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Bullaque succinctis Laribus donata pependit
Cum blandi comites; totâque impune Suburrâ
Permisit sparsisse oculos jam candidus umbo;
Cumque iter ambiguum est, et, vitæ nescius, error
Diducit trepidas ramosa in compita mentes;
Me tibi supposui: teneros tu suscipis annos,
Socratico, Cornute, sinu. Tunc fallere solers,
Apposita intortos extendit regula mores ;
Et premitur ratione animus, vincique laborat,

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31. And the bulla.] This was another ornament worn by children; it was worn hanging from the neck, or about the breast, and was made in the shape of an heart, and hollow within. This they left off with the prætexta, and consecrated to the household gods, and hung up in honour to them. See ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. xi.

note s.

p. 289,

The girt Lares.] The images of the Lares, or household gods, were described in a sort of military habit, which hung on the left shoulder, with a lappet fetched under the other arm, brought over the breast, and tied in a knot. The idea of this dress was first taken from the Gabini, and called Cinctus Gabinus. See AINSW. Gabinus; and VIRG Æn. vii, 612, and Servius's note there.

32. Kind companions.] A set of young fellows, who were my companions, and ready to join in any scheme of debauchery with me. I cannot think that comites here is to be understood of "his school"masters, or pedagogues, who now no longer treated him with severity." He was now a man, and had done with these.-Of such a one Horace says:

Imberbis juvenis, tandem custode remoto, &c. De Art. Poet. 1. 161–5. And see KENNET. Antiq. p. 311, edit. 5. 1713.

In the whole Suburra.] This was a famous and populous street in Rome, where were numbers of brothels, the harlots from which walked out by night, to the great mischief of young men. Here, says Persius, I could ramble as I pleased, and fix my eyes where I pleased, and had nobody to call me to account, or punish me for it, Juv. sat. iii. 1. 5.

33. The white shield, &c.] When the young men put on the toga virilis, they were presented with a white shield; that is to say, a shield with no engraving, device, or writing upon it, but quite blank, This shield was a token that they were now grown up, and fit for Its being blank, signified their not having yet achieved any warlike action worthy to be described, or recorded, upon it by a device, So VIRG. Æn. ix. 1. 548.

war.

Ense levis nudo, parmâque inglorius albâ.

When this shield was a passport to me, says Persius, to go where I pleased, without being molested by my old masters.

34. When the journey is doubtful.] When the mind of a young man is doubting what road of life to take, like a traveller whe

And the bulla presented to the girt Lares hung up;
When kind companions, and, with impunity, in the whole Suburra
Now the white shield permitted me to have thrown about my eyes,
And when the journey is doubtful, and error, ignorant of life,
Parts asunder trembling minds into the branching cross-ways,
I put myself under you: you undertake my tender years,
Cornutus, with Socratic bosom. Then, dextrous to deceive,
The applied rule rectifies my depraved morals,

And my mind is pressed by reason, and labours to be overcome,

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comes to where two ways meet, and can hardly determine which to

pursue.

34. And error.] So apt to beset young minds, and so easily to

mislead them.

Ignorant of life.] Of the best purposes and ends of life, and wholly unknowing and ignorant of the world.

35. Parts asunder trembling minds.] Divides the young and inexperienced minds of young men, fearing and trembling between the choice of good and evil, now on this side, now on that.

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Branching cross-ways.] Compitum is a place where two or more ways meet.--The poet here alludes to the Pythagorean letter See sat. iii. 1. 56, note.

Y.

36. I put myself under you.] Under your care and instruction.

You undertake, &c.] You admitted me under your discipline, in order to season my mind with the moral philosophy of the Stoics: : you not only received me as a pupil, but took me to your bosom with the affection of a parent.

Antisthenes, the master of Diogenes, was a disciple of Socrates; Diogenes taught Crates the Theban, who taught Żeno the founder of the Stoic school; so that the Stoic dogmas might be said to be derived, originally, from Socrates, as from the fountain-head.

37. Dextrous to deceive, &c.] The application of your doctrine to my morals, which were depraved, and warped from the strict rule of right, first discovered this to me, and then corrected it; but this you did with so much skill and address, that I grew almost insensibly reformed: so gradually were the severities of your discipline discovered to me, that I was happily cheated, as it were, into reformation; whereas, had you at first acquainted me with the whole at once, I probably had rejected it, not only as displeasing, but as unattainable by one who thought as I then did.

38. Applied rule.] Metaph. from mechanics, who, by a rule applied to the side of any thing, discover its being warped from a strait line, and set it right.

Rectifies.] Lit. extends. Metaph. from straitening a twisted or entangled cord, by extending or stretching it out: Intortos, lit. twisted, entangled.

39. My mind is pressed by reason, &c.] My mind and all its faculties were so overpowered by the conviction of reason, that it

Artificemque tuo ducit sub pollice vultum.
Tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles ;
Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes.
Unum opus, et requiem pariter disponimus ambo;
Atque verecundâ laxamus seria mensâ.

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Non equidem hoc dubites, amborum fœdere certo

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Consentire dies, et ab uno sidere duci.

Nostra vel æquali suspendit tempora Librâ

Parca tenax veri; seu nata fidelibus hora

Dividit in Geminos concordia fata duorum ;
Saturnumque gravem nostro Jove frangimus una.

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strove to coincide with what I heard from you, and to be conquered by your wisdom.

39. Labours, &c.] The word laborat denotes the difficulties which lie in the way of young minds to yield to instruction, and to subdue and correct their vicious habits and inclinations.

40. And draws, &c.] Metaph. from an artist who draws forth, or forms, figures with his fingers, out of wax or clay.-Ducere is a word peculiar to the making of statues in marble also.

Vivos ducent de marmore vultus.

Æn. vi. 848.

An artificial countenance.] Artificem-hypallage, for artifici pollice. The sense is-My mind, by thee gently and wisely wrought upon, put on that form and appearance which you wished it should. The like thought occurs, Juv. sat. vii. 1. 237.

Exigite ut mores teneros ceu pollice ducat,

Ut si quis cerâ vultum facit

41. Consume long suns.] To have passed many long days-soles, for dies. Meton.

Sæpe ego longos

Cantando puerum memini me condere soles. VIRG. ecl. ix. I. 51, 2. 42. To pluck the first nights, &c.] Decerpere-metaph. from plucking fruit. The first nights--the first part or beginning of nights; we plucked, i. e. we took away from the hours of feasting. -q. d. Instead of supping at an early hour, and being long at table, we spent the first part of the evening in philosophical converse, thus abridging the time of feasting for the sake of improve

ment.

Of the night

Have borrow'd the first hours, feasting with thee
On the choice dainties of philosophy.

HOLYDAY.

43. One work and rest, &c.] We, both of us, disposed and divided our hours of study, and our hours of rest and refreshment, in a like manner together.

44. And relax serious things.] Relaxed our minds from study.

A modest table.] With innocent mirth, as we sat at table, and with frugal meals.

45. Do not doubt this, &c.] Beyond a doubt, this strict union of

And draws, under your thumb, an artificial countenance.
For I remember to consume with you long suns,

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And with you to pluck the first nights from feasts.
One work and rest we both dispose together,
And relax serious things with a modest table.

Do not indeed doubt this, that, in a certain agreement,
The days of both consent, and are derived from one star.
Fate, tenacious of truth, either suspended our times
With equal Libra; or the hour, framed for the faithful,
Divides to the twins the concordant fates of both;
And we together break grievous Saturn with our Jupiter.

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our minds must be derived from an agreement in the time of our nativity, being born both under the same star.

So-HOR. lib. ii. ode xvii. 1. 21, 2.

Utrumque nostrum incredibili modo,

Consentit astrum.

The ancients thought that the minds of men were greatly influ enced by the planet which presided at their birth; and that those who were born under the same planet, had the same dispositions and inclinations.

47. Fate, tenacious of truth.] Unerring fate, as we say.

Suspended our times.] Metaph. from hanging things on the beam of balance, in order to weigh them.

Fate weighed, with equal balance, our times, when Libra had the ascendency.

48. With equal Libra.] A constellation into which the sun enters about the twentieth of September, described by a pair of scales, the emblem of equity and justice.

Felix æquatæ genitus sub pondere Libra.

Seu Libra, seu me Scorpius aspicit
Formidolosus, pars violentior
Natalis horæ, &c.

MANIL. lib. v.

HOR. lib. ii. ode xvii. 1. 17-22.

Framed for the faithful.] The particular hour which presides over the faithfulness of friendship.

49. Divides to the twins, &c.] The Gemini, another constellation represented by two twin-children, under which whosoever were born, were supposed by the astrologers to consent, very exactly, in their affections and pursuits.

Magnus erit Geminis amor et concordia duplex. MANIL. lib. ii. 50. Break, &c.] Frangere and temperare were used by the astrologers, when the malignant aspect of one star was corrected, and its influence prevented, by the power of some other propitious and benign planet.

Hence that astrological axiom--Quicquid ligat Saturnus, solvit Jupiter.

The planet Saturn was reckoned to have a malign aspect; the

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Nescio quod certe est, quod me tibi temperat, astrum.

Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus:
Velle suum, cuique est ; nec voto vivitur uno.
Mercibus hic Italis mutat, sub sole recenti,
Rugosum piper, et pallentis grana cumini:
Hic, satur, irriguo mavult turgescere somno;
Hic campo indulget: hunc alea decoquit: ille
In Venerem putret. Sed cum lapidosa chiragra
Fregerit articulos, veteris ramalia fagi;

Tunc crassos transisse dies, lucemque palustrem,
Et sibi jam seri vitam ingemuêre relictam.

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60

planet Jupiter a mild and favourable one, and to counteract the former.

Te Jovis impio

Tutela Saturno, refulgens
Eripuit.

HOR, ode xvii. lib. ii. 1. 22—4.

51. I know not, &c.] I won't take upon me to be certain what star it was; but that it proceeds from the influence of some friendly star or other, which presided at our natal hour, that we are one in heart and sentiment, I am very clear.

Tempero literally signifies to temper, mix or mingle together.

52. There are a thousand species, &c.] i. e. Different kinds of men, as to their dispositions and pursuits.

Different use, &c.] Discolor-literally, of a different colour. Their use of what they possess differs as much as one colour from another: some, (as it follows in the next lines,) from avarice, trade to increase their store; others, through luxury and extravagance, squander it away.

53. Has his will.] Velle, i. e. voluntas. Vivitur, impers. See sat. iii. 20, note.

54. The recent sun.] In the east, where the sun first appears. 55. Changes, &c.] Sails to the East Indies, where he barters the produce of Italy for the produce of the East.

Wrinkled pepper.] When the pepper is gathered, and dried in the sun, the coat or outside shrivels up into wrinkles.

-Pale cumin.] The seed of an herb, which being infused in wine, or other liquor, causes a paleness in those who drink it: it comes from Ethiopia. Probably it stands here for any Oriental

aromatics.

HOR. epist. xix. lib. i. 1. 17, 18, speaks of his imitators :

2

Quod si

Pallerem casu, biberent exsangue cuminum.

56. Sated] Satur--that has his belly full-glutted with eating and drinking.

Swell up. With fat.

Moist sleep.] Irriguus signifies wet, moist, watered; also that watereth. Here, metaph, from watering plants, by which they

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