A PIOUS KING. That man is deceived who thinks it slavery to live under a noble prince. Liberty never appears in a more gracious form than under a pious prince. HEAVEN NOT ALWAYS AT PEACE. Nor is heaven always at peace. EXCESSIVE FURY FAILS IN ITS OBJECT. But excessive fury fails in its object; the joy of the wicked never lasts long. DEATH LEVELS ALL THINGS. Death levels all things. COMMON THINGS AFFECT US LESS. Common calamities affect us more slightly. THE SLIPPERY NATURE OF YOUTH. Alas, the slippery nature of tender youth! ENVY. Nothing can allay the rage of biting envy. THE LOVES OF PLANTS. Leaves live only to enjoy love, and throughout the forest every tree is luxuriating in affectionate embrace; palm, as it nods to palm, joins in mutual love; the poplar sighs for the poplar; plane whispers to plane, and alder to alder. COLUMELLA. FLOURISHED A.D. 70. L. JUNIUS MODERATUS COLUMELLA, a celebrated writer on agriculture, was a native of Gades in Spain, and was the contemporary of Seneca, the philosopher, who died A.D. 62 in the reign of Nero. He was the friend of Cornelius Celsus, the author of a book on medicine, and who also wrote on agriculture. The work of Columella is entitled De Re Rusticâ, and is contained in twelve books. He begins by supposing that a person is inclined to invest his money in land, and points out the various circumstances that ought to be considered in making a selection. The healthiness of the surrounding country, and the sufficiency of water, are two main points to be regarded. He next thinks it necessary to give some advice respecting the qualities of the servants and slaves, who ought to be employed in its cultivation. He then enumerates the various kinds of soil, seeds, manure, the proper mode of reaping and threshing the grain. He gives a detailed account of everything connected with the vine and various kinds of fruit-trees. All the different varieties of domestic animals are carefully enumerated, with their diseases and remedies. The tenth book, on the cultivation of gardens, is in hexameter verse. We possess also a work on trees, De Arboribus, which seems to have been a part of a larger work. WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN ANY BUSINESS. The most important part in every affair is to know what is to be done. PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE. Practice and experience are of the greatest moment in arts, and there is no kind of occupation in which men may not learn by their abortive attempts. MASTER'S EYE. He allows very readily that the eyes and footsteps of the master are things most salutary to the land. HIS OWN TO EACH. We have assigned his own to each. QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS. FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 150. QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS, the Roman historian of Alexander the Great, seems to have lived during the first or second century, but we have no means of fixing the precise period, nor indeed do we know anything of his personal history. A COUNSELLOR OUGHT TO ADVISE WITH SAFETY. No one ought to pay for foolish advice with his life. Counsellors would be wanting if there were danger in giving advice. THE CAUSE OF POVERTY. Honesty is the cause of poverty to many. THE RESULTS OF FEAR. Fear makes men prone to believe the worst. NECESSITY. Necessity, when threatening, is more powerful than every art. THOSE WHO TRUST IN FORTUNE. Those whom Fortune has induced to trust to her, she makes in a great measure rather desirous of glory than able to seize it. So Psalm lxii. 10: "If riches increase, set not your heart upon them." THE EFFECTS OF SUPERSTITION. Nothing has more power over the multitude than superstition: in other respects powerless, ferocious, fickle, when it is once captivated by superstitious notions, it obeys its priests better than its leaders. THE TRUE AND FALSE. When the truth cannot be clearly made out, what is false is increased through fear. THE FOOLISH CONDUCT OF MAN. Nature has paid slight attention to the formation Necessity rouses from sloth, and despair is often of man's mind, inasmuch as we generally think not the cause of hope. HABIT MORE POWERFUL THAN NATURE. Habit is more powerful than nature. EVERYTHING PREDESTINATED. For my own part I am persuaded that everything advances by an unchangeable law through the eternal constitution and association of latent causes, which have been long before predestinated. A SMALL SPARK. Often has a small spark if neglected raised a great conflagration. THE COUNTRY OF THE BRAVE. so much on the future as the past. KINDNESS. That is no lasting possession which we gain by the sword: gratitude for kindnesses is eternal. THE ENVIOUS A TORMENT TO THEMSELVES. The envious are only a torment to themselves. So James iv. 2: "Ye lust and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain." DESPAIR. Despair, a great incentive to dying with honor. PROSPERITY. Prosperity is able to change the nature of man, Wherever the brave man chooses his abode, that and seldom is any one cautious enough to resist is his country. the effects of high fortune. Every one is more dull in his own affairs than in those petty princes who once ruled over this porthose of another. A COWARDLY CUR. tion of Italy, but we hear of him first B.C. 204, when he was thirty-five years of age, serving as a soldier in Sardinia, where he attracted the notice A cowardly cur barks with more fierceness than of Cato the censor, at that time commander of the it bites. DEEP RIVERS. The deepest rivers have the least sound. Shakespeare (" Henry VI." Part II. act. iii. scene 1) says:"Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep." island. By him he was brought to Rome (Nep. Cat. i. Euseb.), where his high character and literary attainments introduced him to the notice of the distinguished characters of that age. Scipio the Elder was his intimate friend (Cic. Arch. 9). He passed into Etolia, B.c. 189, with the consul HORACE. BORN B.C. 65-DIED B.C. 8. Fulvius Flaccus, to whose care the war in that country was entrusted (Arch. 11). He seems, however, to have returned to Rome, where he died of gout B.C. 169, in the seventieth year of his age Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS, son of a freedman, was (Sen. 5, Br. 20). Scipio, before he died, had ex-born at Venusia, on the confines of Apulia and pressed a wish that their bodies should rest in the same grave, and we know that a statue was erected Lucania, on the 8th December B.C. 65. His father to his honor on the tomb of the Scipios. Ennius was a collector of indirect taxes at sales by auction, and with the profits of this office he had purmust be considered as the father of Roman epic chased a small farm in the neighborhood of Vepoetry, and the eminent services he performed for nusia, where the poet was born. Dissatisfied with the literature of Rome were fully appreciated by the education to be procured at this village, he ancient writers. Throughout his works there ran carried his son, probably about his twelfth year, a strain of noble and passionate feeling; the language, though sometimes rough and unpolished, was full of power and even of sublimity: the structure of the verse was more regular than that in which his predecessors had sung. The principal work, of which we have numerous fragments, was the Annales, an epic poem in eighteen books, in which Ennius sang the history of Rome from its foundation till his own times. In another to Rome, to receive the usual education of a Horace speaks always knight's or senator's son. in the highest terms of his father's care in saving him from the dangers and temptations of a dissolute capital, keeping him not only free from vice, but from the suspicion of it. Horace proceeded in his eighteenth year on a visit to Athens, where he was found by Brutus, and induced to join the Republican party. The battle of Philippi, B.C. 42, at once from what his sagacity felt to be a desput an end to his military career, and he withdrew perate cause. Having obtained his pardon, he returned to Rome with the loss of his paternal estate, but he seems to have saved enough to buy work, written in catalectic tetrameter, he had celebrated the deeds of the Elder Scipio. Besides, he had composed satires and other minor poems, which seem, however, to have been rather translations from Greek writers. Edesphágetica, or Phagetica, in hexameter verse, a gastronomic poem in imitation of Archestratus; Epicharmus, a didactica clerkship in the quæstor's office, with the profits poem on the nature of things, from the Greek of Epicharmus; a Latin prose translation of the Greek work of Euhemerus on the gods, and several other smaller works. The fragments of Ennius were published by Columna, Napl. 1590, and those of Annales by Spangenberg, Leips. 1825. THE ANSWER OF PYRRHUS. "I ask no gold for the captives, nor shall you give me a ransom; we are not making a gainful trade of war; but, quitting ourselves like men, let us determine which of us shall live with the sword and not with gold. Let us try by valor whether dame Fortune wishes you or me to live and what fate she brings: and hear this, too, I am resolved to give liberty to those whom the fortune of war has spared; I present them, take them away, I give them with the will of the great gods." Sentiments truly royal, and worthy of the race of the Eacidæ. We find in Judges v. 19 a similar expression: of which he managed to live with the utmost frugality. He was introduced by the poets Varius and Virgil to Mæcenas, and was admitted after a short interval to his intimate friendship. Mæcenas bestowed upon the poet a Sabine farm, sufficient to maintain him in comfort and ease. This estate indeed was not extensive, but it produced corn, olives, and vines, being surrounded by pleasant and shady woods. From this time his life glided away in enjoyable repose, mingling with the intellectual society of a luxurious capital. He died on the 17th November B.C. 8, aged nearly fifty-seven years, being buried on the slope of the Esquiline hill, close to his friend and patron Mæcenas, who had died before him in the same year. A POET'S VANITY. So proud am I of thy approbation, that I shall strike my head against the starred clusters of heaven. This idea is constantly recurring both in Greek and Roman "The kings came and fought... they took no gain of writers. Thus Euripides (Bacch. 972):— money." THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. The Roman commonwealth is firmly stablished on ancient customs and heroes. Of this verse Cicero (De Rep. v. i.) says:— "Vel brevitate, vel veritate, tamquam ex oraculo mihi quodam esse effatus videtur." TRUE LIBERTY. That is true liberty which has a pure and firm breast. So Romans viii. 2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." "So that thou shalt find fame that reaches heaven." Aristophanes (450): "Thou shalt have fame high as heaven itself." Propertius (i. 8, 43): "Now I may enjoy the highest fortune." And even Cicero introduces the idea, sneering at the chiefs of the state (Ad. Att. 2, 1):— "The chiefs of the state think that they can touch heaven with their finger." We may add the following passage from Wordsworth's "Blessings be with them and eternal praise, 66 GOD SAVE THE KING." May thy return to heaven be far distant, and long may thy reign fill this mighty empire with blessings. Ovid (Trist. v. 2, 51) expresses the same idea very beautifully: "So mayst thou dwell on earth, so may heaven long have cause to be longing for thy presence; so mayst thou go at some far distant day to the sky, thy predestined place." PRESUMPTION OF MANKIND. Presumptuous man, ready to face every danger, rushes on to crimes of deepest dye forbidden by the laws of nature. Seneca (Q. N. iv. Præf. ad finem) speaks to the sa.ne effect juoting from the poet Menander: "Who is there that has not risen up with all his powers of nind to withstand such conduct, hating with a perfect hatred his unanimity of mankind to do all wickedness greedily? Meander says: None are righteous, no, not one, excepting neiher young nor old, woman nor man, and adding that not nerely individuals or a few have gone astray, but wickedness as covered all, as doth a garment." BOLDNESS OF MAN. Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: e storm heaven itself in our folly. This character of man is beautifully bodied forth in a fragnent of the poet Rhianus, who flourished about B.C. 222 (Anal. Br. i. p. 479):"Man forgets why he treads the ground with his feet, and ith arrogancy of spirit and wicked thought speaks authoriatively like Jupiter, or is devising some path to heaven, that e may revel as one of the immortals.” And Pindar (Isthm. vii. 61) says: "If a man looks steadily into the future, he will feel that he too weak in himself to reach the brazen seats of the gods." Shakespeare ("Measure for Measure," act ii. sc. 2) says:"But man, proud man! Dress'd in a little brief authority: Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, DEATH. Pale Death enters with impartial step the cotages of the poor and the palaces of the rich. Donne speaks of this equality in death: "Death comes qually to us all, and makes us all equal, when it comes. The shes of an oak in a chimney are no epitaph of that, to tell me ow high or how large that was; it tells me not what flocks it heltered while it stood, nor what men it hurt when it fell. The dust of great persons' graves is speechless too; it says othing, it distinguishes nothing. As soon the dust of a retch whom thou wouldst not, as of a prince whom thou ouldst not look upon, will trouble thine eyes, if the wind blow thither, and when the whirlwind hath blown the dust of he churchyard into the church, and the man sweeps out the Just of the church into the churchyard, who will undertake to ift those dusts again, and to pronounce, 'This is the patrician, his is the noble flour; and this the yeoman, this is the plebean bran.'" SHORTNESS OF LIFE. The short span of life forbids us to begin schemes which require a distant future for their accomplishment. So Shakespeare (" Macbeth," act v. sc. 5) says:"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow." Simonides, who flourished B.C. 450, speaks thus of the weakness of man (Fragm. 34, S.): "Fleeting is the strength of man, and vain are all his cares; for a brief space labor succeeds labor, but inexorable death impends. for the righteous and the wicked Lave one fate." SIMPLICITY IN DRESS. Plain in thy neatness. This idea is expressed by Ovid (Fast. xi. 764) in these words: "I am delighted with her beauty, her fair complexion, and auburn hair and the gracefulness of her person, which is increased by no artifice. ' Ben Jonson ("The Silent Woman," acti. sc. 5) has the same idea: "Give me a look, give me a face, Than all the adulteries of art; They strike mine eyes but not my heart." We may refer to Milton's description of Eve ("Paradise Lost," b. v. l. 379) :— "But Eve Undeck'd, save with herself, more lovely fair NEVER DESPAIR. You must never despair under the guidance and auspices of Teucer. The following fragment (Hyps. 9) from Euripides has the same idea: “Nothing is to be despaired of, we must hope all things." ENJOY THE PRESENT. Shun to seek what is hid in the womb of the morrow, and set down as gain in life's ledger whatever time fate hall have granted thee. Philetarus, who flourished probably about B.C. 330, speaks thus in one of his fragments (Fr. Com. Gr. Ed. p. 642, M.) :-"For what, pray, ought you, short-lived being as you are, to do but to pass your time day by day in pleasure, and not to fret yourself as to what will be to-morrow." And Theocritus (Idyl. 18, 4) says: "We are mortals, we may not behold to-morrow." P. Doddridge (“Epigram on his Family Motto ") says:— "What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid?" And Isaac Watts says: "I am not concerned to know FLEETNESS OF TIME. How much better is it to submit with patience to whatever may happen! Whether thou art to enjoy many winters or this be the last, which is now weakening the fury of the Tuscan waves by being dashed on the resisting rocks. Be wise, filtrate thy wines, and curtail distant schemes which the brief span of life may never enable thee to realize. While we are talking, envious time will be gone. Seize the present moment, trusting as little as possible to the morrow. This idea of the fleetness of time is a favorite with poets of all nations. Thus Herrick, "To the Virgins to make much of Time" (No. 33): "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower, that smiles to-day, Chalmers, the preacher, says:— "Time, with its mighty strides, will soon reach a future generation, and leave the present in death and in forgetfulness behind it." Moore ("Irish Melodies ") says: "This moment's a flower too fair and brief." And again: "Then fill the bowl-away with gloom! Our joys shall always last; For Hope shall brighten days to come, Congreve says: "Defer not till to-morrow to be wise, And Gray: "We frolic while 'tis May." And Solomon: WINE AND ITS ADVANTAGES. Whoever prates of war or want after his wine. This idea is found in Theognis (1129):- "When I have enjoyed my wine, I care not for the anxieties of mind-racking poverty." Burns says: "John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise, For if you do but taste his blood, SELF-LOVE AND INDISCRETION. Blind Self-love, Vanity lifting aloft her empty head, and Indiscretion, prodigal of secrets, more transparent than glass, follow close behind. INNOCENCE of life. The man whose life has no flaw, pure from guile, needs not for defence either Moorish javelins, or bow, or quiver full of poisoned arrows "Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they be though his path be along the burning sands of withered." GROWTH OF REPUTATION. The fame of Marcellus grows imperceptibly as a tree in the unmarked lapse of time. The gradual and imperceptible growth of the reputation of a virtuous man is remarked by other poets. Thus Pindar (Nem. viii. 68): "Virtuous deeds expand gradually before the world, as a tree shoots up under the influence of the freshening dew." Homer introduces (Il. xviii. 56) Thetis thus speaking of Achilles: "He sprung up rapidly, like a plant: I having brought him up, like a tree in a fertile field." And Shakespeare (" Henry V.," act i. sc. 1) says:- Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, WEDDED LOVE. Thrice happy and more are those who are bound by an unbroken chain of love, and, unruffled by a querulous temper, live affectionately till their latest hour. J. Middleton thus speaks of the delights of a married life:- : Spenser ("Faery Queen," i. 12, 37) says:— And Thomson: "Oh happy they! the happiest of their kind! Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortune, and their beings blend." RESOLUTE IN CONDUCT. Africa, or over the inhospitable Caucasus, or those regions which Hydaspes (the Jhylum), famed in fable, licks languid-flowing. Milton ("Comus," 421) says: "She that has that, is clad in complete steel, And like a quiver'd Nymph, with arrows keen, DESCRIPTION OF FRIGID AND TORRID ZONES. Place me lone in the barren wastes, where ne tree bursts into bloom in the breezes of summer: mist-clad, and with an inclement sky! place me lone where the earth is denied to man's dwelling. in lands too near the car of the day-god, I stil should love my Lalage-behold her sweetly smil ing, hear her sweetly talking. Sappho (Fr. 2, S.) expresses herself much to the same effect: "That man seems to me to be like the gods, who sits beside thee and hears thee sweetly speaking and thy winning laugh however short a time I see thee, how does my voice fail me! This idea is found in Cowper's "Table Talk " (1. 294):— "Place me where winter breathes his keenest air, And I will sing, if Liberty be there; And I will sing at Liberty's dear feet In Afric's torrid clime, or India's fiercest heat." GRIEF FOR A FRIEND'S death. Why should we be ashamed to weep, or set bounds to our regret for the loss of so dear a friend? Lead off with plaintive lays, Melpomene, thou who hast received from thy father a tuneful voice with the music of the lyre. Are then the eyes of Quinctilius sealed in endless sleep! When will modesty and unspotted faith, the sister of justice and unadorned truth, ever find an equal to him? He is gone, bewailed by many good men, Make every effort to get into port while you by none more than by thee, O Virgil. 1 may. Thy wrath control. ANGER. Theognis (365), who flourished B.C. 544, used the expression, sioxε vóov," curb thy temper." Byron thus speaks of the loss of friends:- |