On him who sets out love to worst!'
A similar thought finds expression in a single line, perhaps also a quotation: Nemo est bellus nisi qui amavit mulierem,—'He who has never been in love can be no gentleman.'
Not all the Pompeians, however, viewed the matter so seriously. To the first line of the couplet just quoted a scribbler of a cynical turn in one instance joined a parody, to the effect that those who are in love may well avoid the use of hot baths, on the principle that 'the burnt child dreads the fire,'—Nam nemo flammas ustus amare potest.
The uselessness of interference with the course of love is also made prominent. In this distich, apparently from some poet, the scribbler seems to have made a slight change to meet a specific case, substituting obiurgat for custodit or some similar word: Alliget hic auras, si quis obiurgat amantes, Et vetat assiduas currere fontis aquas,—
'Whoever has a mind
To hinder lovers' way,
Let him go zephyrs bind
Or running waters stay.'
Ancient lovers nevertheless had their fears, and the following couplet, which is no doubt borrowed from a poet, appears also, in a slightly different form, on a wall in Rome: Si quis forte meam cupiet violare puellam, Illum in desertis montibus urat Amor,—
'If any man shall seek