• Where Reason and Advice are thrown away; In Love, 'tis true, we meet with War To-day, But Peace To-morrow. On a folid Bafe

'He who would fix what never keeps its Place, As well may gravely plead, to play the Fool 'By Wisdom's Guidance, and run mad by Rule.' When Burfts of Merriment your Joy proclaim, you the 41 Kernels of an Apple aim

If

So truly, as to ftrike the vaulted Roof,"
Say, is not this of Lunacy a Proof?

Or when,advanc'd in Age, to charm your Dear, You mince yourWords, and stammer in her Ear, Do you more Sense or Sanity difplay

Than wanton Boys, who Castles build with Clay ?
To this the lawless Rage, the Murders add,
That prove all headstrong Lovers worse than mad.
When Marius late his Miftrefs Hellas flew,
And from a Rock himself defpairing threw,
That these wereMarks of Madness will you own,
Or as, by Fashion, the fame thing is known
By different Titles, was it Vice alone?

With Hands clean-wash'd a Slave, an ancient
Man,
Fafting at Morn along the 42 Cross-ways ran,
And thus addrefs'd the Lares: O comply

With this one Prayer, that I may never die !' When fold, if not litigious, ne'er maintain, Though he can see and hear, that he is fane.

In our Chryfippus' Judgment, all this Throng To the vaft Tribe of Madmen must belong.

Great Jove, who Life can't give and take

away,

43 An anxious Mother thus was heard to pray, Whofe Son an Ague of the Quartan-Kind For five long tedious Months had now confin'd, • Thy powerful Succour let my Darling prove, • And Oh! in Pity, his Complaints remove! "On the firft Faft ordain'd by thy Command, He then fhall naked in the Tyber ftand,

6

• At Break of Day.' Now if some lucky Hit, Or the Physician's Skill, fhould cure the Fit, The 44 Mother in the Stream will plunge her Boy, Bring a Relapfe, and thus his Life deftroy.

DAMASIP PUS.

What Frenzy turns her Head?

STERTINIUS.

45 The Dread of Heaven.

DAMASIPPUS to HORACE.
Stertinius, the eighth Sage, to me has given
Thefe Arms, to combat my upbraiding Foes:
Whoe'er on me the Name of Mad beftows
Will find the Charge retorted, and may learn
The 46 Wallet hung behind him to discern.
HORACE.

So may you now with Profit, Stoic, trade,
And every Lofs with Intereft be repaid,

As

As you inform me what disturbs my Mind,
(Since Frenzies differ widely in their Kind,)
For, in my own Opinion, I am fane.

DAMASIPPUS.

What! was 47 Agavé confcious that her Brain
Was turn'd, when the her Son in Pieces tore,
And on her Spear his Head in Triumph bore?
HORACE.

Then be it foTo powerful Truth I bow;
Myself a Fool and Madman I allow :
But fay, in what my Frenzy you descry?

DAMASIPPUS.

Hear then the Charge. Though scarcely two

Foot high,

You ftrut, and talk in big gigantic Style;
And yet at 48 Turbo on the Stage you fmile,
When he, of Spirit vaft, though fmall of Size,
On Tip-toe ftalks, and all the World defies.
But is he lefs ridiculous than you?

This too is certain, that in all you do,
49 You emulate Mecenas' Pomp and State,
Though mean and low, affecting to be great.

50 Once, in a Marsh, a Steer, with luckless Tread,

Left a whole Family of Froglings dead:
One, who escap'd, his Dam in plaintive Strain
Accofts: My Brothers a huge Beast has slain.'

"How

"How big?" fhe asks, and strait begins to swell! "Say, did his Bulk, what now you fee, excell?" "What, bigger still ?”

Yes, twice as much.'

and tries

To fwell still more.

[cries,

Nay, should you burst,' he

• Yet, Mother, you would ftill be less than he.' Here, Horace, to the Life your Picture fee! 51 Add too of fcribbling Verse your strange Defire, Which is but heaping Fuel on the Fire. Sage you may be, if Bard was ever sage. Your 52 Paffion I omit, your frantic Rage

Ceafe.

HORACE.

DAMASIPPUS.

Your 53 Attire, too costly in its Kind

And thou, more mad, my flighter Follies 'fpare!

NOTE S.

The Moral of this Satire is excellent: And, as it is one of the longeft, it is alfo one of the beft in Horace. Dacier is of Opinion, that there is not a more lively and animated Dialogue even in Plate.

It

It appears, fays Sanadon, from the 185th Verse,
Scilicet ut plaufus, quos fert Agrippa, feras tu,

that it was written in the Year of Rome 720; Horace being then thirty-one or thirty two Years old.

1 Junius, or Licinius, Damafippus was a Senator, and a Stoic Philofopher. Before he attached himself to that Sect, he had ruined his Fortune by dealing in Statues, and all Sorts of Antiques.

-ab ipfis Saturnalibus.]

The Saturnalia were fome of the chief Feafts among the Romans. They began the fixteenth Day of December, and lafted three Days. Thofe, who reckon feven Days, join with them the Sigillaria, or Feaft of Statues, which immediately followed.

Rome, at that Time, was a Scene of Lewdness and Debauchery; and the Streets echoed with the Songs of Drunkards. Horace, who was a Lover of Quiet, generally chose to retire into the Country, where he paffed the Winter.

• Such turbulent Exceffes were certainly difagreeable to a philofophic Mind. The Soul of Pliny was' (in like Manner) formed for ftudious Privacy; and his Pursuits of Knowledge being frequently interrupted in his more magnificent Apartments of Laurentinum, he raised an additional Building at the End of his Gallery, as an Afylum to his Studies, and San&uary to his Speculations, where he was never difturbed by the Mirth of his Servants during thefe licentious Feafts.'

Earl of CORKE.

Horace was now at his Sabine Villa; but he often spent the Winter at Tarentum. See Epistle VII. Book I. He gives the Reason of this Preference in Ode VI. Book II. Ver ubi longum, tepidufque præbet

Jupiter brumas.

The Spring is long, the Winter mild.

3 Culpantur fruftra calami.] Thus the Loiterers in Perfus (Satire III.) apologize for themselves;

Tunc querimur craffsus calamo quod pendeat humor, &c.

He