10 15 Neptunum procul e terra fpectare furentem. 20 25 30 EPISTOLA view from land Neptune raging at a distance. But neither he who comes to Rome from Capua, befpattered with rain and mire, would live always in an inn: nor does he who has contracted a cold, cry up ftoves and bagnios as completely furnishing the means of a happy life: nor if the violent fouth wind has toffed you in the deep, will you therefore fell your ship on the other fide of the Agean fea. On a man that is found in mind, Rhodes and the beautiful Mitylene have fuch an effect, as a thick cloak at the fummer folftice, thin drawers in fnowy weather, bathing in the Tiber in winter, a fire in the month of Auguft. While you may, and while fortune preferves a benign afpect, let abfent Samos, and Chios, and Rhodes, be commended by you here at Rome. Whatever profperous Providence beftows upon you, receive it with a thankful hand; and defer not the enjoyment of the comforts of life till a year is at an end: that, in whatever place you are, you may say that you have lived with fatisfaction. For if reafon and difcretion, not a place that commands a prospect of the wide-extended fea, remove our cares; they change their climate, not their difpofition, who run beyond the fea; a laborious inefficacy harraffes us by fhips and by chariots we feek to live happily. What you feek is here at home, is at Ulubræ; if a just temper of mind is not wanting. VOL. II, K EPISTLE Hominis parfimoniam dum laudat, feftive deridet; tradit ei Grofphum; de Romanis rebus pauca fubjicit. F 5 RUCTIBUS Agrippa Siculis, quos colligis, Icci, Si recte frueris; non eft ut copia major Ab Jove donari poffit tibi. tolle querelas : Pauper enim non eft, cui rerum fuppetit ufus. Si ventri bene, fi lateri eft, pedibufque tuis; nil Divitiæ poterunt regales addere majus. Si forte in medio pofitorum abftemius, herbis Vivis, et urtica; fic vives protinus, ut te Confeftim liquidus fortunæ rivus inauret : Vel quia naturam mutare pecunia, nescit, Vel quia cuncta putas una virtute minora. Miramur, fi Democriti pecus edit agellos Cultaque, dum peregre eft animus fine corpore velox? Cum tu inter fcabiem tantam et contagia lucri, Nil parvum fapias, et adhuc fublimia cures ; Quæ mare compefcant caufæ ; quid temperet annum ; Stellæ fponte fua, juffene vegentur et errent; Quid premat obfcurum lunæ, quid proferat orbem ; Quid velit et poffit rerum concordia difcors; (a) Empedocles, an Stertinium deliret acumen. (a) Empedocleum an Stertinium. Cunn. 15 20 Verum Under the appearance of praifing the man's parfimony, he archly ridicules it; introduces Grofphus to him, and concludes with a few articles of news concerning the Roman affairs. * Iccius, if you rightly enjoy the Sicilian products, which you collect for Agrippa; it is not poffible that a greater affluence can be given you by Jove bimfelf. Away with complaints: for that man is by no means poor, who hath the use of every thing he wants. If it is well with your belly, your back, and your feet; even regal wealth can add nothing greater. If strangely abftemious, amidst profufion, you live upon fallad and fhell fish; you will confequently live in fuch a frugal manner, that prefently fortune fhall flow upon you in a river of gold: either because money cannot change the natural difpofition, or because it is your opinion that all things are inferior to virtue alone. Can we wonder, if other mens cattle feed upon the meadows and corn-fields of Democritus, while his active foul is abroad travelling without his body? Since you, amidst such great impurity and infection of profit, have no tafte for any thing trivial, but ftill mind only things of a fublime nature; namely, what caufes fet bounds to the fea; what rules the year; whether the ftars fpontaneously, or by direction, wander about, and are erratic; what throws obfcurity on the moon, and what brings out her orb; what is the intention and power of the jarring harmony of things; whether Empedocles, or the hypothefis of Stertinius, be in the wrong?" * Auguftus had given Agrippa confiderable poffefons in Sicy, as a reward for his having reduced that island.----Iccius was agent there to Agrippa. Verum, feu pifces, feu porrum et cæpe trucidas, Utere Pompeio Grofpho; et, fi quid petet, ultro Defer: nil Grofphus nifi verum orabit, et æquum. Vilis amicorum eft annona, bonis ubi quid deest. Ne tamen ignores quo fit Romana loco res : Cantaber Agrippa, Claudi virtute Neronis Armenius cecidit: jus imperiumque Phraates Cæfaris accepit genibus minor. aurea fruges Italiæ pleno diffudit copia cornu. EPISTOLA XIII. AD VINNIUM ASELLA M. Monet ut fuos Augufto libros loco et decenter offerat. T profifcifcentem docui te fæpe diuque, (a) Gravis urget farcina chartæ Viribus |