THE GODS. The gods look on the affairs of men with the eyes of justice. DEEDS OF ANCESTORS. Let not this eloquence of mine, if I really possess any, now speaking in defence of its master, and which has often been used for you, be deemed a fault; let not any one decline to use what is his own. For high descent, a long line of ancestors and those deeds which we ourselves have not performed, I can scarcely call our own. DEATH AN IDLE THING. O race of man, affrighted by the thoughts of cold death! What do you find to dread in Styx, the darkness of the grave, all an empty name, mere themes for poets, and fables of a world that never was! Whether the body be consumed by fire or moulder away in the ground, think not that it suffers. It is the soul that is undying, which, when it has left its former habitation, dwells forever in new abodes, and repeats new life in other forms. THE SOUL. All things are subject to change, but nothing Ben Jonson (“Every Man in his Humor," act i.) adopts dies. The disembodied spirit wanders at large, this idea: "I would have you Not stand so much on your gentility, From dead men's dust and bones: and none of yours And Young ("Love of Fame," Sat. i. 1. 147) says:"They that on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge. Tennyson says: "Fall back upon a name? rest, rot in that? Nor keep it noble, make it nobler? Fools!" here and there, lodging in any body, from beast pasing into man, from man to beast and never perishing. And as the softened wax rceives new impressions, remaining not as it was, nor always retaining the same forms, though the wax is still the same material, so it is with the soul. TIME IN PERPETUAL FLUX. There is nothing in the world that remains unchanged. All things are in perpetual flux, and "He is the best gentleman who is the son of his own every shadow is seen to move. Even time itself deserts." MIND IS THE MAN. Thy right arm indeed is powerful in war; it is thy mind that requires our guidance. Brawn without mind is thine, but it is mine to look before and after. Thy province is to fight; the king takes counsel with me, when and how the battle is to be conducted. Thy body only is of profit; it is my mental powers that are regarded. By how much more the ship owes her safety to him that steers than him who only rows, by how much more the captain merits praise than he who fights, so much greater is my worth than thine. It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigor is in our immortal spirit. Watt's ("Horæ Lyricæ," bk. ii., "False Greatness"):— "The mind's the standard of man." And Burns ("Is there for Honest Poverty "): "The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that." And Wycherley ("The Country Wife," act i. sc. 1):-"I weigh the man, not his title; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal better." And Goldsmith (“The Traveller," 1. 372): "For just experience tells in every soil, That those that think must govern those that toil." GRIEF. Grief conquers the unconquered man. THE POOR MAN. glides on in constant movement, like the waters of a river. For the stream stops not, nor yet the flying hour; and as wave is impelled by wave, the one behind pressing on that before, so do the minutes run and urge the predecessor minutes, still moving, ever new; for what was before is set aside, and becomes as it had not been, and every moment innovates on what preceded it. Nicostratus (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 639, M.) says: "Old things become again new through time: there is nothing more difficult to please than Time: the same things never please this god." Diphilus (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 1087, M.) says:- "Time is a workman in the state, my friend: it takes pleasure to change all things for the worse." The first Napoleon, when writing on the subject of the poor laws to his Minister of the Interior, said: "It is melancholy to see Time passing away without being put to its full value. Surely in a matter of this kind we should endeavor to do something, tha we may say that we have lived, that we have not lived in vain that we may leave some impress of ourselves on the sands o Time." Longfellow, in one of his poems, has the same expression "Footsteps on the sands of Time." And the French say very beautifully:"More inconstant than the wave and the cloud, time flies: why regret it?" THE SEASONS. What! perceivest thou not that the year has its four seasons, in imitation of human life? For the fresh Spring, like infancy, is tender and full of milky juice. Then the green herb swells, though weak and without substance, yet feeding the farmer's eyes with hope. All things put on beau It is the proof of a poor man when he can count teous attire, and universal nature crowned with his herds. THE MIND'S EYE. His mind penetrated to the immortal gods, though far remote in heaven, and what nature denied to his visual orbs, he was able to overtake by his mind's eye in the depth of his breast. flowerets laughs with joy: and yet there is no strength in the leaves and stems. Next in succession comes Summer of maturer age, ripening into man; no age is more powerful, more replete with the juices of life, or where the heat of youth is more exciting. Then comes Autumn, staid and sober, midway between youth and old age, with brown locks mixed with gray. Last of all Winter creeps along with palsied step, with bald pate or white locks, if there be any. Even our own bodies are daily changing, and without a moment's pause, nor shall we be to-morrow what we have been and are. TIME. Devouring Time and envious Age, all things yield to you, and with lingering death you destroy step by step with venomed tooth whatever you attack. Spenser, in his "Faerie Queen" (iv. 2, 23), says:"But wicked Time, that all good thoughts doth waste, And works of noblest wits to naught outwear, That famous monument hath quite defaced, And robb'd the world of treasure endless dear, The which might have enriched all us here, Oh cursed eld, the canker-worm of writs! How may these rhymes, so rude as doth appear, Hope to endure, sith works of heavenly wits Are quite devour'd, and brought to naught by little bits!" DEATH. To be born is to begin to be some other thing that we were not formerly, and to die is to cease to be the thing we were before, while those very elements, which we partook alive, are transferred to other bodies when we are dead, and the elements of others are transferred to us, yet all substances endure forever. NATIONS. So we see that nations are changed by time; they flourish and decay; by turns command, and in their turns obey. A PRAYER FOR A FRIEND's life. May the day of thy death arrive slowly, and be later than our time. FAME OF PОЕТ. My work is done, impervious to Jove's ire, fire, war, or wasting age. Let the day, which has no power except over this body of mine, close my life when it will, yet my nobler part, my fame, shall soar aloft to the skies, and to distant ages my name shall flourish, and wherever Rome's unbounded power holds sway, there I shall pass from mouth to mouth, and adown all time shall live my deathless fame, if it is allowed for poets to divine. Byron ("Childe Harold," cant. iv., st. 9) says:- My hopes of being remember'd in my line If my fame should be as my fortunes are, And light the laurels on a loftier head! THE LUST OF RICHES. Wealth has accumulated and the maddening lust of wealth, and however much man possess they still long for more. They vie with each other to acquire what they may lavish, and when they have lavished their possessions they try to obtain them again; and the very vicissitudes of life form food for their vices. 1 Timothy vi. 9: "But they that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." MONEY. Money nowadays is in high repute: money confers offices of state, money procures friendship: everywhere the poor man is despised. Timocles (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 810, M.) says: "Money is the blood and life of men: whoever has it not nor has been able to get it, is like a dead man walking among the living." JUSTICE. The wickedness of man had not yet put Justice to flight; she was the last of the heavenly deities to forsake the earth. ASTRONOMERS. Happy souls, the first who stued these mighty themes and mounted to the celestial regions! We may well believe that they soared far above hu man vices and this lower world. Neither love nor wine exercised disturbing influences, nor yet the anxieties of the Forum, nor the labors of warfare; their mind was free from vain ambition and the desire of fame got at the cannon's mouth and the envy of boundless riches. They brought far distant stars within our ken, and the heaven itself was made subject to our understanding: in this way men attain to heaven. A LOVER. Her he wishes, for her he longs, for her alone he sighs: he makes signs to her by nods, and tries to attract her attention by gestures. A DISDAINFUL BEAUTY. Cold, disdain is found in the fair, and a haughty demeanor is the accompaniment of beauty. By her looks she despises and scorns him. CONSCIENCE. According as the conscience suggests to each man, so hope and fears start up from his deeds. THE BRAVE MAN. The brave find a home in every land, as fish possess the sea and birds the air. Nor does tempestuous weather always last: believe me, the warmth of spring will again reappear. PEACE. Wars lie long confined in adamantine chains beneath our feet. Our oxen now again may plough the land, and the yellow corn wave over our fields. It is peace that brings plenty. Plenty is the foster-child of Peace. ATONEMENT. Ah! weak beings, who think that the deep stains of murder can be washed out by the multitu- this holy rapture springs from the seeds of the dinous waters of the ocean! divine mind sown in man. FRIENDSHIP'S SACRED NAME. Is the holy and revered name of friendship despised by thee and trodden under foot? PROSPERITY. MEDICINE.* Medicine sometimes destroys, sometimes gives health: it shows the herb that assists and that which hurts. PURPOSE. Whilst thou art favored, by fortune, thou shalt THE SWORD MAY BE USED FOR A GOOD OR BAD have troops of friends; when storms blow, thou shalt find thyself alone. Thou seest how doves Both the robber and the wary traveller gird flock to new-built houses, while the tower in ruins themselves with the sword: the one carries it for is shunned. Never do ants frequent the empty the purposes of crime, and the latter as his means barn; no friend comes to him that is in want. of defence. As the shadow attends the sun and disappears when it is clouded, so do the fickle mob attend on fortune's light, but pass away when clouds overcast the sky. THE TRUE MODE OF PROPHECY. Reason is my only means of knowing and predicting the future; by it I have divined and acquired my knowledge. IMAGES OF DEATH. Wherever I look, there is nothing seen but the images of death. THE TERRORS OF THE DEEP. The land has more objects of fear than the boisterous ocean. SINNERS. If Jupiter were to hurl his thunderbolt as oft as men sinned, he would soon have no thunderbolt to hurl. So Psalm ciii. 8: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." THE WIDOW'S MITE. But yet as God is propitiated by the blood of a hundred bulls, so also is He by the smallest offering of incense. ADVERSITY. When a house, with loosened foundations, begins to sink, the whole weight rests on the portion that has given way; all things totter, when fortune has once made an opening. The very house sometimes falls under its own weight. GOD. The greatest men are placable in wrath: a generous mind is less easily excited to anger. The noble-minded lion spares the prostrate; the fight is at an end when his enemy lies before him. But the wolf and the vile bear trample on the dying, Jupiter has no time to attend to unimportant and every animal, that is mean and treacherous, matters. WHERE SHALL I LOOK FOR SAFETY. Whither shall I go? Whence shall I seek comfort in my calamities? No anchor any longer Public interests will outweigh those of private holds our vessel. individuals. Besides my vein of genius, rusted by long torpor, grows dull, and is much less strong than it was before. The field, if it be not regularly tilled, The oak, struck by the lightning of Jove, often will produce nothing but coarse grass and thorns. sprouts anew. PLEASURES OF POETRY. Thanks to thee, my Muse, for it is thou that affordest me solace; thou art a respite to my cares, thou art an antidote to all my ills. The horse that has been long confined will run badly, and will come in last among the steeds that left the starting point. So Proverbs xiii. 11: "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labor shall increase." |