QUINTI HORATII FLACCI EPISTOLARUM. LIBER I. EPIST. I. Ad MECENATUM. Se ludicra fua ftudia miffa facere dicit. & ea, quæ ad virtutem ducunt, amplekti. PRimâ Rimâ dicte mihi, fumma dicende camœnâ, Spectatum fatis, & donatum jam rude, quæris, Mæcenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo. PROSE INTERPRETATION. 1 O Mæcenas! the fubject of my former fong, worthy to be. mentioned by my latest, you seek to intangle me again in the old lifts, having been feen fufficiently, and now presented with the rod of freedom. My time of life is not the fame, nor is my inclination. Vejanius, his arms confecrated on a column of Hercules's temple, lives hidden in the country, that he He affirms that he now throws matter of merriment afide, and adheres only to fuch things as conduce to virtue. ● Subject of my first effays! Whom as in duty bound to praise, My mufe ev❜n to the last perfifts, Again you force me to the lifts, * With freedom's rod difmifs'd the stage, As far too much expos'd in age. * A rod, or wand, given as a token of liberty, by the master of the fencing-fchool, to gladiators, on their dismission. Non eadem eft ætas, non mens. Vejanius armis Condo & compono, quæ mox depromere poffim. PROSE INTERPRETATION. he may not, from the verge of the fandy amphitheatre, fo often implore the people's mercy. There is that feems frequently to ring in my purged ear, wifely in time difmifs the courfer, growing old, left derided he ftumble at last, and break his wind. Now therefore, I lay afide both odes, and all other ludicrous matters; my ftudy and enquiry is after what is true and becoming, and I am wholly taken up in this: treasure up, and collate rules which I may be able hereafter to draw out for ufe. And left you should perchance enquire, under what profeffor, in what fchool of philofophy, I enter myfelf a difciple: addicted to fwear implicitly to the definitions of no particular mafter, wherever the wind compels me, I am driven as a gueft. One while I become bustling, and am immersed in the waves of state affairs, a guard, and a rigid watchman of true virtue; then again, I lide back infenfibly to Ariftippus's tenets, and endeavour to accommo date No more I have the thirst for fame, Nor is my time of day the fame. Now fkreens him in the ground, he farms, He may the mob for life implore. Not I for things, but things for me. Ut nox longa, quibus mentitur amica, diefque Eft quoddam prodire tenus, fi non datur ultra, PROSE INTERPRETATION. date things to myself, not myself to things. As the night feems tedious to those with whom a mistress has falfified appointment, and the day feèms tedious to thofe who are indebted to do drudgery; as the year moves flow with minors, whom the fevere guardianship of their mothers oppreffes; fo all that time to me flows tedious and ungrateful, which retards my hope and intention of ftrenuoufly putting in practice that which is of equal emolument to the poor and to the wealthy, which, neglected, will be of equally hurt to the young and old. It remains, that I regulate and confole myfelf by thefe principles: you cannot fee with your eyes fo far as Lynceus; you will not, notwithstanding, fcorn being anointed, if you are fore-eyed; nor, because you despair of the limbs of the infuperable Glycon, will you be unwilling to preferve your body from the knotty gout. There is fome points we may compass, if we can do no farther. Does your heart burn with avarice, and a wretched luft of gain? Words there are, and perfuafives, with which you may foften this |