NEMESIAN.—CLAUDIAN.

423

a favorite poet in the time of Charlemagne, extensively read in the schools:

"The toil that should round lawn and forest spread,
Hemming the nimble prey in moveless dread,
Must with inwoven plumes its threads divide,
From every various wing diversely dyed.
This the keen wolf and flying stag shall scare,
The fox, the monstrous boar, and shaggy bear;
As if with lightning flash, aghast, confound,
And still forbid to pass the checkered bound.
This then, with various paint anointing, smear;
Let florid hues with snowy white appear,
And lengthen on the threads the alternate fear.
A thousand terrors from his painted wings,
To aid thy enterprise, the vulture brings.
The swan, the goose,
the crane, and each that laves
His webbed feet amid the stagnant waves.
Then rarer plumes shall brighter tints bestow,
Where scarlet deepens in its native glow:
Where flights of birds on blooming pinions rise,
And plumage reddens with its saffron dyes,
Or streaks in green its pied varieties.

Thy gear complete, when autumn's end is near,
And showery winter overhangs the year,

Begin your hounds unkennel in the mead;
Begin: o'er champaign fields impel the steed.

Hunt, while the daybreak sheds its glimmering light,
And the fresh dews retain the scented tracks of night."

ELTON.

A different style was that of CLAUDIAN, the court poet in the reign of Theodosius the Great (379-395). Tawdry and artificial in general, it was displayed to the best advantage in his amatory pieces and marriage hymns; as in this description of

THE SLEEPING VENUS.

"It chanced, in quest of slumbers cool, the Queen
Of Love in vine-wrought grot retired unseen;
Her star-bright limbs on tufted grass were si read,
A heap of flowers the pillow for her head.
The Idalian maids lie round; the Graces twine
Their arms, and screened by spreading oak recline.
The winged boys, where shade invites, repose
On every side; unstrung their loosened bows;

While, on a neighboring branch suspended high,
With gentle flames their breathing quivers sigh.
Some wakeful sport, or through the thickets rove;
Climb for the nest, or blithely strip the grove
Of dewy apples for the Queen of Love;

Along the bough's curved windings creeping cling,
Or hang from topmost elm with light-poised wing.”

AUSONIUS of Bordeaux, an affected verse- maker of the fourth century, wrote much that is second-rate, in the way of epigrams and idyls, too often of a licentious tone; but there is some merit in the following reflections on

ROSES.

"'Twas spring; the morn returned in saffron veil,
And breathed a bracing coolness in the gale.
Through the broad walks I trod the garden bowers,
And roamed, refreshed against the noontide hours.
I saw the hoary dew's congealing drops
Bend the tall grass and vegetable tops;

The sprinkled pearls on every rose-bush lay,
Anon to melt before the beams of day.

I saw a moment's interval divide

The rose that blossomed from the rose that died.

This with its cap of tufted moss looked green;

That, tipped with reddening purple, peeped between.
One reared its obelisk with opening swell,
The bud unsheathed its crimson pinnacle;
Another, gathering every purfled fold,
Its foliage multiplied, its blooms unrolled.

While this, that ere the passing moment flew,
Flamed forth one blaze of scarlet on the view,
Now shook from withering stalk the waste perfume,
Its verdure stript, and pale its faded bloom.

I marvelled at the spoiling flight of time,

That roses thus grew old in earliest prime.

E'en while I speak, the crimson leaves drop round,
And a red brightness veils the blushing ground.

These forms, these births, these changes, bloom, decay,
Appear and vanish in the self-same day.

One day the rose's age; and while it blows,
In dawn of youth, it withers to its close.

O virgins! roses cull while yet ye may;

So bloom your hours, and so shall haste away."

ELTON.

BRIEF EXTRACTS.

425

GEMS OF LATIN THOUGHT."

PLAUTUS.

"Easy is sway over the good.-Man to his fellow-man is a wolf.No one left to himself is sufficiently wise.--All things are not equally sweet to all.-No one is inquisitive without being ill-natured.—A woman who has good principles has dowry enough.-Courage in danger is half the battle.-Good fortune finds good friends.-Love is very fruitful in both honey and gall.-Flame is very near to smoke."

TERENCE.

"The strictest administration of law is often the greatest wrong.— Without danger no great and memorable deed is done.-Fortune favors the brave.-Many men, many minds.-Nothing in excess.-As we can, when we cannot as we would.-Nothing is said now that has not been said before. Obsequiousness begets friends, truthfulness hatred."

VARRO.

"It is divine nature that has given the country, human art that has built cities.-As a state ought to worship the gods in its public capacity, so ought each family."

CICERO.

"Justice gives every one his due.-No one was ever great without divine inspiration. The noblest spirit is the most strongly attracted by the love of glory.-One man is more useful in one thing, another in another.-Guilt lies in the very hesitation, even though the act itself has not been reached.--The chief recommendation comes from modesty. Fear is no lasting teacher of duty.-Any man may err, but no one but a fool will persevere in error.-The memory of a wellspent life is everlasting.-Whatever you do, you should do it with your might.-Glory follows virtue like its shadow."

LUCRETIUS.

"The ring on the finger is worn thin by constant use. It is pleasant, when winds roughen the sea with great waves, to behold from the shore another's arduous toil.-We are all sprung from heavenly seeds.-Weigh well with judgment; what seems true, hold fast; gird thyself against what is false. We see that the mind strengthens with the body, and with the body grows old.”

*For these "Gems," as well as those under Greek literature, we have drawn to some extent on the collections of Ramage.

CATULLUS.

'Nothing is sillier than a silly laugh.-What a woman says to her fond lover may well be written on the wind and rapid stream."

SALLUST.

'Every one is the architect of his own fortune.-The endowments of the mind form the only illustrious and lasting possession.-Fear closes the ears of the mind. The mind is the leader and director of the life of mortals.-In grief and miseries, death is a respite from sorrows, not a punishment.-To have the same likes and dislikes, this in a word is firm friendship."

VIRGIL.

"Endure, and preserve yourselves for prosperous times.-We are not all able to accomplish all things.-Love conquers all things, and to love let us yield.--Praise large farms, cultivate a small one.—The only safety for the vanquished is to hope for no safety.-Accursed thirst for gold, what dost thou not drive mortal breasts to do?—Nowhere is faith safe. Whatever shall happen, every kind of fortune is to be overcome by patient endurance.-Hug the shore; let others launch out into the deep."

HORACE.

"There is a mean in all things. It is right for one craving forgiveness for his sins to grant it to others in turn.-There is nothing too high for mortals; in our folly we storm heaven itself.-Life has given nothing to mortals without great toil.-Avoid inquiring what is about to be to-morrow.-To die for one's native land is sweet and glorious.-Punishment presses on crime as a companion.-He has carried every point who has mingled the useful with the agreeable."

LIVY.

“Wounds cannot be cured unless they are touched and handled.— Necessity is the ultimate and strongest weapon.-In nothing do events less answer to men's expectations than in war.-It is safer that a wicked man should not be accused at all than that he should be acquitted.-In difficult and almost hopeless cases the boldest counsels are the safest."

TIBULLUS.

"There is a God who forbids that crimes should be concealed.— Happy thou who shalt learn by another's suffering how to avoid thine own. While thy early summer-time is blooming, use it; it slips away with no slow foot."

GEMS OF LATIN THOUGHT.

427

PROPERTIUS.

"Neither is beauty a thing eternal, nor is fortune lasting to any; later or sooner death awaits everybody.-In maddening love nobody sees.-Let no one be willing to injure the absent.-Great love crosses even the shores of death."

OVID.

"A wounded member that cannot be healed must be cut off with the knife, lest the healthy part be affected. It is the coward's part to wish for death.-Even the unconquered man grief conquers.-A mind conscious of rectitude laughs at the lies of rumor.-The reefed sail escapes the storms of winter."

NEPOS.

"No evil is great which is the last.-Peace is obtained by war.The mother of a coward is not wont to weep."

PHEDRUS.

"The poor man, striving to imitate the powerful, comes to grief.— The fair speeches of a bad man are full of snares.-Rashness is an advantage to few, a source of evil to many. The learned man always has his riches within himself."

PLINY.

The Elder." Every one is pleased with his own, and wherever we go the same story is found.-No one of mortals is wise at all hours.— Our ancestors used to say that the master's eye is the best fertilizer for the field."

The Younger."Nothing seems as good, when we have gained it, as it did when we were wishing for it.-I deem him the best and most commendable who pardons others as if he himself daily went astray, yet abstains from faults as if he pardoned no one."

LUCAN.

"Great fear is concealed by daring. The prosperous man knows not whether he is truly loved.-An offence in which many are engaged, goes unpunished.”

PETRONIUS ARBITER.

"A physician is nothing more than a satisfaction to the mind.Fear first made gods in the world. There is no one of us that sinneth not; we are men, not gods.-Poverty is the sister of a sound mind."