174. "

Whom we seek."] The man who can so far emancipate himself from his passion, as to free himself from its dominion, so as no longer to be a slave to it, which Chærestratus would have proved himself, if he could have kept his resolution against all solicitations to break it; this is the man I mean, says the Stoic, this is the man I allow to be free.

175. "Not in the wand," &c.] The better to explain this place, as well as 1. 88 of this Satire, it may not be amiss to mention, particularly, the ceremony of manumission.

"The slave was brought before the consul, and, in after-times, before the prætor, by his master, who, laying his hand upon his servant's head, said to the prætor, Hunc hominem liberum esse volo, and, with that, let him go out of his hand, which they termed, e manu emittere, whence manumission: then the prætor, laying a rod upon his head, called vindicta, said, Dico eum liberum esse more Quiritum; and turned him round on his heel. See 1. 75, 6. After this, the lictor, taking the rod out of the prætor's hand, struck the servant several blows upon the head, face, and back, (which part of the ceremony Persius refers to in this line,) and nothing now remained but pileo donare, to present him with a cap in token of liberty, and to have his name entered in the common roll of freemen, with the reason of his obtaining that favour." See before, 1. 88. See KENNETT, Antiq. p. 100.

-"The foolish lictor."] Ineptus, here, is either used in contempt of the lictor, who was a sort of beadle, that carried the fasces before the prætor, and usually, perhaps, an ignorant, illiterate fellow; or it may be used in the sense of unapt, unfit, improper-i. e. to convey true liberty on the slave, whom he struck with

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the rod, in that part of the ceremony which fell to his share.

175. "Shakes."] Jacto, is to shake or move; to move to and fro, as in the action of striking often; also to brag or boast.

176. " Right of himself."] The poet

now instances, in the vice of ambition, another chain which binds the enslaved mind, and which hinders that freedom for which our Stoic is contending.

Can he call himself his own mastermeus, 1. 88; or say that he is sui juris— i. e. that he can dispose of himself as he pleases, as having a sovereign propriety in his person.

-"Whom gaping."] Hiantem-gaping after, coveting greatly, like a creature gaping for food.

"With his lure."] Palpam -i, lit. a gentle, soft stroking with the hand; hence obtrudere palpam alicui-to wheedle, flatter, or coax. AINSW.

176, 7. "Chalked ambition."] This expression alludes to the white garments worn by candidates for offices; in these they went about to ask the people's votes, and from these white garments, which to make still whiter they rubbed over with chalk, they were called candidati.

177." Ambition."] Literally signifies a going about, from ambio: hence a suing or canvassing for favour-hence that desire of honour and promotion, which is called ambition.

-"Watch-"] Says Ambition; always be upon the look out; lose no opportunity to make yourself popular.

Heap vetches largely."] Those who aspired to public offices, endeavoured to gain the votes of the people by donations and largesses. These kinds of public bribes consisted in pease, beans, lupines or vetches, given away among the people. The Romans ran to such

"whom we seek,

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extravagance on these occasions, that several of the richest entirely ruined themselves. J. Cæsar employed in such largesses near a million and an half more than his estate was worth.

In cicere atque faba bonu tu perdasque lupinis,

Latus tu in circo spatiére, aut æneus

ut stes.

HOR. lib. ii. sat. iii. l. 182, 3. 178. "Quarrelling people."] Quarrelling about their shares in the largesses and donations; or, as we see at our elections, about the interests of the several candidates, whom they severally espoused.

-"Our feasts," &c.] That the feasts which we gave, marked by our great liberality, may never be forgotten, to the latest old age of those who attended them.

-"Feasts of Flora."] Flora was a noted courtezan in Rome, who having gotten a large sum of money by prostitution, made the Roman people her heir: but they, being ashamed of her profession, made her the goddess of flowers.

In honour of her, feasts were held, and games exhibited, which were provided by the ædile, who, on this occasion, was very liberal in his donations to the people, in hopes of gaining their votes for an higher place in the magistracy. The Floralia were held on the 28th of April.

178. "Sunny old men."] Aprici senes -old men who loved to bask in the sun, the warmth of which was very acceptable to their cold habit of body, which old age brought on; their delight was to bask on a sunny bank, and talk over old times. Comp. Juv. sat. xi. 1. 203.

In the well-known, beautiful ballad of

Darby and Joan, the poet has made use of this idea, as one description of the amusement of old age;

Together they totter about,

Or sit in the sun at the door, &c. 179." What more glorious?"] Than thus to recommend ourselves to the people, gain their favour, and leave a lasting memory of our munificence? Iron.

180." The days of Herod," &c.] Another chain in which the human mind is holden in superstition; to this all but the wise are slaves. He instances this in those Romans who had addicted themselves to many of the Jewish rites and superstitions, for such their whole religion appeared to the heathen. See Juv. sat. xiv. 1. 96-106. We find, by Matt. xiv. 6. and Mark vi. 21. that the king's birth-day was an high festival, observed at Herod's court; and, by this passage of Persius, it appears to have been celebrated by the Jews at Rome also, particularly by the Herodians, who constituted a society in honour of Herod, after the manner of the Sodalitia at Rome. See BROUGHTON, Bibliotheca tit. Herodians.

-"Greasy window."] They stuck up candles, or lamps, in their windows, in token of a rejoicing-day-they lighted them early in the day (comp. Juv. sat. xii. 92.), and by their flaring and guttering they made the frames of the windows on which they stood all over grease.

181. "Fat cloud."] i. e. Of smokeAn exact description of the smoke of a candle, or lamp, which is impregnated with particles of the fat, or grease, from which it ascends; as may be seen on ceilings, or other places, on which this smoke has alighted, and which, when they

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are attempted to be cleaned, are found to be soiled with a mixture of soot and grease.

Vomuêre is a word well adapted to express the discharge of the thick and filthy smoke from the wicks. So VIRG. Æn. v. 682.

Stupa vomens tardum fumum.

The tow disgorging tardy, languid smoke. 182. "Bearing violets."] They adorned their lamps with wreaths of violets, and other flowers, on these occasions.

-"Embraced a red dish."] Hypallage, for the dish embracing the tail of the fish. Thynnus, a large coarse fish; the poet mentions only the tail of it, which was the worst part-this he does, probably, by way of derision of the Jews' festal-dinner. The dish, of red earthen

ware.

183. " Swims"] In sauce. -"White pitcher."] An earthen vessel, a white crock of earth.

-"Swells."] Is filled up to the brim -or tumet may imply, that the wine was bad, and in a fermenting state, frothing up above the brim. Every circumstance of the entertainment seems to be mentioned with a thorough air of contempt, and to denote the poverty of the Jews.

184." Silent you move your lips."] You join in the solemnity, 'you attend at their proseuchæ, and, like them, mutter prayers inwardly, only moving your lips. See sat. ii. 1. 6.

-"And fear."] Pallus is used by our poet elsewhere to denote hard study, which occasions paleness. See sat. i. 1. 124; and sat. iii. 85. Here it is used to denote that superstitious fear, which occasions, from yielding to it, a pale and wan appearance in the countenance.

"Circumcised sabbaths."] Recutita

sabbata. Hypall. for sabbata recutitorum the sabbaths of the circumcised. Palles sabbata, here, is equivalent to metuentem sabbata. Juv. sat. xiv. 1. 96. q. d. By degrees you will enter into all the Jewish superstition.

The word sabbata, in the plural, may here denote, not only the sabbath-days, but all the Jewish holidays, which were days of rest from labour; among others, the festival which they had instituted in honour of Herod's birth-day.

185. "Then black hobgoblins."] The mind enslaved by superstition, falls from one degree of it into another.

Lemures-ghosts, spirits that walk by night, hobgoblins. AINSW.-Nocturnos lemures. HoR. ep. ii. lib. ii. l. 209.— They are only supposed to appear by night-hence called black.

Dangers from a broken egg."] The ancients had a superstition about eggshells; they thought, that if an egg-shell were cracked, or had an hole bored through at the bottom of it, they were subject to the power of sorcery.

This is contrary to the superstition of those, who, in the days when witches were believed in, always broke the bottom of an egg-shell, and crossed it, after having eaten the egg, lest some witch should make use of it in bewitching them, or sailing over the sea in it, if it were whole. See DRYDEN's note.

For an instance of national superstition, as ridiculous as any that can be imagined, I would refer the reader to the solemn public statute of 1 Jac. I. c. 12. against witchcraft, now repealed by 9 Geo. II. c. 5.

186. "Hence."] i. e. From this superstitious principle in the minds of men, they are led from one degree of credulity to another: of this advantage has