Footnotes

[1.]Mad. de Staël, De la Litterature, Tom. I.[2.]Rasselas.[3.]Childe Harolde, c. IV.[4.]Vindiciæ Gallicæ.[5.]Vindiciæ Gallicæ.[6.]Rasselas.[7.]Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Vol. IV.[8.]Civil and Constitutional History of Rome, from its Foundation to the Age of Augustus, by Henry Bankes, Esq. M. P. ed. London, 1818, 2 vol. 8vo.[9.]Voyage de Polyclete, Lettre 2. 3 Tom. Paris, 1820.[10.]Herod. Clio. c. 94.[11.]Herculanensia, Dissert. V. Lond. 1810.[12.]Geograph. Lib. V. c. 2.[13.]Histor. Roman. Lib. I. c. 1.[14.]Quæstiones Romanæ.[15.]Annal. Lib. IV. c. 55.[16.]Antiquitates Romanæ. Lib. I. p. 22. Ed. Sylburg, 1586.[17.]Antiquitates Romanæ. Lib. I. p. 22, &c.[18.]De Etruria Regali. Lib. I. Ed. Florent. 1723. 2 tom. fol.[19.]Geographia Sacra, De Coloniis Phœnicum. Lib. I. tom. I. p. 582, &c. Oper. Lugd. Bat. 1712.[20.]Miscellaneous Works, Vol. IV. p. 184. Ed. 8vo. 1814.[21.]Micali, L’Italia avanti il Dominio dei Romani. Ed. Firenz. 1810. Bossi, Istoria d’Italia. Ed. 1819.[22.]Museum Etruscum.[23.]Origin and Progress of Language, vol. V. book i. c. 3. See also Swinton, De Lingua Etruriæ Vernacula.[24.]At the end of his Dissertation he alludes to a future work, in which he is to settle the particular district and time of the Etruscan emigration; but I do not know whether or not he ever accomplished this undertaking.[25.]“Confesso ingenuamente,” says the author, “che questa Etimologia della voce Eridano mi è sempre piaciuta assai.”—Dissertaz. sopra l’Origine de Terreni, nell Saggi di Dissert. dell Acad. Etrusca. Tom. III. p. 1.[26.]Supplem. ad Monument. Etrusc. Dempst. c. 47. See also Riccobaldi del Bava, Dissertaz. sopra L’Origine dell’ Etrusca Nazione.[27.]Deutoronomy, c. 18, v. 14. Ragionament. degl’ Itali primitivi. in Istoria Diplomatica. Ed. Mantua, 1727.[28.]Origini Italiche. 3 Tom. folio. Lucca, 1767–72.[29.]De Primi Abitatori dell Italia. Ed. Modena, 1769. 3 Tom. 4to.[30.]Histoire des Celtes. Paris, 1770.[31.]Recherches sur l’Origine des Differens Peuples d’Italie, in l’Hist. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions. Tom. XVIII.[32.]De Origine Latinæ Linguæ. Ed. 1720.[33.]Heyne, Opuscula Academica, Tom. V. See also Court de Gebelin, Monde Primitif.[34.]Non enim Etruscorum stirpem ab una gente nec ab una turba deductam; sed temporum successu plurium populorum propagines in eum populum, qui tandem Etruscum nomen terris his allevit confluxisse arbitror. Nov. Comment. Soc. Reg. Gotting. Tom. III.[35.]Nat. Hist. Lib. III. c. 14. Ed. Hardouin.[36.]Visconti, who has since become so celebrated by his Iconographie Grecque et Romaine, says in the Approvazione of the work of Lanzi, which he had perused in his official capacity,—“Il saggio di lingua Etrusca, che ho letto per commissione del Rmo. P. M. del S. P. A., mi è sembrato assolutamente il miglior libro che sia stato sinora scritto su questo difficile e vasto argomento.” This opinion, so early formed, has been confirmed by that of all writers who have subsequently touched on the subject.[37.]Saggio di Lingua Etrusca. Rom. 1789. 3 Tom. 8vo.[38.]Diodorus Siculus—Athenæus.[39.]Guarnacci, Origini Italiche.[40.]Sir William Jones, On the Gods of Italy and India.[41.]Herculanensia, Dissert. V.[42.]Hermes Scythicus, p. 90.[43.]Ovid. Fast. I. 90.[44.]Servius, ad Æneid. VII. 84.[45.]

L’Olympe de Numa fut plus majestueux,

Mercure moins fripon, Mars moins voluptueux;

Jupiter brula moins d’une flamme adultere,

Venus meme reçut une culte plus severe.

De Lille. Imagination. Ch. vi.

Romulus ut saxo locum circumdedit alto,

Cuilibet huc, inquit, confuge tutus erit.

Ye Lares, aid us! Mars, thou God of Might!

From murrain shield the flocks—the flowers from blight.

For thee, O Mars! a feast shall be prepared;

Salt, and a wether chosen from the herd:

Invite, by turn, each Demigod of Spring—

Great Mars, assist us! Triumph! Triumph sing!

“Let the red buskin now your limbs invest,

And the loose robe be belted to your breast;

The rattling quiver let your shoulders bear—

Throw off the hounds which scent the secret lair.”

“Livius ille vetus Grajo cognomine, suæ

Inserit Inonis versu, puto, tale docimen,

Præmisso heroo subjungit namque μειουρον,

Hymno quando Chorus festo canit ore Triviæ—

‘Et jam purpureo,’ ” &c.

—— “Nought worse can be

For wearing out a man than the rough sea;

Even though his force be great, and heart be brave,

All will be broken by the vexing wave.”

“—— My spirits, sire, are raised,

Thus to be praised by one the world has praised.”

“If blest immortals mortals might bemoan,

Each heavenly Muse would Nævius’ loss deplore:

Soon as his spirit to the shades had flown,

In Rome the Roman tongue was heard no more.”

“Romans, the form of Ennius here behold,

Who sung your fathers’ matchless deeds of old.

My fate let no lament or tear deplore,

I live in fame, although I breathe no more.”

“Where shall I refuge seek or aid obtain?

In flight or exile can I safety gain?—

Our city sacked—even scorched the walls of stone.

Our fanes consumed, and altars all o’erthrown.

O Father—country—Priam’s ruined home;

O hallowed temple with resounding dome,

And vaulted roof with fretted gold illumed—

All now, alas! these eyes have been consumed:

Have seen the foe shed royal Priam’s blood,

And stain Jove’s altar with the crimson flood.”

“I come—retraced the paths profound that lead

Through rugged caves, from mansions of the dead:

Mid these huge caverns Cold and Darkness dwell,

And Shades pass through them from the gates of Hell—

When roused from rest, by blood of victims slain,

The Sorcerer calls them forth with rites obscene.”

“Who knows not leisure to enjoy,

Toils more than those whom toils employ;

For they who toil with purposed end,

Mid all their labours pleasure blend—

But they whose time no labours fill,

Have in their minds nor wish nor will:

’Tis so with us, called far from home,

Nor yet to fields of battle come—

We hither haste, then thither go,

Our minds veer round as breezes blow.”

“I rear’d him, subject to death’s equal laws,

And when to Troy I sent him in our cause,

I knew I urged him into mortal fight,

And not to feasts or banquets of delight.”

“For no Marsian augur (whom fools view with awe,)

Nor diviner nor star-gazer, care I a straw;

The Egyptian quack, an expounder of dreams,

Is neither in science nor art what he seems;

Superstitious and shameless, they prowl through our streets,

Some hungry, some crazy, but all of them cheats.

Impostors! who vaunt that to others they’ll show

A path, which themselves neither travel nor know.

Since they promise us wealth, if we pay for their pains,

Let them take from that wealth, and bestow what remains.”

“Yes! there are gods; but they no thought bestow

On human deeds—on mortal bliss or woe—

Else would such ills our wretched race assail?

Would the good suffer?—would the bad prevail?”

“‘Eurydice, my sister,’ thus she spoke,

When roused from sleep she, weeping, silence broke—

‘Thou whom my father loved! of life bereft,

Though yet alive, all sense this frame hath left.

A form endowed with more than mortal grace,

Mysterious led me, and with hurried pace,

’Mid ever varying scenes, as wild as new,

O’er banks and meads where pliant osiers grew.

Then left to wander pathless and alone,

I vainly sought thee amid scenes unknown.

My father called, his child forlorn address’d,

And in these words prophetic thoughts express’d:

‘O Daughter, many sorrows yet abide,

Ere fortune’s stream upbears thee on its tide.’

Thus spoke my father; but his form withdrew;

No longer offered to my eager view.

Though oft in vain with soothing voice I call,

And stretch my hands to heaven’s cerulean hall.

Oppressed, and struggling, and with sick’ning heart.

At once the vision and my sleep depart.’”

“With ceaseless care, eager alike to reign,

Both anxious watch some favouring sign to gain,

Remus with prescient gaze observes the sky

Apart, and marks where birds propitious fly.

His godlike brother on the sacred height,

Observant traced the soaring eagle’s flight:

And now the anxious tribes expect from fate

The future monarch of their infant state;

Even as the crowd await at festal games

The consul’s signal, which the sports proclaims.

Their eyes directed to the painted goal,

Eager to see the rival chariots roll.

Meanwhile the radiant sun sinks down to night,

But soon he sheds again the yellow light;

And while the golden orb ascends the sky,

The fowls of heaven on wing propitious fly.

Twelve sacred birds, which gods as omens send,

With flight precipitate on earth descend.

The sign, Quirinus knew, to him alone

Presaged dominion, and the Roman throne.”

“Nor gift I seek, nor shall ye ransom yield;

Let us not trade, but combat in the field:

Steel and not gold our being must maintain,

And prove which nation Fortune wills to reign.

Whom chance of war, despite of valour, spared,

I grant them freedom, and without reward.

Conduct them then, by all the mighty Gods!

Conduct them freely to their own abodes.”

“His friend he called—who at his table fared,

And all his counsels and his converse shared;

With whom he oft consumed the day’s decline

In talk of petty schemes, or great design,—

To him, with ease and freedom uncontrouled,

His jests and thoughts, or good or ill, were told:

Whate’er concerned his fortunes was disclosed,

And safely in that faithful breast reposed.

This chosen friend possessed a stedfast mind,

Where no base purpose could its harbour find;

Mild, courteous, learned, with knowledge blest, and sense;

A soul serene, contentment, eloquence;

Fluent in words or sparing, well he knew

All things to speak in place and season due;

His mind was amply graced with ancient lore,

Nor less enriched with modern wisdom’s store:

Him, while the tide of battle onward pressed,

Servilius called, and in these words addressed.”

“Sacked, but not captive,—burned, yet not consumed;

Nor on the Dardan plains to moulder doomed.”

“From every side the javelins as a shower

Rush, and unerring on the Tribune pour;

Struck by the spears his helm and shield resound,

Though pierced his shield, no shaft inflicts a wound.

Their missile darts th’ embattled Istrians throw,

But all are hurled in vain against their foe;

He pants, and sweats, and labours o’er the field,

The flying shafts no pause for breathing yield;

Smote by his sword or sling, th’ assailants fall

Within, or headlong thrust beyond the wall.”

“Even as the generous Steed, whose youthful force

Was oft victorious in th’ Olympic course,

Unfit, from age, to triumph in such fields,

At length to rest his time-worn members yields.”

“O’er Heaven’s wide arch a solemn silence reigned,

And the fierce Ocean his wild waves restrained:

The Sun repressed his steeds’ impetuous force;

The winds were hushed; the streams all stayed their course.”

“Even as the generous steed, with reins unbound,

Bursts from the stall, and scours along the ground,

With lofty chest he seeks the joyous plain,

And oft, exulting, shakes his crested mane;

The fiery spirit in his breast prevails,

And the warm heart in sprinkling foam exhales.”

This is the Jupiter whom all revere,

Whom I name Jupiter, and Greeks call Air:

He also is the Wind, the Clouds, the Rain;

Cold, after Showers, then Wind and Air again:

All these are Jove, who social life maintains,

And the huge monsters of the wild sustains.

“He first restored the state by wise delay,

Heedless of what a censuring world might say;

Hence time has hallow’d his immortal name,

And, as the years succeed, still spreads his fame.”

“The Olympian Father smiled; and for a while

Nature’s calmed elements returned the smile.”

“Faciam ut commixta sit tragico comœdia;

Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comœdia,

Reges quo veniant et Dii, non par arbitror.

Quid igitur? quoniam hic servus quoque parteis habet,

Faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragi-comœdia.”

A Latin prose comedy, entitled Querulus seu Aulularia, having been found in one of the most ancient MSS. of Plautus discovered in the Vatican, was by some erroneously attributed to that dramatist; though, in his prologue, its author quotes Cicero, and expressly declares, that he purposed to imitate Plautus! It was first edited in 1564 by Peter Daniel; and is now believed to have been written in the time of the Emperor Theodosius. In some respects it has an affinity to the genuine Aulularia of Plautus. The prologue is spoken by the Lar Familiaris; and a miser, called Euclio, on going abroad, had concealed a treasure, contained in a pot, in some part of his house. While dying, in a foreign land, he bequeathed to a parasite, who had there insinuated himself into his favour, one half of his fortune, on condition that he should inform his son Querulus, so called from his querulous disposition, of the place where his treasure was deposited. The parasite proceeds to the miser’s native country, and attempts, though unsuccessfully, to defraud the son of the whole inheritance.

From a curious mistake, first pointed out by Archbishop Usher, in his Ecclesiastical Antiquities, this drama was attributed to Gildas, the British Jeremiah, as Gibbon calls him; who entitled one of his complaints concerning the affairs of Britain, Querulus.—Vossius, de Poet. Lat. Lib. I. c. 6. § 9.

“Præter legitimi genitalia fœdera cœtûs,

Repperit obscænas veneres vitiosa libido;

Herculis heredi quam Lemnia suasit egestas,

Quam toga facundi scenis agitavit Afranî.”

Epigram. 71.

“Could men to love be lured by magic rites,

Each crone would with a lover sooth her nights:

A tender form, and youth, and gentle smiles,

Are the sweet potion which the heart beguiles.”

“I swell with such gladness my brain almost turns,

And my bosom with thoughts of my happiness burns.

The portress compliant—the way cleared before—

A touch of my finger throws open the door:

Then, Chrysis—fair Chrysis, will rush to my arms,

Will court my caresses, and yield all her charms.

Such transport will seize me when this comes to pass,

I’ll Fortune herself in good fortune surpass.”

“O, could complaints or tears avail

To cure those ills which life assail,

Even gold would not be price too dear

At which to win a healing tear.

But, since the tears by sorrow shed

Are vain as dirge to wake the dead,

In prudent care, and not in grief,

All human ills must find relief.”

“O, youth! though haste should urge thee hence away,

To read this stone thy steps one moment stay:

That here Pacuvius’ bones are laid to tell

I wished, that thou might’st know it—Fare thee well.”

“Dum fallax servus, durus pater, improba lena

Vivent, dum meretrix blanda, Menandrus erit.”

Ovid, Amor. Lib. I.

“This dwelling of nine winters’ grief behold,

Where stretch’d on rock my sad sojourn I hold.

Around the boisterous north-wind ceaseless blows.

And, while it rages, drifts the gelid snows.”

—— “Fuerit Lucilius, inquam,

Comis et urbanus; fuerit limatior idem

Quam rudis, et Græcis intacti carminis auctor:—

Quamque poetarum seniorum turba.”

“They dread hobgoblins hatch’d in folly’s brain,

The idle phantoms of old Numa’s reign.

As infant children sculptured forms believe

To be live men—so they themselves deceive—

To whom vain forms of superstition’s dream

Of Life and truth the real figures seem.

Fools! they as well might think there stirs a heart,

Of vital power, in images of art.”

“In various fights the Roman arms have failed;

Still in the war the Roman power prevailed.”

“Virtue, Albinus, is—A constant will

The claims of duty ably to fulfil—

Virtue is knowledge of the just, sincere,

The good, the ill, the useless, base, unfair.

What we should wish to gain, for what to pray,

This virtue teaches, and each vow to pay;

Honour she gives to whom it may belong,

But hates the base, and flies from what is wrong—

A bold protector of the just and pure,

She feels for such a friendship fond and sure—

Her country’s good commands her warmest zeal.

Kindred the next, and latest private weal.”

“On half a pound three grains of barley bread,

With two small bunches of dried grapes, he fed,

And met old age beneath a paltry shed.”

“Nam neque nos agere hoc patriäi tempore iniquo

Possumus æquo animo,” &c.—Lib. I. v. 42.

“Ἐιδον γαρ σκοπιην ἐς παιπαλοεσσαν ἀνελθων,

Νησον, την περι ποντος απειριτος ἐστεφανωται·

Ἀυτη δε χθαμαλη κεῖται καπνον δ’ ενι μεσσῃ

Εδρακον οφθαλμοῖσι δια δρυμα πυκνα και ὑλην.”

Οδυσ. Κ.

“All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;” ——

“If plagues and earthquakes break not Heaven’s design,

Why, then, a Borgia or a Catiline.

* * * *

In spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,

One truth is clear,—Whatever is, is right.”

“Nec me animi fallit, Graiorum obscura reperta,

Difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse;

Multa novis verbis præsertim quum sit agendum,

Propter egestatem linguæ et rerum novitatem.

* * *

Deinde, quod obscurâ de re tam lucida pango

Carmina, Musæo contingens cuncta lepore.”

“Who combats bravely, is not therefore brave;

He dreads a death-bed like a common slave.”

“Quæ gravis Æsopus, quæ doctus Roscius egit.”

Catullus, in his miscellaneous poems, has employed not fewer than thirteen different sorts of versification.

1. That which is most frequently used is the Phalæcian hendecasyllable, consisting of a spondee, dactyl, and three trochees.

“Cui do | no lepi | dum no | vum li | bellum.”

This sort of measure has been adopted by Catullus in thirty-nine poems.

2. Trimeter iambus, consisting of six feet, which are generally all iambuses.

but a spondee sometimes forms the first, third, and fifth feet. Four poems are in this measure—the fourth, twentieth, twenty-ninth, and fifty-second.

3. Choliambus or scazon, which is the same with the last mentioned, except that the concluding foot of the line is always a spondee.

This metre is used seven times, being employed in the eighth, twenty-second, thirty-first, thirty-seventh, thirty-ninth, forty-fourth, and fifty-ninth poems.

4. Trochaic Stesichian, consisting of six feet—choreus or spondee, a dactyl, a cretic, a choreus or spondee, a dactyl, and lastly a choreus.

This measure appears only in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth poems.

5. Iambic tetrameter catalectic, formed of seven feet and a cæsura at the close of the line. It occurs in the twenty-fifth poem.

6. Choriambus. This also is employed but once, being used only in the thirtieth. It consists of five feet,—a spondee, three choriambi, and a pyrrhichius.

“Ventos | irrita fer | et nebulas | aerias | sinis.”

7. A sort of Phalæcian, consisting of two spondees and three chorei.

“Quas vul | tu vi | di ta | men se | reno.”

But it sometimes consists of a spondee and four chorei. This measure is adopted in some lines of the fifty-fifth ode.

8. Glyconian, generally made up of a spondee and two dactyles.

“Jam ser | vire Tha | lassio.”

but sometimes of a trochæus and two dactyles.

“Cinge | tempora | floribus.”

This sort of verse occurs, but mixed with other measures in the thirty-fourth ode, addressed to Diana, and also in the sixtieth.

9. Pherecratian, consisting of three feet, a trochee, spondee, or iambus in the first place, followed by a dactyl and spondee.

Exer | ceto ju | ventam

Frige | rans Aga | nippe

Hymen | O Hyme | næe.

This is used in the thirty-fourth and sixtieth, mingled with glyconian verse.

10. Galliambic. This is employed only in the poem of Atys, which indeed is the sole specimen of the galliambic measure, in the Latin language. It consists of six feet, which are used very loosely and indiscriminately. The first seems to be at pleasure, an anapæst, spondee, or tribrachys; second, an iambus, tribrachys, or dactyl; third, iambus or spondee; fourth, dactyl or spondee; fifth, a dactyl, or various other feet; sixth, generally an anapæst, but sometimes an iambus.

“Super alta vectus Atys celeri rate maria.”

The remaining three species of measure employed by Catullus, are the sapphic stanza, used in the seventh and fifty-first odes; the hexameter lines, which we have in the epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis; and the pentameter lines, used alternately with the hexameters, and thereby constituting elegiac verse, which is employed in all the elegies of Catullus. Of these three measures, the structure is well known.—(Vulpius, Diatribe de Metris Catulli.)

O blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers,

Where Pleasure lies carelessly smiling at Fame;

He was born for much more, and in happier hours

His soul might have glowed with a holier flame.

Moore.

Nibby, in his Viaggio Antiquario ne contorni di Roma, (Ed. 1819. 2 Tom. 8vo,) in opposition to all previous authority, has denied that this was the site of the villa of Catullus, which he has removed to a spot due east from Tibur, between the Acque Albule and Ponte Lucano. His opinion, however, is rested on the 26th poem of Catullus, of which he has totally misunderstood the meaning,—

“Furi, Villula nostra non ad Austri

Flatus opposita est, nec ad Favoni,

Nec sævi Boreæ, aut Apeliotæ;

Verum ad millia quindecim et ducentos—

O ventum horribilem atque pestilentem.”

Nibby strangely supposes that the fourth line of the above verses means that the villa is 15 miles 200 paces from Rome, and, therefore, that it cannot be at St Angelo in Piavola, the distance of which from Rome is not 15 miles 200 paces.—“Questi versi,” says he, “non solo non sono così decisìvi per situarla precisamente a St Angelo, piu tosto che in altri luoghi di questi contorni; ma assolutamente la escludono, poichè la stabaliscono quindìci miglia, e duecento passi vicino a Roma.”—T. I. p. 166.

Now, in the first place, according to Muretus and the best commentators, this ode does not at all refer to the villa of Catullus, but of Furius, whom he addresses, since the correct reading in the first line is not Villula nostra, but Vostra. Allowing, however, that it should be nostra, it is quite impossible to extort from the fourth line any proof that the villa was 15 miles 200 paces from Rome. Translated verbatim, it is as follows:—“Furius, our (your) villa is not exposed or liable to the blasts of Auster or Favonius, or the sharp Boreas, or the Apeliot wind, but to fifteen thousand and two hundred—O horrible and pestilent wind!” Now, the question is, to what 15,000,200 is the villa exposed? (opposita). Every commentator whom I have consulted, supplies sesterces, or other pieces of money; that is to say, it was mortgaged or pledged for that sum, which would sweep it away more effectually than any wind. Nibby’s interpretation, that it is not exposed to Auster or Boreas, &c. but is 15 miles 200 paces distant from Rome, is not many miles, or even paces, distant from absolute nonsense; and, moreover, quindecim millia, is not good Latin for 15 miles.

“Las! Si j’avois pouvoir d’oublier,

Sa beaulté—son bien dire,

Et son très doulx regarder,

Finirois non martyre.

“Mais las! Comment oublier

Sa beaulté, son bien dire,

Et son très doulx regarder!

Mieux aime mon martyre.”

“I stood, and to the Dawn my vows addressed,

When Roscius rose refulgent in the west.

Forgive, ye Powers! A mortal seemed more bright,

Than the bright god who darts the shafts of light.”

“Why Phileros, a torch before me bear?—

A heart on fire all other light may spare.

That feeble flame can ill resist the power

Of the keen tempest and the headlong shower;

But this still glows whatever storms may drench,

What Venus kindles, she alone can quench.”

“Ye guardians of the tender flock, retire,

Why seek ye flames, when man himself is fire?

Whate’er I touch bursts forth in sudden blaze,

And the woods kindle with my scorching gaze.”

“For threescore years since first I saw the light,

I lived without reproach—A Roman Knight.

As such I left my sacred home; but soon

Shall there return an actor and buffoon.

Since stretch’d beyond the point where honour ends,

One day too long my term of life extends.

Fortune, extreme alike in good and ill,

Since thus to blast my fame has been thy will;

Why didst thou not, ere spent my youthful race,

Bend me yet pliant to this dire disgrace?

While power remain’d, with yet unbroken frame,

Him to have pleased, and earn’d the crowd’s acclaim:

But now why drive me to an actor’s part,

When nought remains of all the actor’s art;

Nor life, nor fire, which could the scene rejoice,

Nor grace of form, nor harmony of voice?

As fades the tree round which the ivy twines,

So in the clasp of age my strength declines.”

“All are not always first—few have been known

To rest long on the summit of renown.

In fame we faster fall than we ascend:

I fall—who follows, thus his course must end.”

“Democritus, the philosophic sage

Of Abdera, deep read in Nature’s page,

Opposed a brazen shield of polish bright

To full-orbed Phœbus’ mid-day shafts of light,

That the round mirror, having catched the rays,

Might blast his vision with the dazzling blaze;

Thus his extinguished eyes could ne’er behold

The wicked prosper. O that thus my gold

Might, with the lustre of its yellow light,

Dim through my closing years these orbs of sight,

Whose darkness would not see a thriftless son

Waste the fair fortune which his fathers won!”

“Tis fit that we the means employ,

To sweeten life, and life enjoy.

Let pleasure lay your cares to rest,

And clasp the fair one to your breast,

Give and receive the melting kiss,

Like doves in hours of amorous bliss.”