Parvula fictilibus solitum dare vela phaselis, Quæ lachrymas dedit: hæc nostri pars optima sensûs. Naturæ imperio gemimus, cum funus adultæ Virginis occurrit, vel terrâ clauditur infans, 130 135 Et minor igne rogi. Quis enim bonus, aut face dignus 140 127. Accustomed to spread, &c.] They made vessels of burnt clay, in which they sailed upon the Nile a fishing. 128. The short cars, &c.] They painted their little earthen boats, by way of ornament, and rowed them with short oars. The poet mentions these circumstances of their boats, to shew the contemptibleness and vanity of these Egyptians. 129. Find a penalty, &c.] In short, the baseness and wickedness of the Tentyrites exceeds all power of finding any punishment or torture adequate to their deserts. 130. In whose mind, &c.] They make no distinctions in their mind, between the necessity which has forced others to eat human flesh, and doing this themselves from a mere principle of anger and malice. 132. Nature confesses, &c.] From the evidence of what we feel within ourselves, we may gather, as from the confession of a fact the truth of it, that nature has furnished us with hearts susceptible of the tenderest feelings. 133. Has given tears.] Those outward symptoms of sorrow and compassion, which are given to no other creature. This best part, &c.] Because by flowing in pity and commiseration, they bespeak the most amiable qualities of the mind. 134. She commands, therefore, &c.] To sympathize with our friends in their griefs may be called a dictate of nature. See Rom. xii. 15. 135. Squalid appearance, &c.] It was customary for persons arraigned in a court of judicature to appear in rags and dirtiness, in order to move the compassion of the judges. But as squalor signifies sometimes, "the sorrowful and "mourning estate of those that are ar " raigned or accused," this idea of the word may be here meant, at least inclusively. See Arxsw. Squalor, No. 3. 136. His defrauder.] i. e. His guardian, who was left in trust with his person and estate during his minority, and has cheated and defrauded him. Circumscriptor means a cozener, a cheater, one that circumvents or over-reaches another. -Girl-like hairs, &c.] The tenderness, youth, and innocence of the poor orphan-his air, like that of a girl, long and hanging loose, and dishevelled; his smooth and delicate face, wet with the tears flowing from his eyes, and his appearance altogether is such, as to render it almost uncertain to the beholders of which sex the sufferer is, who is thus obliged to cite his iniquitous guardian into a court of justice, in order to obtain redress. See sat. x. 1. 222, note on Hirrus. 138, 9. An adult virgin, &c.] When we meet the funeral of a beautiful young woman, snatched away by the hand of Accustomed to spread little sails in earthen boats, And to ply the short oars of a painted earthen vessel. Nor can you find a penalty for the wickedness, nor prepare Who has given tears, this best part of our sense. She commands, therefore, to bewail the misfortune of a mourning friend; And the squalid appearance of a criminal; an orphan calling to the laws His defrauder, whose girl-like hairs make his 135 By command of nature we groan, when the funeral of an adult Virgin occurs, or an infant is shut up in the earth, And less than the fire of the pile. For what good man, or worthy 140 The secret torch, such as the priest of Ceres would have him to be, Thinks any evils alien from himself? This separates us death in all the bloom of youth, nature bids us mourn-we can't resist its impulse. This circumstance, here introduced by our poet, reminds one of an exquisitely fine and tender passage on a like event. Hamlet, act v. sc. i. where the Queen says of the deceased Ophelia, who had been prematurely snatched away by death: [Scattering flowers. "Sweets, to thee sweet, farewell! "I hop'd thou woud'st have been my "Hamlet's wife; "I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, "sweet maid, "And not t' have strew'd thy grave." See TER. And. act i. sc. i. l. 77-109. 139. An infant is shut up, &c.] The law forbad burning the bodies of infants that died before they had lived forty days-or (according to some) before seven months old, when they had teeth. They used to bury them in a place which was called Suggrundarium. See AINSW. 140. Less than the fire, &c.] i. e. Too little to be burnt on a funeral pile. the last note. See 140, 1. Worthy the secret torch.] i. e. Worthy to be initiated into, or to be present at, the sacred rites, which were celebrated in honour of the goddess Ceres. These rites were celebrated by night; the worshippers carried lamps, or lighted torches, in their hands, in memory of Ceres, who, by fire-light, had sought after her daughter Proserpine, when she was stolen by Pluto out of Sicily. Ceres is fabled to have lighted those fires, which have burned ever since, on the top of mount Etna. 141. Such as the priest of Ceres, &c.] None were admitted to the Eleusinian mysteries (for so the rites of Ceres were called, from Eleusis, a town in Attica, built by Triptolemus, who, being instructed by Ceres, taught the people to sow corn) but those, who by the priest were pronounced chaste and good, free from any notorious crime. 142. Thinks any evils, &c.] q. d. There is no real good man who can think himself unconcerned in the misfortunes of others, be they what they may : his language will be like this in Te rence: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. HEAUT. act i. sc. i. 1. 25. A grege brutorum, atque ideo venerabile soli 145 Cujus egent prona, et terram spectantia. Mundi Principio indulsit communis conditor illis Tantum animas; nobis animum quoque, mutuus ut nos Affectus petere auxilium, et præstare juberet, 150 Dispersos trahere in populum, migrare vetusto De nemore, et proavis habitatas linquere sylvas: 142. This separates us, &c.] i. e. This distinguishes men from brutes, who know nothing of this. 143. And therefore.] i. e. For this very end and purpose, that we may sympathize with others. 144. A venerable disposition.] A disposition and inclination to partake in others' sorrows, is deserving the highest esteem and reverence, and this has fallen to the lot of mankind alone. -Capable of divine things.] A capacity to apprehend divine things is the property of man alone. This is a very great truth; but, alas! how sad an use the wise men of this world made of this gloriously-distinguished faculty, may be seen, Rom. i. 21, 22, et seq. 145. Apt for exercising, &c.] The invention, understanding, and exercise of the arts, whether mechanical, or others, are also peculiar to man. 146. We have drawn.] Traximus-i. e. we have derived, as we should say. -Sense.] Moral sense, reason. -Sent down.] Demissum-let down. Traximus demissum seems to be metaphorical, taken from the idea of a cord, or chain, let down from on high, which a person below takes hold of, and draws down to himself. 146. From the celestial top.] Arx signifies the top, peak, or ridge of any thing, as of a rock, mountain, or hill; also a palace, temple, or tower, often built on high. See sat. xiv. 1. 86-8. Hence 155 -Prone things, &c.] Beasts called prona, from their inclining, with the face stooping downward to the earth; whereas man is erect, and looks upward. Here seems to be an imitation of OVID, Met. lib. i. 1. 84-7. Pronaque eum spectent animalia cætera Os homini sublime dedit cœlumque tueri So Sallust. Omnes homines qui sese student præstare cæteris animalibus, &c. quæ natura prona, et ventri obedientia finxit. Bell. Catil. ad init. 148. The common builder, &c.] i. e. Common nature, for Juvenal ascended no higher-the God of Nature he knew not. Compare 1. 132-4. See Acts xvii. 23-9. -To them.] i. e. To the brute creation. 149. Only souls.] Animas, a principle of mere animal life; which is called the spirit of a beast, Eccl. iii. 21. -To us a mind also.] To us human beings nature has not only given a principle of animal life, but also a rational mind, by which we reflect, and judge, and reason. The anima, or soul, is that by which we live; the animus, or intel 145 From the herd of brutes, and therefore we alone having shared to them Only souls; to us a mind also, that a mutual affection 150 To draw the dispersed into a people, to migrate from the old with arms 155 A fallen citizen, or one staggering with a great wound: To give signs with a common trumpet, to be defended with the same Towers, and to be secured by one key of the gates. lectual mind, is that by which we are wise above the brutes. See sat. vi. 1. 530, note. 149. A mutual affection.] The end for which this intellectual mind is given us, so far as it relates to the purposes of society, is, to incline us to bestow, as well as to require, mutual good offices towards each other; and therefore it disposes us to mutual affection. 151. The dispersed, &c.] To collect men, who are naturally dispersed, and bring them together into society. -To migrate, &c.] To depart from the woods and forests, the ancient abodes of the earliest ages, where men lived in common with the beasts, and to coalesce and unite in civil society. See sat. vi. 1. 2-7. 153. To build houses.] For habitation, instead of living in dens and caves, like beasts. -To join, &c.] To join our houses to one another, for the greater safety and convenience of the whole, against robbers, wild beasts, &c. 155. Threshold.] Limine stands here, per syn. for the house itself. -A contributed confidence.] That by thus joining houses (the original of cities and towns) each might receive and impart a confidential notion of safety, in the night-time particularly, when men sleep, and, of course, are more exposed to dangers. -To protect with arms, &c.] To protect in war, from the hands of the enemy, a fellow-citizen who had fallen, or was reeling with loss of blood from wounds. 157. To give signs, &c.] When on an expedition in time of war, to obey one common signal, given by the trumpet for battle. 158. Towers.] Turris signifies a tower, or any thing like it; so any fortified place. -Secured by one key, &c.] To be inclosed within the same walls, and locked up in security by the same key of the gates. The poet, by what he has said, has shewn the great advantages of men above brutes, in having a rational mind, which can direct them to form societies, so that by mutual help and assistance, they can secure and protect each other. All this is agreeable to the dictates of their common nature, and thus it ought to be; but such is the corruption and depravity of mankind, that, as the poet proceeds to shew, there is little of this to be found; on the contrary, beasts are not so cruel to their own species as men are. Sed jam serpentum major concordia: parcit 160 Perpetuam sævis inter se convenit ursis. Ast homini ferrum lethale incude nefandâ 165 Produxisse parum est; cum rastra et sarcula tantum Assueti coquere, et marris ac vomere lassi Nescierint primi gladios excudere fabri. Aspicimus populos, quorum non sufficit iræ Occidisse aliquem; sed pectora, brachia, vultum 170 Crediderint genus esse cibi. Quid diceret ergo, 159. Concord of serpents, &c.] These venomous creatures do not hurt their own species; they agree better than men now do with each other. 160. Spares his kindred spots.] The leopard recognizes the leopard, and avoids hurting him, whom he sees, by his spots, to be related to the same species with himself. 165. But, &c.] The poet having, in several instances, shewn the harmony and agreement which subsist among the most fierce and savage beasts, now proceeds to apply this to his main argument in this place, which is to prove, that the concord between these creatures is greater than is to be found among the human race towards each other; and indeed, that man towards man is now so savage, as to fabricate weapons for their mutual destruction, and this without any remorse or concern. 166. To have produced, &c.] Lit. to have lengthened out deadly iron, &c. i. e. by drawing it out, with hammering it on the anvil, into the length of a sword, a deadly weapon, and most fatal: the poet therefore calls the anvil on which it is made impious, as being instrumental to the forming of this mischievous weapon. -Is little.] Is to be looked upon as a trifle, in comparison of what mankind are now capable of. See 1. 161–71. Whereas.] Cum-although, albeit. -Being accustomed, &c.] The first smiths set up their trade only to forge instruments of husbandry, and made nothing else. Coquere signifies, here, to heat in the fire. AINSW. 167. Tired with mattocks, &c.] They wearied themselves daily in making hoes or mattocks, or ploughshares, for tillage. 168. Knew not how, &c.] So far from hammering iron into swords, they did not even know how to set about it. 169. We see people, &c.] Meaning the savage Tentyrites before mentioned, who ate human flesh, and looked upon it as a species of ordinary food. 172. Pythagoras.] The famous philosopher, who left his country Samos, then under the tyrant Polycrates, and travelled over India, through Egypt, in search of knowledge. He forbad the eating of animals on account of the transmigration |
