BEGGARY. To have nothing is not poverty, but beggary. THE BRAVE. In adversity it is easy to despise life, the really brave man is he who can sul mit to lead a wretched life. DEAD MEN'S SHOES. You will give me nothing during your life; you say that you will give me something after your death: if you are not a fool, Maro, you know what I wish for. THE DISADVANTAGES OF A SMALL SOCIETY IN A PROVINCE. Add to this the backbiting of provincial tongues, envy usurping the place of true criticism, and one or two ill-conditioned persons,—a host in a small society, with whom it is difficult daily to keep one's temper. FORTUNE GIVES TOO MUCH TO SOME. Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none. A CHARACTER. You are at once morose and agreeable, pleasing and repulsive. I can neither live with you nor without you. Addison ("Spectator," No. 68) thus paraphrases it:- **Our Garrick's a salad: for in him we see HONEST MAN EASILY DECEIVED. An honest man is a child in worldly wit. TO ENJOY COUNTRY LIFE IN THE CITY. It is a country house in the city. A MAN'S RESPONSIBILITIES. during the reign of Augustus. In the year 1471 a quarto volume appeared from the press of Jenson of Venice, entitled Emilii Probi de vitâ excellentium, containing lives of twenty distinguished commanders, nineteen Greek and one Persian. Then followed three chapters de Regibus, and lives of Hamilcar and Hannibal. In another edition were added lives of Cato and Atticus. Lambinus maintains that these lives are the production of Cornelius Nepos, and not of Æmilius Probus. This question has given rise to interminable discussions. These biographies have, ever since their first appearance, been a favorite school-book. WAR. Nothing ought to be despised in war. THE COWARD. The mother of a coward does not usually weep. EMPIRE. No government is safe unless it is strong in the good-will of the people. DEMOCRACY. The affairs of a kingdom cannot be properly conducted by a democracy. FEAR. The life of those is to be pitied, who prefer to be feared rather than loved. NO EVIL GREAT WHICH IS THE LAST. No evil is great if it is the last which we are to bear. GREAT MEN. We value great men by their virtue and not by their success. ENVY IS THE ATTENDANT OF GLORY. It is a common vice in great and free states for envy to be the attendant upon glory. Euripides (Fr. Beller. 5) says:— Men born of low degree are envious: envy is wont to at sometimes not less advantageous to a man than man looks aloft, and with erect countenance turns eloquence. PEACE. Peace is procured by war. A FRIEND TO ME, NOT MY FORTUNE. his eyes to heaven and gazes on the stars. DESCRIPTION OF GOLDEN AGE. The golden age was first produced; honor and uprightness then sprung up spontaneously in man, without the aid of law or the commands of the That he was accustomed to be a friend not to lawgiver. The dread of punishment was unfortune but to men. Dante ("Inferno," ii. 62) says:— "A friend not of my fortune, but myself." GOOD TASTE. More good taste than expense. OVID. BORN B.C. 43-DIED A.D. 18. known, nor were the menacing words of human statutes required to keep man to his duty. The stern looks of the judge did not then strike terror into suppliant crowds, but all lived in safety without the protection of law. GOLDEN AGE. No trumpet's angry sound was heard, no helmet nor sword gleamed, but all nations passed in security a life of ease, unmolested by a rude soldiery. THE SEASONS IN THE GOLDEN AGE. There was a never-ending spring, and flowers unsown were kissed by the warm western breeze. Then the unploughed land gave forth corn, and the ground, year after year, was white with full ears of grain. Rivers of milk, rivers of nectar ran, and the yellow honey continued to pour from the ever-green oak. DESCRIPTION OF THE IRON AGE. Next burst forth the iron age with its unrighteous deeds; modesty, truth, and honor forsook the earth, and in their place succeeded fraud, deceit, plots, violence, and the unholy lust of gold. GOLD DUG FROM THE EARTH. But men penetrated into the bowels of the earth, and the precious ore, the allurement to every evil, was dug up, though placed by the gods P. OVIDIUS NASO, born at Sulmo, in the mountains of the Peligni, and descended from an ancient equestrian family, was intended for the legal profession, but the hours which should have been devoted to the study of jurisprudence were given up to the cultivation of his poetical talents. As might be expected, his father was opposed to his favorite pursuit: nature, however, was too strong, and it does not appear that he ever practised as an advocate at the Roman bar. He studied at Athens, and had the usual education which the young Roman nobles received at that period. On his return he made an unfortunate marriage, as we find him shortly afterwards divorced from his wife. He was of profligate character, and at last Augustus banished him, it is said, on account of an intrigue with his daughter Julia. He was ordered, A.D. 8, to transport himself to Tomi, a town on the shores of the Black Sea near the Filial affection lies on the ground in mournful mouth of the Danube. The greater part of a year seems to have been consumed in the voyage, but garb, and the virgin Astræa was the last of the he beguiled the time by the exercise of his poet-heavenly deities to leave the earth dripping with ical talent, several of his poems having been written on shipboard. It was a great change from the luxury of Rome to the mean abode and inhospitable soil of that remote region. Here he remained ten years in exile, and was never allowed to return, dying at Tomi A.D. 18, a year which was also remarkable for the death of Livy. CREATION OF MAN. down close to Pluto's realm. JUSTICE RETURNS TO HEAVEN. human gore. JOVE. shook three and four times the terrific locks of his Jove seated aloft, leaning on an ivory sceptre, head, with which he moved the earth, the sea, and the stars. INCURABLE WOUND. Every remedy was first tried, but a gangrened limb must be lopt off, lest the healthy part should be affected. CONFLAGRATION OF THE WORLD. A being of a more exalted nature, and of higher intellectual powers, that should rule and direct all other animals, was still wanting. It was then that man was brought into being, whether the mighty Architect of the universe, having developed a nobler world, made him of divine particles, or whether the new-sprung earth, only lately withdrawn from contact with heaven, still retained the skyey influences. Prometheus, mingling these original seeds with living streams, formed man after the image of God, who rules the universe. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; Thus, while the mute creation bend downward, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, He remembers, too, that it was decreed by Fate that a time would come when the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven would be seized by fire and burnt, and the laboriously-wrought fabric of the universe be in danger of perishing. St. Peter (2 Peter iii. 10) says: and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and thou shalt have it. This one thing only I deand the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." MAN BORN TO LABOR. From this circumstance we are a hardy race, able to endure a laborious life, and show from what origin we are sprung. FRIENDLY DISCORD. Agreeing to differ with friendly discord. LOVE. Ah me! that no herbs can cure the love-sick. EFFECTS OF HOPE AND FEAR. The one is quick from hope, the other from fear. ARGUS. Argus had his head encircled with a hundred eyes; two of them took rest, while the rest watched and stood on guard. JUST REPROACHES. I am ashamed that these reproaches can be justly cast at us, and cannot be refuted. EXCELLENCE. cline to grant; it is an evil not a good thou askest, Phaëthon, thou askest what will prove a misfortune instead of happiness. GOLDEN MEAN. Mounting higher, thou wilt fire the heaven itself; descending lower, the earth; the middle way is safest. GREAT UNDERTAKINGS. If he did not succeed in his attempt, yet he failed in a glorious undertaki НАВІТ. Habit had produced the custom. GUILT BETRAYED IN THE COUNTENANCE. Alas! how difficult it is not to betray guilt by our countenance! DESCRIPTION OF ENVY.. Minerva sees within Envy gorging herself with flesh of vipers, to nourish her vicious propensities, and when she saw, she turned away her eyes in loathing; while Envy, rising slowly from the The work of the artist far surpassed even the ground, leaves the fragments of half-eaten serbeauty of the material. LIKENESS OF SISTERS. Doris and her daughters were here carved, some of whom are seen swimming, others, sitting on a rock, are drying their sea-green hair, others gliding on fishes' backs. All have not the same features, nor yet can you say that they are different, but such as sisters ought to be. THE SEASONS. Here stood fresh Spring, bound with flowery chaplet; Summer was unclothed, and bore a wheaten garland; Autumn also was there, besmeared with trodden grapes; and icy Winter, rough with hoary locks. Worsley ("Phaëthon ") thus describes the seasons:- MAN AND HIS ASPIRATIONS. Thy destiny is that of man, thy aspirations are those of a god. Lamartine in his second meditation "L'Homme," dedicated to Lord Byron, has this sublime verse: "Bounded in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who has a recollection of heaven." And Voltaire ("La Liberté ") says: "Thy destiny is that of man, and thy desires are those of a god." EXERTION. I steer against them, nor has the force, to which all others must yield, any effect on me; I move on in a direction contrary to the rapid-whirling world. PRAYERS NOT TO BE GRANTED. pents, and stalas on with sullen step. When she beheld the beauteous goddess clad in armor, she heaved a sigh, and groaned from the bottom of her breast. Her face was pallid and her body emaciated. Her eye never looked straight before her; her teeth were brown with rust; her breast overflowed with gall, and from her tongue dripped drops of poison. She never smiles except when the wretched weep; nor does she enjoy rest; ever kept moving by her sleepless cares, she sees with evil eye the success of men, and pines away as she beholds; she distresses others, and is herself distressed, and bears her own tormentor in her breast. A STATE FLOURISHING IN PEACE. She looks upon the citadel flourishing in arts, wealth, and joyous peace. KINGLY DIGNITY. Kingly dignity and love do not well agree, nor do they remain together. SPIRIT. A spirit superior to every hostile weapon. NO MAN BLESSED BEFORE HE DIES. But in truth we must always wait for the last day of man's life: no one is to be considered blest before he die, and has received the last funeral rites. A BLUSH. The hue given back by the clouds from the reflected rays of the sun or the purple morn, such was the countenance of Diana when she was discovered Choose some gift from heaven, earth, or sea, unclothed. Death is not grievous to me, who am about to the wrong pursue. lay aside my pains by death. A COWARD. It is the act of a coward to wish for death. THE CAUSE. The cause is secret, but th' effect is known. A LESSON FROM AN ENEMY. POETRY. For what cannot poetry accomplish? PLEASURE FOLLOWED BY GRIEF. No one enjoys pure, unalloyed pleasure; there is always some bitter mingled with the sweet. Euripides (Fr. Antig. 14) says: "Be not willing to grieve thyself, knowing that grief often The foe teaches me what to do; it is allowable brings joy afterwards, and evil is the proximate cause of to be taught even by an enemy. DESCRIPTION OF STYX. The sluggish 'Styx exhales its fogs; those just dead, who have enjoyed funeral rites, descend hither: paleness and wintry cold inhabit this dreary place; ghosts newly arrived know not the road that leads to grim Pluto's palace, nor where is the metropolis of hell. This mighty city has a thousand avenues and gates forever open. And as the rivers flow all into the ocean, so this vast city receives all the shades; nor is there ever want of room, nor is it ever crowded. The disembodied spirits roam bloodless; and in imitation of their life on earth, some frequent the courts of law, others the court of hell's tyrant, others practise various arts, and others suffer the punishment due to their crimes. TANTALUS. Tantalus, no water is caught by thee, and the tree, which overhangs thy head, eludes thy grasp. UNCEASING LABOR. Thou, Sisyphus, either pursuest or pushest forward the stone, that is destined to fall back again. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. No sooner was she seen than she was beloved and carried off by Pluto. BEYOND FORTUNE. I am on a higher pinnacle than fortune can reach. COMMON RIGHTS. Why do you debar me from water? surely this is a common right; nature hath given no man a peculiar property in sun, air, or water: I have come to crave a bounty that is shared by all. A CUP OF COLD WATER. A cup of cold water will be nectar to me, and I shall confess that I have received life with it; you will have given me life by the water. good." CONTAGION. Contagion is hurtful by breath, and is carried thereby to a distance. PESTILENCE. The nearer one is to the sick, and the more faithfully he is watched, the quicker the watcher approaches death. The hope of safety has vanished, and they see the end of the disease in the deaths around. THE EFFEMINACY OF MAN. They indulge themselves and care not for what is useful. THE CREDULITY OF LOVE. Love is a credulous thing. FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE. to lead him on to fortune; that goddess listens Every one without doubt becomes his own god not to the prayers of the slothful. MURDER. Death is to be expatiated by death. CONQUER AT ALL HAZARDS. You will with difficulty conquer, but conquer you must! THE POWER OF HEAVEN. The power of heaven is immeasurable and boundless, accomplishing whatever it wills. So 1 Chronicles xxix. 12: “Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand is power and might." THE RIGHTEOUS. The pious are cared for by the gods, and those are attended to, who have attended to their duties to the gods. So Hebrews xiii. 4: "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." FRIGID ZONE. There is an icy zone on the extreme borders of Scythia, a melancholy waste, barren and treeless; there dwell sluggish cold, pallid looks, trembling ague, and pining want. DESCRIPTION OF FAMINE. in the hollow of a mountain, where dwells the drowsy god of sleep; whose gloomy mansion is never visited by the rising, mid-day, nor setting Dark fogs rise, and a perpetual twilight prevails around. No crowing cock with crested head wakes the morn, nor is the silence broken by the bark of watchful dog, or the cackling of more sun. There she found Famine in a stony field, scratch-wakeful geese. No beast, wild or tame, no trees ing up a few roots with her talons and teeth. Her locks were matted, her eyes were sunken; paleness overspread her face; her lips were wan from want, her teeth brown with rust; her skin was hard, and through it the entrails were seen to move; the sapless bones seemed to start from her bent loins, and for a belly was a belly's space. Thou wouldst have supposed that her breast was hung up and tacked to her body only by the chine of the back. Her joints were protuberant from leanness; the orbits of her knees bunched out, while her ankle bones jutted to undue propor tions. THE POWER OF RECOLLECTION. rocked by tempest, nor reproachful sound of huIman voice, strike upon the ear. Mute silence has its habitation here. Yet from the bottom of a rock issues forth the rivulet of Lethe; the waters of which, flowing with soft murmur over the rumbling pebbles, invite to sleep. Around its entry nodding poppies grow and herbs without number, from whose milky sap night drains their sleepy virtue, and scatters it in dew over the silent plains. No door on creaking hinges was in the whole house; no watch was there to guard the aloft on black ebony, stuffed with feathers, of one entrance. But in the middle was a bed, raised color, with a dark coverlet, where lies the god himself with his limbs stretched out at ease. The power of recollection is a part of our pain. Around him everywhere fantastic dreams, imitat ing various shapes, lie numerous as the ears of grain, the leaves on trees, or sand on the seashore. DESCRIPTION OF FAME. Fame has her seat of power on the summit of a thousand avenues lead to her palace, while no lofty tower; entrances without number, and a closed doors prevent approach: night and day brass, rumbling and giving back echoes on echoes. they stand open. It is wholly built of rattling Quiet there is none within, nor silence, nor yet is there clamorous noise, but a low murmur of hum Swift flying time glides on unmarked and un-ming voices, like the hollow roar of the ocean's perceived; nothing passes more quickly than years. Dryden says: "Old age creeps on us, ere we think it nigh." And Moore: "Oh, sweet youth, how soon it fades! BLACK LOOK WHITE, And white LOOK BLACK. waters or the sound of distant thunders, when Jupiter clashes the dark clouds together. A crowd occupies the halls, a light throng entering or issuing forth: a thousand rumors, mixed with truth, wander through the air, and a confused sound of words rolls around. Some fill the ears with empty sounds; others eagerly repeat what they have heard, amplifying the lie they are relating, while every story-teller adds some embellishment. Here sit vain credulity, rash error, foolish joys, panic fears, sudden sedition, and whispers of uncertain origin. Fame sits aloft, be This is the description of Belial by Milton ("Paradise Lost," holding what is done in heaven, sea, and earth, book ii): "All was false and hollow; though his tongue The better reason, to perplex and dash THE SEVERITY OF WINTER. The violence of winter increases, and on all sides fierce winds struggle and clash the indignant waves. DESCRIPTION OF SLEEP. and searching through the whole world. Pope, in his "Temple of Fame," says: "Like broken thunders that at distance roar, THE URN. Now he is nothing but ashes, and of the mighty Achilles there remains only some little dust, which cannot so much as fill an urn: yet his fame still lives so as to fill a whole world. This is the measure that corresponds with such a hero; in this Achilles is equal to himself, nor has Tartarus with Near the Cimmerians there is a deep cavern its empty shades any effect on him. |