MAGINN’S ALTERNATIONS—HORACE, EPODE II.

Blest man, who far from busy hum,

Ut prisca gens mortalium,

Whistles his team afield with glee

Solutus omni fenore:

He lives in peace, from battles free,

Nec horret iratum mare;

And shuns the forum, and the gay

Potentiorum limina.

Therefore to vines of purple gloss

Altas maritat populos,

Or pruning off the boughs unfit

Feliciores inserit.

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Alphius the usurer, babbled thus,

Jam jam futurus rusticus,

Called in his cast on th’Ides—but he

Quærit Kalendis ponere.