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SATIRE II.

Argument.

It was the custom of the Romans (as has been more than once observed) to offer vows, and send presents to their relations and friends on their birth days; and Persius, who probably knew that his beloved Macrinus, like Horace's Censorinus, delighted in verse, embraces the opportunity of this festival, to send him, instead of the viridem umbellam, the succina grandia, &c. an excellent moral and religious poem.

In this little piece, which assumes a tone almost too serious and solemn for satire, the author had in view the second Alcibiades of Plato, the matter of which he has compressed, and arranged with great care.

Addison has prettily analyzed this celebrated Dialogue in the Spectator; (No. 207.) where he observes, as Dryden had done before him, that the 10th Satire of Juvenal was also formed upon it. In the argument to his translation, Dryden has divided this Satire into three several heads; but more were evidently contemplated by the author. To pass the Exordium, or congratulatory address to Macrinus, there is first an enumeration of interested and impious prayers; prayers, which, too iniquitous for the ear of man, can only be trusted to the gods in private; this is followed by a spirited exposure of those extravagant and ridiculous petitions for superfluous objects, which originate in ignorance and superstition. We have next an indignant reproof of the rash expectations of those who frame requests for blessings which they madly labour to defeat by the excess of their own vices: the Satire then takes a more serious turn, and traces the source of these miserable errors, to the corrupt and vicious ideas entertained respecting the gods; concluding with

some just and elevated remarks on the true nature of sacrifice and prayer, which, as Sir W. Drummond elsewhere observes, might be written up, in more than one Christian temple."

Dryden tells us, in his concluding notes on this Satire, that, "the first half of it was translated by one of his sons, then in Italy: he thought so well of it," he adds, "that he let it pass without alteration." That he could not have improved it, would be too much to affirm; but, in justice it must be said, that few will dissent from his opinion. It is spirited, poetical, and just.

A. PERSII FLACCI

SATIRÆ.

AD PLOTIUM MACRINUM.

[SAT. II. V. 1-2.

HUNC, Macrine, diem numera meliore lapillo,

Qui tibi labentes apponit candidus annos.

Plotius Macrinus.]

The pseudo-Cornutus, who appears to have had access to the scholia of an earlier and more judicious critick than himself, tells us that this person was a man of considerable learning, and tenderly attached to our poet. He studied, he adds, in the house of Servilius, (who is incidentally mentioned as tutor to Persius,) so that they were, in some sort, fellow students. Cornutus is not very explicit in his language, but, as far as he can be understood, he seems to hint at Macrinus having been favoured in the purchase of an estate, either by Servilius or our poet.

There is another Macrinus,—Minucius,—to whom Britannicus and others suppose this Satire to be addressed: but he was apparently too late in point of time.

Brewster printed a version of this Satire in 1733, as a specimen, proposing to" continue the work if he met with due encouragement." He was then a young man, and naturally diffi

SATIRES

OF

PERSIUS.

TO PLOTIUS MACRINUS;

(ON HIS BIRTH DAY.)

SAT. II. V. 1–4.]

HEALTH
EALTH to my friend! and while my vows
Vows 1 pay,
I

O mark, Macrinus, this auspicious day,
Which, to your sum of years already flown,
Adds yet another,— with a whiter stone.

dent of his abilities. What encouragement he received I know not; but the translation of Persius, as we now have it, did not appear till about fifteen years afterwards. It is pleasing to observe how greatly he had improved in the interval in harmony and spirit, for his first attempt is scarcely recognizable in the finished work. Of one hundred and sixty lines, of which the translation now consists, more than one hundred and forty are either new, or materially improved from the earlier copy. All this may be matter of very little concern to the reader; and yet some advantage may be derived from it at a time, when so many youthful candidates for immortality, rhyme ere they wake, and print before term ends. Had Brewster printed the whole of his Satires at first, (and it appears he had them all before him,) we should not at this time hear of his name;

Funde merum Genio. Non tu prece poscis emaci, Quæ nisi seductis nequeas committere divis.

whereas he holds, and ever will hold, an honourable rank among those who have familiarised the ancients to the English reader.

VER. 4-6. Mark- with a whiter stone.] "The Scythians" (Cornutus says, the Cretans) were accustomed to mark every happy day with a white stone, and every unhappy day with a black one; at the expiration of the year, or, as Pliny has it, of their lives, the heaps were counted, (a pleasant amusement at a burying,) and if the white predominated in number, they rejoiced:" if otherwise, (it is to be presumed,) they wept ; though the Scythians were not much addicted to the melting mood. From them, say the criticks, who speak as if they wished to be believed, the Romans borrowed the practice.

This idle tale is handed down from age to age. It makes indeed a pretty figure in poetry;

"Et si calculus omnis huc et illuc
"Diversus bicolorque digeratur;

"Vincet candida turba nigriorem :" Mart. lib. xii. 34. and not a contemptible one in a tritical essay on mortality :but the expression is merely metaphorical, and means nothing more than lucky. It would probably puzzle more metaphysical heads than ever stood upon a Scythian's shoulders, to distinguish the happy days from the unhappy ones:-and were there no neutrals? Were their days never chequered? Did the evening always set upon the fortune of the morning? A rude and barbarous people,

"Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos,"

would scarcely occupy themselves in seeking for black and white stones to mark the colour of their fortune; and all others would speedily discover the futility of so ridiculous a practice.

VER. 5. Indulge your Genius, &c.] Of this tutelary divinity, (if so he may be called,) I can give no better account, than that

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