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O souls bowed to the earth-and void of heavenly things! What doth this avail, to place our manners in the temples, And to esteem things good to the gods out of this wicked pulp? This dissolves for itself Cassia in corrupted oil,

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And hath boiled the Calabrian fleece in vitiated purple. This has commanded to scrape the pearl of a shell, and to draw the veins

Of the fervent mass from the crude dust.

This also sins, it sins: yet uses vice. But ye,

O ye priests, say what gold does in sacred things?
Truly this, which dolls given by a virgin to Venus.

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But let us give that to the gods, which, to give from a great dish,

The blear-eyed race of great Messala could not

What is just and right disposed within the soul, and the sacred

recesses

themselves, and to be pleased with gold and silver because men are, is the inventor and contriver of all manner of luxury and sensual gratifications.

68. This also sins, &c.] This evil corrupted flesh is the parent of all sin, both in principle and practice. Comp. Rom. vii. 18-24.

-Yet uses vice.] Makes some use of vice, by way of getting some emolument from it, some profit or pleasure.

69. O ye priests, &c.] But tell me, ye ministers of the gods, who may be presumed to know better than others, what pleasure, profit, or emolument, is there to the gods, from all the gold with which the temples are furnished and decorated?

70. Truly this, &c.] The poet answers for them" Just as much as there is to Venus, when girls offer dolls to her." Pupa, a puppet, a baby, or doll, such as girls played with while little, and, being grown big, and going to be married, offered to Venus, hoping, by this, to obtain her favour, and to be made mothers of real children. The boys offered their bullæ to their household gods. Juv. sat. xiii. 33, note.

71. But let us give, &c.] The poet now is about to shew with what sacrifices the gods will be pleased, and consequently what should be offered.

-A great dish.] The lanx-lit. a deep dish-signifies a large censer, ap

propriated to the rich; but sometimes they made use of the acerra (v. 5.), a small censer appropriated to the poor.

72. The blear-eyed race, &c.] Val. Corv. Messala took his name from Messana, a city of Sicily, which was besieged and taken by him; he was the head of the illustrious family of the Messale. The poet here aims at a descendant of his, who degenerated from the family, and so devoted himself to gluttony, drunkenness, and luxury of all kinds, that, in his old age, his eyelids turned inside out.

Let us offer to the gods, says Persius, that which such as the Messalæ have not to offer, however large their censers may be, or however great the quantities of the incense put within them.

73. What is just and right.] Jus is properly that which is agreeable to the laws of man-fas, that which is agreeable to the divine laws.

-Disposed.] Settled, fashioned, set in order or composed, fitted, set together, within the soul.-It is very difficult to give the full idea of compositum in this place by any single word in our language.

73, 4. The sacred recesses of the mind.] The inward thoughts and affectionswhat St. Paul calls ra xgUTTA TWY ardewww. Rom. ii. 16. Prov. xxiii. 26.

Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto.
Hæc cedo, ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo.

74. A breast imbrued, &c.] Incoctum -metaph. taken from wool, which is boiled, and so thoroughly tinged with the dye. It signifies that which is infused; not barely dipped, as it were, so as to be lightly tinged, but thoroughly soaked, so

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as to imbibe the colour. See VIRG. G. iii. 307.

75. That I may bring to the temples.] Let me be possessed of these, that I may with these approach the gods, and then a little cake of meal will be a sufficient

Of the mind, and a breast imbrued with generous honestyThese give me, that I may bring to the temples, and I will sacrifice with meal.

offering. Comp. VIRG. Æn. v. 1. 745; and HOR. lib. iii. ode xxiii. 1. 17, &c.

Lito not only signifies to sacrifice, but, by that sacrifice, to obtain what is

sought for.

Tum Jupiter faciat ut semper
Sacrificem, nec unquam litem.

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PLAUT. in Persa.

SATIRE III.

ARGUMENT.

Persius, in this Satire, in the person of a Stoic preceptor, upbraids the young men with sloth, and with neglect of the study of philosophy. He shews the sad consequences which will attend them throughout life, if they do not apply themselves early to the knowledge of virtue.

NEMPE hæc assidue? Jam clarum mane fenestras
Intrat, et angustas extendit lumine rimas.
Stertimus, indomitum quod despumare Falernum
Sufficiat, quintâ dum linea tangitur umbrâ.

Line 1. "What-these things con"stantly?"] The poet here introduces a philosopher, rousing the pupils under his care from their sloth, and chiding them for lying so late in bed. "What," says he, "is this to be every day's practice?"

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"Already the clear morning," &c.] q. d. You ought to be up and at your studies by break of day; but here you are lounging in bed at full day-light, which is now shining in at the windows of your bed-room.

2. "Extends with light," &c.] Makes them appear wider, say some. But Casaubon treats this as a foolish interpretation. He says, that this is an "Hypallage. "Not that the chinks are extended, or dilated, quod quidem inepte scribunt, but the light is extended, the sun transmitting its rays through the chinks "of the lattices."

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Dr. Sheridan says-" this image (an"gustas extendit lumine rimas) very "beautifully expresses the widening of "a chink by the admission of light."

But I do not understand how the light can be said to widen a chink, if we take the word widen in its usual sense, of making any thing wider than it was. Perhaps we may understand the verb extendit, here, as extending to view—i, e. making visible the interstices of the lattices, which, in the dark, are imperceptible to the sight, but when the morning enters become apparent. It should seem, from this passage, that the fenestræ of the Romans were lattice windows.

But the best way is to abide by experience, which is in favour of the first explanation; for when the bright sun shines through any chink or crack, there is a dazzling which makes the chink or crack appear wider than it really is. Of the first glass windows, see Jortin, Rem. 196. P. vol. iv.

3." We snore."] Stertimus-i. e. stertitis. The poet represents the philosopher speaking in the first person, but it is to be understood in the second-" We "students," says he, as if he included

SATIRE III.

ARGUMENT.

The title of this Satire, in some ancient manuscripts, was, "The Reproach of Idleness;" though in others it is inscribed, "Against the Luxury and Vices of the Rich ;"-in both of which the poet pursues his intention, but principally in the former.

"WHAT-these things constantly? Already the clear "morning enters

"The windows, and extends with light the narrow chinks. "We snore, what to digest untamed Falernan

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Might suffice: the line is already touched with the fifth "shadow.

himself, but meaning, no doubt, those to whom he spake. Comp. sat. i. l. 13.

-"To digest untamed," &c.] Instead of rising to study, we (i. e. ye young inen) are sleeping, as long as would suffice to get rid of the fumes of wine, and make a man sober, though he went to bed ever so drunk.

-"To digest."] Despumare-metaph. taken from new wine, or any other fermenting liquor, which rises in froth or scum: the taking off this scum or froth was the way to make the liquor clear, and to quiet its working. Thus the Falernan, which was apt, when too much was drunk of it, to ferment in the stomach, was quieted and digested by sleep. The epithet indomitum refers to this fermenting quality of the wine.

Perhaps the master here alludes to the irregularities of these students, who, instead of going to bed at a reasonable VOL. II.

hour and sober, sat up late drinking, and went to bed with their stomachs full of Falernan wine.

4. "The line is already touched," &c.] Hypallage; for quinta linea jam tangitur umbra, i. e. the fifth line, the line or stroke which marks the fifth hour, is touched with the shadow of the gnomon on the sun-dial.

The ancient Romans divided the natural day into twelve parts. Sun-rising was called the first hour; the third after sun-rising answers to our nine o'clock; the sixth hour was noon; the ninth answers to our three o'clock P. M. and the twelfth was the setting of the sun, which we call six o'clock P. M. The fifth hour, then, among the Romans, answers to our eleven o'clock A. M. The students slept till eleven-near half the day.

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