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PROLOGUE.

NE'ER did I taste Castalia's stream;
Nor yet on fork'd Parnassus dream,
That I should feel a poet's fire,
Or blow the lute, or string the lyre.
I leave the Muse's magic ground
To bards profess'd, with laurel crown'd.
The gift I offer to the Nine,

A rustic wreath, to grace their shrine.
What taught the parrot to cry, hail ?
What taught the chattering pie his tale?
Hunger; that sharpener of the wits,
Which gives e'en fools some thinking fits.
Did rooks and pies but know the pleasure
Of heaping high a golden treasure ;
And would their music money bring,
Even rooks and pies would shortly sing.

THE

SATIRES OF PERSIUS.

SATIRE I.

SATIRA I.

V. 1-10.

O CURAS hominum! ô quantum est in rebus inane!
Quis leget hæc, min' tu istud ais, nemo Hercule, nemo?
Vel duo, vel nemo, turpe et miserabile, quare?
Ne mihi Polydamas, et Troiades Labeonem
Prætulerint, nugæ, non, si quid turbida Roma
Elevet, accedas: examenve improbum in illa
Castiges trutina: nec te quæsiveris extra.

Nam Romæ est quis non? ac, si fas dicere: sed fas
Tunc, cum ad canitiem, et nostrum istud vivere triste
Aspexi, et nucibus facimus quæcunque relictis,

SATIRE I.

PERSIUS AND MONITOR.

VERSE I-20.

PERSIUS.

UNHAPPY men lead lives of care and pain,

Their joys how fleeting, and their hopes how vain! M. But who will read a satire so begun!

P.What this to me-this ?-M. Faith, I'll tell you, none.
P. None, do you say? M. Why, yes, perhaps a few;
But still the number will dishonour you.

P. Lest a lewd prince and his abandon'd throng
Bestow the laurel on a minion's song;

And must we then reserve the sacred bays

For those whom Rome's worst profligates shall praise?

Rely not always on the general voice;

Nor place all merit in the people's choice;

Let your own eyes be those with which you see;
Nor seek in others, what yourself should be.
For who at Rome does not?-Dare I speak plain ?
I dare, I must,—to check my rage were vain.
My spleen o'erflows, I sicken to behold
A guilty world, in error growing old;
Each stage of life mark'd by its empty joys,
The infant and the man exchanging toys;

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