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Nor do they think swine's flesh to be different from human, From which the father abstain'd; and soon they lay aside their

foreskins:

But used to despise the Roman laws,

They learn, and keep, and fear the Jewish law,

Whatsoever Moses hath delivered in the secret volume:

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Not to shew the ways, unless to one observing the same rites,
To lead the circumcised only to a sought-for fountain;
But the father is in fault, to whom every seventh day was 105
Idle, and he did not meddle with any part of life.

Young men, nevertheless, imitate the rest of their own accord; only

Avarice they are commanded to exercise against their wills; For vice deceives under the appearance and shadow of virtue, When it is sad in habit, and severe in countenance and dress. Nor is the miser doubtfully praised as frugal,

As the thrifty man, and a safeguard of his own affairs,

was handed down from father to son, not knowing the design and importance of the divine command.

106. Meddle, &c.] i. e. He refrained from all business, even such as related to the necessaries of common life. The Jews carried this to a superstitious height; they even condemned works of necessity and charity, if done on the Sabbath. See John vii. 23. They also declared self-defence to be unlawful on the Sabbath-day. See ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. x. p. 272.

107. Young men, &c.] The poet now begins on the subject of avarice, in order to shew how this also is communicated from father to son: but here he makes a distinction. As to other vices, says he, youth want no force to be put upon them to incline them to imitation; whereas, this of avarice, being rather against their natural bent towards prodigality, requires somes pains to be taken, in order to instil it into their minds.

-The rest. The other vices which have been mentioned.

108. Commanded, &c.] They have much pains taken with them to force them, as it were, into it, against their natural inclinations.

109. Vice deceives, &c.] They are deceived at first, by being taught to look upon that as virtuous, from its appearance, which in truth, in its real nature and design, is vicious. Nothing is more

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common than for vice to be concealed under the garb of virtue, as in the instance which the poet is about to mention. In this sense it may be said, Decipimur specie recti. HOR. de Art. 1.25.

110. Sad in habit, &c.] The poet, in this line, in which he is describing vice, wearing the garb, and putting on the semblance, of wisdom and virtue, has probably in his eye the hypocrites, whom he so severely lashes at the beginning of the second Satire. See sat. ii. 1. 1-20.

Habitu here means outward carriage, demeanour, manner. Sad-tristegrave, pensive, demure.

-Severe in countenance, &c.] A severity of countenance, and a negligence in dress, were supposed characteristic of wisdom and virtue, and were therefore in high esteem among the philosophers, and those who would be thought wiser and better than others. Hence, in order to deceive, these were assumed by vicious people. See Matt. vi. 16.

111. Doubtfully praised, &c.] Nobody doubts his sincerity, or that he is other than his appearance bespeaks him, viz. a frugal man, and careful of his affairs, which is certainly a laudable character.

Sic timidus se cautum vocat, sordidus parcum. SEN.

Certa magis, quam si fortunas servet easdem
Hesperidum serpens, aut Ponticus: adde quod hunc, de
Quo loquor, egregium populus putat, atque verendum
Artificem: quippe his crescunt patrimonia fabris.
Sed crescunt quocunque modo, majoraque fiunt
Incude assiduâ, semperque ardente camino.
Et pater ergo animi felices credit avaros,
Qui miratur opes, qui nulla exempla beati
Pauperis esse putat; juvenes hortatur, ut illam
Ire viam pergant, et eidem incumbere sectæ.
Sunt quædam vitiorum elementa: his protinus illos
Imbuit, et cogit minimas ediscere sordes.
Mox acquirendi docet insatiabile votum :
Servorum ventres modio castigat iniquo,

113. More certain, &c.] At the same time he is acting from no better principle, than that of the most sordid avarice, and takes care to hoard up and secure his money-bags in such a manner, as that they are safer than if guarded by the dragon which watched the garden of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas, from whence, notwithstanding, Hercules stole the golden apples; or by the dragon, which guarded the golden fleece at Colchis, in Pontus, from whence, notwithstanding, it was stolen by Ja

son.

114. Add.] We may also add to this account of the character here spoken of, that he is in high estimation with the generality of people, who always judge of a man by what he is worth.

At bona pars hominum, decepta cupidine
falsá,
Nil satis est, inquit, quia tanti quantum
habeas, sis.

HOR. lib. i. sat. i. l. 61, 2. "Some self-deceived, who think their "lust of gold

"Is but a love of fame, this maxim "hold

"No fortune's large enough, since

"others rate

"Our worth proportion'd to a large "estate." FRANCIS.

115. The people think, &c.] They reckon this man, who has been the fabricator of his own fortune to so large an amount, an excellent workman in his way, and to be highly reverenced.

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120

125

116. To these workmen, &c.] Fabris here is metaphorical, and is applied to these fabricators of wealth for themselves, because those who coined or made money for the public were called fabri, or monetæ fabricatores. Faber usually denotes a smith-i. e. a workman in iron and other hard materials, a forger, a hammerer: so these misers, who were continually at work to increase their wealth, might be said to forge and hammer out a fortune for themselves, and in this sense might be called fabri. To such as these, says the poet, riches increase.

117. By whatsoever means.] They were not very scrupulous or nice, as to the means of increasing their store, whether by right or wrong.

forge, &c.] The poet still continues his 118. By the assiduous anvil, and the

beating their iron on the anvil, and hav metaphor. As smiths, by continually ing the forge always heated, fabricate and complete a great deal of work; so these misers are always forging and fashioning something or other to increase their wealth. Their incessant toil and labour may be compared to working at the anvil, and the burning desire of their minds to the lighted forge. Camino here is to be understood of the forge or furnace in which the iron is heated.

119. The father therefore, &c.] Sceing these men abound in wealth, and not recollecting what pains it cost them, both of body and mind, to acquire it,

More certain, than if, those same fortunes, the serpent

Of the Hesperides or of Pontus should keep. Add, that This man, of whom I speak, the people think an excellent, and

venerable

Artist, for to these workmen patrimonies increase :

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But they increase by whatsoever means, and become greater By the assiduous anvil, and the forge always burning.

And the father therefore believes the covetous happy of mind, Who admires wealth, who thinks that there are no examples Of an happy poor man; he exhorts his young men, that they May persist to go that way, and apply earnestly to the same

sect.

There are certain elements of vices; with these he immediately

seasons

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Them, and compels them to learn the most trifling stinginess.
By-and-by he teaches an insatiable wish of acquiring:
He chastises the bellies of the servants with an unjust measure,

thinking the rich are the only happy people, and that a poor man must be miserable

121. Exhorts the young men.] His sons that are growing up.

122. To go that way.] To tread in the steps of these money-getting people.

-Apply earnestly, &c.] Incumbo signifies to apply with earnestness and diligence to any thing. The father here recommends it to his sons, to apply themselves diligently to the practices of these people, whom the poet humourously styles a sect, as if they were a sect of philosophers, to which the word properly belongs. Those who joined in following the doctrines of Plato, were said to be of the Platonic sect-so secta Socratica. Secta comes from sequor, to follow.

123. Certain elements, &c.] Certain rudiments or beginnings. The father does not all at once bid his sons to be covetous, but insinuates into their minds, by little and little, sordid principles. This he does as soon as they are capable of receiving them, which I take to be the meaning of protinus here. Imbuo signifies to season meat, or the like; so, by metaph. to season the mind; also to furnish, or store.

124. Compels them to learn, &c.] From his example, little paltry acts of meanness and avarice-minimas sordes.

125. By-and-by.] As they grow up, he VOL. II.

opens his grand plan to them; and as they have been taught to be mean and stingy in lesser matters, he now instructs them how to thrive, but applying the same principles to the science of getting money by low and illiberal means.

—Insatiable wish.] A desire that can never be satisfied-such is the inordinate love of money. Amor habendi. VIRG. En. viii. 1. 327.

126. He chastises, &c.] The poet in this, and in some of the following lines, particularizes certain instances of those minimæ sordes, which he had hinted at, 1. 124, and which the father is supposed to set an example of to his sons, in order to season and prepare their minds for greater acts of sordidness and avarice.

First, Juvenal takes notice of the way in which the father treats his servants. He pinches their bellies, by withholding from them their due allowance of food, by giving them short measure, which is implied by iniquo modio. The Romans measured out the food which they gave their slaves; this was so much a month, and therefore called demensum, from mensis—or rather, perhaps, from demetior-whence part. demensus-a.um.

We find this word in TER. Phorm. act i. sc. i. 1. 9. where Davus is representing Geta, as having saved something out of his allowance, as a present for the bride of his master's son.

T

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Cum furor haud dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenesis,

Sed divitias hæc quo

per

tormenta coactas ?

Ut locuples moriaris, egenti vivere fato?

Interea pleno cum turgit sacculus ore,

CRESCIT AMOR NUMMI, QUANTUM IPSA PECUNIA CRESCIT; Et minus hanc optat, qui non habet. Ergo paratur Altera villa tibi, cum rus non sufficit unum,

Quod ille unciatim vix de demenso suo, Suum defraudans genium, comparsit miscr.

Geta had saved of his corn, of which the slaves had so many measures every month, and turned it into money. Modium was a measure of about a peck and an half. AINSW.

127. He also hung'ring.] Half starving himself at the same time.

-Neither does he, &c.] He does not suffer, or permit, all the pieces of bread, which are so stale as to be blue with mouldiness, and musty with being hoarded up, to be eaten up at once, but makes them serve again and again.

129. The hash, &c.] Minutal, a dish made with herbs and meat, and other things chopped together; from minuo, to diminish, or make a thing less.

-Of yesterday.] Which had been dressed the day before, and now served up again. This he will still keep, though in the month of September, a time of year when, from the autumnal damps, victuals soon grow putrid. The blasts of the south-wind at that time were particularly insalubrious. See sat. vi. 516, note.

130. Also to defer, &c.] Who accustoms himself to keep for a second meal. 131. The bean.] Conchis.-See sat. iii. 293, note.

-Sealed up.] Put into some vessel, the cover or mouth of which was sealed upclose with the master's seal, to prevent the servants getting at it. Or perhaps

135

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into some cupboard, the door of which had the master's seal upon it.

131, 2. Part of a summer fish.] Lacerti æstivi.-What fish the lacertus was, I do not any where find with certainty. Ainsworth calls it a kind of cheap fish usually salted. This, mentioned here, is called a summer fish; I suppose, because caught in the summer time; and for this reason, no doubt, not very likely to keep long sweet.

132. With half a stinking shad.] See sat. iv. 33; and AINSW. Silurus. Lit. and with an half and putrid silurus.

133. To shut up.] Includere-i. e. to include in the same sealed vessel.-The infinitive includere, like the servare, l. 129, and the non differre, 1. 130, is governed by the solitus, l. 129.

-Number'd threads,&c.] Sectivi porri. In sat. iii. 293, 4. Juvenal calls it sectile porrum. See there.-There were two different species of the leek; one sort was called sectum, sectile, and sectivum; the other capitatum; the former of which was reckoned the worst. See PLIN. lib. xix. c. 6.

From the bottom of a leek there are fibres which hang downwards, when the leek is taken out of the ground, which the poet here calls fila, or threads, which they resemble. He here humourously represents a person so sordidly avaricious, as to count the threads, or fibres, at the bottom of a leek, that if one of these should be missing he might find it out.

The epithets, sectivum and sectile, are

He also hung'ring: for neither does he ever bear
To consume all the musty pieces of blue bread,

Who is used to keep the hash of yesterday in the midst of September; also to defer, to the time of another supper, 130 The bean, sealed up with part of a summer

Fish, or with half a stinking shad,

And to shut up the number'd threads of a sective leek:
Any one invited from a bridge to these, would refuse.

But for what end are riches gather'd by these torments, 135
Since it is an undoubted madness, since it is a manifest phrensy,
That you may die rich, to live with a needy fate?

In the mean time, when the bag swells with a full mouth, THE LOVE OF MONEY INCREASES, AS MUCH AS MONEY ITSELF

INCREASES;

And he wishes for it less, who has it not.

Therefore is pre

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pared Another villa for you, when one country seat is not sufficient;

given to that sort of leek, from its being usual to cut or shred it into small pieces when mixed with victuals of any kind. See AINSW. Sectivus.

134. Invited from a bridge.] See sat. iv. 116. The bridges about Rome were the usual places where beggars took their stand, in order to beg of the passengers.

The poet, to finish his description of the miser's hoard of victuals, here tells us, that if this wretch were to invite a common beggar to such provisions as he kept for himself and family, the beggar would refuse to come.

135. But for what end, &c.] Some verb must be understood here, as habes, or possides, or the like-otherwise the accusative case is without a verb to govern it.

We may then read the line

To what purpose do you possess riches, gathered together by these tormentsi. e. with so much punishment and uneasiness to himself? See sat. x. 1. 12, 13.

136. Undoubted madness, &c.] So HOR. sat. iii. lib. ii. 1. 82.

Danda est hellebori multo pars maxima avaris,

Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet

omnem.

Misers make whole Anticyra their own;
Its hellebore reserved for them alone.
FRANCIS.

For Anticyra, see above, Juv. sat. xiii. 1. 97, note.

137. A needy fate, &c.] i. e. To share the fate of the poor; to live as if destined to poverty and want, for the sake of being rich when you die, a time when your riches can avail you nothing, be they ever so great.

138. When the bag swells, &c.] And all this, for which you are tormenting yourself at this rate, you find no satisfaction or contentment in; for when your bags are filled up to the very mouth, still you want more. The getting of money and the love of money increase together: the more you have, the more you

want.

Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, &c. See HoR. lib. ii. ode ii, and lib. iii. ode xvi. 1. 17, 18.

Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
Majorumque fames.

140. He wishes for it less, &c.] A poor man looks no farther than for a supply of his present wants; he never thinks of any thing more.

- Therefore.] Because thou art insatiable in thy desires.

-Is prepared, &c.] Not content with one country-house, another is purchased, and gotten ready, prepared for thy reception, as one will not suf fice.

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