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Here, one in drunken stupor loves to lie,
Here, one prefers the chase, and one the die.
Another here, indulging sensual joys,
His health for Venus wantonly destroys;
But when, at length, in all his aking bones
The racking gout creates the chalky stones,
When all his limbs distorted by disease,
Like knotted branches of misshapen trees,
Proclaim old age and sorrow come too soon,
An early evening, and a clouded noon;
The pallid victim, at himself aghast,
Mourns when too late enjoyments that are past.
Thee it delights, by the nocturnal oil,
In learning's fair and fruitful fields to toil;
To scatter round thy Cleanthean corn,
And youthful minds to polish and adorn.
Lay up, ye youth, and ye with age grown grey,
Some mental stores ere nature feel decay;
Propose some purpose to the active mind,
Ere yet your setting sun be quite declined;
Ere yet you reach that last unhappy state,
Where life stands trembling on the brink of fate;
When all the prospects of this world are o’er,
Pleasures delight, and hópe deceives no more.
"To-morrow we shall choose another way."
To-morrow passes like the former day.
"Ah, but to-morrow something shall be done,
"We wait impatient for to-morrow's sun."
But still another day is like the last;
The hour of promised change already past.

Vertentem sese, frustra sectabere canthum,
Cum rota posterior curras, et in axe secundo.
Libertate opus est: non hac, ut quisque Velinâ
Publius emeruit scabiosum tesserula far
Possidet. Heu steriles veri, quibus una Quiritem
Vertigo facit: hic Dama est non tressis agaso,
Vappa, et lippus, et in tenui farragine mendax.
Verterit hunc dominus, momento turbinis exit
Marcas Dama, papæ ! Marco spondente recusas
Credere tu nummos? Marco sub judice palles?
Marcus dixit: ita est, adsigna Marce tabellas.
Hæc mera libertas, hoc nobis pilea donant.
An quisquam est alius liber, nisi ducere vitam
Cui licet, ut voluit? licet, ut volo, vivere: non sim
Liberior Bruto? Mendose colligis, inquit

See, while the victor's chariot gains the goal,
The rapid wheels on glowing axles roll;
Their circling orbs impell'd with equal force,
With equal swiftness trace each other's course;
The hinder pair pursue the first in vain,
Their distance keep, but no advantage gain :
So flying Time is follow'd close by you,
He still escaping, while you still pursue.
Let us speak out. 'Tis liberty we need :
Not such as wretches vaunt, from bondage freed:
Not such as every Publius may obtain,
Who takes his quota of divided grain,
Who dares the rights of citizen to claim,
And fix a proud prænomen to his name.
Besotted race! is thus a Roman made?
By this one turn are all his rights convey'd ?
Here Dama stands, a worthless stupid slave,
A blear-eyed villain, and a cheating knave:
But let his master turn this varlet round,
And Marcus Dama is à Roman found.
Marcus is bound: your money do you grudge?
You need not fear, 'tis Marcus sits as judge.
Marcus said thus.-Nay, then the thing is true.
Marcus, the will must first be sign'd by you.
O sacred liberty! O name profaned!
Are thus thine honours, and thy rights obtain❜d?
No, 'tis not wealth which lifts the soul to thee,
Nor yet thy cap, which makes the wearer free!
"My pleasure is my law, by that I go.

"What greater freedom did your Brutus know?"

Stoicus hic, aurem mordaci lotus aceto.

Hoc (reliquum accipio), LICET ILLUD, et, UT VOLO, tolle,

Vindicta, postquam meus à prætore recessi,
Cur mihi non liceat jussit quodcunque voluntas,
Excepto si quid Masuri rubrica vetavit?
Disce: sed ira cadat naso, rugosaque sanna,
Dum veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello.
Non prætoris erat stultis dare tenuia rerum
Officia, atque usum rapidæ permittere vitæ.
Sambucam citius caloni aptaveris alto.

Stat contra ratio, et secretam garrit in aurem,
Ne liceat facere id, quod quis vitiabit agendo.
Publica lex hominum, naturaque continet hoc fas,
Ut teneat vetitos inscitia debilis actus.

Diluis helleborum certo compescere puncto
Nescius examen: vetat hoc natura medendi,
Navem si poscat sibi peronatus arator

Ah, falsely urged, the indignant Stoic cries, (Who thinks the truly free to be the wise).

"E'er since the prætor's wand hath changed my doom,
"And made the slave the citizen of Rome,
"My will alone my passions have obey'd,
"Save where my country and its laws forbade."
Listen; but lay that haughty frown aside,
That sneer, produced by prejudice and pride;
Whilst from thy breast those noxious weeds I tear,
Which fools have sown, and thou hast nurtur'd there.

'Tis not the prætor, nor the prætor's wand,
Which o'er itself can give the mind command,
Which can instruct the unreflecting fool
The stormy passions of his soul to rule;
To fix the lifted eye on things sublime,

While his swift bark glides down the stream of time.
The clown shall sooner catch the poet's fire,
And touch with skilful hand the tuneful lyre.
Reason condemns the unavailing toil,

Which fondly cultivates a sterile soil;
Forbids the effort where, through want of skill,
The end proposed rests unaccomplish'd still.
The laws of nature and of man declare,
That ignorance from action should forbear.
'Tis not for you the medicine to compose,
To mix the hellebore, a dangerous dose;
The grains to weigh, the healing art to try,
Who know not when the balance hangs awry.
If, quitting all the labours of the plain,

The hind should launch his vessel on the main ;

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