And while they claspe their lustes in arms acrosse, "Abashed the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is, and saw THE PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE. Meet with preventive skill the disease coming to attack you. Of what use is it to offer mountains of gold to Craterus? Learn, hapless youths, and investigate the causes of things-what we are and for what purpose born-what station of life is assigned us-how delicate the turning round the goal and whence the starting point-what bounds the love of property requires-what it is lawful to wish-how far the genuine use of wealth extends —what are the just claims of country and dear relations-what kind of being heaven would have us be, and where our stand in the human commonwealth. THE MAN OF PLEASURE. 66 | miserable old age. "It shall be done to-morrow." "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Is any one else, then, a freeman but he that may live as he pleases? breast. HYPOCRISY. Here some shag-haired captain may bellow forth, "I have enough of wisdom to satisfy me: I care not to be what Arcesilas was and dismal Solons, with head awry and leaden eye that loves Though thy face is glossed with specious art, the ground, while they mutter within themselves thou retainest the cunning fox beneath thy vapid or are moodily silent, poising every word on protruded lips, moping o'er sick men's dreams, 'that nothing can be generated from nothing; nothing can return to nothing.' Is it over such stuff as this that you grow pale? Is it for this that one should go without his dinner?" At this the people laugh, and with wrinkling nose the brawny youth convulsively re-echo loud peals of laughter. Milton ("Paradise Lost," bk. iii. 1. 683) thus describes hypocrisy : "For neither Man nor Angel can discern By His permissive will, through Heaven and Earth.” BRAY A FOOL IN A MORTAR. But there is no incense offered to the gods by which thou canst gain this boon, that one short half-ounce of Right can be infixed in fools. To bray these things together is an impossibility. THE MIND. Within and in thy morbid breast there spring up masters. ENJOY THE PRESENT. Indulge thyself! let us pluck the sweets of life! that thou really livest is my boon: thou wilt soon Air-blown trifles, fit only to give weight to become ashes, a ghost and a gossip's tale. Live smoke. DIFFERENCES OF OPINION. Countless are the various species of mankind, and the shades that separate mind from mind. Each has his will, and each pursues his own. TO-MORROW. In midnight study, seek, ye young and old, a specific object for your mind and supply for your mindful of death. Time presses: this very word I speak is subtracted from it. So Gifford thus paraphrases the lines: "Oh rather cultivate the joys of sense, And crop the sweets which youth and health dispense; DIFFERENT DISPOSITIONS IN THE SAME FAMILY. The star that presides over the natal hour produces twins with widely-differing dispositions. GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER. Well, ask me who my great-great-grandfather was! I could tell you certainly, but not very readily. Go yet a step farther back and one more: you will find he is a son of earth! PETRONIUS ARBITER. FLOURISHED A.D. 50. CAIUS PETRONIUS, a celebrated voluptuary at the court of Nero, is called by Tacitus (Ann. xvi. 18, 19) arbiter elegantiæ. He passed his days in slumbers and his nights in revelry. He was consul A.D. 61, when he is said to have discharged his official duties with energy. He then relapsed to his former habits, and was admitted among the few chosen companions of the prince. Being suspected, however, of being implicated in the conspiracy of Scævinus, he put himself to death by opening his veins in a warm bath A.D. 66. He is believed to be the author of what bears the title of Petronii Arbitri Satyricon, a prose narrative interspersed with numerous pieces of poetry, a kind of comic romance, in which the adventures of certain parties enable him to hold up to ridicule the folly and dishonesty of all classes of the community in the country in which the scene is laid. coarseness and obscenity of the descriptions, are a proof of the pollution of the age in which it was written. SPARE NOT THE ROD. The Parents are worthy of reproof who are unwilling to do good to their children by severe discipline. So Proverbs xiii. 24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." LAUGHTER. He burst his sides with immoderate laughter. NOT A MAN, BUT A MERE SHADOW. A mere phantom, not a man. This is like what Shakespeare ("Macbeth," act iii. sc. 1) says: Mur. We are men, my liege. Mac. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men." A PHYSICIAN. A physician is nothing else than a satisfaction to the mind. NOT A MAN, BUT PEPPER ITSELF. Pungent as pepper, and not a human being. ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE. Almost the whole world practises the art of the player. So Shakespeare ("As You Like It," act ii. sc. 1) says:"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. In the Greek Anthology we have "This life, a theatre we well may call, Or laugh it through, and make a farce of all, You talk so boldly! Paris. The whole world being one, This place is not exer.pted. PHEDRUS is the writer of ninety-seven fables in Whoever has fallen from his former high estate tle of his personal history is known. He was originally a slave, being brought up from Thrace or Macedonia, and from the title of his work we may infer that he belonged to Augustus, who bestowed on him his freedom. SUDDEN LIBERALITY. A man that is generous all at once may dupe the fool, but it is in vain that he prepares snares for the wise. We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. Things are not always what they seem to be; He, who acquits himself well, will always have first appearances deceive many. enough of patrons. Are not the pleasures of life and of our exist ence scanty in comparison with our troubles? Such is the lot of man. Thus it has pleased It is dangerous for a man of humble birth to heaven that Sorrow should tread on the heels of grumble in public. THE LEARNED MAN. The learned man has always riches within himself. EACH MAN HAS PECULIARITIES. Since each has a turn of thinking of his own and a tone peculiar to himself. ADDING INSULT TO INJURY. Pleasure and be her companion: for if aught of good befall us, more of trouble and ill forthwith attend us. Diphilus (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 1089) says:— "There is no life that does not meet with some evils, grief, sorrows, plundering, torture, diseases: death appearing like a physician releases the afflicted from all these, causing them to cease by sleep." VALOR. Valor is the best reward; it is valor assuredly that surpasses all things else; our liberty, safety, What wilt thou do to thyself, who hast added life, estate, parents, country, too, and children are insult to injury. RASHNESS. Rashness brings luck to a few, misfortune to many. PLAUTUS. BORN PROBABLY ABOUT B.C. 254-DIED B.C. 184. T. MACCIUS PLAUTUS, the most celebrated comic poet of Rome, a native of Sarsina, was of humble origin, being employed at first as a workman in the service of the actors of the stage. In this way he accumulated a small sum of money, but, having lost it in trade, he was obliged to gain a livelihood by working a hand-mill, grinding corn for a by this preserved and defended: valor comprises everything in itself; all blessings await the man who is possessed of valor. WOMAN'S DOWRY. I do not consider that to be my portion which is called so, but chastity and modesty, subdued desires, reverence of the gods, affection for my parents, and friendship with my kindred-that I should be obedient to you, bounteous to the good, and ever ready to assist the virtuous. JEST. If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest. LIFE OF MAN. For in the life of men many things fall out in this wise-men take their fill of pleasure, then again of misery. Quarrels spring up, and again they are reconciled; but when these kind of quarrels arise between loving souls, if they are reconciled, they are doubly friends that they were before. TO FOLLOW ONE'S INCLINATION. He does right, inasmuch as he follows his inclination, a thing that all men ought to do, so long as it is done in a proper manner. TRUSTING IS GOOD For naughT. I do not purchase with money day-light, water, sun, nor moon, nor night: what else we want we buy for ready money. If we want bread from the bakers, wine from the vaults, if money be sent, they give the goods. We act in the same way. Our hands are always full of eyes; they only credit what they see. It is an old saying, "Money down's the thing." Do you understand me? I'll say no more. GAIN. He who would seek for gain, must be at some expense. This is our proverb: "Nothing venture, nothing win." This expression is said to have been often in the mouth of Louis XII. of France. FORTITUDE. never was in any age such a wonder to be found as a dumb woman. Antiphanes (Fr. Com. Gr. p. 568, M.) says: "What dost thou say? Seeking to conceal a matter, will you really tell it to a woman? Where, pray, is the difference between this and proclaiming it by all the heralds in the market-place?" DAGGERS. You speak daggers. Shakespeare ("Hamlet," act iii. sc. 2) says: "I will speak daggers to her, but use none." CONTENT. If you are but content, you have enough to live upon with comfort. BREAD. And so he thinks to 'tice me like a dog, KINDNESS TO A POOR MAN. I trust no rich man who is officiously kind to a poor man. UNITE YOURSELF WITH THE VIRTUOUS. The more closely you can unite yourself with He who endures misfortune with firmness, after- the virtuous, so much the better. wards enjoys good fortune. Tennyson says: "He shall find the rugged thistle bursting And Young: "Life's cares are comforts; such by heaven design'd; He that has none, must make them or be wretched." MAN A WOLF TO MAN. Man is like a wolf to man. This is the German proverb: "One man is the devil of the other." It is intended to recommend caution. THE PET LAMB. The shepherd, mother, who tends another's sheep, has some few for himself that are his pets. ALL THINGS NOT EQUALLY SWEET TO ALL PER- Be assured that all things are not equally sweet to all persons. MODESTY. It well becomes a young man to be modest. "Modesty is to merit what shade is to the figures in a picture: it gives it force and relief." WOMAN. I know that we women are all justly accounted praters; they say in the present day that there |