(6 RICHES TAKE UNTO THEMSELVES WINGS."

Regard riches as the last of the good things of this life, for they are the least certain of the things we possess: other things remain with those who possess them in a moderate degree.

WOMAN DIFFICULT TO BE GUARDED.

|odes, though it is supposed that they may be of a later date than the time of Anacreon.

THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN.

Nature has given horns to bulls, hoofs to horses, swiftness to hares, the power of swimming to fishes, of flying to birds, understanding to men.

Neither walls nor goods nor anything is more She had nothing more for women. What then does difficult to be guarded than woman.

PLEASURE.

Fly pleasure, which at last brings loss.

THE DREGS OF LIFE ARE LIKE VINEGAR.

she give? Beauty, which can resist shields and spears. She who is beautiful, is stronger than iron and fire.

LIFE PASSES SWIFTLY AWAY.

For like the chariot's wheel life runs fast away.

Our life has great resemblance to wine; when | A little dust we lie, when our body has sunk in little of it remains, it becomes vinegar: for all dissolution. human ills proceed to old age as to a workshop.

AMPHIS.

FLOURISHED ABOUT B.C. 332. AMPHIS, a poet of the middle comedy, flourished about B.C. 332. We have the titles of twenty-six of his plays.

ART.

There is no sweeter consolation in misfortune than the pursuit of art; for the mind employed in acquiring it sails secretly past its mishaps.

EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY.

Drink, be merry! life is mortal, the time on earth is short; death is immortal when we are once dead.

A MAN IN DISTRESS.

Apollo, how ill to please is man in distress and annoyed by everything.

SILENCE.

There is nothing more powerful than silence.

ANACREON.

ENJOY THE PRESENT.

Since I was born a mortal, to pass over the beaten track of life, the road I have often passed, I know; what I have to run over, of that I am unacquainted. Teasing cares, leave me alone! What have I to do with you? Before my last hour shall come, I shall play, I shall laugh, I shall dance with the fair Lyceus.

So Luke (xii. 19)-"Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry; and (xv. 23)-"Let us eat and be merry."

ADVANTAGES OF WINE.

When I quaff wine, my cares are lulled to rest. What have I to do with labors, woes, or cares? Die I must, whether I will or no. Why should I wander through life? Let us then quaff the wine of fair Lyceus. With it our cares are forgotten.

GOLD.

In consequence of gold there are no brothers, no parents, but wars and murders arise from it. And what is worse, for it we lovers are bought and sold.

OLD AGE.

Now we have gray temples, and a white head; no longer is graceful youth present, but decayed teeth; no longer is there remaining much time of pleasant life. Therefore, often do I drop the tear, dreading Tartarus. The gulf of Hades is terrific, and the way to it painful, for it is not for man, once down, to reascend.

ANAXANDRIDES.

FLOURISHED B.C. 376.

FLOURISHED B.C. 559-525. ANACREON, one of the most celebrated of the Greek lyric poets, was a native of Teos, in Asia Minor, respecting whom we have few facts on which we can depend. He was the contemporary of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Polycrates of Samos, at whose court we find him, B.C. 531, enjoying high favor, and singing the praises of the tyrant. We ANAXANDRIDES, a writer of the middle comedy, next hear of him at the court of Hipparchus at was a native of the city Camirus, in Rhodes, or, Athens, B.C. 525, where he met the poet Simonides. | according to others, of Colophon, in Ionia. He He died at the age of eighty-five, being choked, as flourished B.C. 376, and was exhibiting his drathe story goes, by a cherry-stone. Except that he matic pieces till B.C. 347, when he was present at was a voluptuary, and spent his time in singing the celebration of the Olympia at Dium by Philip, the praises of love, we know little else respecting king of Macedon. He is said to have been the his private history. There were five books of first to lay the foundation of a vicious stage by the Anacreon's poems in the time of Suidas, who is introduction of love scenes and intrigues. If his supposed to have lived in the eleventh century, play was unsuccessful, he used to consign it as but of these only a few extracts have been pre- waste paper to the performers, and never deigned served. We have given a few extracts from his to retouch it, as other authors were in the habit

An

GOD IS ALL-WISE.

God always directs all things and lives in him

of doing (Athen. ix. 374, a.). His death is said to
have been caused by the following circumstance:
Euripides had said in one of his tragedies, "Na-self, since he is wisdom itself.
ture has wished it so, who regards not laws."
axandrides parodied the verse by substituting
"the city" instead of "nature." The Athenians
condemned him to die by starvation (Suidas).
Athenæus mentions the names of twenty-two of
his comedies.

So Romans (xvi. 27)—“ To God, only wise, be glory."

OLD AGE.

GOD.

God is mind and spirit; and the ruler of the whole mass of the universe. God can neither be seen nor perceived by any sense, but is only comprehended by words and the mind's eye. But his works and what he does are evident, and perceived by all men.

So Corinthians (ii. 14)—"Even so the things of God knoweth

Old age is not, father, the heaviest of burdens, as thou thinkest; but whoever bears it unwisely, he is the party who makes it so; if he bears it without grumbling, he sometimes in this way lulls no man, but the spirit of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. Neither can he know it asleep, dexterously changing its character, tak-them, because they are spiritually discerned." ing away pain and substituting pleasure, but making it pain if he is peevish.

A BLABBER.

Whoever receiving a statement in confidence proceeds to repeat it, is a scoundrel, or very leaky. If he does it for personal gain, he is a scoundrel; and if he does so without a personal object, he is leaky: both characters are equally bad.

PLEASURE.

Don't make thyself a slave to pleasure. is the act of a lewd woman, not of a man.

DEATH.

Dionysius Cato says "If God be a spirit, as our poets say, he is to be specially worshipped with a pure mind."

St. John (iv. 24)-"God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirt and in truth."

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES.

We must treat our friend kindly, that he may be still more a friend, but make our enemy our friend.

So Romans (xii. 20)-"Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, That feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head."

ONE GOD.

It is good to die before a man has done anything that is generated is produced by him alive, and There is one self-existing being; everything

worthy of death.

ANONYMOUS.

GOOD SPIRITS.

Round thy fiery throne stand labor-loving angels, whose business it is that all things be accomplished for men.

EVIL SPIRITS.

(God) whom the devils fear, and the multitude of gods regard with awe.

• 66 CAST YOUR CARE UPON GOD."

Cast all thy care upon the gods: they often raise men from misfortunes, who are lying on the dark earth: and again, often overthrow those who are enjoying the height of prosperity.

there is no one that rules except the Almighty king.

So Ephesians (iv. 6)--" One God and father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

HOLINESS TO THE LORD.

"He who enters within the precincts of the temple full of incense ought to be holy: holiness is to have holy thoughts." This is the inscription in the Temple at Epidaurus.

GOD SEEN BY NONE.

No mortal sees God, but he sees all. So Exodus (xx. 21)-" But Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."

CONSCIENCE IS A GOD.

Conscience is a God to all men.

Seneca (Ep. 41), says much to the same effect:-"There is a sacred spirit seated within us, the oberver and guardian of So 1 Peter (v. 7)-" Casting all your care upon him; for he what is good and bad to us; he, according as he is treated by careth for you.

CHILDREN.

A child is either a cause of fear or grief during the whole of life.

INEXORABLE NECESSITY.

For inexorable necessity has power over man; it has no dread of the immortals, who have houses in Olympus away from sad grief.

OLD AGE.

NOT LOST, BUT GONE BEFORE.

We should lament in moderation the loss of our friends, for they are not dead, but have gone before the same road which we must all necessarily pass; then we also will hereafter come to the same place with them, spending eternity in their company.

This idea is often referred to by Seneca

(Con. Marc., 30).-"Let us think that they are absent, and let us deceive ourselves. . . . We have sent them away, nay,

When thou hast got past the sixtieth sun, Owe have sent them before, about to follow them." Again

Gryllus, die and become ashes; how dark is the angel of life after that! for now the light of life is dimmed.

NO ONE ALWAYS HAPPY.

It is best for mortals not to be born, nor to see the light of the sun. No one is fortunate all his life.

OLD AGE AND MARRIAGE.

Old age and marriage have a great resemblance to each other, for we are in a hurry to obtain both; and when we have obtained them, then we are grieved.

HEALTH.

Health! thou most august of the blessed goodnesses, with thee may I spend the remainder of my life; mayest thou benignly dwell with me; for if there be any pleasure to be derived from riches, or children, or royal power making men equal to the gods, or longing desire, which we hunt after with the secret nets of Venus, or if there be any other delight bestowed on men by the gods, or respite from pains, with thee, blessed Health, all these flourish and beam effulgent like the spring arising from the graces: without thee, no one is happy.

GOD IS SLOW IN PUNISHING.

Such is the way that God punishes, not on every occasion as a mortal man, who is quick in temper. Whoever commits transgression is not altogether forgotten, but in every case is found out at last. He punishes one immediately, another at a later period; if they escape, and approaching fate does not come hastily upon them, it comes in every case at last; either their children or their distant posterity suffer for their deeds, though themselves guiltless.

So Sirach (v. 5)-"Say not, I have sinned, and what harm happened to me? for the Lord is long-suffering, He will in no

way let thee go."

ANTIPHANES.

BORN ABOUT B.C. 404-DIED ABOUT B.C. 330. ANTIPHANES, the most highly esteemed writer of the middle comedy, of whose personal history we know nothing. We still possess the titles of about 130 of his plays; but in all they are said to have been 365, or at least 260, as some of the plays ascribed to him were by other writers.

(Epist. 99)" He has been sent before, whom those thinkest to

have perished." Again (Con. Polyb., 28)-" Thou art mistaken, etc. Why do we bemoan what is fated? He has not left us, but gone before." Again (Epist. 63)—“ And perhaps, if only the idea of the wise is true, and some place receive us after death, he whom we think to have perished has been sent before us.'

So E. Elliot ("The Excursion ")—

"The buried are not lost, but gone before."

"THIS NIGHT THY SOUL SHALL BE REQUIRED OF THEE.'

HABITS OF HONOR.

ing. He insisted on being allowed to sleep on the

Habits of justice are a most valuable possession. ground; and it required all the authority of his

A SLAVE.

To a slave deprived of his country, I think a good master is his country.

PLEASURES OF LOVE.

If any one says that those in love have no sense, he is certainly stupid and good for nothing; for if we take away the pleasures of love from life, there is nothing left but to die.

WOMAN TO BE TRUSTED ONLY IN ONE THING.

One thing only do I believe in a woman, that she will not come to life again after she is dead; in everything else I distrust her till she is dead.

MIND AND BODY.

HONEST POVERTY AND UNJUST GAIN.

mother to make him forego his boyish freak. He received instruction from Herodes Atticus, Corn. Fronto, Sextus of Chæroneia the grandson of Plutarch, Apollonius, the friend of Antoninus Pius; and even after he had ascended the throne he did not consider it beneath his dignity to attend the public lectures of the philosophers. From the connection of his father with Adrian, he attracted at an early period the attention of the emperor. Adrian adopted Antoninus Pius, A.D. 138, only on condition that he should admit into his family his young friend, Annius Verus, and Lucius Verus, the son of that Ælius Verus who had been selected by Adrian to succeed him. He was at this time only eighteen, and seems, by his respectful conduct, soon to have won the heart of his adopted father, who gave him the name of Marcus Aurelius, by which he is generally known

Think not about decking thy body with orna-in history. As soon as Antoninus succeeded to ments, but thy heart with pure thoughts and the throne, he raised Aurelius to the dignity of habits. Cæsar; and though he had been betrothed to the daughter of L. Cejonius Commodus, he prevailed on him to forego his engagement, and marry his youngest daughter, Annia Faustina, who became soon equally profligate as her mother. During the whole of the reign of Antoninus, Aurelius lived in the most complete state of harmony with his father-in-law, and on his deathbed was appointed to succeed him. He ascended the throne, A.D. 161, in the fortieth year of his age. On his accession to the throne his history is merged in that of the

It is better to be poor with honor than to be rich through unjust means; the one brings pity, the other censure.

GRIEF.

Grief seems to be next neighbor to madness.

OLD AGE.

Old age is, as it were, the altar of ills; we may Roman Empire, which was then beginning to be see them all taking refuge in it.

MARCUS ANTONINUS, OR AURELIUS.

attacked on all sides by the neighboring nations. The Parthians, in the East, first attracted his attention; and no sooner were they compelled to submit, than a still more formidable war broke out on the side of Germany. Though his time was much occupied with state affairs, his greatest BORN A.D. 121-DIED A.D. 180. pleasure was derived from philosophy and literaMARCUS ANTONINUS, or MARCUS AURELIUS, the ture. Music, poetry, and painting were not forsixteenth Emperor of Rome in succession from gotten; and the severer sciences of mathematics Augustus, was descended from a family which and law engaged no small part of his attention. pretended to trace its origin to Numa, and to be With the exception of a few letters which were connected with a king of the Salentini, in the found in the recently-discovered remains of south of Italy, called Malennius, who had founded | Fronto, the only work of Marcus which has come the city Lupiæ, now Lecce. His more immediate down to us is a volume composed in Greek,-a ancestors, however, had come from the small kind of commonplace book, in which he put down municipal town Succubo, in Spain, and had by from time to time his thoughts and feelings upon their industry and abilities reached the highest moral and religious subjects, together with remark dignities in Rome. His father was Annius Verus, able maxims which he had culled from writers the friend of the Emperor Adrian, and his mother distinguished for wisdom and virtue. The greatwas Domitia Calvilla, daughter of Calvisius Tul-est blot on his memory is the severity with which lus, who had been twice consul. Marcus Antoni- he treated the Christians; and it is the more nus was born at Rome, 20th April A.D. 121, in the fifth year of Adrian's reign. He was placed by his grandfather under the ablest masters which Rome could supply, and he seems to have been of a disposition which led him to take pleasure in every intellectual pursuit. Philosophy, in all her various ramifications, was his delight from his earliest years; and while he was scarcely twelve years old, he was so earnest in its pursuit that he began to practice some of those foolish austerities

difficult to understand the reason of his conduct as it is altogether at variance with his genera principles as laid down in his "Meditations."

MAN FORMED OF BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT. Whatever I am, I am formed of body, breath and spirit; wherefore, as if thou wast now dying abstain from fleshly lusts.

So 1 Peter (ii. 11)—" Abstain from fleshly lusts, which wa

which the Stoics were in the habit of recommend-against the soul."

CHARACTER.

THE PRESENT IS THE TIME FOR REFORMATION OF | human beings, who will very soon die, and who know not even themselves, much less him who died long ago.

Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou formest a part, and of what ruler of the universe thou art an efflux; and that a term of time is allotted to thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will not again

*return.

So 2 Corinthians (vi. 2)—" Behold now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation."

DO EVERYTHING AS IF IT WERE THE LAST ACT
OF THY LIFE.

See that thou devote thyself zealously, as a Roman and a man of energy, to every work that thou mayest have on hand, with scrupulous and unfeigned dignity of character, with love of the human race, independence, and a strict adherence to justice, and withdraw thyself from all other thoughts. Thou wilt give thyself relief if thou doest every act of this life as if it were the last.

LIFE THE SAME TO ALL.

Though thou wert about to live three thousand years, and as many myriads, yet thou oughtest never to forget that no man loses any other portion of life than that which he is living at the moment, nor does he live any other than that which he now loses. Therefore the longest life comes to the same point with the shortest, since the present time is equal to all, and therefore what is lost is equal to all. For a man cannot lose either the past or the future.

EVERYTHING IS MERE OPINION.

Everything is mere opinion.

LIFE A WARFARE.

And to say everything in the shortest compass, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapor; life is a warfare, and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion. What is that, then, which is able to conduct a man? One thing, and only one, philosophy.

So James (iv. 14)—"For what is your life? it is even a

vapor."

MAN SHOULD STAND ERECT.

THE VANITY OF ALL THINGS.

Consider how soon all things will be buried in forBut perhaps the love of fame may torment thee. both sides of thee; how vain is the applause of the getfulness, and what a bottomless chaos exists on world, how changeable the opinions of the mob of mankind, and how utterly devoid of judgment they are; in short, within how narrow a space this fame, of which thou art so greedy, is circumscribed. For the whole earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is thy dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind of people are they who will praise thee?

DEATH AND BIRTH EQUALLY A MYSTERY. Death is something like the birth of man, equally a mystery of nature, a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same; and nothing at all of which any one need be ashamed, for it is not contrary to the nature of a reasonable animal, and not contrary to the reason of our constitution.

DEATH IS ALWAYS IMPENDING.

Do not act as if thou wert about to live ten thousand years. Death is impending. While thou enjoyest life, and while thou mayest, be good and upright.

PREDESTINATION.

Has any good fortune befallen thee? It has been predestinated to thee from the beginning of the world, and whatever happens has been so fated.

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.

Consider, for example, and thou wilt find that almost all the transactions in the time of Vespasian differed little from those of the present day. Thou there findest marrying and giving in marriage, educating children, sickness, death, war, joyous holidays, traffic, agriculture, flatterers, insolent pride, suspicions, laying of plots, longing for the death of others, newsmongers, lovers, misers, men canvassing for the consulship and for the kingdom;-yet all these passed away, and are nowhere.

Be cheerful also, and seek not external help,
nor the tranquillity which others give. A man
then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others. done; and there is no new thing under the sun.”

So Ecclesiastes (i. 9)-" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be

AN UPRIGHT MAN NEVER UNPREPARED TO LEAVE

LIFE.

In the mind of a man that is chastened and purified thou wilt find nothing foul, impure, or any sore skinned over; nor will fate ever overtake him in a state of being that is imperfect, just as one may say of a tragic actor who leaves the stage be

fore he has finished his part.

THE LONGEST POSTHUMOUS FAME IS SHORT. Short, too, the longest posthumous fame, and even this only continued by a succession of poor

WHAT IS AN ETERNAL REMEMBRANCE?

And what is even an eternal remembrance? A which we ought to employ our serious thoughts? mere empty nothing. What is it, then, about This one thing, thoughts just and acts social, words that never are false, a disposition that gladly submits to whatever happens, as necessary, as usual, as flowing from a principle and source of the same kind.

DESCRIPTION OF TIME.

Time is like a river, made up of the things which happen, and a torrent; for as soon as a