awed the fierce democracy and "fulminèd over | skin, a hide with scruff overgrown, and flabby Greece." With inauspicious gods and adverse cheeks, and such wrinkles as many a grandam ape fate was he born, whom his father, blear-eyed is seen to scrape in her wizened jowl in Tabraca's with the grime of the glowing mass sent from the thick woods. coal, the pincers, sword-forging anvil, and sooty Vulcan, to study rhetoric. So much greater is the thirst for fame than generous deeds. For who is willing to embrace virtue herself, if thou takest away its reward? And yet, in former days, this desire of a few for glory has been the ruin of their native land; that longing for immortality and those monumental inscriptions to grace the marble that guard their ashes; though to rend these the destructive strength of the barren fig-tree is sufficient. Since even to sepulchres themselves fate hath fore-ordained their day of doom. Weigh the dust of Hannibal. How many pounds wilt thou find in that mighty general! Yet this is he who will not be confined within the limits of Africa, lashed by the Mauritanian ocean, and stretching even to the steaming Nile, and then again to the races of the Ethiopes and their tall elephants. Byron thus expresses the same idea:- "Weighed in the balance, hero dust GLORY. What then ensued? Oh glory! this self-same man is conquered, and flying with headlong haste to exile, sits, a mighty and strange suppliant, at the palace door of the Bithynian king till his majesty be pleased to wake. That soul, whose frown alarmed the world, shall be put an end to neither by swords, nor stones, nor javelins, but a ring will be the avenger of Canna's fatal field and its mighty carnage. Fly, madman, climb the rugged Alps that thou mayest please the rhetoricians and be a theme at school! One world was too small for the youth of Pella. He gasps for breath within the narrow limits of the universe, poor soul, as though immured in Gyaros' small rock or tiny Seriphos. When, however, he shall have entered within Babylon's brick walls, he will be content with a sarcophagus. Death alone proclaims the true dimensions of our puny frames. Valerius Maximus (viii. 14) puts these words into the mouth of Alexander: "Ah me miserable! that I have not yet got possession of one world." DESCRIPTION OF OLD AGE. "Life, length of life! give many years, O Jupiter." This thou prayest for whether sick or well. But with what unceasing and grievous ills is old age loaded? First of all, a face hideous and ghastly, changed from its former self; for a smooth Euripides (Fr. Incert. 48) — "Oh old age, in what hopes of pleasure thou indulgest? Every man wishes to reach thee: and having made trial, re pents: as there is nothing worse in mortal life." Antiphanes (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 570, M.) says: "Our life much resembles wine; when there is only a little remaining, it becomes vinegar: for all the ills of human nature crowd to old age as if it were a workshop." Antiphanes (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 514, M.) says: "Oh old age, how much desired and blest thou art by all men, then when thou art present, how sad and full of misery! no one speaks well of thee, but every one, who speaks wisely, speaks ill of thee." Compare Hamlet's speech to Polonius, and "As You Like It" (act ii. sc. 7):- "His big manly voice, Turning again towards childish treble, pipes And whistles in its sound." Mrs. Thrale (" Three Warnings "): "The tree of deepest root is found Least willing still to quit the ground; "Twas therefore said, by ancient sages, That love of life increased with years So much, that in our later stages BEAUTY AND MODESTY. For rarely do we meet in one combined A beauteous body and a virtuous mind. PRAYER TO THE GODS. Must, then, men pray for nothing? If thou take my advice, thou wilt allow the gods themselves to decide what is best for us and most suitable for our circumstances. For instead of our imaginary bliss, the gods will give us real good. In truth, man is dearer to the gods than to himself. Led on by the impulse of our feelings, by blind and headlong passion, we petition for wife and children; but they alone know what kind of wife and children they will prove. That, however, you may have something to pray for and may present at their shrines thy pious offerings, be this thy prayer: Vouchsafe me health of body and peace of mind; pray for a firm soul, proof against the threats of death, that reckons the closing scene of life among nature's kindly boons, that can patiently endure the labors of life, that is able to restrain anger and desire alike, and counts the cares and toils of Hercules to be far preferable to the wanton nights, rich banquets, and downy couch of Sardanapalus. I teach thee what blessings thou canst bestow on thyself. The only certain road to peace of mind is through a virtuous life. If we were wise, we should see, O Fortune, nothing divine in thee; it is we ourselves that have made thee a goddess, and placed thy throne in heaven. Socrates in Plato (Alcib. ii. 5): "That poet, Alcibiades, was not far from being a wise person, who, finding himself connected with some senseless friends, doing and praying for things which it would be better for them to be without, though they thought otherwise, made use of a prayer in common for all to this effect: 'O Jupiter, our king, grant to us whatever is good, whether we pray for it or not; but avert what is evil, even though we offer our prayers to obtain it.'"' And in respect to children, Socrates says (Alcib. ii. 5):— "And in regard to children, you will find in the same way how that some persons, after having prayed that they might be blessed with them, have, when they are born, found themselves overwhelmed in the greatest calamities and miseries. For some, whose children are given over to work all uncleanness with greediness,' have passed their whole lives in sorrow: while others, though their children were well-behaved, having lost them, have felt the sorrows of life not less acutely than the others, wishing that their children had never been born." Shakespeare (" Antony and Cleopatra," act ii. sc. 1): So Milton says:→ "To know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom." THE GOOD. THE Good, alas, ARE FEW! "The valued file,” Less than the gates of Thebes, the mouths of Nile! I should with reason despise that man who knows how much Atlas soars above all other be, yet certainly it is slow-paced. If, therefore, All powerful though the wrath of the gods may mountains in Africa, and yet is ignorant how much a small purse differs from an iron-bound chest. "Know thyself" came down from heaven to be impressed in living characters upon thy heart, and even pondered in thy thoughts. KNOW THYSELF. In great concerns and small, one must know one's own measure even when going to buy a fish, lest thou shouldst long for a mullet, when thou hast only money for a gudgeon in thy purse. What is to be the end of thee if thy throat widens as thy pockets shrink; when thy patrimony and whole fortune is squandered on thy belly, that deep abyss, which can hold everything, land, cattle, horses, silver, gold. PLEASURES. Our very sports by repetition tire, But rare delight breeds ever new desire. AVARICE. Some men do not make fortunes for the sake of living, but, blinded by avarice, live for the sake of money only. REMORSE. Man, wretched man, whene’er he stoops to sin, Feels, with the act, a strong remorse within. CONSCIENCE. they prepare to punish all the guilty, when will find that the divinity may be appeased by prayers: they come to me? But, besides, I may perchance it is not unusual with him to pardon such perjuries as these. Many commit the same crimes with results widely different. One man is crucified as a reward of his villany, another ascends a throne. Euripides (Fr. Incert. 2) says: afraid-in front, nor any other wicked man, but creeping "Vengeance advancing boldly will not strike you-be not silently and with slow foot, will grasp the scoundrels when she falls in with them." Young says: "One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; MONEY. And money is bewailed with deeper sighs, Than friends or kindred, and with louder cries. PHILOSOPHY. Divine philosophy weeds from our breast, by degrees, full many a vice and every kind of error. She is the first to teach us what is right: for revenge is ever the abject pleasure of an abject mind. Be assured of this, since no one delights more in revenge than poor weak womankind. Yet why should you imagine that those have escaped whom their mind, weighed down by a By the verdict of his own breast no guilty man is sense of guilt, keeps in constant terror and lashes ever acquitted. MODERATION. Let us lay aside all inordinate complaints. A man's grief ought never to show itself beyond due bounds, but be proportioned to the blow it has received. WISDOM BY EXPERIENCE. Yet we deem those too happy who, with daily life for their instructress, have learnt of old experience to endure the inconveniences of life and not shake off the yoke. with an invisible thong, while conscience, as their tormentor, plies a scourge unmarked by human eyes? Nay, fearful is their punishment, and far more terrible than those which the sanguinary Cæditius invents or Rhadamanthus; bearing, as they do, in their own breast, day and night, a witness against themselves. WICKEDNESS DEVISED IS DONE. For, IN THE EYE OF HEAVEN, a wicked deed Shakespeare ("King John," act iv. sc. 2) says:- Byron says: "What is the sin which is not Sin in itself? Can circumstances make sin "Man punishes the action, but God the intention." THE NATURE OF WICKED MEN. THE JEWS. Some, whose fate it is to have a father who reverences the Sabbath, bow down to nothing except the clouds and the Divinity of heaven; regarding with equal loathing the flesh of man and swine, following the tradition of their fathers. Soon, too, The nature of the wicked is in general fickle and they submit to circumcision. Taught to deride variable. While they are engaged in their evil the Roman ritual, they study, observe, and reverdeeds, they have resolution, and more than enough. ence those Jewish statutes found in the mystic When they have accomplished their foul acts, then | volume of Moses-such as never point the road or it is that they begin to feel the difference between make the fountain known except to the circumright and wrong. cised alone. But their bigot father taught them this, who whiled away each seventh revolving day in sloth, and kept aloof from life's daily duties. NATURE FIXED. Incapable of change, Nature still HEAVEN NEITHER DEAF NOR BLIND. AVARICE. 66 What does the world say! How sounds the loud trumpet of slanderous fame ?" "What mat Thou wilt exult in the bitter punishment of theters that to me ?" says he; "I had rather have a hated scoundrel, and at length with joy confess that no one of the gods is either deaf or blind like Tiresias. lupin's pod added to my store than that the whole neighborhood should praise me, if I am to be cursed with the scant produce of a small estate." Diphilus (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 1091, M.) says: 514 FEELING HEARTS. Nature proclaims that she has given mankind feeling hearts by giving us tears. This is the In greatest boon that she has bestowed upon us. this way she bids us sympathize with the misfortunes of a sorrowing friend, bewail the prisoner's fate or the misery of the orphan, compelled to summon his guardian to court that he may recover his inheritance, so soft his tresses and so bedewed with tears that thou wouldst doubt his sex and take him for a girl. It is as Nature bids, when we mourn some young maiden conveyed to the grave before her time, or some infant just shown on For what good earth and hurried to the tomb. man, who that is worthy of the mystic torch, such an one as Ceres' priest would have him be, ever deems the woes of others not his own? This it is that distinguishes us from the brute creation, and therefore we alone, gifted with superior powers and capable of things divine, fitted for the practice and reception of every useful art, have received from high heaven a moral sense denied to creatures prone and downward bent. In the beginning the Almighty Creator of this vast fabric breathed life in them, a reasoning soul in us, that mutual kindness might be lighted up in our hearts to return the good which others did us. BEARS AGREE. Bears, savage to others, are yet at peace among themselves. Theocritus (Idyll ix. 31) says, in like manner: comprised in 142 books, of these cnly 35 have descended, though we possess summaries of the rest. CHILDREN. Children, a bond of union than which the human heart feels none more endearing. WOMEN. To these persuasions was added the soothing behavior of their husbands themselves, who urged, in extenuation of the violence they had been tempted to commit, the excess of passion and the force of love: arguments than which there can be none more powerful to assuage the irritation of the female mind. THE BAD. Evil is fittest to consort with its like. FATHERLAND. Affection for the soil itself, which, in length of time, is acquired from habit. A KING. A king was a human being; from him a request might be obtained, whether right or wrong; with him there was room for favor, and for acts of kindness; he could be angry, and he could forgive: he knew a distinction between a friend and an enemy. LAW. Law is deaf, inexorable, calculated rather for the safety and advantage of the poor than of the “Cicala is dear to cicala, ant to ant, hawks to hawks; but rich, and admits of no relaxation or indulgence, if to me the Muse and song." It is the common proverb "Birds of a feather flock together." So Ecclesiasticus xiii. 16: "All flesh consorteth according to kind, and a man will cleave to his like." And again (xxvii. 10):— 66 The birds will return to their like." LIVIUS, the celebrated Roman historian, born at Patavium, the modern Padua, B.C. 59, in the consulship of Cæsar and Bibulus, spent the greater part of his life at Rome, where his literary talents gained him the patronage and friendship of Augustus. He must have enjoyed great influence at the imperial court, and became so distinguished child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." that a Spaniard, as Pliny (Ep. ii. 3) tells us, travelled from Cadiz to Rome solely for the purpose of seeing him, and when he had satisfied his curiosity, immediately returned home. He was married, and left at least two children. These are all the particulars that have come down to us respecting him. The only extant work of Livy is a History of Rome, extending from the foundation of the city to the death of Drusus, B.C. 9, which was The gratification of their wishes, as is generally the case, instantly begat disgust. PRESENT SUFFERINGS. Men feel more sensibly the weight of present sufferings than of such as exist only in apprehension. GREAT ANIMOSITIES. most ready on every occasion to undertake the Great contests generally excite great animosi- largest share of toil and danger, is the least active in plundering. ties. PRIDE. That the punishments which attended pride and cruelty, though they might come late, were not light. LIBERTY. So difficult is it to preserve moderation in the asserting of liberty, while, under the pretence of a desire to balance rights, each elevates himself in such a manner as to depress another; for men are apt, by the very measures which they adopt to free themselves from fear, to become the objects of fear to others, and to fasten upon them the burden of injustice which they have thrown off from their own shoulders, as if there existed in nature a perpetual necessity either of doing or of suffering injury. PRIVATE INTEREST. It results from the nature of the human mind, that he, who addresses the public with a view to his own particular benefit, is studious of rendering himself more generally agreeable than he who has no other object but the advantage of the public. A GOOD NAME. The loss of reputation and the esteem of mankind are of importance beyond what can be estimated. FACTIONS. Factions which have proved, and will ever continue to prove, a more deadly cause of downfall to most states than either foreign wars, or famine, or pestilence, or any other of those evils, which men are apt to consider as the severest of public calamities and the effects of divine vengeance. NECESSITY. Necessity is the last and strongest weapon. REWARDS. There was nothing which men would not undertake, if for great attempts great rewards were proposed. MERIT. Success, as on many other occasions, attended merit. PUBLIC FAVORS. Honors and public favors sometimes offer themselves the more readily to those, who have no ambition for them. PLEASURE. Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection. WAR. War has its laws as well as peace. FORTUNE. When Fortune is determined upon the ruin of a people, she can so blind them as to render them insensible to danger even of the greatest magnitude. WOE. Woe to the vanquished! ADVERSITY. Adversity reminds men of religion. So Psalm Lxxviii. 3: "I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed." WOMAN. The merest trifles will often affect the female mind. THOSE ON A LEVEL WITH US. It is certain that scarcely any man can bear to be surpassed by those nearest their own level. FATE. As it frequently happens that men, by endeavoring to shun their fate, run directly upon it. THE BRAVE. The event afforded a proof that fortune assists the brave. ENVY. Envy, like flame, soars upwards. THE FAVOR OF GOD. The issue of every human undertaking depends chiefly on men's acting either with or without the favor of the gods. KINGS. Kings being not only free from every kind of impediment, but masters of circumstances and seasons, make all things subservient to their designs, themselves uncontrolled by any. THE GAULS. In their first efforts they are more than men, yet in their last they are less than women. THE ASSAILANT. He who makes the attack has ever more confidence and spirit than he who stands on the defensive. DEPRESSING THE SUPERIOR. The practice of depressing the merit of his superior-a practice of the basest nature, and which has become too general, in consequence of the faIt is generally the case, that the man who is vorable success so often attending it. THE BRAVE MAN. |