No More Learning

--But, to whom?
To Staius, for example. Heavens! a pause? 35
Which of the two would best dispense the laws?
Best shield the unfriended orphan? Good! Now move
The suit to Staius, late preferred to Jove:--
"O Jove! good Jove! " he cries, o'erwhelmed with shame,
And must not Jove himself, _O Jove! _ exclaim? 40
Or dost thou think the impious wish forgiven,
Because, when thunder shakes the vault of heaven,
The bolt innoxious flies o'er thee and thine,
To rend the forest oak and mountain pine?
--Because, yet livid from the lightning's seath, 45
Thy mouldering corpse (a monument of wrath)
Lies in no blasted grove, for public care
To expiate with sacrifice and prayer;
Must, therefore, Jove, unsceptred and unfeared,
Give to thy ruder mirth his foolish beard? 50
What bribe hast thou to win the Powers divine,
Thus, to thy nod? The lungs and lights of swine.
Lo! from his little crib, the grandam hoar,
Or aunt, well versed in superstitious lore,
Snatches the babe; in lustral spittle dips 55
Her middle finger, and anoints his lips
And forehead:--"Charms of potency," she cries,
"To break the influence of evil eyes! "
The spell complete, she dandles high in air
Her starveling hope; and breathes a humble prayer, 60
That heaven would only tender to his hands
All Crassus' houses, all Licinius' lands! --
"Let every gazer by his charms be won,
And kings and queens aspire to call him son:
Contending virgins fly his smiles to meet, 65
And roses spring where'er he sets his feet! "
Insane of soul--but I, O Jove, am free.
Thou knowest, I trust no nurse with prayers for me:
In mercy, then, reject each fond demand,
Though, robed in white, she at thy altar stand. 70
This begs for nerves to pain and sickness steeled,
A frame of body that shall slowly yield
To late old age:--'Tis well, enjoy thy wish. --
But the huge platter, and high-seasoned dish,
Day after day the willing gods withstand, 75
And dash the blessing from their opening hand.
That sues for wealth: the laboring ox is slain,
And frequent victims woo the "god of gain. "
"O crown my hearth with plenty and with peace,
And give my flocks and herds a large increase! " 80
Madman! how can he, when, from day to day,
Steer after steer in offerings melt away? --
Still he persists; and still new hopes arise,
With harslet and with tripe, to storm the skies.
"Now swell my harvests! now my fields! now, now, 85
It comes--it comes--auspicious to my vow! "
While thus, poor wretch, he hangs 'twixt hope and fear,
He starts, in dreadful certainty, to hear
His chest reverberate the hollow groan
Of his last piece, to find itself alone? 90
If from my sideboard I should bid you take
Goblets of gold or silver, you would shake
With eager rapture; drops of joy would start,
And your left breast scarce hold your fluttering heart:
Hence, you presume the gods are bought and sold; 95
And overlay their busts with captured gold.
For, of the brazen brotherhood, the Power
Who sends you dreams, at morning's truer hour,
Most purged from phlegm, enjoys your best regards,
And a gold beard his prescient skill rewards! 100
Now, from the temples, GOLD has chased the plain
And frugal ware of Numa's pious reign;.
The ritual pots of brass are seen no more,
And Vesta's pitchers blaze in burnished ore.
O groveling souls! and void of things divine! 105
Why bring our passions to the Immortals' shrine,
And judge, from what this CARNAL SENSE delights,
Of what is pleasing in their purer sights?
THIS, the Calabrian fleece with purple soils,
And mingles cassia with our native oils; 110
Tears from the rocky conch its pearly store,
And strains the metal from the glowing ore.
This, this, indeed, is vicious; yet it tends
To gladden life, perhaps; and boasts its ends;
But you, ye priests (for, sure, ye can), unfold-- 115
In heavenly things, what boots this pomp of gold?
No more, in truth, than dolls to Venus paid
(The toys of childhood), by the riper maid!
No; let me bring the Immortals, what the race
Of great Messala, now depraved and base, 120
On their huge charger, can not;--bring a mind,
Where legal and where moral sense are joined
With the pure essence; holy thoughts, that dwell
In the soul's most retired and sacred cell;
A bosom dyed in honor's noblest grain, 125
Deep-dyed:--with these let me approach the fane,
And Heaven will hear the humble prayer I make,
Though all my offering be a barley cake.


SATIRE III.

What! ever thus? See! while the beams of day
In broad effulgence o'er the shutters play,
Stream through the crevice, widen on the walls,
On the fifth line the gnomon's shadow falls!
Yet still you sleep, like one that, stretched supine, 5
Snores off the fumes of strong Falernian wine.
Up! up! mad Sirius parches every blade,
And flocks and herds lie panting in the shade.
Here my youth rouses, rubs his heavy eyes,
"Is it _so_ late? so _very_ late? " he cries; 10
"Shame, shame! Who waits? Who waits there? quick, my page!
Why, when! " His bile overflows; he foams with rage,
And brays so loudly, that you start in fear,
And fancy all Arcadia at your ear.
Behold him, with his bedgown and his books, 15
His pens and paper, and his studious looks,
Intent and earnest! What arrests his speed,
Alas! the viscous liquid clogs the reed.
Dilute it. Pish! now every word I write
Sinks through the paper, and eludes the sight; 20
Now the pen leaves no mark, the point's too fine;
Now 'tis too blunt, and doubles every line!
O wretch! whom every day more wretched sees--
Are these the fruits of all your studies? these!
Give o'er at once: and like same callow dove, 25
Some prince's heir, some lady's infant love,
Call for chewed pap; and, pouting at the breast,
Scream at the lullaby that woos to rest!
"But why such warmth? See what a pen! nay, see! "--
And is this subterfuge employed on me? 30
Fond boy! your time, with your pretext, is lost;
And all your arts are at your proper cost.
While with occasion thus you madly play,
Your best of life unheeded leaks away,
And scorn flows in apace: the ill-baked ware, 35
Rung by the potter, will its fault declare;
Thus--But you yet are moist and yielding clay:
Call for some plastic hand without delay,
Nor cease the labor, till the wheel produce
A vessel nicely formed, and fit for use. 40
"But wherefore this? My father, thanks to fate,
Left me a fair, if not a large, estate:--
A salt unsullied on my table shines,
And due oblations, in their little shrines,
My household gods receive; my hearth is pure, 45
And all my means of life confirmed and sure:
What need I more? " Nay, nothing; it is well.
--And it becomes you, too, with pride to swell,
Because, the thousandth in descent, you trace
Your blood, unmixed, from some high Tuscan race; 50
Or, when the knights march by the censor's chair,
In annual pomp, can greet a kinsman there!
Away! these trappings to the rabble show:
Me they deceive not; for your soul I know,
Within, without. --And blush you not to see 55
Loose Natta's life and yours so well agree?
--But Natta's is not _life_: the sleep of sin
Has seized his powers, and palsied all within;
Huge cawls of fat envelope every part,
And torpor weighs on his insensate heart: 60
Absolved from blame by ignorance so gross,
He neither sees nor comprehends his loss;
Content in guilt's profound abyss to drop,
Nor, struggling, send one bubble to the top!
Dread sire of gods! when lust's envenomed stings 65
Stir the fierce natures of tyrannic kings;
When storms of rage within their bosoms roll,
And call, in thunder, for thy just control,
O, then relax the bolt, suspend the blow,
And thus, and thus alone, thy vengeance show, 70
In all her charms, set Virtue in their eye,
And let them see their loss, despair, and--die!
Say, could the wretch severer tortures feel,
Closed in the brazen bull? --Could the bright steel,
That, while the board with regal pomp was spread, 75
Gleamed o'er the guest, suspended by a thread,
Worse pangs inflict than he endures, who cries
(As on the rack of conscious guilt he lies,
In mental agony), "Alas! I fall,
Down, down the unfathomed steep, without recall! " 80
And withers at the heart, and dares not show
His bosom wife the secret of his woe!
Oft (I remember yet), my sight to spoil.
Oft, when a boy, I bleared my eyes with oil,
What time I wished my studies to decline, 85
Nor make great Cato's dying speeches mine;
Speeches my master to the skies had raised,
Poor pedagogue! unknowing what he praised;
And which my sire, suspense 'twixt hope and fear,
With venial pride, had brought his friends to hear. 90
For then, alas! 'twas my supreme delight
To study chances, and compute aright,
What sum the lucky sice would yield in play,
And what the fatal aces sweep away:
Anxious no rival candidate for fame 95
Should hit the long-necked jar with nicer aim;
Nor, while the whirling top beguiled the eye,
With happier skill the sounding scourge apply.
But you have passed the schools; have studied long,
And learned the eternal bounds of Right and Wrong, 100
And what the Porch (by Mycon limned, of yore,
With trowsered Medes), unfolds of ethic lore,
Where the shorn youth, on herbs and pottage fed,
Bend, o'er the midnight page, the sleepless head:
And, sure, the letter where, divergent wide, 105
The Samian branches shoot on either side,
Has to your view, with no obscure display,
Marked, on the right, the strait but better way.
And yet you slumber still! and still opprest
With last night's revels, knock your head and breast! 110
And stretching o'er your drowsy couch, produce
Yawn after yawn, as if your jaws were loose!
Is there no certain mark at which to aim? --
Still must your bow be bent at casual game?
With clods, and potsherds, must you still pursue 115
Each wandering crow that chance presents to view;
And, careless of your life's contracted span,
Live from the moment, and without a plan?
When bloated dropsies every limb invade.
In vain to hellebore you fly for aid: 120
Meet with preventive skill the young disease,
And Craterus will boast no golden fees.
Mount, hapless youths, on Contemplation's wings,
And mark the Causes and the End of things:--
Learn what we are, and for what purpose born, 125
What station here 'tis given us to adorn;
How best to blend security with ease,
And win our way through life's tempestuous seas;
What bounds the love of property requires,
And what to wish, with unreproved desires; 130
How far the genuine use of wealth extends;
And the just claims of country, kindred, friends
What Heaven would have us be, and where our stand,
In this GREAT WHOLE, is fixed by high command.
Learn these--and envy not the sordid gains 135
Which recompense the well-tongued lawyer's pains;
Though Umbrian rustics, for his sage advice,
Pour in their jars of fish, and oil, and spice,
So thick and fast, that, ere the first be o'er,
A second, and a third, are at the door. 140
"But here, some brother of the blade, some coarse
And shag-haired captain, bellows loud and hoarse;
Away with this cramp, philosophic stuff!
My learning serves my turn, and that's enough.
I laugh at all your dismal Solons, I; 145
Who stalk with downcast looks, and heads awry,
Muttering within themselves, where'er they roam,
And churning their mad silence till it foam!
Who mope o'er sick men's dreams, howe'er absurd,
And on protruded lips poise every word; 150
_Nothing can come from nothing. _ Apt and plain!
_Nothing return to nothing. _ Good, again!
And this it is for which they peak and pine,
This precious stuff, for which they never dine! "
Jove, how he laughs! the brawny youths around 155
Catch the contagion, and return the sound;
Convulsive mirth on every cheek appears,
And every nose is wrinkled into sneers!
"Doctor, a patient said, employ your art,
I feel a strange wild fluttering at the heart; 160
My breast seems tightened, and a fetid smell
sets my breath--feel here; all is not well,"
Medicine and rest the fever's rage compose,
And the third day his blood more calmly flows.
The fourth, unable to contain, he sends 165
A hasty message to his wealthier friends,
And _just about to bathe_--requests, in fine,
A moderate flask of old Surrentin wine.
"Good heavens! my friend, what sallow looks are here? "
Pshaw! nonsense! nothing! "Yet 'tis worth your fear, 170
Whate'er it be: the waters rise within,
And, though unfelt, distend your sickly skin. "
--And yours still more! Whence springs this freedom, tro'?
Are you, forsooth, my guardian? Long ago
I buried him; and thought my nonage o'er: 175
But you remain to school me! "Sir, no more. "--
Now to the bath, full gorged with luscious fare,
See the pale wretch his bloated carcass bear;
While from his lungs, that faintly play by fits,
His gasping throat sulphureous steam emits! -- 180
Cold shiverings seize him, as for wine he calls,
His grasp betrays him, and the goblet falls!
From his loose teeth the lip, convulsed, withdraws,
And the rich cates drop through his listless jaws.
Then trumpets, torches come, in solemn state; 185
And my fine youth, so confident of late,
Stretched on a splendid bier, and essenced o'er,
Lies, a stiff corpse, heels foremost at the door.
Romans of yesterday, with covered head,
Shoulder him to the pyre, and--all is said! -- 190
"But why to me? Examine every part;
My pulse:--and lay your finger on my heart;
You'll find no fever: touch my hands and feet,
A natural warmth, and nothing more, you'll meet. "
'Tis well! But if you light on gold by chance, 195
If a fair neighbor cast a sidelong glance,
Still will that pulse with equal calmness flow,
And still that heart no fiercer throbbings know?
Try yet again. In a brown dish behold,
Coarse gritty bread, and coleworts stale and old: 200
Now, prove your taste. Why those averted eyes?
Hah! I perceive:--a secret ulcer lies
Within that pampered mouth, too sore to bear
The untender grating of plebeian fare!
Where dwells this _natural warmth_, when danger's near, 205
And "each particular hair" starts up with fear?
Or where resides it, when vindictive ire
Inflames the bosom; when the veins run fire,
The reddening eye-balls glare; and all you say,
And all you do, a mind so warped betray, 210
That mad Orestes, if the freaks he saw,
Would give you up at once to chains and straw!


SATIRE IV.

What! you, my Alcibiades, aspire
To sway the state! --(Suppose that bearded sire,
Whom hemlock from a guilty world removed,
Thus to address the stripling that he loved. )
On what apt talents for a charge so high, 5
Ward of great Pericles, do you rely?
Forecast on others by gray hairs conferred,
Haply, with you, anticipates the beard!
And prompts you, prescient of the public weal,
Now to disclose your thoughts, and now conceal! 10
Hence, when the rabble form some daring plan,
And factious murmurs spread from man to man,
Mute and attentive you can bid them stand,
By the majestic wafture of your hand!
Lo! all is hushed: what now, what will he speak, 15
What floods of sense from his charged bosom break!
"Romans! I think--I fear--I think, I say,
This is not well:--perhaps, the better way. "--
O power of eloquence! But you, forsooth,
In the nice, trembling scale can poise the truth, 20
With even hand; can with intentive view,
Amid deflecting curves, the right pursue;
Or, where the rule deceives the vulgar eye
With its warped foot, the unerring line apply:
And, while your sentence strikes with doom precise, 25
Stamp the black Theta on the front of vice!
Rash youth! relying on a specious skin,
While all is dark deformity within,
Check the fond thought; nor, like the peacock proud,
Spread your gay plumage to the applauding crowd, 30
Before your hour arrive:--Ah, rather drain
Whole isles of hellebore, to cool your brain!
For, what is YOUR chief good? "To heap my board
With every dainty earth and sea afford;
To bathe, and bask me in the sunny ray, 35
And doze the careless hours of life away. "
Hold, hold! you tattered beldame, hobbling by,
If haply asked, would make the same reply.
"But I am nobly born. " Agreed. "And fair. "
'Tis granted too: yet goody Baucis there, 40
Who, to the looser slaves, her pot-herbs cries,
Is just as philosophic, just as wise. --
How few, alas! their proper faults explore!
While, on his loaded back, who walks before,
Each eye is fixed. --You touch a stranger's arm, 45
And ask him if he knows Vectidius' farm?
"Whose," he replies? That rich old chuff's, whose ground
Would tire a hawk to wheel it fairly round.
"O ho! that wretch, on whose devoted head
Ill stars and angry gods their rage have shed! 50
Who on high festivals, when all is glee,
And the loose yoke hangs on the cross-way tree,
As, from the jar, he scrapes the incrusted clay,
Groans o'er the revels of so dear a day;
Champs on a coated onion dipt in brine; 55
And while his hungry hinds exulting dine
On barley broth, sucks up, with thrifty care,
The mothery dregs of his palled vinegar! "
But, if "YOU bask you in the sunny ray,
And doze the careless hours of youth away," 60
There are, who at such gross delights will spurn,
And spit their venom on your life in turn;
Expose, with eager hate, your low desires,
Your secret passions, and unhallowed fires. --
"Why, while the beard is nursed with every art, 65
Those anxious pains to bare the shameful part?
In vain:--should five athletic knaves essay
To pluck, with ceaseless care, the weeds away,
Still the rank fern, congenial to the soil,
Would spread luxuriant, and defeat their toil! " 70
Misled by rage, our bodies we expose,
And while we give, forget to ward, the blows;
This, this is life! and thus our faults are shown,
By mutual spleen: we know--and we are known!
But your defects elude inquiring eyes! -- 75
Beneath the groin the ulcerous evil lies,
Impervious to the view; and o'er the wound
The broad effulgence of the zone is bound!
But can you, thus, the inward pang restrain,
Thus cheat the sense of languor and of pain? 80
"But if the people call me wise and just,
Sure I may take the general voice on trust! "--
No:--If you tremble at the sight of gold;
Indulge lust's wildest sallies uncontrolled;
Or, bent on outrage, at the midnight hour, 85
Girt with a ruffian band, the Forum scour;
Then, wretch! in vain the voice of praise you hear,
And drink the vulgar shout with greedy ear.
Hence, with your spurious claims! Rejudge your cause
And fling the rabble back their vile applause; 90
To your own breast, in quest of worth, repair,
And blush to find how poor a stock is there!


SATIRE V.

TO ANNÆUS CORNUTUS.

PERSIUS. Poets are wont a hundred mouths to ask,
A hundred tongues--whate'er the purposed task;
Whether a tragic tale of Pelops' line
For the sad actor, with deep mouth, to whine;
Or Epic lay;--the Parthian winged with fear, 5
And wrenching from his groin the Roman spear.
CORNUTUS. Heavens! to what purpose (sure I heard thee wrong),
Tend those huge gobbets of robustious song,
Which, struggling into day, distend thy lungs,
And need a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues? 10
Let fustian bards to Helicon repair,
And suck the spongy fogs that hover there,
Bards, in whose fervid brains, while sense recoils,
The pot of Progne, or Thyestes boils,
Dull Glyco's feast!
--But what canst thou propose? 15
Puffed by thy heaving lungs no metal glows;
Nor dost thou, mumbling o'er some close-spent strain,
Croak the grave nothings of an idle brain;
Nor swell, until thy cheeks, with thundering sound,
Displode, and spurt their airy froth around. 20
Confined to common life, thy numbers flow,
And neither soar too high, nor sink too low;
There strength and ease in graceful union meet,
Though polished, subtle, and though poignant, sweet;
Yet powerful to abash the front of crime, 25
And crimson error's cheek with sportive rhyme.
O still be this thy study, this thy care:
Leave to Mycenæ's prince his horrid fare,
His head and feet; and seek, with Roman taste,
For Roman food--a plain but pure repast. 30
PERSIUS. Mistake me not. Far other thoughts engage
My mind, Cornutus, than to swell my page
With air-blown trifles, impotent and vain,
And grace, with noisy pomp, an empty strain.
Oh, no: the world shut out, 'tis my design, 35
To open (prompted by the inspiring Nine)
The close recesses of my breast, and bare
To your keen eye each thought, each feeling, there;
Yes, best of friends! 'tis now my wish to prove
How much you fill my heart, engross my love. 40
Ring then--for, to your practiced ear, the sound
Will show the solid, and where guile is found
Beneath the varnished tongue: for THIS, in fine,
I dared to wish a hundred voices mine;
Proud to declare, in language void of art, 45
How deep your form is rooted in my heart,
And paint, in words--ah! could they paint the whole--
The ineffable sensations of my soul.
When first I laid the purple by, and free,
Yet trembling at my new-felt liberty, 50
Approached the hearth, and on the Lares hung
The bulla, from my willing neck unstrung;
When gay associates, sporting at my side.
And the white boss, displayed with conscious pride,
Gave me, unchecked, the haunts of vice to trace, 55
And throw my wandering eyes on every face,
When life's perplexing maze before me lay,
And error, heedless of the better way,
To straggling paths, far from the route of truth,
Woo'd, with blind confidence, my timorous youth, 60
I fled to you, Cornutus, pleased to rest
My hopes and fears on your Socratic breast,
Nor did you, gentle Sage, the charge decline:
Then, dextrous to beguile, your steady line
Reclaimed, I know not by what winning force, 65
My morals, warped from virtue's straighter course;
While reason pressed incumbent on my soul,
That struggled to receive the strong control,
And took like wax, tempered by plastic skill;
The form your hand imposed; and bears it still! 70
Can I forget how many a summer's day,
Spent in your converse, stole, unmarked, away?
Or how, while listening with increased delight,
I snatched from feasts the earlier hours of night?
--One time (for to your bosom still I grew), 75
One time of study, and of rest, we knew;
One frugal board where, every care resigned,
An hour of blameless mirth relaxed the mind.
And sure our lives, which thus accordant move
(Indulge me here, Cornutus), clearly prove 80
That both are subject to the self-same law,
And from one horoscope their fortunes draw;
And whether Destiny's unerring doom
In equal Libra poised our days to come;
Or friendship's holy hour our fates combined, 85
And to the Twins a sacred charge assigned;
Or Jove, benignant, broke the gloomy spell
By angry Saturn wove;--I know not well--
But sure some star there is, whose bland control
Subdues, to yours, the temper of my soul! 90
Countless the various species of mankind,
Countless the shades which separate mind from mind;
No general object of desire is known;
Each has his will, and each pursues his own;
With Latian wares, one roams the Eastern main, 95
To purchase spice, and cummin's blanching grain;
Another, gorged with dainties, swilled with wine,
Fattens in sloth, and snores out life, supine;
This loves the Campus; that, destructive play;
And those, in wanton dalliance melt away:-- 100
But when the knotty gout their strength has broke,
And their dry joints crack like some withered oak,
Then they look back, confounded and aghast,
On the gross days in fogs and vapors past;
With late regret the waste of life deplore, 105
No purpose gained, and time, alas! no more.
But you, my friend, whom nobler views delight,
To pallid vigils give the studious night;
Cleanse youthful breasts from every noxious weed,
And sow the tilth with Cleanthean seed. 110
There seek, ye young, ye old, secure to find
That certain end which stays the wavering mind;
Stores, which endure, when other means decay,
Through life's last stage, a sad and cheerless way.
"Right; and to-morrow this shall be our care. " 115
Alas! to-morrow, like to-day, will fare.
"What! is one day, forsooth, so great a boon? "
But when it comes (and come it will too soon),
Reflect, that yesterday's to-morrow's o'er. --
Thus "one to-morrow! one to-morrow! more," 120
Have seen long years before them fade away;
And still appear no nearer than to-day!
So while the wheels on different axles roll,
In vain (though governed by the self-same pole)
The hindmost to o'ertake the foremost tries: 125
Fast as the one pursues the other flies!
FREEDOM, in truth, it steads us much to have:
Not that by which each manumitted slave,
Each Publius, with his tally, may obtain
A casual dole of coarse and damaged grain. 130
--O souls! involved in Error's thickest shade,
Who think a Roman with one turn is made!
Look on this paltry groom, this Dama here,
Who at three farthings would be prized too dear;
This blear-eyed scoundrel, who your husks would steal, 135
And outface truth to hide the starving meal;
Yet--let his master twirl this knave about,
And MARCUS DAMA in a trice steps out!
Amazing! MARCUS surety? --yet distrust!
MARCUS your judge? --yet fear a doom unjust! 140
MARCUS avouch it? --then the fact is clear.
The writings! --set your hand, good MARCUS, here. "
This is mere liberty--a name, alone:
Yet this is all the cap can make our own.
"Sure, there's no other. All mankind agree 145
That those who live without control are free:
_I_ live without control; and _therefore_ hold
Myself more free than Brutus was of old. "
Absurdly put; a Stoic cries, whose ear,
Rinsed with sharp vinegar, is quick to hear: 150
True;--all who live without control are free;
But that YOU live so, I can ne'er agree.
"No? From the Prætor's wand when I withdrew,
Lord of myself, why, might I not pursue
My pleasure unrestrained, respect still had 155
To what the rubric of the law forbad? "
Listen--but first your brows from anger clear,
And bid your nose dismiss that rising sneer;
Listen, while I the genuine truth impart,
And root those old wives' fables from your heart. 160
It was not, is not in the "Prætor's wand,"
To gift a fool with power, to understand
The nicer shades of duty, and educe,
From short and rapid life, its end and use;
The laboring hind shall sooner seize the quill, 165
And strike the lyre with all a master's skill.
Reason condemns the thought, with mien severe,
And drops this maxim in the secret ear,
"Forbear to venture, with preposterous toil,
On what, in venturing, you are sure to spoil. " 170
In this plain sense of what is just and right
The laws of nature and of man unite;
That Inexperience should some caution show,
And spare to reach at what she does not know.
Prescribe you hellebore! without the skill 175
To weigh the ingredients, or compound the pill? --
Physic, alarmed, the rash attempt withstands,
And wrests the dangerous mixture from your hands.
Should the rude clown, skilled in no star to guide
His dubious course, rush on the trackless tide, 180
Would not Palemon at the fact exclaim,
And swear the world had lost all sense of shame!
Say, is it yours, by wisdom's steady rays,
To walk secure through life's entangled maze?
Yours to discern the specious from the true, 185
And where the gilt conceals the brass from view?
Speak, can you mark, with some appropriate sign,
What to pursue, and what, in turn, decline?
Does moderation all your wishes guide,
And temperance at your cheerful board preside? 190
Do friends your love experience? are your stores
Now dealt with closed and now with open doors,
As fit occasion calls? Can you restrain
The eager appetite of sordid gain?
Nor feel, when in the mire a doit, you note, 195
Mercurial spittle gurgle in your throat?
If you can say, and truly, "THESE ARE MINE,
And THIS I CAN:"--suffice it. I decline
All farther question; you are wise and free,
No less by Jove's than by the law's decree. 200
But if, good Marcus, you who formed so late
One of our batch, of our enslaved estate,
Beneath a specious outside, still retain
The foul contagion of your ancient strain;
If the sly fox still burrow in some part, 205
Some secret corner, of your tainted heart;
I straight retract the freedom which I gave,
And hold your Dama still, and still a slave!
Reason concedes you nothing. Let us try.
Thrust forth your finger. "See. " O, heavens, awry! 210
Yet what so trifling? --But, though altars smoke,
Though clouds of incense every god invoke,
In vain you sue, one drachm of RIGHT to find,
One scruple, lurking in the foolish mind.
Nature abhors the mixture; the rude clown 215
As well may lay his spade and mattock down,
And with light foot and agile limbs prepare
To dance three steps with soft Bathyllus' air!
"Still I am free. " You! subject to the sway
Of countless masters, FREE! What _datum_, pray, 220
Supports your claim? Is there no other yoke
Than that which, from your neck, the Prætor broke!
"Go, bear these scrapers to the bath with speed;
What! loitering, knave? "--Here's servitude indeed!
Yet you unmoved the angry sounds would hear; 225
You owe no duty, and can know no fear.
But if within you feel the strong control--
If stormy passions lord it o'er your soul,
Are you more free than he whom threatenings urge
To bear the strigils and escape the scourge? 230
'Tis morn; yet sunk in sloth you snoring lie.
"Up! up! " cries Avarice, "and to business hie;
Nay, stir. " I will not. Still she presses, "Rise! "
I can not. "But you must and shall," she cries.
And to what purpose? "This a question! Go, 235
Bear fish to Pontus, and bring wines from Co;
Bring ebon, flax, whate'er the East supplies,
Musk for perfumes, and gums for sacrifice:
Prevent the mart, and the first pepper take
From the tired camel ere his thirst he slake. 240
Traffic forswear, if interest intervene"--
But Jove will overhear me. --"Hold, my spleen!
O dolt; but, mark--that thumb will bore and bore
The empty salt (scraped to the quick before)
For one poor grain, a vapid meal to mend, 245
If you aspire to thrive with Jove your friend! "
You rouse (for who can truths like these withstand? ),
Victual your slaves, and urge them to the strand.
Prepared in haste to follow; and, ere now,
Had to the Ægean turned your vent'rous prow, 250
But that sly Luxury the process eyed,
Waylaid your desperate steps, and, taunting, cried,
"Ho, madman, whither, in this hasty plight?
What passion drives you forth? what furies fright?
Whole urns of hellebore might hope in vain 255
To cool this high-wrought fever of the brain.
What! quit your peaceful couch, renounce your ease,
To rush on hardships, and to dare the seas!
And while a broken plank supports your meat,
And a coiled cable proves your softest seat, 260
Suck from squab jugs that pitchy scents exhale,
The seaman's beverage, sour at once and stale!
And all for what? that sums, which now are lent,
At modest five, may sweat out twelve per cent. ! --
"O rather cultivate the joys of sense, 265
And crop the sweets which youth and health dispense;
Give the light hours to banquets, love, and wine:
THESE are the zest of life, and THESE are mine!
Dust and a shade are all you soon must be:
Live, thou, while yet you may. Time presses. --See! 270
Even while I speak, the present is become
The past, and lessens still life's little sum. "
Now, sir, decide; shall this, or that, command?
Alas, the bait, displayed on either hand,
Distracts your choice:--but, ponder as you may, 275
Of this be sure; both, with alternate sway,
Will lord it o'er you, while, with slavish fears,
From side to side your doubtful duty veers.
Nor must you, though in some auspicious hour
You spurn their mandate, and resist their power, 280
At once conclude their future influence vain:--
With struggling hard the dog may snap his chain;
Yet little freedom from the effort find,
If, as he flies, he trails its length behind.
"Yes, I am fixed; to Love a long adieu! -- 285
Nay, smile not, Davus; you will find it true. "
So, while his nails, gnawn to the quick, yet bled,
The sage Chærestratus, deep-musing, said. --
"Shall I my virtuous ancestry defame,
Consume my fortune, and disgrace my name, 290
While, at a harlot's wanton threshold laid,
Darkling, I whine my drunken serenade! "
Tis nobly spoken:--Let a lamb be brought
To the Twin Powers that this deliverance wrought.
"But--if I quit her, will she not complain? 295
Will she not grieve? Good Davus, think again. "
Fond trifler! you will find her "grief" too late;
When the red slipper rattles round your pate,
Vindictive of the mad attempt to foil
Her potent spell, and all-involving toil. 300
Dismissed, you storm and bluster: hark! she calls
And, at the word, your boasted manhood falls.
"Mark, Davus; of her own accord, she sues!
Mark, she invites me! Can I now refuse? "
Yes, Now, and EVER. If you left her door 305
Whole and entire, you must return no more.
Right. This is He, the man whom I demand;
This, Davus; not the creature of a wand
Waved by some foolish lictor. --And is he,
This master of himself, this truly free, 310
Who marks the dazzling lure Ambition spreads,
And headlong follows where the meteor leads?
"Watch the nice hour, and on the scrambling tribes
Pour, without stint, your mercenary bribes,
Vetches and pulse; that, many a year gone by, 315
Graybeards, as basking in the sun they lie,
May boast how much your Floral Games surpast,
In cost and splendor, those they witnessed last! "
A glorious motive! And on Herod's day,
When every room is decked in meet array, 320
And lamps along the greasy windows spread,
Profuse of flowers, gross, oily vapors shed;
When the vast tunny's tail in pickle swims,
And the crude must foams o'er the pitcher's brims;
You mutter secret prayers, by fear devised, 325
And dread the sabbaths of the circumcised!
Then a cracked egg-shell fills you with affright,
And ghosts and goblins haunt your sleepless night.
Last, the blind priestess, with her sistrum shrill,
And Galli, huge and high, a dread instill 330
Of gods, prepared to vex the human frame
With dropsies, palsies, ills of every name,
Unless the trembling victim champ, in bed,
Thrice every morn, on a charmed garlic-head.
Preach to the martial throng these lofty strains, 335
And lo! some chief more famed for bulk than brains,
Some vast Vulfenius, blessed with lungs of brass,
Laughs loud and long at the scholastic ass;
And, for a clipt cent-piece, sets, by the tale,
A hundred Greek philosophers to sale! 340


SATIRE VI.

TO CÆSIUS BASSUS.

Say, have the wintry storms, which round us beat,
Chased thee, my Bassus, to thy Sabine seat?
Does music there thy sacred leisure fill,
While the strings quicken to thy manly quill? --
O skilled, in matchless numbers, to disclose 5
How first from Night this fair creation rose;
And kindling, as the lofty themes inspire,
To smite, with daring hand, the Latian lyre!
Anon, with youth and youth's delights to toy,
And give the dancing chords to love and joy; 10
Or wake, with moral touch, to accents sage,
And hymn the heroes of a nobler age!
To me, while tempests howl and billows rise,
Liguria's coast a warm retreat supplies,
Where the huge cliffs an ample front display, 15
And, deep within, recedes the sheltering bay.
_The Port of Luna, friends, is worth your note_--
So, in his sober moments, Ennius wrote,
When, all his dreams of transmigration past,
He found himself plain Quintus at the last! 20
Here to repose I give the cheerful day,
Careless of what the vulgar think or say;
Or what the South, from Afric's burning air,
Unfriendly to the fold, may haply bear:
And careless still, though richer herbage crown 25
My neighbors' fields, or heavier crops embrown.
--Nor, Bassus, though capricious Fortune grace
Thus with her smiles a low-bred, low-born race,
Will e'er thy friend, for that, let Envy plow,
One careful furrow on his open brow; 30
Give crooked age upon his youth to steal,
Defraud his table of one generous meal;
Or, stooping o'er the dregs of mothery wine,
Touch, with suspicious nose, the sacred sign.
But inclinations vary:--and the Power 35
That beams, ascendant, on the natal hour,
Even Twins produces of discordant souls,
And tempers, wide asunder as the poles.
The one on birthdays, and on those alone,
Prepares (but with a forecast all his own) 40
On tunny-pickle, from the shops, to dine,
And dips his withered pot-herbs in the brine;
Trembles the pepper from his hands to trust,
And sprinkles, grain by grain, the sacred dust.
The other, large of soul, exhausts his hoard, 45
While yet a stripling, at the festive board.
To USE my fortune, Bassus, I intend:
Nor, therefore, deem me so profuse, my friend,
So prodigally vain, as to afford
The costly turbot for my freedmen's board; 50
Or so expert in flavors, as to show
How, by the relish, thrush from thrush I know.
"Live to your means"--'tis wisdom's voice you hear--
And freely grind the produce of the year:
What scruples check you? Ply the hoe and spade, 55
And lo! another crop is in the blade.
True; but the claims of duty caution crave.
A friend, scarce rescued from the Ionian wave,
Grasps a projecting rock, while in the deep
His treasures, with his prayers, unheeded sleep: 60
I see him stretched, desponding, on the ground.
His tutelary gods all wrecked around,
His bark dispersed in fragments o'er the tide,
And sea-mews sporting on the ruins wide.
Sell, then, a pittance ('tis my prompt advice) 65
Of this your land, and send your friend the price;
Lest, with a pictured storm, forlorn and poor,
He ask cheap charity from door to door.
"But then, my angry heir, displeased to find
His prospects lessened by an act so kind, 70
May slight my obsequies; and, in return,
Give my cold ashes to a scentless urn;
Reckless what vapid drugs he flings thereon,
Adulterate cassia, or dead cinnamon! --
Can I (bethink in time) my means impair, 75
And with impunity provoke my heir? "
--Here Bestius rails--"A plague on Greece," he cries,
"And all her pedants! --there the evil lies;
For since their mawkish, their enervate lore,
With dates and pepper, cursed our luckless shore, 80
Luxury has tainted all; and plowmen spoil
Their wholesome barley-broth with luscious oil. "
Heavens! can you stretch (to fears like these a slave)
Your fond solicitude beyond the grave?
Away! --But thou, my heir, whoe'er thou art, 85
Step from the crowd, and let us talk apart.
Hearest thou the news? Cæsar has won the day
(So, from the camp, his laureled missives say),
And Germany is ours! The city wakes,
And from her altars the cold ashes shakes. -- 90
Lo! from the imperial spoils, Cæsonia brings
Arms, and the martial robes of conquered kings,
To deck the temples; while, on either hand,
Chariots of war and bulky captives stand
In long array. I, too, my joy to prove, 95
Will to the emperor's Genius, and to Jove,
Devote, in gratitude for deeds so rare,
Two hundred well-matched fencers, pair by pair.
Who blames--who ventures to forbid me? You?
Woe to your future prospects! if you do. 100
--And, sir, not this alone; for I have vowed
A supplemental largess to the crowd,
Of corn and oil. What! muttering still? draw near,
And speak aloud, for once, that I may hear.
"My means are not so low that I should care 105
For that poor pittance you may leave your heir. "
Just as you please: but were I, sir, bereft
Of all my kin; no aunt, no uncle left;
No nephew, niece; were all my cousins gone,
And all my cousins' cousins, every one, 110
Aricia soon some Manius would supply,
Well pleased to take that "pittance," when I die.
"Manius! a beggar of the first degree,
A son of earth, your heir! " Nay, question me,
Ask who my grandsire's sire? I know not well, 115
And yet, on recollection, I might tell;
But urge me one step farther--I am mute:
A son of earth, like Manius, past dispute.
Thus his descent and mine are equal proved,
And we at last are cousins, though removed. 120
But why should you, who still before me run,
Require my torch ere yet the race be won?
Think me your Mercury: Lo! here I stand,
As painters represent him, purse in hand:
Will you, or not, the proffered boon receive, 125
And take, with thankfulness, whate'er I leave?