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an erasure has not brought into perfect shape, and which has not been polished to a nicety like the sculptor's statue.

A POET.

For doubtless he will obtain the reward and

SUPERFLUITY.

Everything that is superfluous flows out of the mind, like a liquid out of a full vessel.

PROFIT AND PLEASURE.

To gain the applause of all, what is useful must fame of a poet, if he shall never submit to the bar-be mixed with the agreeable, and they must never ber Licinus a head not to be cured by the crop of be separated. three Anticyras.

Plato (Ion. c. 5, 534, B.) says of a poet:

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"For a poet is a light thing, with wings, sacred, unable to compose poetry till he is inspired, and out of his sober senses, his imagination being no longer under his control. For while a person is in complete possession of his wits, he cannot compose verses or speak oracularly."

CRITIC.

Therefore I shall act as whetstone, which, though unable to cut of itself, can give an edge: though I write nothing myself, I shall point out the way to others, and teach them the rule which ought to be their guide.

Isocrates being asked why he did not himself speak, when he taught others to be orators, answered (Plut. Vit. x., Or. p. 838, E.):-

"Whetstones are not themselves able to cut, but make iron

sharp and capable of cutting."

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I shall then recommend the poet who aims at being a skilful imitator to have nature before his eyes as the great pattern of life and manners, and to draw from this source the lineaments of truth. For it often happens that a comedy, full of beautiful sentiments and where the characters are strongly marked, though it be in other respects void of grace, good versification or art, succeeds better and charms the people more than pieces full of sound signifying nothing. The muse has bestowed genius, a full and rich diction on the Greeks, who court nothing but praise.

POETS.

It is the object of poets to instruct or to please, or to mingle the two together, instructing while they amuse. Do you wish to instruct? Be brief, that the mind may catch thy precepts and the sily retain them.

BEAUTIES MORE NUMEROUS.

But where beauties in a poem are more numer ous, I shall not be offended by a few faults, which rise from pardonable negligence and frailty, so natural to man.

HOMER.

I too am indignant when honest Homer nods, though in a long work it is allowable for sleep to creep over the writer.

POEMS AND PICTURES.

Poems are like pictures; some charm the nearer thou standest, others the farther thou art distant; this loves the shade, that likes a stronger light which dreads not the critic's piercing eye; this gives us pleasure for a single view, and that ten times repeated still is new.

POETASTERS.

Poets are not allowed to be in the second rank; neither gods nor men nor booksellers' shops permit it: all revolt against it.

MINERVA UNWILLING.

As for thee, I know that thou wilt neither do nor say anything against thy natural bent; thou hast too much good sense and too good an understanding. Yet if thou art tempted hereafter to write some work, let it be submitted to the judg ment of the critic Mæcius, to that of thy father and mine, and keep it in thy portfolio for nine years. While thy manuscript is unpublished, thou canst erase whatever thou choosest; but a work, like a word once uttered, cannot be recalled.

IS A GOOD POEM THE PRODUCTION OF ART OR

NATURE?

It has long been a question whether a high-class poem be the result of nature or art. For my own part, I do not see what art could do without the the assistance of each other, and ought always to aid of nature, nor nature without art; they require be closely united. Observe the wrestlers; if they be anxious to carry off the prize, they are not satisfied with having their body supple and slim; they exercise themselves, endure heat and cold.

A FLATTERER.

As those who are hired to mourn at funerals are more vociferous in their grief than those who are sincerely afflicted, in like manner the flatterer is much louder in his praise than the real friend. We are told that when men of high rank are prepared to honor any one with their friendship, they try them with wine, to see if they are worthy of this distinction.

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DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS was born at Aquinum, or at least resided the greater part of his life in that town. Of his history no facts have come down to us on which much dependence can be placed. He is said to have been the son of a freedman, and was much occupied for many years in declamation more for pleasure than profit, devoting the latter part of his life to the composition of satirical poetry. Some of his satires attracted the attention of the court, and Domitian appointed him, though he was nearly eighty years of age, under the semblance of honorable distinction, to the command of a body of troops that were quartered in the most remote district of Egypt, where he is said to have died from vexation and disgust. The extant works of Juvenal consist of sixteen

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Who could endure the Gracchi if they were to rail at the seditious mob? Who would not confound heaven with earth and sea with heaven, if Verres were to pretend to hate a thief, Milo a murderer? If Clodius were to decry adultery, Catiline accuse Cethegus of factious views? If Sylla's three pupils were to declaim against Sylla's proscriptions?

THE BAD.

There is wonderful unanimity among the dissolute.

THE POWERFUL ARE ACQUITTED.

The verdict acquits the raven, but condemns the dove.

The Germans say:

"We hang the paltry thief, but let the big go free." "One man may steal a horse, while another may not look over the hedge."

A WICKED MAN.

No one ever reached the climax of vice at one leap.

So Psalm lxix. 27:

"Add iniquity unto their iniquity."

Beaumont and Fletcher (" A King and no King," act v. sc. 4)

says:

"There is a method in man's wickedness,

It grows up by degrees."

And Sir P. Sydney (“ Arcadia,” bk. i.) :—

"There is no man suddenly either excellently good or extremely evil."

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ATHEISM.

That there are departed spirits and subterranean regions below Charon's pole, and filthy frogs in the Stygian pool, that so many souls are ferried across in one frail boat not even boys believe, except they be so young as not to be charged for their bath.

CHARACTER OF THE ROMANS.

What could I do at Rome? I cannot teach my lips to lie. If a book be bad, I cannot praise it and beg a copy. I am no astrologer; I neither will nor can promise a father's death: I have never examined the entrails of a toad for poison.

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bear. He stands in front of you and orders you to stand. Obey you must. For what can you do, when he who gives the orders is maddened with wine and at the same time stronger than you. "Whence do you come?" he thunders out. "With whose vinegar or beans are you stuffed? What cobbler has been feasting with you ou chopped leek or boiled sheep's head? Don't you answer? Speak or be kicked! Say where do you hang out, or in what beggar's stand shall I find you?" Whether you attempt to speak or retire They beat you and then in silence is all the same. make you to find bail to answer for the assault. This is a poor man's liberty.

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THE POOR.

Mark the prelude of this miserable fray, if fray it can be called, where he only cudgels and I only

DOWRY.

And 'twas her dower that winged the unerring dart.

TBSCRIPTION OF A RICH AND NOBLE WIFE.

A very phoenix upon earth, and rare as a black swan-who could endure a wife in which all excellencies are united? I would rather, far rather, marry a country girl of Venusia, than thee, O Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, if along with thy mightiness thou broughtest a proud and disdainful spirit, and countest as part of thy dower the innumerable triumphs of thy family. Away, I beg, with thy Hannibal and Syphax conquered in his camp-troop, with the whole of thy Carthage.

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ALL WISH TO KNOW.

All wish to know; but none the price will pay.

A WHITE CROW.

Yet he indeed was lucky, a greater rarity than a white crow.

TEACHERS.

Lightly lie the turf, ye gods, and void of weight, on our grandsires' shades, and round their urn may the fragrant crocus bloom and eternal spring, who maintained that a tutor should have the place and honor of a revered parent.

PEDIGREE.

What are the wondrous merits of a pedigree? What boots it, Ponticus, to be accounted of an ancient line and to display the painted faces of your ancestors?

A GENTLEMAN.

Though all the heroes of thy line bedeck thy halls, believe me, virtue alone is true nobility. Be a Paulus, Cossus, Drusus in moral character. Let the bright examples of their lives be placed when thou art consul, take the place of thy rods. Let that, before the images of thy ancestors. Oh give me inborn worth! If thou really merit the character of blameless integrity, of staunch love of justice both in words and deeds, then I recognize thy right to be esteemed a gentleman.

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"You are the populace," he says, "the very dregs of the people; not a man of you can tell me where his father was born-but I am a Cecropid!" Long life to thee, and mayest thou revel in the delights of such a descent! Yet from the lowest of the people thou wilt find a Roman distinguished for his eloquence. It is he that usually defends the suits of the ignorant noble. From the toga'd

"Put on a lock; keep her in confinement." But crowd will come one that can solve the knotty who is to keep the keepers themselves?

ITCH OF SCRIBBLING.

An incurable itch of scribbling clings to many, and grows inveterate in their distempered breast.

TO PAINT A CHARACTER.

points of law and the enigmas of the statutes."

COMMON SENSE.

For in that high state a perception of the wants and wishes of others rarely shall we find.

Seneca (De Benef. i. 12) says:

"In the conferring of kindnesses let there be a due percep

Such an one as I cannot paint in words, though tion of the wants of others; let time, place, and parties be I can body him forth in my mind's eye.

REPETITION.

It is repetition, like hashed cabbage served for each repast, that wears out the schoolmaster's life.

Shakespeare (" King John," act ili. sc. 4) says:

"Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man."

taken into consideration."

TO BUILD ON THE FAME OF OTHERS.

It is sad to build on another's fame, lest the whole pile fall to the ground when the supporting pillars are withdrawn. Stretched on the ground, the vine's weak tendrils try to clasp the elms they drop from. Prove thyself brave, a faithful guardian, an incorruptible judge. If ever thou be summoned witness in a dubious and uncertain cause,

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And Shakespeare says:

"We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good: so find we profit
By losing of our prayers."

And Roscommon thus tells the story of Milo:-
"Remember Milo's end-

Wedged in the timber which he strove to rend."

THE POOR.

It is rarely that a marauder pays his visit to a garret.

GOLD.

The traveller with empty pockets will sing even in the bandit's face. The prayers that are generally first offered up and best known in our temples, are that our riches and wealth may increase, that our money-chest be the largest in the whole Forum. But no aconite is drunk from earthenware. Then is the time to dread it when thou quaffest from jewelled cups and the ruddy Setine glows in the broad gold.

Ovid (Nux. 43) says to the same effect:

"Thus the traveller who knows that he possesses anything

on his journey in safety."

A VERBOSE EPISTLE.

I had rather that vile Thersites were thy sire, of value is afraid of being waylaid: the empty-handed goes so thou wert like Achilles, and couldst wield Vulcanian arms, than that Achilles should be thy father, and thou be like to vile Thersites. And yet, however far thou tracest thy descent and name back, thou dost but derive thy origin from the infamous sanctuary. The first of thy ancestors, whoever he was, was either a shepherd or else-what I would rather not mention.

THE TONGUE.

The tongue is the vile slave's vilest part.

YOUTH.

For the short-lived bloom and contracted span of brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away! While we are drinking and calling for garlands, ointments, and women, old age steals swiftly on with noiseless step.

It is thus translated by Gifford:

"The noiseless foot of Time steals swiftly by,
And ere we dream of manhood age is nigh.”

BLINDNESS OF MAN.

In every clime, from Gades to Ganges' distant stream, few can distinguish between what is really a blessing and its opposite, freed from the clouds of mental error. For what is there that we either seek or shun from the dictates of reason? What is there that thou beginnest so auspiciously that thou dost not repent of thy undertaking and the accomplishment of thy wishes? Too indulgent heaven has overturned whole families by granting their owners' prayers. We beg for what will injure us in peace and injure us in war. To many a full and rapid flow of eloquence has proved fatal. Even strength itself is fatal. Milo, trusting to his muscles, met his death.

Cicero (De Fin. i. 13) says:

A huge, wordy letter came to-day
From Capreæ.

PUBLIC CORRUPTION.

Ever since we sold our votes to none, the people have thrown aside all anxiety for the public weal. For that sovereign people that once gave away military commands, consulships, legions, everything, now bridles its desires, and anxiously prays only for two things-bread and the games of the circus.

LOVE OF POWER.

'Tis nature this; even those who want the will Pant for the dreadful privilege to kill.

HIGH FORTUNE.

For he, who wished for excessive honors and prayed for excessive wealth, was raising, stage above stage, a tottering tower, only that the fall might be the greater, "with hideous ruin and combustion down."

Johnson says:

"What gave great Villiers to th' assassin's knife,
And fix'd disease on Harley's closing life?
What murder'd Wentworth, and what exiled Hyde,
By kings protected and to kings allied?
What but the wish indulged in courts to shine,
And power too great to keep or to resign."

CICERO AND DEMOSTHENES.

"How fortunate a natal day was thine,

In that late consulate, O Rome, of mine!" He might have scorned the swords of Antony if he had uttered nothing better than this. I had rather write poems, a common jest, than thee, divine Philippic, of distinguished fame, that second

"The granting of desires has overthrown not only single scroll! A cruel fate, too, carried him off, whom

individuals but whole families."

Athens used to admire, while his eloquence over

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