Come now! answer me! It is but a little trifle that I wish to know! What think you of Jupiter?[1301] Would you care to prefer him to some man! To whom? Well, say to Staius.[1302] Are you at a loss indeed? Which were the better judge, or better suited to the charge of orphan children! Come then, say to Staius that wherewith you would attempt to influence the ear of Jupiter. "O Jupiter!"[1303] he would exclaim, "O good Jupiter!" But would not Jove himself call out, "O Jove!"
Thinkest thou he has forgiven thee,[1304] because, when he thunders, the holm-oak[1305] is rather riven with his sacred bolt than thou and all thy house?[1306] Or because thou dost not, at the bidding of the entrails of the sheep,[1307] and Ergenna, lie in the sacred grove a dread bidental to be shunned of all, that therefore he gives thee his insensate beard to pluck?[1308] Or what is the bribe by which thou wouldst win over the ears of the gods? With lungs, and greasy chitterlings? See[1309] some grandam or superstitious[1310] aunt takes the infant from his cradle, and skilled in warding off the evil eye,[1311] effascinates his brow and driveling lips with middle[1312] finger and with lustral spittle, first. Then dandles[1313] him in her arms, and with suppliant prayer transports him either to the broad lands of Licinus[1314] or the palaces of Crassus.[1315] "Him may some king and queen covet as a son-in-law! May maidens long to ravish him! Whatever he treads on may it turn to roses!" But I do not trust prayers to a nurse.[1316] Refuse her these requests, great Jove, even though she make them clothed in white![1317]
You ask vigor for your sinews,[1318] and a frame that will insure old age. Well, so be it. But rich dishes and fat sausages prevent the gods from assenting to these prayers, and baffle Jove himself.
You are eager to amass a fortune, by sacrificing a bull; and court Mercury's favor by his entrails. "Grant that my household gods may make me lucky! Grant me cattle, and increase to my flocks!" How can that be, poor wretch, while so many cauls of thy heifers melt in the flames? Yet still he strives to gain his point by means of entrails and rich cakes.[1319] "Now my land, and now my sheepfold teems. Now, surely now, it will be granted!" Until, baffled and hopeless, his sestertius at the very bottom of his money-chest sighs in vain.
Were I to offer you[1320] goblets of silver and presents embossed with rich gold,[1321] you would perspire with delight, and your heart, palpitating with joy in your left breast,[1322] would force even the tear-drops from your eyes. And hence it is the idea enters[1323] your mind of covering the sacred faces of the gods with triumphal gold.[1324] For among the Brazen brothers,[1325] let those be chief, and let their beards be of gold, who send dreams purged from gross humors. Gold hath expelled the vases of Numa[1326] and Saturnian[1327] brass, and the vestal urns and the pottery of Tuscany.
Oh! souls bowed down to earth! and void of aught celestial! Of what avail is it to introduce into the temples of the gods these our modes of feeling, and estimate what is acceptable to them by referring to our own accursed flesh.[1328] This it is that has dissolved Cassia[1329] in the oil it pollutes. This has dyed the fleece of Calabria[1330] with the vitiated purple. To scrape the pearl from its shell, and from the crude ore to smelt out the veins of the glowing mass; this carnal nature bids. She sins in truth. She sins. Still from her vice gains some emolument.
Say ye, ye priests! of what avail is gold in sacrifice? As much, forsooth, as the dolls which the maiden bestows on Venus! Why do we not offer that to the gods which the blear-eyed progeny of great Messala can not give even from his high-heaped charger. Justice to god and man enshrined[1331] within the heart; the inner chambers[1332] of the soul free from pollution; the breast imbued[1333] with generous honor. Give me these to present at the temples, and I will make my successful offering[1334] with a little meal.[1335]
FOOTNOTES:
[1287] Macrine. Nothing is known of this friend of Persius, but from the old Scholiast, who tells us that his name was Plotius Macrinus; that he was a man of great learning, and of a fatherly regard for Persius, and that he had studied in the house of Servilius. Britannicus calls him Minutius Macrinus, and says he was of equestrian rank, and a native of Brixia, now "Brescia."