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And if the Muse, propitious, hear my strains,
Assist the labour, or reward the pains,

That laurel, Persius, which once bloom'd for thee,

Again shall flourish, and revive for me.

THE

SIX SATIRES

OF

PERSIU S.

B

PROLOGUS.

NEC fonte labra prolui Caballino :
Nec in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso
Memini, ut repente sic Poëta prodirem.
Heliconiadasque, pallidamque Pyrenen
Illis remitto, quorum imagines lambunt
Hederæ sequaces: ipse semipaganus
Ad sacra vatum carmen affero nostrum.
Quis expedivit psittaco suum xaige,
Picasque docuit nostra verba conari ?
Magister artis, ingeniique largitor
Venter, negatas artifex sequi voces.
Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi,
Corvos poëtas, et poëtrias picas

Cantare credas Pegaseium melos.

PROLOGUE.

NE'ER did I taste Castalia's stream;
Nor yet on fork'd Parnassus dream,
That I should feel a poet's fire,
Or string the lute, or strike the lyre.
I leave the Muse's magic ground
To bards profess'd, with laurel crown'd.
The gift I offer to the Nine,

A rustic wreath, to grace their shrine.
What taught the parrot to cry, hail?
What taught the chattering pie his tale?
Hunger; that sharpener of the wits,
Which gives ev'n fools some thinking fits.
Did rooks and pies but know the pleasure
Of heaping high a golden treasure:
And would their music money bring,

Ev'n rooks and pies would shortly sing.

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