The following lines of Tibullus are certainly remarkable. It were to be wished that Christians generally adopted the spirit of this heathen poet, though speaking of an idolatrous festival, and would apply it to the observance of the Lord's day.

The sacred day should leave to rest, the ground,

And bid the plough, and ploughman's labour cease;
And oxen at full racks, with garlands crown'd,
Enjoy their leisure, and repast in peace.
All is religion's; not the thrifty dame

May, with the woollen thread, her hands employ:
Let none approach the holy altar's flame

By whom the night was given to sensual joy.

The gods delight in purity. Draw near

-In white attire; with spotless hands apply

The fountain; lo! with olive crown'd appear
The crowd;-the lamb must on the altar die.a

Cœtusque vulgares, et udam

Spernit humum, fugiente pennâ.

HOR. Od. L. iii. od. 2.

-Sæpe Diespiter

Neglectus incesto addidit integrum ;
Raro antecedentem scelestum

Deseruit pede Pœna claudo.

a Luce sacrâ requiescat humus, requiescat arator,
Et grave, suspenso vomere, cesset opus.
Solvite vincla jugis: nunc ad præsepia debent
Plena coronato stare boves capite.

Omnia sunt operata Deo: non audeat ulla
Lanificam pensis imposuisse manum.
Vos quoque abesse procul jubeo, discedat ab aris
Cui tulit hesternâ gaudia nocte Venus.
Casta placent Superis, pura cum veste venite,
Et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam.

IBID.

Persius has many excellent observations on the nature of true piety. I shall quote only the following lines from his second Satire, which abounds with just and noble sentiments on this subject.

O souls! in whom no heavenly fire is found;
Fat minds, and ever grov❜ling on the ground!
We bring our manners to the blest abodes,

And think what pleases us must please the gods.a

But let us for the gods a gift prepare,

Which the great man's great charges cannot bear ;
A soul, where laws both human and divine,

In practice, more than speculation, shine;
A genuine virtue of a vigorous kind,

Pure in the last recesses of the mind;

When with such off'rings to the gods I come,

A cake, thus giv'n, is worth a hecatomb.b

DRYDEN.

DRYDEN.

From Juvenal's admirable tenth Satire, I quote

the following passage :

Cernite fulgentes ut eat sacer agnus ad aras,
Vinctaque, post, oleâ candida turba comas.

ELEG. L. ii. el. i.

a O curvæ in terras animæ, et coelestium inanes!
Quid juvat hoc, templis nostros immittere mores,
Et bona Dîs ex hac sceleratâ ducere pulpâ?

SAT. ii. v. 61-63.
b Quin damus id Superis, de magna quod dare lance
Non possit magni Messalæ lippa propago;
Compositum jus, fasque animi, sanctosque recessus
Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto;
Hæc cedo ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo.

SAT. ii. v. 71-75.

Receive my counsel, and securely move;
Entrust thy fortune to the powers above.
Leave them to manage for thee, and to grant
What their unerring wisdom sees thee want.
In goodness, as in greatness they excel;
Oh! that we loved ourselves but half so well.

Be in the substance of thy prayers confin'd
To health of body, and content of mind;
A soul that can securely death defy,
And count it Nature's privilege to die,
Serene and manly, harden'd to sustain
The load of life, and exercised in pain;
Guiltless of hate, and proof against desire;
That all things weighs, and nothing can admire ;
That dares prefer the toils of Hercules,
To dalliance, banquets, and ignoble ease.
The path to peace is virtue; what I show,
Thyself may freely on thyself bestow.
Fortune was never worshipp'd by the wise;
But, set aloft by fools, usurps the skies.a-DRYDEN.

a Nil ergo optabunt homines? Si consilium vis,
Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus, quid
Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nostris.
Nam, pro jucundis, aptissima quæque dabunt Dì.
Carior est illis homo, quam sibi.

Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
Fortem posce animum, mortis terrore carentem ;
Qui spatium vitæ extremum inter munera ponat
Naturæ, qui ferre queat quoscunque labores ;
Nesciat irasci; cupiat nihil; et potiores
Herculis ærumnas credat, sævosque labores,
Et Venere, et cœnis, et plumâ Sardanapali.
Monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare. Semita certe
Tranquillæ per virtutem patet unica vitæ.

Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia; nos te,

Nos facimus, Fortuna, Deam, cœloque locamus.

Making due allowance for heathen error, and stoical presumption, compare these lines with Mat. vi. 8, 32; 1 Tim. vi. 7, 8; Prov. iii. 13, 17.

The same poet thus describes, in his thirteenth Satire, the miserable condition of wicked men apprehending divine vengeance.

But, if, with wakeful fever in their veins,
Their labʼring sides endure incessant pains,
They deem that God inflicts his vengeance now,
Nor dare to pray, nor sacrifices vow.

What can bad men sweet hope in sickness give?
The victim-beast deserves much more to live.

They're bold when they commit their horrid deeds,
But know their guilt when fierce remorse succeeds.a

Lucan thus describes, in the person of Cato, the omnipresence of Deity.

Has God a seat but earth, and sea, and air,

And heav'n, and virtue? Why him seek elsewhere?
Jove is in all you see; in him you move,
His pow'r and presence nature's regions move.b

a Præterea, lateris vigili cum febre dolorem
Si cœpere pati, missum ad sua corpora morbum
Infesto credunt a Numine: saxa Deorum
Hæc et tela putant. Pecudem spondere sacello
Balantem, et Laribus cristam promittere galli,
Non audent. Quid enim sperare nocentibus ægris
Concessum? vel quae non dignior hostia vitâ?
Cum scelus admittunt, superest constantia: quod fas
Atque nefas, tandem incipiunt sentire peractis
Criminibus.

Sat. xiii. v. 229-239.

Compare with this Prov. i. 26, 33.

b Estne Dei sedes, nisi terra, et pontus, et aër,

Et cœlum et virtus? Superos quod quærimus ultra ?
Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris.

Here, again, compare Acts xvii. 24, 25, 27, 28. In this last verse the apostle quotes a hemistick of the Greek poet Aratus:Τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος εσμέν, For we are also his ofspring.

2dly, Not only were the immortality of the human soul, and a future state of retribution, believed by the pagan vulgar, but the wisest of the pagan sages considered both these points as at least founded in the strongest probability. The chief scope of Plato's Phædo is, in the person of Socrates, to evince that the soul is immortal, and that men would, according to their conduct and character acquired in this life, be either happy or miserable in a future. It must be acknowledged, that in this dialogue of the divine Plato, as he was anciently denominated, there are, even on these important subjects, some conceits extremely puerile. Whether these were the productions of the mind of Socrates, or his own put into Socrates' mouth, they evince the weakness of the human understanding, when destitute of divine instruction, on matters of the

highest importance to man. The following quotations, however, tend to prove the belief both of the most sagacious of the heathen philosophers and of his disciples, in the immortal nature of the human soul, and of a future state of happiness or of misery, according to the different characters of mankind.

“When man is assailed by death, that which is mortal of him dies; that which is immortal, being incorruptible and entire, withdraws from death. Most certainly, then, the soul is an im