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"The public law of men, and nature, contains this right, "That weak ignorance should forbear forbidden acts. "Do you dilute hellebore, not knowing how to confine, to a "Certain point, the balance? the nature of healing forbids this. "If the high-shoed ploughman should require a ship for "Himself, ignorant of Lucifer, Melicerta exclaims, that shame "Has perish'd from things.-To live with an upright ankle "Has art given you?—Are you skilful to distinguish the appearance "of truth,

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"Lest any should tinkle false with gold having brass under it? "And what things are to be followed, and, in like manner, what "avoided?

"Have you first mark'd those with chalk, then these with a coal? "Are you moderate of wish-with a confined household-kind to your friends?-

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"Can you sometimes fasten, and sometimes open your granaries?

104. "Upright ankle."] Metaph. from persons having their legs and ankles strait, and walking uprightly; which is often used, to denote going on through life with an honest and virtuous conduct. This occurs frequently in S. S. as Ps. xv. 2. lxxxiv. 11, Prov. x. 9. et al.

105. "Has art," &c.] That is philosophy, which is the art of living well--has this enabled you to do this?

106. "Lest any," &c.] Ne qua--i. e. ne aliqua species veri.Have you learnt to distinguish between the appearance and reality of truth and virtue, lest you should be deceived, as people are who take bad money for good, when, instead of answering to the appearance of the outside, which is fair, they find, upon sounding it, that it is brass underneath, instead of being all gold.

108. "Mark'd those with chalk," &c.] The ancients used to note things good and prosperous with a white mark, and things bad and unlucky with a black one. In allusion to this, the Stoic is supposed to ask the question in the preceding line, which is, not only whether his opponent has been taught to distinguish the appearances of good and evil, but whether he has particularly noted down what a wise man ought to follow, and what he ought to avoid. See HOR. lib. ii. sat. iii. 1. 246.-Mendosum tinniat, for mendose : Græcism.

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109. "Moderate of wish."] The desires confined within the bounds of moderation.

"A confined household."] Your household-establishment frugal, and not expensive-contracted within a little compass; or perhaps by presso lare, may be signified a small house.

able.

Kind to your friends." Dulcis-obliging, sweet, agree. See HoR. lib. i. sat. iv. 1. 135.

110 "Sometimes fasten," &c.] Judging rightly when it is a time to withhold, and when to give. Here perhaps is an allusion to the public granaries, or magazines of corn at Rome, which, at a

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Inque luto fixum, possis transcendere nummum,
Nec glutto sorbere salivam mercurialem ?

Hæc mea sunt, teneo, cum vere dixeris; esto
Liberque ac sapiens, prætoribus ac Jove dextro.

Sin tu, cum fueris nostræ paulo ante farinæ, Pelliculam veterem retines; et, fronte politus, Astutam vapido servas sub pectore vulpem : Quæ dederam supra repeto, funemque reduco, Nil tibi concessit ratio: digitum exere, peccas: Et quid tam parvum est ? sed nullo thure litabis, Hæreat in stultis brevis ut semuncia recti.

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time of dearth and want, was dealt out in doles to the citizens, on producing their tickets, but, at other seasons, locked up. Jam nunc-lit. just now-i. e. just at a proper time.

111. "Can you pass by money," &c.] Alluding to a practice among the boys at Rome, who used to fasten a piece of counterfeit money to the ground, or stick it in the mud, with a string tied to it; and if any miserly fellow coming by, and imagining it to be real, stooped to pick it up, they snatched it away, and laughed at him.

In triviis fixum qui se demittit ob assem. HOR. lib. i. epist. xvi. I. 64. 112. "Mercurial spittle."] Mercury was the god of gain : hence a desire of gain is called saliva mercurialis. Metaph. from gluttons, who, at beholding some dainty dish, have their spittle increase in such a manner, as that, if they did not swallow it, it would run out of the mouth. This we call the mouth watering. Can you see money without your mouth watering at it?-i. e. without being greatly delighted, and coveting it?

113. "These."] All these good qualities.

114. "Pretors and Jupiter propitious."] I then allow you to be free in the sight of God and man-i. e. not only with respect to the liberty of the body, which you received from the pretor, but with respect to freedom of the mind, of which Jupiter alone is the author.

115. “But if you."] Now he comes to the other side of the question

"Since you." Since you, but a little before your manumission, were just like what we were till taught by philosophy-i. e. naturally full of ignorance and error.

"Of our meal."] Metaph. taken from loaves of bread, which are all alike, and taste alike, if made of the same flour--so mankind, having the same nature, are all corrupt,

116. "Retain your old skin.] Metaph. taken from snakes, which cast off their old skin, and have a new one every year.-q. d. If you retain your old depraved manners and conduct (see 1. 76, 7.), and have not changed and cast them off.

"Polished in front."] Appearing with a countenance seemingly open and ingenuous.--Necquicquam pelle decorus. Sat. iv, 1. 14.

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"And can you pass by money fixed in mud,

"Nor swallow with your gullet mercurial spittle?

“When you can truly say, these are mine, I possess them-be thou Free and wise, the pretors and Jupiter propitious.

"But if you, since you were a little before of our meal, "Retain your old skin, and, polished in front,

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"Keep a cunning fox under your vapid breast:

"What I had above given I demand again, and bring back the rope. "Reason has granted you nothing: put forth your finger, you sin: And what is so small? but you will obtain, by no incense, “That a small, half ounce of right should be fix'd in fools.

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117. "Keep a cunning fox," &c.] Entertain wily, cunning, and deceitful principles within.

note..

ed

"Your vapid breast."] Within your rotten heart. See 1. 77.

Nunquam te fallant animi sub vulpe latentes. HOR. Ars Poet. 487. 118. "What I had above given."] i. e. What I just now grantviz. that you are free and wise

;

"I demand again."] I recall.

And bring back the rope."] Metaph. from leading beasts with a rope, which sometimes they lengthened, and gave the animal a good deal of liberty (see Juv. sat. xii. 1. 5.); but, if restive and mischievous, they shortened it to confine him. Thus the Stoic, who lengthened his allowance so far as to pronounce the man wise and free, supposing him to answer the description which he gives of those who are so, now, on finding the contrary, draws back what he had said, and reduces the man to his old narrow bounds of bodily freedom only.

119. "Reason has granted you nothing."] Whatever the pretor may have done, wisdom has done nothing for you.

Put forth your finger, you sin."] The Stoics held, that there was no medium between wisdom and folly, that a man was either perfectly wise, or perfectly foolish; therefore, that the most trivial and indifferent thing, if done by the latter, could not be done aright, not even the putting forth of a finger.

120. "What is so small?" What can be so trivial as this?" --yet, trivial as it is, it can only be done by the wise and free, as it ought, any more than every other action, of what nature or kind

soever.

"Will obtain."] Rito signifies not only to sacrifice, but to obtain that for which the sacrifice is offered. See sat. ii. l. 75. and

note.

121. Half ounce of right," &c.] In short, the Stoics held, that not a grain of what was right could reside within any but the wise and free, in their sense of the words; or, in truth, in any but their own sect--all the rest of the world they accounted fools and mad, and that though they were to offer incense, in ever so great a quantity,

Hæc miscere nefas: nec, cum sis cætera fossor,

Tres tantum ad numeros satyri moveare Bathylli.

Liber ego. Unde datum hoc sumis, tot subdite rebus ?
An dominum ignoras, nisi quem vindicta relaxat?
I, puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer,
Si increpuit, cessas, nugator?--Servitium acre-
Te nihil impellit; nec quicquam extrinsecus intrat,
Quod nervos agitet- -Sed si intus, et in jecore ægro
Nascantur domini, quî tu impunitior exis

Atque hic, quem ad strigiles scutica et metus egit herilis?
Mane piger stertis. Surge,' inquit Avaritia: eja

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to the gods, yet they could never obtain a single fixed principle of what was right.

122. "To mix these," &c.]i. e. Wisdom and folly; there must be either all one, or all the other. See above, note on 1. 119. It is impossible they should be mixed in the same person.

"A digger."] Fossor-a ditcher, delver, and the like

q. d. A mere clown.

q. d. When, in every thing else--cætera, i. e. quoad cætera, Græcism-you are as clumsy and awkward as a common lout or clown, it is impossible that you should dance, even three steps, like the famous dancer Bathyllus. Perhaps the poet, by fossor, alludes to the slaves, who were set to dig with fetters on their legs. See Juv.

xi. 80.

123. "The satyr Bathyllus."] He was a famous dancer in the time of Nero, and, for his great agility and nimble movements, was surnamed the Satyr.-Saltantes Satyros. VIRG. ecl. v. 73.

The Stoic concludes this part of his argument with averring, that those who are not wise and free, as in every thing else they are unable to do what is right, so neither can they, in the most trivial or indifferent action; any more than an awkward clown could dance like Bathyllus for three steps together. See Juv. sat. vi. l. 63.

124. "Iam free."] "Aye, it is all very well," says Dama: "but I do insist upon it, that I am free, notwithstanding all you say.”

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"Whence take you this," &c.] Datum is a technical term— when any thing is yielded, agreed, and granted as true, it is called a datum. -66 Now," answers the Stoic, "whence had you that datum, for so it appears to you, that you are free, because you have "had your freedom given you by the pretor's wand, you who are "put under (subdite) the power and dominion of so much error “ and folly ?”

Comp. sat. iii. 1. 28, and note.

125. "Are you ignorant," &c.] Know you not any other "master than he who exercised an outward authority over you till "he was released from it by the pretor's wand?" See before, 1. 88,

note.

126. “Go, slave, and carry," &c.] I grant you that you have no•

"To mix these is impossibility: nor, when as to other things you are

"a digger,

"Can you be moved to three measures only of the satyr Bathyllus." "I am free.”—"Whence take you this for granted, subjected by "so many things?

"Are you ignorant of a master, unless he whom the wand relaxes?" 125 "Go, slave, and carry the scrapers to the baths of Crispinus," "If he has sounded forth-do you loiter, trifler?" " Sharp "Servitude impels thee nothing, nor does any thing enter from with

" out

"Which may agitate your nerves. But if within, and in a sick liver "Masters are produced, how go you forth more unpunished, 130 "Than he, whom the scourge, and fear of his master, has driven "to the scrapers?

"In the morning, slothful, you sncre: "Rise," says Avarice, "O fie!

thing to fear from your late master. If he were, in a loud and surly matter, to baul out—“ Here, slave, carry these scrapers," &c. and scold you for the least delay

127-8. "Sharp servitude," &c.] However sharp and severe bodily servitude may be, yet you have nothing to do with it, it can't enforce such orders upon you.

any

128. "Nor does any thing enter," &c.] Nor can any thing, as threats, or menaces, of being punished for not obeying, enter into your mind, so as to make you uneasy; all this I grant-in this sense you are free.

129. “But if within."] If vice and folly, generated within your disordered heart, are your masters, and rule over you, so as to compel your obedience to their commands.

Jecore ægro. See Juv. sat i. 1. 45, and note.—The ancients looked on the liver as the seat of the concupiscible and irascible affections, and therefore jecore ægro may be understood, metonymically, to denote the diseased or disordered affections, for vice is the sickness or disease of the mind.

130. "How go you forth," &c.] How can you be said to be less liable to punishment, from the slavery and misery of your mind, than the poor slave is, in a bodily sense, when compelled to obey his master, from the terror of bodily punishment. The only difference between you is, he serves his master, you your vices.

131. "The scrapers."] Strigiles.-These were instruments which the Greeks and Romans made use of to scrape their bodies after bathing, and were carried to the baths by their slaves. Driven to the scrapers-i. e. has forced to carry the scrapers to the baths, when ordered.

132. " Slothful, you snore."] The poet proceeds to illustrate and confirm his argument (in which he has been contending for the "slavery of all but the wise," according to the Stoic doctrine) by instancing the power of sloth, avarice, and luxury, over the human mind, in its corrupted state.

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