NEVER TO BE BORN, OR EARLY DEATH, IS BEST. Not to born is best of all; and if one has seen the light, to go back to the place whence he came, as quickly as possible, is by far the next best. For when youth comes, leading a train of idle follies, he is surrounded by many sorrows. What suffering is not there? Murders, seditions, strife, fightings, and envy; and loathsome old age is last seen of all-powerless, unsocial, friendless, when all ills, worst of ills, dwell together

MERCY.

THE UNWRITTEN LAWS OF THE GODS.

Nor did I deem thy edicts of such force that, mortal as thou art, thou hast the power to overthrow the firm and unwritten laws of the gods. For these are not of to-day nor yesterday, but they live through all ages, and none knows whence they spring.

STERN SPIRITS.

But know in truth that spirits too stern bend most easily; and thou wilt most frequently see the hardest steel forged in the fire till brittle, shivered,

Over every work is Mercy, joint assessor to Jove and broken; and I have known the most spirited on his throne.

HIGH OFFICE TRIES A MAN..

It is impossible to penetrate the secret thoughts, quality, and judgment of man till he is put to proof by high office and administration of the laws.

REWARDS OFT LEAD TO RUIN.

But gain has oft with treacherous hopes led men to ruin.

GOLD.

For never did such evil institution as money spring up to mortals: it lays waste cities, it drives men far from their homes to roam: it seduces and corrupts the honest mind, turning its virtuous thoughts to deeds of baseness: it has taught men villany and how to perform all impious works.

UNJUST GAIN.

horses brought into obedience by a small bit; for no one ought to be proud who is the slave of others.

KINGS.

Kings are happy in many other things and in this, that they can do and say whatever they please.

THE WRETCHED.

For never does the original vigor of the mind remain to the unfortunate but it is changed.

THE POWER OF GOD.

O Jove, shall man with presumptuous pride control thy power? whom neither enfeebling sleep ever seizes nor the months of the gods that roll on, unconscious of toil: through unwasting time, glorious in might, thou dwellest in heaven's resplendent light. But this law, ordained in ages

For by unjust gains thou wilt see more sink in past, is now, and will be forever, "in all the life ruin than triumph in success. of mortals evil in every state her franchise claims."

HOPE.

For hope with flattering dreams is the delight of many, and throws a deceitful illusion over man's light desires; ruin creeps on him unawares before he treads on the treacherous fires. With

wisdom some one has uttered an illustrious

saying: "that evil is deemed to be good by him whose mind God leads to misery, but that he (God) practises this a short time without destroying such an one."

ANARCHY AND ORDER.

MAN THE CHIEF OF NATURE'S WORKS. Many wonderful things appear in nature but nothing more wonderful than man: he sails even through the foaming deep with the wintry southwind's blast, passing over the roaring billows; he furrows undecaying Earth, supreme of divinities immortal, as seed-times return from year to year, turning up the soil with the horse's aid; ensnaring the feathered tribes that skim the air, he takes them as his prey, and the savage beasts and all the finny race of the deep with line-woven nets, he, all-inventive man; he tames by his skill the tenants of the fields, the mountain-ranging herds; he brings under the neck-encircling yoke the shaggy-maned horse and the reluctant mountainbull. He hath taught himself language and winged thought, and the customs of civic law, and to escape the cold and stormy arrows of comfortless frosts; with plans for all things, planless in nothing, meets he the future. But from death alone he finds no refuge, though he has devised remedies against racking diseases. Having a wonderful skill beyond all belief he descends now to evil and again ascends to virtue; observing the is the noblest of all treasures. laws of the land and the plighted justice of heaven, he rises high in the state; an outcast is he who is dishonorable and audacious; may he, who acts thus, not dwell with me nor rank among my friends.

There is no greater ill than anarchy; it destroys cities, lays houses in ruins, and, in the contest of the spear, breaks the ranks; but discipline saves those who obey command; therefore we ought to aid those who govern and never yield to a woman;

for better, if we must fall, to fall by men than

that we should be declared subject to woman.

WISDOM.

Father, the gods implant wisdom in men, which

A FATHER'S GLORY.

What greater ornament is there to a son than a father's glory, or what to a father than a son's honorable conduct?

For when man knows no more the joys of life I do not consider him to live, but look upon him as the living dead. Nay, let his house be stored with riches, if thou pleasest, and let him be at

For whoever thinks that he alone has wisdom or power of speech or judgment such as no other has, such men, when they are known, are found to be empty-brained. But it is no disgrace for even the wise to learn and not obstinately to resist convic-tended with a monarch's pomp, yet, if heart-felt tion. Thou seest how the trees that bend by the wintry torrents preserve their boughs, while those that resist the blast fall uprooted. And so too the pilot who swells his sails without relaxing upsets his bark and floats with benches turned upside down.

DESPOTISM.

That is not a commonwealth where one man lords it with despotic sway.

LOVE.

O Love! resistless in thy might, thou who triumphest even over gold, making thy couch on youth's soft cheek, who roamest over the deep and in the rural cots-thee none of the immortals shall escape nor any of men, the creatures of a day, but all who feel thee feel madness in their hearts. Thou drawest aside the minds of the virtuous to unjust acts; thou hast raised this storm in hearts by blood allied; desire, lighted up from the eyes of the boauteous bride, gains the victory and sits beside the mighty laws of heaven, for Venus wantons without control.

joys be absent, all the rest I would not purchase with the shadow of smoke when compared with real pleasures.

A CLAMOROUS SORROW.

To me so deep a silence portends some dread event, a clamorous sorrow wastes itself in sound.

SILENCE.

There is something grievous in too great a silence.

CALAMITIES.

Calamities, present to the view, though slight, are poignant.

WISDOM LEADS TO HAPPINESS.

By far the best guide to happiness is wisdom, but irreverence to the gods is unbecoming; the mighty vaunts of pride, paying the penalty of severe affliction, have taught old age, thus humbled, to be wise.

NO MAN BLESSED BEFORE DEATH.

There is an ancient saying, famed among men, that thou canst not judge fully of the life of men,

Scott in his "Lay of the Last Minstrel" (cant. iii. 2) says-till death hath closed the scene, whether it should

"In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;

In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;

In halls, in gay attire is seen;

In hamlets, dances on the green.

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,
And men below, and saints above;
For love is heaven and heaven is love."

TO ERR IS HUMAN.

To all of mortals to err is common; but having erred, that man is not unblessed nor unadvised who, having fallen into error, heals the wound, nor perseveres unmoved. It is the obdurate mind that incurs the imputation of folly.

INSTRUCTION.

Most pleasant is instruction when it comes from one who speaks wisely, and with it comes advantage.

THE IMPIOUS.

For the swift-footed vengeance of heaven cuts short the impious.

THE LAWS.

For I fear that to preserve the established laws through life is man's wisest part.

MAN'S LIFE UNCERTAIN.

It is not possible that I should praise or dispraise the life of man, whatever be its state; for Fortune ever raises and casts down the happy and unhappy, and no man can divine the fates to

come.

be called blest or wretched.

CONSTANT CHANGE IN THE AFFAIRS OF LIFE.

For spangled night does not always spread its shade for mortals, nor do sorrows and wealth remain for aye, but are quickly gone; joy and grief succeed each other.

A YOUNG WOMAN'S LIFE.

Youth feeds on its own flowery pastures, where neither the scorching heat of heaven nor showers nor any gale disturb it, but in pleasures it builds up a life that knows no trouble, till the name of virgin is lost in that of wife, then receiving her share of sorrows in the hours of night, anxious for her husband or children.

IMAGINATION.

It is not the same thing to speak on mere imagination and to affirm a statement as certain.

SPEAK THE WHOLE TRUTH.

But speak the whole truth; since for a freeman to be called a liar is a disgraceful stain on his character.

ANGER.

To those who err in judgment not in will we should be gentle in our anger.

UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE.

So that if man should make account of two days or of more, he is a fool; for to-morrow is not till he has passed the present day without misfortune.

THE DEAD.

I fondly thought of happier days, whilst it denoted nothing else but my death. To the dead there are no toils.

TO DERIDE OUR ENEMIES.

Is that not the most grateful laugh that we indulge against our enemies?

THE MODEST AND THE ARROGANT.

Seeing that it is so, utter no vain vaunt against the gods nor swell with pride if thou excellest any one in valor or in thy stores of wealth, since a day sinks all human things in darkness and again restores them to light: the gods love the soberminded and abhor the impious.

THE NOBLE ARE ENVIED.

No, true is the popular adage: "The gifts of ene

For he who launches his bolt against noble per-mies are no gifts, and fraught with mischief." sons could not miss; but if any were to bring this charge against me he would not be believed: for envy crawls towards the wealthy.

Shakespeare (" Henry VIII.," act i., sc. 2) says

"If I am traduced by tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be
The chronicles of my doing-let me say,
Tis but the fate of place."

OUR OWN ILLS.

For to view ills all our own, where no associate shares the deed, racks the heart with deep pangs.

WOMEN.

To women silence gives their proper grace.

GOD ASSIGNS EVERY EVENT.

Each, as the god assigns, or laughs or weeps.

NOTHING IN LIFE CAN GIVE ME JOY.

O darkness, now my light, O Erebus, now sole brightness to me, take me, oh! take me, a wretch no longer worthy to behold the gods or men, creatures of a day: me they naught avail. Shakespeare ("King John,” act iii., sc. 4) says-— "There's nothing in the world can make me joy; Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale

Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;

And bitter shame hath spoil'd the world's sweet taste,
That it yields naught but shame and bitterness."

POWER OF THE GODS.

THE WEAKER GIVES WAY TO THE STRONGER.

For all that is terrible and all that is mighty gives way to higher power; for this reason the snow-faced winters yield place to summer with its beauteous fruits, and the dark circle of the night retires that the day with his white steeds may flame forth in orient light; the fury of the fierce blasts lulls and leaves a calm on the tempestuous deep: nay, even all-subduing sleep unbinds his chain nor always holds us captive.

Shakespeare (“Troilus and Cressida," act i., sc. 3) says—
"The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order."

SO TO HATE AS TO BE AGAIN A FRIEND.

For this wisdom I have learned, that our enemy is only to be so far hated by us as one who, perchance, may again be our friend, and that I should so far wish to aid my friend as if he were not always to remain so; for the haven of friendship is not always secure to the majority of mankind.

PRIDE.

For the seer declared that unwieldy and senseless strength is wont to sink in ruin, crushed by the offended gods, when man of mortal birth as

If a god foil him, even the dastard shall escape pires with pride beyond a mortal. the brave man's vengeance.

THE UNHAPPY.

THE IMPOTENT OF MIND.

For the impotent of mind, while they hold in their hands a treasure, know it not till it be

Shakespeare ("Much Ado about Nothing," act iv., sc. 1)

For it is base to wish for length of life when there is no hope of a change of ills. What pleas-snatched from them. ure can day alternating with day present, when it does nothing but either add or take away from saysthe necessity of dying? I would not buy at any price the man who deludes himself with vain hopes. No, to live with glory or with glory die, this is the brave man's part.

GRATITUDE.

It becomes a man, if he hath received aught grateful to his mind, to bear it in remembrance; it is kindness that gives birth to kindness: when

"For it so falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost,
Why then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours."

GOD DOES EVERYTHING FOR MANKIND. I then would say that the gods devised both this and everything else always for mankind.

SOSICRATES.

SOSICRATES, a comic poet, whose time is unknown.

THE BEAM IN OUR OWN EYE.

We are quick to spy the evil conduct of others; but when we ourselves do the same, we are not aware of it.

SUSARION.

MARRIED LIFE v. BACHELORHOOD.

Hear, ye people! Susarion, son of Philinus, of the village of Tripodiscus in Megaris, says this"Women are an evil; but yet, O fellow citizens!

we cannot conduct our household affairs without this evil. For to marry and not to marry is equally evil."

THEOCRITUS.

FLOURISHED ABOUT B.C. 272.

So, too, Pope (Past. iv.)—

"Nor rivers winding through the vales below,
So sweetly warble, or so sweetly flow."

THE WISH OF A LOVER.

Would that I were a humming bee, and could fly to thy cave, creeping through the ivy and the fern, with which thou art covered in. Now I know Cupid a powerful god.

This is like the passage in Psalms (lv. 6)-"Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." And Pope (Past. iii. 88) says

"I know thee, Love; on foreign mountains bred. Wolves gave thee suck, and savage tigers fed."

It may be compared with the celebrated passage in Shakespeare ("Merchant of Venice," act v., sc. 1)—

I shall not go thither, here are oaks, here is the THEOCRITUS, the most famous of all the pastoral galingale, here bees hum sweetly around their poets, a native of Syracuse, was the son of Praxa-hives; here are two springs of coolest water, here goras and Philinna. He was the contemporary of birds warble on the trees, nor is there any shade Aratus, Callimachus, and Nicander. He celebrates equal to that beside thee, and the pine showers the younger Hiero; but his great patron was its cones from on high. Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, of whom he speaks in terms of high commendation. Of his personal history we know nothing further. He was the creator of bucolic poetry as a branch of Greek, and, through imitators such as Virgil, of Roman literature. His pastorals have furnished models for all succeeding poets, and are remarkable for their simplicity-very often elegant, but sometimes approaching to rudeness. Thirty Idyls bear his name; but it may be doubted whether they were all produced by the same poet.

THE SWEET MURMURING OF THE WOODS.

Sweet is the music, O goat-herd, of yon whispering pine to the fountains, and sweetly, too, is thine, breathed from thy pipe.

Pope (Past. iv. 80) says

"In some still evening, when the whispering breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies among the trees."

And again, in the same Pastoral

"Thyrsis, the music of that murmuring spring Is not so mournful as the strains you sing." Virgil (Eclog. viii. 22) speaks of the "whispering pines." THE MURMURING OF THE BROOKLET. Sweeter, good shepherd, thy song than yonder gliding down of waters from the rock above.

Thus Virgil (Eclog. v. 83)-"Nor am I so much charmed by the music of the waves beat back from the shore, nor of the streamlets as they rush along the rocky valleys."

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold."

THE DOG OF POLYPHEMUS.

Polyphemus! the shepherdess Galatea pelts thy flock with apples, calling thee a rude clown, insensible to love; and thou lookest not at her, pining in wretchedness, but sittest playing sweet strains on thy pipe. See, again she is pelting thy dog, which follows to watch thy sheep. He barks, looking towards the sea; the beauteous waves soft murmuring show him running to and fro along the beach. Take heed lest he leap not on her, coming fresh from the sea-wave, and tear her fair flesh. But the soft morning comes and goes like the dry thistle-down when summer glows. She pursues him who flies her, flies her pursuer, and moves the landmarks of love's boundaries. For, Polyphemus, what is not lovely often seems lovely to the lover. Virgil (Eclog. iii. 64) says

"Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella." "Galatea, the wanton girl, pelts me with apples." The coquettishness of woman is well expressed by Terence.