Moschus (iii. 110) thus speaks of death:

"We, who are the great, the powerful, and the wise, when we are dead, without hearing in hollow earth, sleep soundly a long, endless sleep, without waking." Montgomery thus alludes to loss of friends:

"Friend after friend departs,

Who hath not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts,
That finds not here an end."

This eulogy of Quinctilius reminds us of Ben Jonson's epitaphs on the Countess of Pembroke and Elizabeth L. H. :—

EPITAPH ON COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. "Underneath this marble hearse

Lies the subject of all verseSidney's sister, Pembroke's mother. Death, ere thou hast slain another Learn'd and fair and good as she, Time shall throw his dart at thee."

EPITAPH ON ELIZABETH L. H.

"Underneath this stone doth lie, As much beauty, as could die. Which in life did harbor give To more virtue than doth live."

PATIENCE.

It is hard to bear, but patience renders more tolerable evils to which we can apply no remedy. Archilochus, in a fragment, thus speaks of the effect of patience (Fragm. 8, S.):

"But, my friend, the gods have given unyielding patience

as a medicine for incurable evils."

Pindar says somewhat to the same effect (Pyth. ii. 171):— "It eases me when I bear with patience the yoke upon my neck."

There is a fragment of Sophocles (Tereus, xi. 2) to the same effect:

"But yet it is proper for us, miserable mortals as we are, to bear patiently what is inflicted on us by the gods." Shakespeare ("Much Ado about Nothing," act v. sc. 1)

says:

"Tis all men's office to speak patience

To those that wring under the load of sorrow;
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,
To be so moral, when he shall endure
The like himself."

A POET'S FREEDOM FROM CARE.

So long as I am the favorite of the muses, I shall deliver over sadness and fears to be wafted by the boisterous winds to the Cretan sea.

Homer (Odyss. viii. 408) speaks of words being carried off by the winds:

"If I have uttered a single irritating word, may the winds take it up and hurry it off immediately."

Euripides (Her. Fur. 650) says somewhat to the same effect:"I hate old age: may it go to the waves and be drowned." Marlowe ("Lust's Dominion") says:

"Are these your fears: thus blow them into air."

A POET'S POWER.

Without the inspiration of the muse my efforts

as a poet can do nothing.

Virgil (En. ix. 446) says somewhat to the same effect:"Fortunate both, if my verses have any power."

Moschus (iii. 132) says:

Anaxilaus, who flourished B.C. 360, in his Neottis (Athen. xiii. 558, A.), speaks thus feelingly of such dangers:"The man, who has ever been enamoured of a mistress, will tell you that there is no race more full of wickedness. For what fearful dragon, what Chimæra vomiting fire, or Charybdis, or three-headed Scylla, that sea-dog, or Sphinx, or hydra, or serpent, or winged harpy, or lioness could surpass in voracity that execrable race?"

PRAYER FOR HEALTH AND SOUNDNESS OF MIND.

Son of Latona, grant me a sound mind in a sound body, that I may enjoy what I possess, and not pass a dishonored old age without the innocent pleasures of music.

We may expect that such a prayer as this would be not uncommon, and accordingly we find it in a fragment of Menander (Fr. Com. Gr., p. 922, M.):—

"Let us pray to all the Olympian gods and goddesses to grant us safety, health, many blessings, and the enjoyment of what we now possess.

"Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor: this is the gift of God." The ancients had great enjoyment in music, thus Euripides (Her. Fur. 676) says:

"Never may I live without the pleasures of music, and ever may I be crowned as a poet. Still do I, an aged bard, celebrate Mnemosyne."

Sir W. Temple speaks of health in these terms:

"Socrates used to say that it was pleasant to grow old with good health and a good friend, and he might have reason: a man may be content to live while he is no trouble to himself or his friends; but after that, it is hard if he be not content to die. I knew and esteemed a person abroad, who used to say,

a man must be a mean wretch who desired to live after three

score years old. But so much, I doubt, is certain, that in life as in wine, be that will drink it good must not drain it to the dregs. Therefore men in the health and vigor of their age should endeavor to fill their lives with reading, with travel, with the best conversation and the worthiest actions, either in public or private stations, that they may have something agreeable to feed on when they are old, by pleasing remembrances."

APOLLO'S LYRF.

Charming shell, grateful to the feasts of Jove, thou softener of every anxious care.

This reminds us of what Homer (Il. i. 602) says of the lyre:"They feasted and all had an equal share of the feast, enjoying the music of the very beautiful lyre on which Apollo played."

Gray ("Elegy in a Churchyard," St. 12) says:

"Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre."

Milton ("Comus," 1. 476):-

"How charming is divine philosophy!

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose:
But musical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets
Where no rude surfeit reigns."

THE CHANGES OF LIFE.

God can raise on high the meanest serf and bring

DANGERS OF LOVE.

Unhappy youth! how art thou lost, In what a sea of trouble tost!

the dash of an eagle, snatches the imperial diadem from this man, and delights to place it on the head of some other.

The vicissitudes of the life of man was a common theme for the poets.

In Homer (Odyss. xvi. 211) we have:

"It is an easy task for the gods, who rule the wide heaven, either to raise or cast down mortal man."

And, again, Archilochus (Fr. 49, S.):

"All things depend on the gods; often do they raise men from misfortunes who are reclining on the dark earth; often do they throw down those who are walking proudly; then many evils come, and they wander in lack of food and out of their senses."

And, again, Aristophanes (Lysistr. 772):

"The loud-thundering Jupiter shall turn things upside down."

Spenser (Faery Queen ") says:

"He maketh kings to sit in sovereignty;

He maketh subjects to their power obey;
He pulleth down, he setteth up on high;

He gives to this, from that he takes away;
For all we have is his: what he will do he may."

FORTUNE WORSHIPPED BY ALL.

The rude Dacian, the roving Scythian, states and races, the warlike land of Latium, the mothers of barbarian kings and tyrants clothed in purple, dread thee, lest thou with scornful foot shouldst upset the stately pillar of their fortune; or lest the swarming rabble arouse the lazy citizens to arms! to arms! and disturb the public peace. Stern Necessity ever stalks before thee, bearing, in her grasp of bronze, huge spikes and wedges; the clenching cramp and molten lead are also there.

SUMMER FRIENDS.

But the faithless herd and perjured harlot shrink back; summer friends vanish when the cask is drained to the dregs, their necks refusing to halve the yoke that sorrow draws.

Pindar (Nem. x. 148) has the same idea:

"In the midst of misfortunes few men are so faithful in friendship as to be willing to share the anxieties that are their attendants."

DANGER OF GIVING OFFENCE IN WRITING CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.

Thou art employed on a work full of danger and hazard, and art treading upon fires concealed by smouldering ashes.

This idea of treading on covered fires is proverbial, and often used both by Greek and Roman writers. Thus Callimachus (Epigr. 45):

"There is something, by Pan, concealed, yea there is, by Bacchus, some fire under that heap of ashes."

The lexicographer Suidas thus explains it:"Thou walkest through the fire: we must say this of those who like to mingle in hazardous matters full of danger." And Propertius (i. 5, 5):—

"Unhappy! thou art hurrying to a knowledge of the most portentous misfortunes, and in thy misery art walking over hidden fires."

Shakespeare ("Henry VI.," Part I. act iii. sc. 1) says:"This late dissension, grown betwixt the peers, Burns under feigned ashes of forged love."

A GREAT ADVOCATE.

Pollio, thou noble advocate of the disconsolate prisoner, and guide of the senate in a dangerous crisis.

CHARACTER OF САТО.

And see the whole world subdued except the stern soul of Cato.

Seneca (De Provid. 2) thus alludes to the character of Cato:

"I do not see what more beautiful sight Jupiter nas on ing upright amidst the ruins of the nation. Though, he says, earth than Cato, while his party is repeatedly defeated, standall things should submit to the rule of one individual, the earth be guarded by his legions, the seas by his fleets, and the sea-ports occupied by the soldiers of Cæsar, Cato has a means to free himself from all these."

AVARICE REPROVED.

There is no brilliancy in silver when hidden in

"Men, like butterflies,

Show not their mealy wings but to the summer;
And not a man, for being simply man,
Hath any honor, but honor, for those honors
That are without him, as place, riches, favor,-
Prizes of accident as oft of merit;

Which, when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that leaned on them as slippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall."

This is our rhyming proverb:

"In time of prosperity, friends will be plenty;
In time of adversity, not one in twenty."

The Greek proverb (Zenob. iv. 12) is: “ Boil pot, boil friendship."

THE WICKEDNESS OF MANKIND.

What crimes have we, the hard age of iron, not dared to commit? from what has fear of heaven restrained us?

THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER.

Search not too curiously where the belated rose lingers.

Moore has this idea (" Last Rose of Summer "):

""Tis the last rose of summer

Left blooming alone."

if it does not throw lustre around by moderate

use.

Seneca (Ep. 94) says something to the same effect:"Wilt thou know how deceitful is the glare that bewitches our eyes? There is nothing more foul or dingy than the appearance of gold and silver, so long as they lie buried in their mould; there is nothing more shapeless, while they are passing through the fire and being separated from the dross." Shakespeare ("Venus and Adonis ") says:

"Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets;
But gold that's put to use more gold begets."

Thou must leave thy lands, house, and beloved wife, nor shall any of those trees follow thee, their short-lived master, except the hated cypress.

Philistion, who flourished A.D. 7 (apud Stobæum F. S. 330), says:

"Though thou art the lord of ten thousand acres of land,

when dead thou shalt become the lord of three or four cubits." And Shakespeare ("Henry VI.," Part III. act v. sc. 2) says:

"My parks, my walks, my manors that I had,
Even now forsake me; and of all my lands
Is nothing left me but my body's length."

A PEACEFUL life.

The man caught by a storm in the wide Egean, when the moon is hid by dark clouds, and no star shines to guide him certainly on his way, prays for ease; the Thracian, fierce in battle, prays for ease; the quivered Parthians, Grosphus, pray for ease-a blessing not to be bought by gems, purple, nor gold. Ease is not venal; for it is not treasures, nor yet the enjoyment of high power, that can still the uneasy tumults of the soul, and drive away the cares that hover around the fretted ceilings of the great.

Varro (in Anthol. Lat. Burm. i. p. 512) says:

"The breast is not freed from cares by the possession of treasures or gold; neither the mountains of the Persians nor the palace of the rich Croesus relieve the mind from anxiety and superstition."

Quarles ("Search after Happiness ") says:-
"One digs to Pluto's throne, thinks there to find
Her
raked
grace,
in gold: another's mind
up
Mounts to the court of kings, with plumes of honor
And feather'd hopes, hopes there to seize upon her:
A third unlocks the painted gate of pleasure,
And ransacks there to find this peerless treasure.'
So Proverbs xiii. 7 :-

"There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great ricnes.' And Ecclesiastes v. 11:

"The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."

CARE.

Why are we, whose strength is but for a day, so full of schemes? Why do we change our own for

lands warmed by another sun? What exile is able to fly from his own thoughts? Care, the child of vicious indulgence, mounts with us the brazenbeaked galleys, and leaves not the troops of horsemen, fleeter than stag and east wind driving the rack before it. Let the mind, which is now glad, hate to carry its care beyond the present, and temper the bitters of life with easy smile. There is no unalloyed happiness in this world.

Patrocles, the tragic poet, who flourished B.C. 300 (Stob. iii. 3) says:

"Why, pray, do we foolishly occupy our minds with so many projects, pursuing them in quick succession-why do into the future, while we know not the fate impending close we imagine that we can accomplish all things, looking far upon us, and see not our miserable end ?" Euripides (Alex. Fr. 3) says:

"So that there is no man happy in every respect." Seneca (De Tranquil. Anim. 2) says:

"The sick in mind and body can suffer nothing long, thinking that mere change of scene will prove a remedy to their illness. For this reason they traverse foreign countries and coast along distant shores, while their changeable disposition, always averse to the present, ransacks sea and land for health. 'Now let us visit Campania.' Then they tire of that luxurious land. Let us go to savage regions, the forests of the Bruttii and Lucani."" Milton ("Paradise Lost," b. iv. l. 21) says:

"Nor from hell

One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place."

MAN LIVES CARELESS OF THE FUTURE.

I importune the gods for nothing more, nor do I dun my powerful patron for more extensive possessions, quite satisfied with my dear little Sabine farm. Day presses on the heels of day, and new moons hasten to their wane, while thou, forgetful of the tomb on the brink of which thou art standing, continuest to make bargains for marble slabs to adorn the house thou art erecting.

Ammianus, the epigrammatist, who flourished probably in the reign of Nero (Anthol. Pal. II., p. 422) says:

"One morning follows another, then, while we are heedless of our coming doom, suddenly the dark one will step in." And Cowley says:

"Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high,
Thou who art underground to lie ?

Thou sowest and plantest, but no fruit must see.
For Death himself is reaping thee."

THE GRAVE.

The earth opens impartially her bosom to re ceive the beggar and the prince.

Menander says:

66 All men have a common grave." Pindar also (Nem. vii. 27) :

"Rich and poor hurry on to the grave."

HATRED OF THE VULGAR.

I hate the uninitiated rabble and drive them far from me. Be silent and listen.

FATE.

Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low; her capacious urn is constantly shaking the names of all mankind.

Cowper, in the "Tale of the Raven" (1. 36) says:—
"Fate steals along with ceaseless tread,
And meets us oft when least we dread;