the tribe which he belonged to, was inscribed on the ticket, by which he was known to be a citizen. See Juv. sat. vii. 1. 174, note. 75. Alas! ye barren, &c.] The poet speaks with commiseration, of their ignorance, and total barrenness, with respect to truth and real wisdom, who could imagine that a man should be called free, because he was emancipated from bodily slavery. One turn.] Vertigo, (from vertere, to turn). This was one of the ceremonies of making a slave free: he was carried before the pretor, who turned him round upon his heel, and said-Hunc esse liberum volo. So Plautus, Menæchm. Liber esto, ito quo voles. Thus he became Quiris, a Roman citizen. See Juv. sat. iii. 1. 60, note. 76. Here is Dama.] For instance, says the poet, here is the slave Dama. A groom not worth, &c.] Agaso, an horse-keeper, a groom that looks after his master's horses. Non tressis (qu. tres asses) a poor, paltry fellow, worth hardly three farthings if one were to purchase him. They bought their slaves.. 77. A scoundrel.] Vappa signifies wine that is palled, that has lost its strength, therefore called vapid.-Hence a stupid, senseless fellow; or a scoundrel, a good-for-nothing fellow. Blear-eyed.] Perhaps from debauchery and drunkenness. See sat. ii. 1. 72, note. A liar in a little corn. n.] That will cheat his master, and defraud his horses of their slender allowance, and then lye to conceal his petty knavery. Farrago is a mixture of several grains-Mesceline. 78. If his master, &c.] Let his master but turn him upon his heel. See note above, 1. 75. Movement of a top.] In one turn of a top, which is very swift when it is spinning--i. c. as we say, in the twinkling of an eye. This allusion to the turning of a top, very humourously agrees. with the verterit. — He comes forth, &c.] He that went before the pretor plain |