66 "Or because robed you salute the censor (as) yours?Trappings to the people-I know you intimately and tho"roughly. 30 "Does it not shame you to live after the manner of dissolute "Natta? "But he is stupified with vice, rich fat hath increased in his "Inwards: he is not to blame: he knows not what he may "lose, and with the deep "Overwhelmed, he does not bubble again at the top of the "water." Great father of gods! will not to punish cruel Tyrants by any other way, when fell desire Shall stir their disposition, imbued with fervent poison; spending of time, this wretched man, lest thou shouldst bring thyself into the same deplorable state. 36. By any other way.] Than by giving them a sight of the charms of that virtue, which they have forsaken, and to which they cannot attain. Haud velis-i. e. noli. -When dire lust, &c.] When they find their evil passions exciting them on acts of tyranny. See AINSW. Libido, No. 1, 3. 37. Imbued with fervent poison.] Tincta -imbued, full of, abounding (met.) with the inflaming venom of cruelty, which may be called the poison of the mind, baleful and fatal as poison in its destructive influence. 38. Let them see virtue.] Si virtus humanis oculis conspiceretur, miros amores excitaret sui. SENEC. This would be the case with the good and virtuous; but it would have a contrary effect towards such as are here mentioned; it would fill them with horror and dismay, and inflict such remorse and stings of conscience, as to prove the greatest torment which they could endure. -Let them pine away.] For the loss of that which they have forsaken and despised, as well as from the despair of ever retrieving it. It being left.] i. e. Virtute relicta. Abl. absol. 35 40 39. The Sicilian bullock, &c.] Alluding to the story of Phalaris's brazen bull. Perillus, an Athenian artificer, made a figure of a bull in brass, and gave it to Phalaris, tyrant of Syracuse, as an engine of torment: the bull was hollow; a man put into it, and set over a large fire, would, as the brass heated and tormented him, make a noise which might be supposed to imitate the roaring of a bull. The tyrant accepted the present, and ordered the experiment to be first tried on the inventor himself. Comp. Juv. sat. xv. 122, note. 40. The sword hanging, &c.] Damocles, the flatterer of Dionysius, the Sicilian tyrant, having greatly extolled the happiness of monarchs, was ordered, that he might be convinced of his mistake, to be attired, as a king, in royal apparel; to be seated at a table spread with the choicest viands, but withal, to have a naked sword hung over his head, suspended by a single hair, with the point downwards; which so terrified Damocles, that he could neither taste of the dainties, nor take any pleasure in his magnificent attendance. 41. Purple neck, &c.] i. e. Damocles, who was placed under the point of the suspended sword, and magnificently arrayed in royal purple garments. Meton.-Purpureas cervices, for purpuream cervicem-synec. 'Imus præcipites,' quam si sibi dicat; et intus Sæpe oculos, memini, tangebam parvus olivo, In the above passage of Horace, palleo, though a verb neuter, is used actively, as here by Persius: likewise before, sat. i. 1. 124, where palles is used metonymically for hard studying, which occasions paleness of countenance. -Nearest wife, &c.] His conscience tormented with the guilt of crimes, which he dares not reveal to the nearest friend that he has, not even to the wife of his bosom, who is nearest of all. 44. Besmear'd my eyes, &c.] The philosopher here relates some of his boyish pranks. I used, says he, when I was a little boy, and had not a mind to learn my lesson, to put oil into my eyes, to make them look bleary, that my master might suppose they really were so, and excuse me my task. 45 50 45, 6. Great words of dying Cato.] Cato of Utica is here meant, who killed himself, that he might not fall into the hands of Julius Cæsar, after the defeat of Pompey. His supposed last deliberation with himself before his death, whether he should stab himself, or fall into the hands of Cæsar, was given as a theme for the boys to write on; then they were to get the declamation, which they composed, by heart, and repeat it by way of exercising them in eloquence. 46. Much to be praised.] It was the custom for the parents and their friends to attend on these exercises of their children, which the master was sure to commend very highly, by way of flattering the parents with a notion of the progress and abilities of their children, not without some view, that the parents should compliment the master on the pains which he had taken with his scholars. -Insane.] This does not mean that the master was mad, but that, in commending and praising such puerile performances, and the vehemence with which he did it, he did not act like one that was quite in his right senses. 47. Sweating-] i. e. With the eagerness and agitation of his mind, that I might acquit myself well before him and the friends which he might bring to hear me declaim. See above, note on l. 46, No. 1. 48. With reason, &c.] Jure-not without cause.q. d. My father might well sweat with anxiety; for instead of studying how to acquit myself with credit on these occasions, it was the height of my "I go headlong," (than if any one should say to himself,) and, within Unhappy, should turn pale at what his nearest wife must be ignorant of? I remember, that I, a little boy, often besmear'd my eyes with oil, If I was unwilling to learn the great words of dying 45 Which my father would hear sweating, with the friends he brought: With reason; for it was the height of my wish to know what The lucky sice would bring, how much the mischievous ace Would scrape off-not to be deceived by the neck of the nar row jar 50 Nor that any one should whirl more skilfully the top with a Scourge. It is not a thing unexperienced to you, to discover crooked morals, And the things which the wise portico, daub'd over with the trowser'd Medes, ambition to know the chances of the dice, play at chuck, and whip a top, better than any other boy. 49. Lucky sice, &c.] Dexter, lucky, fortunate from dexter, the right hand, which was supposed the lucky side, as sinister, the left, was accounted unlucky. The sice-the six-the highest number on the dice, which won. -Mischievous ace, &c.] The ace was the unluckiest throw on the dice, and lost all. See AINSW. Canicula, No. 5. It was the summit of his wish to be able to calculate the chances of the dice; as, what he should win by throwing a six, and what he should lose if he threw an ace. How much a sice, ferret, might bring, i. e. add, contribute to his winnings how much the ace, raderet, might scrape off, i. e. diminish, or take away from them. Metaph. from diminishing a thing, or lessening its bulk by scraping it. 50. Neck of the narrow jar.] Orca signifies a jar, or like earthen vessel, which had a long narrow neck: the boys used to fix the bottom in the ground, and try to chuck, from a little distance, nuts, or almonds, into the mouth; those which they chucked in were their own, and VOL. II. those which missed the mouth, and fell on the ground, they lost. I made it my study, says he, to understand the game of the orca, and to chuck so dextrously as not to miss the mouth, however narrow the neck might be. 51. The top.] Buxus-lit. the box-tree, box-wood. As the children's tops were made of this, therefore, per meton. it is used to denote a top, as well as any thing else made of box-wood. Consistently with his plan, he was determined to excel, even in whipping a top. 52. Unexperienced, &c.] The philosopher makes use of what he has been saying, by way of remonstrance with his pupil. You, says he, are not a child as I was then, therefore it does not become you to invent excuses to avoid your studies, in order to follow childish amusements-you know better, you have been taught the precepts of wisdom and moral philosophy, and know by experience the difference between right and wrong. -Crooked morals.] Morals which deviate from the straight rule of right. Metaph. from things that are bent, bowed, crooked, and out of a straight line. 53. Wise portico.] Meton. the place 2 L Porticus insomnis quibus et detonsa juventus where wisdom is taught, put for the teachers. The Stoics were so called, from roa, a portico, in Athens, spacious, and finely embellished, where they used to meet and dispute. 53. Daub'd over, &c.] On the walls of the portico were painted the battles of the Medes and Persians with the Athenians, who, with their kings Xerxes and Darius, were defeated by Miltiades, Leonidas, and Themistocles, Athenian generals, at Marathon, Thermopyla, and on the coast of Salamis. -Trowser'd Medes.] The bracca was a peculiar dress of the Medes, which, like trowsers, reached from the loins to the ancles. See Juv. sat. ii. l. 169, note. 54. Which.] i. e. The things taught by the Stoics. -Sleepless youth.] The young men who follow the strict discipline of the Stoics, and allow themselves but little sleep, watching over their studies night and day. -Shorn.] After the manner of the Stoics, who did not suffer their hair to grow long. See Juv. sat. ii. 1. 14, 15. 55. Bean-pods.] Siliqua is the husk, pod, or shell of a bean, pea, or the like; also the pulse therein: put here to denote the most simple and frugal diet. Juv. sat. xi. 1. 58. -A great pudding.] Polenta-barleyflour, dried at the fire and fried, after soaking in water all night. AINSW. This made a sort of fried pudding, or cake, and was a kind of coarse food. 56. And to thee, the letter, &c.] The two horns, or branches, as Persius calls them, of the letter y, were chosen, by Pythagoras, to demonstrate the two dif ferent paths of virtue and vice, the right branch leading to the former, the left to the latter it was therefore called his letter: and Persius calls the two branches, into which the y divides itself, Samios, from Samos, an island in the Ionian sea, where Pythagoras was born, who hence was called the Samian philosopher, and the y the Samian letter. 57. Shewn the path rising, &c.] i. e. He had been well instructed in the doctrine of Pythagoras, concerning the way to virtue. Litera Pythagoræ discrimine secta bi- Humana vita speciem præferre videtur. 58. Do you still snore?] Thou, who hast been taught better things, from the principles and practices of the Stoics and Pythagoreans, art thou sleeping till al most noon? See 1. 4. -Your lax head, &c.] In sleep, the muscles which raise the head, and keep it upright, are all relaxed, so that the head will nod, and drop, as if it had nothing to confine it in its place: this is often seen in people who sleep as they sit. 59. Yawn, &c.] From the sleepiness and fatigue occasioned by yesterday's debauch are you yawning as if your jaws were ripped asunder? Dissutis-metaph. from the parting, or gaping, of things sewed together, when unstitched, or ripped asunder. Mala signifies either the cheek, or the jaw-bone. You And y Learn What Osciat crapu at? Meta 64. Prevent, &c Teaches, which the sleepless and shorn youth 55 Watch over, fed with bean-pods and a great pudding: Do you still snore? and does your lax head, with loosen'd joining, Yawn from what happen'd yesterday, with cheeks unsew'd in all parts? Is there any thing whither you tend? and to what do you di rect your bow? 60 Or do you follow crows up and down with a potsherd and mud, Careless whither your foot may carry you; and do you live from the time? In vain hellebore, when now the sickly skin shall swell, You may see people asking for. Prevent the coming disease; And what need is there to promise great mountains to Craterus? Learn, O miserable creatures, and know the causes of things, What we are, and what we are engender'd to live: what order Osciat hesternum. Græcism. q. d. Yawn forth yesterday's debauch. Oscitando evaporat, et edormit hesternam crapulam. ᎷᎪᎡᎢ. 60. Is there any thing, &c.] Have you any pursuit, end, or point in view? -Direct your bow.] What do you aim at? Metaph. taken from an archer's aiming at a mark. 61. Follow crows, &c.] Or do you ramble about, you know not why, nor whither, like idle boys, that follow crows to pelt them with potsherds and mud, in order to take them? (as we should say, to lay salt upon their tails.) A proverbial expression to denote vain, unprofitable, and foolish pursuits. 62. Live from the time.] Ex tempore without any fixed or premeditated plan, and looking no farther than just the present moment. 63. In vain hellebore, &c.] The herb hellebore was accounted a great cleanser of noxious humours, therefore administered in dropsies. When the skin is swoln with a dropsy, it is too late to begin with remedies, in very many cases. 64. Prevent, &c.] The wisest way is to prevent the disorder by avoiding the causes of it, or by checking its first approaches. Occurrite-meet it in its way to attack you. Principiis obsta: sero medicina paratur, 65. What need is there, &c.] What need have you to let the distemper get such an head, as that you may be offering mountains of gold for a cure. Craterus was the physician of Augustusput here for any famous and skilful practitioner. The poet, here, is speaking figuratively, and means, that what he says of the distempers of the body should be applied to those of the mind; of which all he says is equally true. The first approaches of vice are to be watched against, and their progress prevented; otherwise, if disregarded till advanced into habits, they may be too obstinate for cure. Comp. 1. 32—4. 66. Learn, &c.] Here the philosopher applies what he has been saying, by way of reproof and remonstrance, in a way of inference-Learn then, says he, ye miserable youths, who are giving way to sloth, idleness, and neglect of your studies-learn, before it be too late, the causes, the final causes of things, which are the great objects of moral philosophy, which teacheth us the causes and purposes for which all things were made. 67. What we are.] Both as to body and soul; how frail and transitory as to |