Fingendus sine fine rotâ. Sed rure paterno Est tibi far modicum; purum, et sine labe, salinum. 25 Ad populum phaleras: ego te intus, et in cute, novi. 30 As wet and soft clay will take any impression, or be moulded into any shape, so may you; you are young, your understanding flexible, and impressible by instruction... -idoneus arti Cuilibet: argillâ quidvis imitaberis udâ. HOR. epist. ii. lib. ii. 1. 7, 8. 23. "Hasten'd."] Now, now you are young, you are to lose no time, but immediately to be begun with. 24. "Formed incessantly," &c.] The metaphor still continues. As the wheel of the potter turns, without stopping, till the piece of work is finished, so ought it to be with you; you ought to be taught incessantly, till your mind is formed to what it is intended, and this with strict discipline, here meant by acri rota. "Paternal estate," &c.] But perhaps you will say, "Where "is the occasion for all this?—I am a man of fortune, and have "a sufficient income to live in independency; therefore why all this "trouble about learning ?" 25. "Moderate quantity," &c.] Far signifies all manner of corn which the land produces; here, by metonym. the land itself-far modicum, a moderate estate, a competency. "A salt-cellar without spot."] The ancients had a superstition about salt, and always placed the salt-cellar first on the table, which was thought to consecrate it if the salt was forgotten, it I was looked on as a bad omen. The salt-cellar was of silver, and descended from father to son--see HoR. ode xvi. lib. ii. 1. 13, 14.— But here the salinum, per synec. seems to stand for all the plate which this young man is supposed to have inherited from his father, which he calls purum and sine labe, either from the pureness of the silver, or from the care and neatness with which it was kept, or from the honest and fair means by which the father had obtained that and all the rest of his possessions. 26. "What can you fear?]----Say you, who are possessed of so much property? "You have a dish," &c.] Patella-a sort of deep dish, with broad brims, used to put portions of meat in that were given as sacrifice. Before eating, they cut off some part of the meat, which was first put into a pan, then into the fire, as an offering to the Lares, which stood on the hearth, and were supposed the guardians of both house and land, and to secure both from harm: hence the poet says---cul trix secura. "And to be formed incessantly with a brisk wheel. But in your pa "ternal estate “You have a moderate quantity of corn, and a salt-cellar "without spot. pure and 25 "What can you fear? and you have a dish a secure worshipper of the "hearth." "Is this enough? Or may it become you to break your lungs. " with wind, "Because you, a thousandth, derive a branch from a Tuscan "stock; 30 "Or because robed you salute the censor (as) yours?— "Trappings to the people--I know you intimately and thoroughly. "Does it not shame you to live after the manner of dissolute Natta? 9. d. You have not only a competent estate in lands and goods, but daily worship the guardian gods, who will therefore protect both -what need you fear? 27. "Is this enough ?"] To make you happy. May it become you."] Having reason, as you may think, to boast of your pedigree, can you think it meet "To break your lungs," &c.] To swell up with pride, till you are ready to burst, like a man that draws too much air at once into his lungs. 28. "A thousandth, derive," &c.] Millesime, for tu millesimus, antiptosis; like trabeate, for tu trabeatus, in the next line-because you can prove yourself a branch of some Tuscan family, a thousand off from the common stock ---The Tuscans were accounted of most ancient nobility. Horace observes this in most of his compliments to Mecenas, who was derived from the old kings of Tuscany. ode i. lib. i. 1. 1, et al. freq. See 29. " Censor," &c.] The Roman knights, attired in the robe called trabea, were summoned to appear before the censor (see AINSW. Censor,) and to salute him in passing by, as their names were called over. They led their horses in their hand. Are you to boast, says the philosopher to his pupil, because the censor is your relation (tuum), and that when you pass in procession before him, with your knight's robe on, you may claim kindred with him? 30. "Trappings to the people-"] q. d. These are for the ignorant vulgar to admire. The ornaments of your dress you may exhibit to the mob; they will be pleased with such gewgaws, and respect you accordingly. The word phaleræ-arum, signifies trappings, or ornaments, for horses; also a sort of ornament worn by the knights: but these no more ennobled the man, than those did the horse. "I know you intimately," &c.] Inside and out, as we say; therefore you can't deceive me. 31. "Does it not shame you," &c.] Do you feel no shame at your way of life, you that are boasting of your birth, fortune, and quality, and yet leading the life of a low profligate mechanic? Sed stupet hic vitio; et fibris increvit opimum Magne pater diviûm, sævos punire tyrannos 35 40 Natta signifies one of a sorry, mean occupation, a dirty mechanic. But here the poet means somebody of this name, or at least who deserves it by his profligate and worthless character. See HOR. sat. vi. lib. i. 1. 124; and Juv. sat. viii. 1. 95. 32. "He is stupefied with vice."] He has not all his faculties clear, and capable of discernment, as you have, therefore is more excusable than you are. By long contracted habits of vice he has stupefied himself. "Fat hath increased," &c.] Pingue, for pinguedo. These words are, I conceive, to be taken in a moral sense; and by sibris, the inwards or entrails, is to be understood the mind and understanding. the judgment and conscience, the inward man, which, like a body overwhelmed with fat, are rendered torpid, dull, and stupid, so as to have no sense and feeling of the nature of evil remaining. See Ps. cxix, 70, former part. 33. "He is not to blame."] . e. Comparatively. See Juv. sat. ii. 1. 15.-9. "He knows not," &c.] He is insensible of the sad consequences of vice, such as the loss of reputation, and of the comforts of a virtuous life. He has neither judgment to guide him, nor con science to reprove him. 34. "Overwhelmed."] Sunk into the very depths of vice, like one sunk to the bottom of the sea. "Bubble again," &c.] i. e. He does not emerge, rise up again. Metaph. from divers, who plunge to the bottom of the water, and, when they rise again, make a bubbling of the surface as they approach the top. Therefore, O young man, beware of imitating, by thine idleness and mispending of time, this wretched man, lest thou shouldst bring thyself into the same deplorable state. 36. By any other way.] Than by giving them a sight of the charms of that virtue, which they have forsaken, and to which they cannot attain. Haud velis-i. e. noli. When dire lust, &c.] When they find their evil passions exciting them to acts of tyranny. See Ainsw. Libido, No 1, 3. 37. Imbued with fervent poison.] Tincta---imbued, full of, abounding (met.) with the inflaming venom of cruelty, which may "But he is stupefied with vice, rich fat hath increased in his Inwards: he is not to blame; he knows not what he may lose, and "with the deep "Overwhelmed, he does not bubble again at the top of the water." Great father of gods! will not to punish cruel Tyrants by any other way, when fell desire Shall stir their disposition, imbued with fervent poison; Or the sword hanging from the golden ceiling, did it 35 40 be called the poison of the mind, baleful and fatal as poison in its destructive influence. 38. Let them see virtue.] Si virtus humanis oculis conspiceretur, miros amores excitaret sui. SENEC. This would be the case with the good and virtuous; but it would have a contrary effect towards such as are here mentioned; it would fill them with horror and dismay, and inflict such remorse and stings of conscience, as to prové the greatest torment which they could endure.' Let them pine away.] For the loss of that which they have forsaken and despised, as well as from the despair of ever retrieving it. It being left. i. e. Virtute relicta. Abl. absol. 39. The Sicilian bullock, &c.] Alluding to the story of Phalaris's brazen bull. Perillus, an Athenian artificer, made a figure of a bull in brass, and gave it to Phalaris, tyrant of Syracuse, as an engine of torment: the bull was hollow; a man put into it, and set over a large fire, would, as the brass heated and tormented him, make a noise which might be supposed to imitate the roaring of a bull. The tyrant accepted the present, and ordered the experiment to be first tried on the inventor himself. Comp. Juv. sat. xv. 122, note. 40. The sword hanging, &c.] Damocles, the flatterer of Dionysius, the Sicilian tyrant, having greatly extolled the happiness of monarchs, was ordered, that he might be convinced of his mistake, to be attired, as a king, in royal apparel; to be seated at a table spread with the choicest viands, but withal, to have a naked sword hung over his head, suspended by a single hair, with the point downwards; which so terrified Damocles, that he could neither taste of the dainties, nor take any pleasure in his magnificent attendance. 41. Purple neck, &c.] i. e. Damocles, who was placed under the point of the suspended sword, and magnificently arrayed in royalpurple garments. Meton.--Purpureas cervices, for purpuream cervicem-synec. 41-2. "I go, I go, &c.] A person within the bull of Phalaris would not utter more dreadful groans; nor would one seated like Damocles, under the sharp point of a sword, suspended over his head by a single horse-hair, feel more uneasy, than the man who is Imus præcipites,' quam si sibi dicat; et intus Palleat infelix, quod proxima nesciat uxor ? Sæpe oculos, memini, tangebam parvus olivo Grandia si nollem morituri verba Catonis Dicere, non sano multum laudanda magistro ; Quæ pater adductis sudans audiret amicis : 45 Jure; etenim id summum, quid dexter senio ferret, 50 desperate with guilt, so as to give himself over for lost, and to have nothing else to say, than, "I am going, I am plunging headlong "into destruction, nothing can save me.' 42-3. Within unhappy.] Having an hell, as it were, in his con science. 43. Turn pale.] Palleo literally signifies to be pale-as this often arises from fear and dread, palleo is used to denote fearing, to stand in fear of, per meton. So HOR. lib. iii. ode xxvii. 1. 27, 8. -Mediasque fraudes Palluit audax. In the above passage of Horace, palleo, though a verb neuter, is used actively, as here by Persius; likewise before, sat. i. 1. 124. where palles is used metonymically for hard studying, which occasions paleness of countenance. Nearest wife, &c.] His conscience tormented with the guilt of crimes, which he dares not reveal to the nearest friend that he has, not even to the wife of his bosom, who is nearest of all. 44. Besmear'd my eyes, &c.] The philosopher here relates some of his boyish pranks. I used, says he, when I was a little boy, and had not a mind to learn my lesson, to put oil into my eyes, to make them look bleary, that my master might suppose they really were so, and excuse me my task. 45-6. Great words of dying Cato.] Cato of Utica is here meant, who killed himself, that he might not fall into the hands of Julius Cesar, after the defeat of Pompey. His supposed last deliberation with himself before his death, whether he should stab himself, or fall into the hands of Cæsar, was given as a theme for the boys to write on; then they were to get the declamation, which they composed, by heart, and repeat it by way of exercising them in eloquence. 46. Much to be praised.] It was the custom for the parents and their friends to attend on these exercises of their children, which the master was sure to commend very highly, by way of flattering the parents with a notion of the progress and abilities of their children, not without some view, that the parents should compliment the mas. ter on the pains which he had taken with his scholars. Insane.] This does not mean that the master was mad, but that, in commending and praising such puerile performances, and the |