DEMIPHO, GETA, and PHEDRIA.

Dem. I know not what to do: This stroke has come so unawares upon me, Beyond all expectation, past belief. -I'm so enrag'd, I can't compose my mind To think upon it.-Wherefore every man, When his affairs go on most swimmingly, Ev'n then it most behoves to arm himself Against the coming storm: loss, danger, exile, Returning ever let him look to meet;

His son in fault, wife dead, or daughter sickAll common accidents, and may have happen'd; That nothing should seem new or strange. But if Aught has fall'n out beyond his hopes, all that Let him account clear gain.

THERE is

A kind of men, who wish to be the head
Of every thing, but are not. These I follow;
Not for their sport and laughter, but for gain,
To laugh with them and wonder at their parts:
Whate'er they say, I praise it; if again
They contradict, I praise that too: Does any
Deny? I too deny affirm? I too

Affirm: and, in a word, I've brought myself
To say, unsay, swear, and unswear at pleasure.

To

FROM THE SELF-TORMENTOR.

KIND FEELING FOR OTHERS.

Menedemus. Have you such leisure from your

own affairs

think of those that don't concern you,

Chremes?

Chremes. I am a man, and feel for all mankind.f

THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE.

Clitipho. They say that he is miserable. Chremes. Miserable! Who needs be less so? For what earthly good Can man possess which he may not enjoy? Parents, a prosperous country, friends, birth, riches,

Yet these all take their value from the mind
Of the possessor: He, that knows their use,
To him they're blessings; he that knows it not,
To him misuse converts them into curses.

PROFITTING BY THE FAULTS OF OTHERS.

REMEMBER then this maxim, Clitipho,
A wise one 'tis, to draw from others' faults
A profitable lesson for yourself.

WIVES AND MISTRESSES.

Bacchis. Well, I commend you, my Antiphila; Happy in having made it still your care That virtue should seem fair as beauty in you! Nor, gracious heaven so help me, do I wonder If every man should wish you for his own;

-To be wise and love Exceeds man's might and dwells with gods above. Troibus and Cressida

+ Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto.-It is said that at the delivery of this sentiment, the whole theatre, though full of foolish and ignorant people, resounded with applause.-St. Augustine.

The Same as given by Demea.

NEVER did man lay down so fair a plan,

So wise a rule of life, but fortune, age,

Or long experience made some change in it;

knew,

He did not know, and what he held as best,

In practice he threw by. The very thing
That happens to myself. For that hard life
Which I have ever led, my race near run,
Now in the last stage, I renounce: and why?
But that by dear experience I've been told,
There's nothing so advantages a man,
As mildness and complacency. Of this
My brother and myself are living proofs:-
He always led an easy, cheerful life:
Good-humour'd, mild, offending nobody,
Smiling on all; a jovial bachelor,
His whole expenses centred in himself.
I, on the contrary, rough, rigid, cross,
Saving, morose, and thrifty, took a wife:
-What miseries did marriage bring!—had chil-
dren;

-A new uneasiness!—and then besides,
Striving all ways to make a fortune for them,
I have worn out my prime of life and health:
And now, my course near finish'd, what return
Do I receive for all my toil? Their hate.
Meanwhile my brother, without any care,
Reaps all a father's comforts. Him they love,
Me they avoid to him they open all

The care all mine, and all the pleasure his.—
-Well then, let me endeavour in my turn
To teach my tongue civility, to give
With openhanded generosity,

Since I am challeng'd to't!-and let me too
Obtain the love and reverence of my children!
And if 'tis bought by bounty and indulgence,
I will not be behind-hand.-Cash will fail :
What's that to me, who am the eldest born?

OLD MEN WORLDLY-MINDED.

IT is the common failing of old men
To be too much intent on worldly interests.
my dear Demea, in all matters else
Increase of years increases wisdom in us:
This only vice age brings along with it;
"We're all more worldly-minded than there's need!"
Which passion age, that kills all passions else,
Will ripen in your sons.

THE UNFORTUNATE TOO APT TO THINK THEMSELVES NEGLECTED.

FOR they, whose fortunes are less prosperous, Are all, I know not how, the more suspicious; And think themselves neglected and contemn'd, Because of their distress and poverty.

Or this poet nothing more is known than that he was born in Rome and studied at Athens;that he lived a retired life, and died, at the age of forty-four, by his own hand, in a paroxysm of insanity, occasioned, as some have supposed by grief for the banishment of his friend, Memmius, or, as others assert, by the operation of a lovephiltre administered to him by his mistress.

Lucretius was a man of high genius, but his Work (for it is only by his one great work, that he is known to us), is, from the very nature of its subject, extremely and necessarily unequal,being, in many places, as tedious and revolting, as it is, in others, tender, fanciful, and sublime. His diction is almost uniformly pure, elegant, and impressive, with a certain mixture of the antique, which, far from diminishing, adds strength to, the grace and beauty of its accompaniments. Whoever doubts the powers and genius of Lucretius, has only to follow the advice of Dr. Warton and cast his eye on some of the great pictures which the poet has left us,-on that of Venus with her lover Mars, beautiful to the last

degree, and glowing as any picture of Titian's; -on that of the Dæmon of Superstition, terrible, gigantic, and worthy the energetic pencil of Michael Angelo;-on that of the Sacrifice of Iphigeneia, not excelled by that famous picture of Timanthes, of which Pliny speaks so highly, in the Thirty-fifth Book of his Natural History ;-or on the following allegorical group, which no piece by the hand of Guido has exceeded, and to which translation must despair of being ever able to render justice :—

"It Ver, et Venus; et, Veris prænuncius, ante
Pennatus graditur Zephyrus, vestigia propter,
Flora quibus Mater, præspargens ante viäi,
Cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet."*

I might refer to various other passages (did the nature and limits of the present work allow it) in proof of Lucretius' powers, as a poet, and of his

I scarcely know of more than two descriptions in the whole range of poetry that exceed the above, viz. in Book IV. 1. 265-69,-and in Book VII. 1. 370-75, of the Paradise Lost.

As for the philosophy of Lucretius, there can exist, amongst Christians, but one sentiment regarding it. Nay, Cicero, a brother heathen, in speaking of its doctrines, cannot forbear from indignantly protesting against the foolish arrogance of the man, who, while presuming on his own understanding, could contend that there was no such thing in the whole universe beside, or, that those things, which, by the utmost stretch of his own reason, he could scarcely comprehend, should be moved and managed without any reason at all!-Sad however as the philosophy of Lucretius might be, one apology, or extenuation, may be found for it, which cannot be pleaded by modern infidelity, namely, the superstitions of the age, the partial, unjust, sensual, and godless characters of the deities then worshipped in the pagan world. "If I am not mistaken" says Dryden, "the distinguishing character of Lucretius is a certain kind of noble pride and positive assertion of his opinions. He is everywhere confident of his own reason, and assumes an absolute command not only over his vulgar reader, but even his patron Memmius. For he is always bidding him attend, as if he had the rod over him, and using a magisterial authority, while he instructs him. From his time to ours, I know none so like him as our poet and philosopher of

* One passage more I must cite,-namely, that exqui

site one which has given rise to such a variety of imita

tions in our language:

Non domus adcipiet te læta, neque uxor Optuma, nec dulces obcurrent oscula natei Præripere, et tacitâ pectus dulcedine tangent.

which is exercised by Lucretius; who, though so often in the wrong, yet seems to deal bona fide with his reader and tells him nothing but what he thinks, disdaining all manner of replies, urging beforehand for his antagonists whatever he imagined they could say, and leaving them, as he supposes, without an objection for the future; all this too with so much scorn and indignation, as if he were assured of the triumph, before he entered into the lists. From the same fiery temper proceeds the loftiness of his expressions, and the perpetual torrent of his verse, where the barrenness of the subject does not too much constrain the quickness of his fancy. For there is no doubt to be made, but that he could have been everywhere as poetical, as he is in his descriptions and in the moral part of his philosophy, if he had not aimed more to instruct, in his system of Nature, than to delight. But he was bent on making Memmius a materialist, and teaching him to defy an invisible power. In short, he was so much an atheist, that he forgot sometimes to be a poet!"

The doctrines of Lucretius, particularly those impugning the superintendent care of Providence, were first formally opposed by the stoic Manilius, in his Astronomic Poem. In modern times, his whole philosophical system has been refuted in the long and elaborate, but occasionally beauful poem of the Cardinal Polignac, entitled "AntiLucretius, sive de Deo et Naturâ.”*

* For a clear and accurate summary of the Atomical Philosophy as taught by Epicurus and followed by Lucretius, see the Appendix to Good's Lucretius, Vol. I. p. cviii-cxi.

FROM "THE NATURE OF THINGS." Book I.

ADDRESS TO VENUS.

DELIGHT of human kind, and gods above,
Parent of Rome, propitious Queen of Love,
Whose vital power, air, earth, and sea supplies,
And breeds whate'er is born beneath the skies:
For every kind, by thy prolific might,
Springs, and beholds the regions of the light.
Thee, Goddess, thee the clouds and tempests fear,
And at thy pleasing presence disappear:
For thee the earth in fragrant flowers is dress'd;
For thee the ocean smiles, and smooths her wavy
breast;

The heaven itself with more serene and purer light is blest.

For when the rising spring adorns the mead,
And a new scene of nature stands display'd,
When teeming buds, and cheerful greens appear,
And western gales unlock the lazy year;
The joyous birds thy welcome first express,
Whose native songs thy genial fire confess;
Then savage beasts bound o'er their slighted food,
Struck with thy darts, and tempt the raging flood.
All nature is thy gift; earth, air, and sea:
Of all that breathes, the various progeny,
Strong with delight, is goaded on by thee.

O'er barren mountains, o'er the flowery plain,
The leafy forest, and the liquid main,
Extends thy uncontroll'd and boundless reign.
Through all the living regions dost thou move,
And scatter'st where thou goest, the kindly seeds
of love.

Since, then, the race of every living thing
Obeys thy power; since nothing new can spring
Without thy warmth, without thy influence bear,
Or beautiful, or lovesome can appear;
Be thou my aid, my tuneful song inspire,
And kindle with thy own productive fire;
While all thy province, Nature, I survey,
And sing to Memmius an immortal lay
Of heaven and earth, and everywhere thy won-
drous power display:

To Memmius, under thy sweet influence born, Whom thou with all thy gifts and graces dost adorn.

The rather, then, assist my Muse and me,
Infusing verses worthy him and thee.
Meantime on land and sea let discord cease,
And lull the listening world in universal peace.
To thee mankind their soft repose must owe;
For thou alone that blessing canst bestow;
Because the brutal business of the war
Is manag'd by thy dreadful servant's care;