SATIRES OF PERSIUS. SAT. IV. V. 1-14.] WHAT! You, my Alcibiades, aspire To sway the state!-(Suppose that bearded sire, “Educatus est in domo Periclis, (privignus enim ejus fuisse dicitur,) eruditus a Socrate." Hoc, puto, non justum est ;-illud, male;-rectius illud." Scis etenim justum gemina suspendere lance VER. 17. Romans! I think-&c.] Père Jouvenci, who had marked this passage, honestly confesses that he cannot comprehend how Alcibiades could harangue the Romans in an assembly of Grecians! he is therefore inclined to believe (he says,) that Quirites is catachrestically used for Athenienses. "Catachrestically," indeed! In truth, it must appear very strange to those who have not adverted to the little care which Persius takes to preserve the keeping of his plot, that the first word uttered by Alcibiades should be one which by no possibility could come out of his mouth. Instead of attributing this absurdity to a want of taste or judgment in the writer, the commentators are eager to discover in it, what Polonius terms a fetch of warrant. Thus M. Monier: "Il est visible que Perse met ce mot dans la bouche d'un Grec, exprès pour faire sentir aux Romains que c'est eux qu'il veut désigner!" This compassionate condescension to the obtusity of his readers is a beautiful feature in the character of the poet; and we have so many proofs of it in this Satire (such as, Cures, puteal, &c.) that if any one rises from it in the persuasion that he has been listening to Socrates and Alcibiades at Athens all the while, he cannot justly charge the illusion on the author. VER. 20. In the nice, trembling scale, &c.] Here is a cluster of figurative expressions, of which the purport may be more easily guessed at than explained. The properties seem to be taken from the balance, the plummet, and the rule or square, a more complicated instrument, apparently, than that in use amongst Lo! all is hush'd: what now, what will he speak! What floods of sense from that charg'd bosom break! "Romans! I think-I fear-I think, I say, This is not well :-perhaps, the better way" O power of eloquence! But you, forsooth, In the nice, trembling scale can poise the truth, With even hand; can with intentive view, Amidst deflecting curves, the right pursue; Or, where the rule deceives the vulgar eye With its warp'd foot, th' unerring line apply : And, while your sentence strikes with doom precise, Stamp the black Theta on the front of vice! us. The reference of these intractable terms to the equable distribution of justice, to the clear discernment of the right between perplexing and opposite claims; and to the application of some corrective principle when the strict observance of the letter of the law (regula) would lead to a violation of its spirit, (all which the poet evidently has in view,) must be left to the reader. I have supplied him, to the best of my ability, with the original phraseology, at the expense of some harshness; conceiving that he might be better pleased to exercise his ingenuity, than to peruse a smooth paraphrase of a most obvious topick. In the concluding line of this paragraph, Persius returns pretty nearly to the language of common life. To affix the theta, is to condemn. It is the first letter of avalos, (death) and was probably set against the names of those sentenced to Quin tu igitur, summa nequicquam pelle decorus, Ante diem blando caudam jactare popello Desinis, Anticyras melior sorbere meracas? Quæ tibi summa boni est ?" Uncta vixisse patella Semper, et assiduo curata cuticula sole." Expecta: haud aliud respondeat hæc anus. I nunc. "Dinomaches ego sum; suffla: sum candidus." Esto, Dum ne deterius sapiat pannucea Baucis, capital punishment; this, at least, seems implied in the following passage: "Nosti mortiferum quæstoris, Castrice, signum? "Est operæ pretium discere theta novum," &c. Mart. lib. vii. 37. VER. 32. Whole isles of hellebore,] Meracas Anticyras. Anticyra was a maritime city, or as Ainsworth says, an isle in the Malian Gulph. It was fertile in hellebore, and, if the ancient satirists may be trusted, drove a thriving trade in this valuable drug, which was in great request. Some skill, however, was necessary in the administering of it; for its effects were very capricious. A small dose, a single draught, (sorbitio,) would cure a patient labouring, like Socrates, under a complication of wisdom and virtue; whereas two Anticyras, we see, were required to remove the symptoms of youthful presumption; and Horace mentions a deplorable case of poetry, where three were found insufficient-" tribus Anticyris caput insanabile !”The last two complaints are still very prevalent; and it is truly melancholy to think, that no specifick can be discovered for them either in nature or art. Rash youth! relying on a specious skin, While all is dark deformity within, Check the fond thought; nor, like the peacock, proud, Spread your gay plumage to the applauding crowd, Before your hour arrive :-ah, rather drain Whole isles of hellebore, to cool your brain! With every dainty earth and sea afford; Hold, hold! yon tatter'd beldame, hobbling by, If haply ask'd, would make the same reply. "But, I am nobly born." Agreed. "And fair." "Tis granted too: yet goody Baucis there, Who, to the looser slaves, her pot-herbs cries, Is just as philosophick, just as wise ! VER. 41. Who, to the looser slaves, &c.] Cum bene discincto cantaverit ocyma vernæ. "In this place," (says Holyday, and he says very truly) " plentiful is the phansie of interpreters. First, some would have the word ocymum, here to signifie an unprofitable herb, and so would have it be used as a reproach to an unprofitable servant! 2dly. Some think that ocymum, called - so from the quickness of it in growing, implies the upbraiding of a servant with his sloath "-This, as Michael Cassio observes, is a better song than the other.-"3rdly. Others take it to signify basil, which some tell us was anciently sowed with cursing, and thus to imply the woman's railing at an evil servant. 4thly. Some think that ocymum being the same with basilicum, |