HORAT. OD. LIB. V. OD. II. VITE RUSTICE LAUDES. Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis, Nec excitatur classico miles truci, Ergo aut adultâ vitium propagine Aut in reducta valle mugientium Prospectat errantes greges: Aut pressa puris mella condit amphoris, Vei cum decorum mitibus pomis caput Ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pyra, Certantem et uvam purpuræ, Fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus, At cum tonentis annus hybernus Jovis Aut trudit acres hinc, et hinc multâ cane Aut amite levi rara tendit retia; Turdis edacibus dolos; Pavidumque leporem, et advenam laqueo gruem, Quis non malarum, quas amor curas habet, Quòd si pudica mulier in partem juvet Domum, atque dulces liberos, (Sabina qualis, aut perusta solibus Sacrum vetusti extruat lignis focum Claudensque textis cratibus lætum pecus Et horna dulci vina promens dolio, Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia, Hyems ad hoc vertat mare: Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis Aut herba lapathi prata amantis, et gravi Vel agna festis cæsa Terminalibus: Has inter epulas, ut juvat pastas oves THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE. Happy is he, that from all business clear, Nor dreads the sea's enraged harms: [boards, The lowing herds there grazing are: Or the prest honey in pure pots doth keep Of earth, and shears the tender sheep: [round Or when that autumn through the fields lifts His head, with mellow apples crown'd, How plucking pears, his own hand grafted had, And purple-matching grapes, he's glad! With which, Priapus, he may thank thy hands, And, Sylvan, thine, that kept'st his lands! Then now beneath some ancient oak he may Now in the rooted grass him lay, Whilst from the higher banks do slide the floods The soft birds quarrel in the woods, The fountains murmur as the streams do creep, And all invite to easy sleep. [showers Then when the thund'ring Jove his snow and Are gathering by the wintry hours: [hourd Or hence, or thence, he drives with many a Wild boars into his toils pitch'd round: Or strains on his small fork his subtle nets For th' eating thrush, or pit-falls sets: [crane, And snares the fearful hare, and new-come And 'counts them sweet rewards so ta'en. Who amongst these delights, would not forget Love's cares so evil and so great? But if, to boot with these, a chaste wife meet To deck the hallow'd hearth with old wood fired If with bright floods, the winter troubled much, The Ionian godwit, nor the ginny-hen Could not go down my belly then Or the herb sorrel, that loves meadows still, Or at the feast of bounds, the lamb then slain, Positosque vernas, ditis examen domûs, Circum renidentes lares! Hæc ubi locutus, fæenerator Alphius, The wealthy household swarm of bondmen met, HORACE, ODE I. LIB. IV. AD VENEREM. Intermissa Venus diu, Parce precor, precor: Rursus bella moves? Circa lustra decem flectere mollibus Quò blande juvenum te revocant preces. Tempestivius in domo Pauli purpureis ales oloribus, Comessabere Maximi, Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum. Namque et nobilis, et decens, Et pro solicitis non tacitus reis, Et centum puer artium, Latè signa feret militiæ tuæ. Et quandoque potentior Largi muneribus riserit æmuli, Albanos prope te lacus Ponet marmoream sub trabe cypreâ. Illic plurima naribus Duces thura, lyræque, et Berecynthia Delectabere tibiâ Mistis carminibus non sine fistula. Illic bis pueri die, Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum Laudantes, pede candido In morem Salium ter quatient humum. Me nec fœmina nec puer Jam, nec spes animi credula mutui, Nec certare juvat mero: Nec vincire novis tempora floribus. Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur Manat rara meas lachryma per genas? Cur facunda parum decoro Inter verba cadit lingua silentio ! Nocturnis te ego somniis Jam captum teneo, jam volucrem sequor Te per gramina Martii Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles. ODE I. BOOK IV TO VENUS. Venus, again thou mov'st a war Long intermitted, pray thee, pray thee spare: I am not such, as in the reign Of the good Cynara I was: refrain Sour mother of sweet Loves, forbear To bend a man now at his fiftieth year [back. Too stubborn for commands so slack: With thy bright swans, of Paulus Maximus : For he's both noble, lovely, young, And for the troubled client fills his tongue. Child of a hundred arts, and far Will he display the ensigns of thy war. And when he smiling finds his grace With thee 'bove all his rivals' gifts take placc, He'll thee a marble statue make Beneath a sweet-wood roof near Alba lake, There shall thy dainty nostril take In many a gum, and for thy soft ears' sake Shall verse be set to harp and lute, And Phrygian hau'boy, not without the flute. There twice a day in sacred lays, The youths and tender maids shall sing thy And in the Salian manner meet [praise. Thrice 'bout thy altar with their ivory feet. Me now, nor wench, nor wanton boy, Delights, nor credulous hope of mutual joy· Nor care I now healths to propound, Or with fresh flowers to girt my temple round But why, oh why, my Ligurine, [of mine? Flow my thin tears down these pale cheeks Or why my well-grac'd words among With an uncomely silence fails my tongue? Hard-hearted, I dream every night [light, I hold thee fast! but fled hence, with the Whether in Mars his field thou be, Or Tyber's winding streams, I follow thee ODE IX. LIB. III. AD LYDIAM. DIALOGUS HORATII ET LYDIE. Hor. Donec gratus eram tibi, ODE IX. BOOK III. TO LYDIA. Hor. Whilst, Lydia, I was lov'd of thee, Lyd. Donec non aliâ magis Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloën, Hor. Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit, Pro qua non metuam mori, Lyd. Me torret face mutud Thurini Calais filius Ornithi: Pro quo his patiar mori, Hor. Quid si prisca redit Venus, Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens. Lyd. Whilst Horace lov'd no mistress more, Nor after Chloe did his Lydia sound; In name, I went all names before, The Roman Ilia was not more renown'd. Hor. 'Tis true, I'm Thracian Chloe's I, [plays Who sings so sweet, and with such cunning As, for her, I'ld not fear to die, So fate would give her life, and longer days Lyd. And I am mutually on fire With gentle Calais, Thurine Ornith's son, For whom I doubly would expire, So fate would let the boy a long thread run. Hor. But say old love return should make, And us disjoin'd force to her brazen yoke, That I bright Chloe off should shake, And to left Lydia, now the gate stood ope? Lyd. Though he be fairer than a star; Thou lighter than the bark of any tree, And than rough Adria angrier far; Yet would I wish to love, live, die with thee. FRAGMENTUM PETRON. ARBITR. Foeda est in coitu, et brevis voluptas, Et tædet Veneris statim peractæ. Non ergo ut pecudes libidinosa, Caci protinus irruamus illuc : Nam languescit amor peritque flamma, Sed sic, sic, sine fine feriati, Et tecum jaceamus osculantes: Hic nullus labor est, ruborque nullus ; Hoc juvit, juvat, et diu juvabit: Hoc non deficit, incipitque semper. FRAGMENT OF PETRON. ARBITER TRANSLATED. Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short; And done, we straight repent us of the sport: Let us not then rush blindly on unto it, Like lustful beasts that only know to do it: For lust will languish, and that heat decay. But thus, thus, keeping endless holiday, Let us together closely lie and kiss, There is no labor, nor no shame in this; This hath pleas'd, doth please, and long will please; never Can this decay, but is beginning ever. EPIGRAMMA MARTIALIS, Lib. viii. ep. 77. Liber, amicorum dulcissima cura tuorum, Liber in æterna vivere digne rosa; Si sapis, Assyrio semper tibi crinis amomo Splendeat, et cingant florea serta caput : Candida nigrescant vetulo crystalla Falerno, Et caleat blando mollis amore thorus. Qui sic, vel medio finitus vixit in ævo, Longior huic facta est, quam data vita fuit. EPIGRAM OF MARTIAL, viii. 77. — TRANSLATED. much. SYLVA. Rerum, et sententiarum, quasi "Yin dicta a multiplici materia, et varietate, in iis contenta. Quemadmodum enim vulyỏ solemus infinitam arborum nascentium indiscriminatim multitudinem Sylvam dicere. ità etiam libros suos in quibus variæ et diversæ materiæ opuscula temere congesta erant, Sylvas appellabant antiqui, Timber-trees. TIMBER; OR, DISCOVERIES MADE UPON MEN AND MATTER, AS THEY HAVE FLOWED OUT OF HIS DAILY READINGS, OR HAD THEIR REFLUX TO HIS PECULIAR NOTION OF THE TIMES. Tecum habita, ut nôris quam sit tibi curta supellex. - PERS. Sat. 4. oughly, by our too much haste. For passions are spiritual rebels, and raise sedition against the understanding.) should love their country: he that professeth the contrary, may be delighted with his words, but his heart is there. Fortuna. Ill fortune never crush'd that man, whom good fortune deceived not. I therefore have counselled my friends, never to trust to her fairer side, though she seemed to makeAmor patriæ.. There is a necessity all men peace with them: but to place all things she gave them, so as she might ask them again with out their trouble: she might take them from them, not pull them; to keep always a distance between her, and themselves. He knows not his own strength, that hath not met adversity. Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man. Contraries are not mixed. Yet, that which happens to any man, may to every man. But it is in his reason what he accounts it, and will make it. Casus. Change into extremity is very frequent, and easy. As when a beggar suddenly grows rich, he commonly becomes a prodigal; for to obscure his former obscurity, he puts on riot and excess. Consilia. -No man is so foolish, but may give another good counsel sometimes; and no man is so wise, but may easily err, if he will take no others counsel but his own. But very few men are wise by their own counsel; or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself,' had a fool to his master. Fama. A Fame that is wounded to the world, would be better cured by another's apology, than its own: for few can apply medicines well themselves. Besides, the man that is once hated, both his good, and his evil deeds oppress him. He is not easily emergent. Negotia.-In great affairs it is a work of difficulty to please all. And oft-times we lose the occasions of carrying a business well, and thor 1 Αυτοδιδάσκαλος. Ingenia. - Natures that are hardened to evil you shall sooner break, than make straight; they are like poles that are crooked and dry; there is no attempting them. Applausus. - We praise the things we hear, with much more willingness, than those we see; because we envy the present, and reverence the past; thinking ourselves instructed by the one, and over-laid by the other. Opinio. - Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing, settled in the imagination; but never arriving at the understanding, there to obtain the tincture of reason. We labor with it more than truth. There is much more holds us, than presseth us. An ill fact is one thing, an ill-fortune is another: yet both oftentimes sway us alike, by the error of our thinking. 0 Impostura. Many men believe not themselves, what they would persuade others; and less do the things, which they would impose on others but least of all, know what they themselves most confidently boast. Only they set the sign of the cross over their outer doors, and sacrifice to their gut and their groin in their inner closets. Jactura vitæ. - What a deal of cold business doth a man mispend the better part of life in! in scattering compliments, tendering visits, gathering and venting news, following feasts and plays, making a little winter-love in a dark corner. Hypocrita.- Puritanus hypocrita est hæreticus, 13 Cognit. univers. In being able to counsel others, a man must be furnished with an universal store in himself, to the knowledge of all nature that is the matter, and seed plot; there are the scats of all argument, and invention. But especially you must be cunning in the nature of man: there is the variety of things which are as the elements, and letters, which his art and wisdom must rank, and order to the present occasion. For we see not all letters in single words; nor all places in particular discourses. That cause seldom happens, wherein a man will use all arguments. Consiliarii adjunct. Probitas, Sapientia. The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom: the authority of those two will persuade, when the same counsels uttered by other persons less qualified, are of no efficacy, or working. Wisdom without honesty is mere b craft, and cozenage. And therefore the reputation of honesty must first be gotten; which cannot be but by living well. A good life is main argument. 16 17 Obsequentia. - Humanitas.—Solicitudo.-Next a good life, to beget love in the persons we counsel, by dissembling our knowledge of ability in ourselves, and avoiding all suspicion of arrogance, ascribing all to their instruction, as an ambassador to his master, or a subject to his sovereign; seasoning all with humanity and sweetness, only expressing care and solicitude. And not to counsel rashly, or on the sudden, but with advice and meditation: (Dat nox consilium.) For many foolish things fall from wise men, if they speak in haste, or be extemporal. It therefore behoves the giver of counsel to be circumspect; especially to beware of those, with whom he is not thoroughly acquainted, lest any spice of rashness, folly, or self-love appear, which will be marked by new persons, and men of experience in affairs. Modestia. Parrhesia. And to the prince, or his superior, to behave himself modestly, and with respect. Yet free from flattery, or empire. Not with insolence, or precept; but as the prince were already furnished with the parts he should have, especially in affairs of state. For in other things they will more easily suffer themselves to be taught, or reprehended⚫ they will not willingly contend. But hear (with | Alexander) the answer the musician gave him Absit, 6 rex, ut tu meliùs hæc scias, quàm egc.1 Perspicuitas. Elegantia. - A man should soj deliver himself to the nature of the subject whereof he speaks, that his hearer may take knowledge of his discipline with some delight: and so apparel fair and good matter, that the studious of elegancy be not defrauded; redeem arts from their rough and brakey seats, where they lay hid, and overgrown with thorns, to a pure, open, and flowery light; where they may take the eye, and be taken by the hand. Natura non effata. - I cannot think Nature is so spent and decayed, that she can bring forth nothing worth her former years. She is always the same, like herself; and when she collects her strength, is abler still. Men are decayed, and studies: she is not. Non nimiùm credendum antiquitati. — I know JA nothing can conduce more to letters, than to examine the writings of the ancients, and not to rest in their sole authority, or take all upon trust from them; provided the plagues of judg ing and pronouncing against them be away; such as are envy, bitterness, precipitation, impudence, and scurril scoffing. For to all the observations of the ancients, we have our own experience; which if we will use, and apply, we have better means to pronounce. It is true they opened the gates, and made the way that went before us; but as guides, not commanders; Non domini nostri, sed duces jutre. Truth lies open to all; it is no man's several. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata. Multum ez illâ, etiam futuris 1 elicta cst. Dissentire licet, sed cum ratione. If in some i things I dissent from others, whose wit, industry, diligence, and judgment I look up at, and admire; let me not therefore hear presently of ingratitude, and rashness. For I thank those that have taught me, and will ever: but yet dere not think the scope of their labor and inquiry was to envy their posterity, what they also could add, and find out. Non mihi credendum sed veritati. — If I err, pardon me: Nulla ars simul et inventa est, et abcoluta. I do not desire to be equal to those that went before; but to have my reason examined with theirs, and so much faith to be given them, or me, as those shall evict. I am neither author nor fautor of any sect. I will have no man addict himself to me; but if I have any thing right, defend it as Truth's, not mine, save as i' conduceth to a common good. It profits not me to have any man fence or fight for me, to flourish, or take my side. Stand for Truth, and 'tis enough. Scientiæ liberales. Arts that respect the 23 mind, were ever reputed nobler than those that serve the body: though we less can be without them. As tillage, spinning, weaving, building, &c., without which, we could scarce sustain life a day. But these were the works of every hand; the other of the brain only, and those the most generous and exalted wits and spirits, that cannot rest, or acquiesce. The mind of man is still fed with labor — Opere fascitur. 1 Plutarch in vita Alex. |