THE MID-DAY HEAT. Simichidas! whither, pray, hurriest thou at this mid-day time, when even the lizard is sleeping by the dry-stone wall, nor do the crested larks wander about? Tennyson, in his "Enone," says "Now the noonday quiet holds the hill; The grasshopper is silent in the grass; Virgil (Eclog. ii. 9) says— "Nunc virides etiam occultant spineta lacertos." "Even now the green lizards hide themselves in the hedges." THE DELIGHTS OF SUMMER. And from aloft, overhead, were waving to and fro poplars and elms; and near by, a sacred stream kept murmuring, as it flowed from a cavern of the nymphs; and the bright cicalas on the shady branches kept laboriously chirping; while, in the distance, amidst the thick thorn bushes, the thrush was warbling. Tufted larks and goldfinches were singing, the turtledove was cooing, tawny bees were humming round about the fountains; everything was redolent of golden summer, and redolent of fruit time. Pears, indeed, at our feet, and by our sides, apples were rolling for us in abundance and the boughs hung plentifully, weighed down to the ground, with damsons. JOY AT THE APPROACH OF A BELOVED. Everywhere it is spring, everywhere are pastures, and everywhere milkful udders are swelling, and the lambkins are suckled at the approach of my fair maiden; but should she depart, both shepherd and herbage are withered there. Virgil (Eclog. vii. 59) speaks much in the same way-" At the approach of our Phyllis the whole grove will put forth its leaves, and the æther will send down an abundant shower that gives joy to the fields.' And again (55) All things now smile; but if the fair Alexis depart from these mountains, thou wouldst see even the rivers dry up." Pope (Past. i. 69) says— "All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers, THE SONG OF THE BELOVED. Sweet is thy mouth, and sweetest tones awake from thy lips, Daphnis. I would rather hear thee sing than suck the honeycomb. Plautus (Casin. ii. 8, 21) says— "How I seem to sip honey because I touch thee!" This idea is found in the Song of Solomon (iv. 11)—" Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue." 66 BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER." "Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain, Up with the lark to reap, and cease when it goes to sleep; rest yourself at mid-day. Milton (L'Allegro 1. 41) says— "To hear the lark begin his flight, And startle, singing, the dull night, SIMILITUDES. As much as spring is more delightful than winter, as much as the apple than the sloe, as much as the sheep is more woolly than its lambkin, as much as a virgin is better than a thrice-wed dame, as much as a fawn is nimbler than a calf, as much as a nightingale surpasses in song all feathered kind, so much does thy longed-for presence cheer my mind; to thee I hasten as the travellers to the shady beech, when the fierce sun blazes. Pope (Past. iii. 43) says— "Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain, Not balmy sleep to laborers faint with pain, Not showers to larks, nor sunshine to the bee, Are half so charming as thy sight to me." Drummond of Hawthornden says"Cool shades to pilgrims, whom hot glances burn, Are not so pleasing as thy safe return." USE OF WEALTH TO THE WISE. Fools! what boots the gold hid within doors in untold heaps? Not so the truly wise employ their wealth; some give part to their own enjoyment, some to the bard should be assigned, part should be employed to do good to our kinsmen and others of mankind, and even to offer sacrifices to the gods; not to be a bad host, guests should be welcome to come and go whenever they choose, but chiefly to honor the sacred interpreters of the Muses, that you may live to fame when life is done. THE AVARICIOUS. It would be as great a toil to count the waves upon the shore, when the wind drives them to land along the surface of the green sea, or to wash the dirty brick clean with violet-colored water, as to overreach the man who is a slave to avarice. Away with such an one! let him have silver without end, yet always let the desire of a greater store possess him. But I should prefer the respect and esteem of men to myriads of mules and horses. The idea in Jeremiah (xiii. 23) is somewhat similar-"Can JOYS OF PEACE. Cicala is dear to cicala, ant loves ant, hawks the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” hawk; but me the muse and song enchant. Of this may my house be full; for neither sleep nor spring suddenly appearing is more sweet, nor flowers to bees, than the presence of the Muses to me. So in Ecclesiasticus (xiii. 6) we find-"All flesh consorteth according to kind, and a man will cleave to his like; the birds will return to their like." And Pope And, oh! that they might till rich fields, and that unnumbered sheep and fat might bleat cheerily through the plains, and that oxen coming in herds to the stalls should urge on the traveller by twilight. And, oh! that the fallow lands might be broken up for sowing, when the cicala, sitting on his tree, watches the shepherd in the open day, and chirps on the topmost spray; that spiders may draw their fine webs over martial arms, and not even the name of the battle-cry be heard. Virgil (Eclog. ii. 21) says—“A thousand of my lambs wander on the Sicilian mountains." In Psalms (lxv. 13) we find "The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing;" and (cxliv. 18)"That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets.' It is like to Isaiah (ii. 4)—“ Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” 66 WHY HOP YE SO, YE HIGH HILLS?" And Cos, when she beheld him, broke forth with jubilant rapture, and said, touching the infant with fondling hands. This resembles the idea in Psalms (cxiv. 4)-" The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs." CONTRAST OF MORN AND NIGHT. As rising morn shows its fair countenance against the dusky night,- -as the clear spring, when winter's gloom is gone,-so also the golden Helen was wont to shine out amongst us. So in Solomon's song (vi. 10) we find-"Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" In Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming " we have"A boy Led by his dusky guide, like morning brought by night." past, the rain is over and gone." "LOVE THAT'S IN HER E'E." As Helen, in whose eyes the light of love lies. "The kind love that's in her e'e." A LOVING PAIR. Sleep on, happy pair, breathing into each other's bosom love and desire, and forget not to rise towards morning. In Solomon's Song (viii. 3) we have “His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up nor awake my love, until he pleases." MY LIPS DROP AS THE HONEYCOMB. NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. Need alone, Diophantus, imparts the knowledge of arts, and is the mistress of labor, for corroding cares take everything from toiling man, and if soft slumbers refresh his eyelids during the night, suddenly some anxiety stealing in disturbs him. DREAMS. For in sleep every dog dreams of food, and I, a fisherman, of fish. SYLVAN SCENE. They spying on a mountain a wild wood of various kinds of trees, found under a smooth rock a perennial spring, filled with clear water, and the pebbles below shone like crystal or silver from the depths; near the spot had grown tall pines, poplars, plane trees, cypresses with leafy tops, and odorous flowers, pleasant work for hairy bees, flowers as many as bloom in the meads when spring is ending. Virgil (Æn. i. 164) seems to have copied this-"Then a canopy of woods, checkered with light and shade and gloomy grove, overhangs with awful shade; under the opposite precipitous cliff is a cave in the overhanging rocks; within is a spring of fresh water and seats of natural rock, the abode of the Nymphs." THE ILLS OF LIFE MUST BE BORNE. Those ills which fate determines, man must bear. "THE WOLF SHALL DWELL WITH THE LAMB." In truth the day will come when the sharptoothed wolf, having seen the kid in his lair, shall not wish to harm it. This is very much the same as in Isaiah (xi. 6)—" The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fat From my lips flowed tones more sweet than ling together; and a little child shall lead them." from a honeycomb. In Solomon's Song (iv. 11) we find-"Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue." MAN STANDS IN NEED OF MAN. For Heaven's eternal wisdom has decreed LOVE GIVES VALUE EVEN TO SMALL GIFTS. WINE AND TRUTH. Wine, dear youth, and truth is the proverb. THEOGNIS. BORN ABOUT B.C. 570-DIED ABOUT B.C. 490. THEOGNIS, a native of Megara, of whose personal history little is known, except that he belonged to the Oligarchical party in the state, and shared its fate. He was a noble by birth, and all his sympathies were with the nobles. In one of the revolutions there was a division of the property of the nobles, in which he lost his all. LIVE WITH THE GOOD. From the good thou shalt learn good, but if thou associate with the bad, thou wilt lose even the sense thou possessest. SPEAK UNRESERVEDLY TO FEW. nothing of more value than caution. The loss of A LITTLE GOTTEN HONESTLY. rich on what has been gotten unjustly. Every Prefer to live piously on small means than to be virtue is included in the idea of justice, as every just man is good. Fortune gives wealth indeed to the worst of men, but virtue is found in few. Communicate not to all friends alike thy affairs; Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith:" and Psalms few out of a number have a trusty mind. So Shakespeare (“Henry VIII." act ii. sc. 1)— Be sure you be not loose; for those you make friends THE HYPOCRITE. Delude me not with empty phrase, having your mind and heart elsewhere, if thou lovest me, and there be in thee a faithful mind. So Proverbs (xv. 16)—" Better is little with the fear of the (xxxvii. 14)—“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked." A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK. Wealth nurses insolence, when it comes to a man of paltry spirit, and whose mind is not sound. So Shakespeare (“ Henry VI." part ii. act ii. sc. 4)— Beggars mounted run their horse to death." "BOAST NOT THYSELF OF TO-MORROW." For no man knows what a night or a day may So Psalms (xxviii. 3)—" Which speak peace to their neigh-bring forth. bor, but mischief is in their hearts;" (lxii. 4)-"They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly." KINDNESS TO THOSE OF LOW DEGREE. It is the vainest task to bestow kindness on men of low degree, the same as to sow the hoaryfoaming sea: since neither by sowing the deep with scattered grain, wouldst thou reap a rich crop, nor by doing kindness to the mean, wouldst thou be repaid. For the mean have an insatiate spirit; if thou refusest a request, gratitude for all former favors vanishes. While gallant hearts enjoy in the highest degree kindnesses, retaining the memory of good deeds and gratitude in after times. So Shakespeare ("Timon of Athens," act iii. sc. 1)— TRENCHER-FRIENDS. Many are trencher-friends, few adhere to thee in matters of difficulty. Nothing is harder than to detect a soul of base alloy, O Cyrnus, and So Proverbs (xxvii. 1)—“ Bʊast not thyself to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." LUST OF RICHES. There is no limit to riches among men; for those of us who have most, strive after twice as much. Who could satisfy all? Riches truly to mortals become folly. So Ecclesiastes (v 10)-" He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase;" and Psalms (xxxix. 6)—“ Surely they are disquieted in vain; he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." THE LION. The lion does not always feast on flesh, but, strong though he be, anxiety for food seizes him. So Psalms (civ. 21)-"The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT." Even the slow man, if possessed of wisdom, has overtaken the swift in the pursuit, with the aid of the straightforward justice of the immortal gods. So Ecclesiastes (ix. 11)-"I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." RESTRAIN THY TONGUE. Restrain thyself; let honeyed words ever attend thy tongue; the heart indeed of men of low degree is more sharp than is right. So Proverbs (xiii. 3)—" He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life;" (xxxi. 6)" In her tongue is the law of kindness; and Shakespeare ("Hamlet,” act i. sc. 3)— "Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act." THE RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED TREATED EQUALLY. How, pray, son of Saturn, canst thou reconcile it to thy sense of right and wrong to treat the wicked and the good in the same way, whether thou turnest thy attention to the wise or whether to the insolence of men, who yield to unjust deeds? So Psalms (lxxiii. 3–5, 11–12)—“For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches." JUDICIAL BLINDNESS. Fortune is wont to make him regard easily what is bad to be good and what is good to be bad. So Isaiah (v. 20)-"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" "KEEP THE DOOR OF MY LIPS." Many men have not well-fitting doors on their tongues, and they care for many things, which it would be better to leave alone. wealth, while the good are destroyed, ground down by pinching poverty? So Psalms (lxxiii. 3-5, 11-12)-" For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches." THUCYDIDES, the celebrated historian of Athens, So Psalms (cxli. 3)—“ Set a watch, O Lord, before my whom he claimed kindred with the family of Milwas the son of Olorus and Hegesipyle, through mouth; keep the door of my lips." BETTER NOT TO BE BORN. Of all things, it is best for men not to be born, nor to see the rays of the bright sun; the next best thing is speedily to die and lie beneath a load of earth. 66 GRAPES OF THORNS." For neither roses nor the hyacinth spring from the squill, no, nor ever a high-spirited child from a bond-woman. So Matthew (vii. 16)" Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" and Horace (Od. iv. 4, 31)— "Nor do fierce eagles produce the timorous dove." RICHES NOT CARRIED TO THE GRAVE. For no one descends to Hades with his immense wealth, nor can he by paying ransom escape death, or heavy diseases, or wretched old age creeping upon him. So Psalms (xlix. 17)-"For when he dieth he shall carry Lothing away; his glory shall not descend after him." THE PROSPERITY OF THE UNGODLY. Should a wicked and infatuated wretch, who cares for neither God nor man, be glutted with He is sup tiades, the conqueror of Marathon. posed to have been a pupil of Antiphon, of Rhamnus, and of Anaxagoras. At all events, as he was living in the centre of Greek civilization, he would, no doubt, receive all the advantages which Athens, then in the acme of its intellectual fame, was able to bestow. We have no trustworthy evidence that he distinguished himself as an orator; but he was in command of a small squadron at Thasos, on his way to the relief of Amphipolis, B.C. 424, then besieged by the Lacedæmonians. He arrived too late at the scene of action; and, in consequence of this failure, he became an exile, probably to avoid a severer punishment. He lived twenty years in exile, and returned to Athens about the time when Thrasybulus freed Athens. He is said to have been assassinated a short time after his return. The subject of his great work is the Peloponnesian war, which lasted from B.C. 431 to B.C. 404. A POSSESSION FOR ALL TIMES. My history is presented to the public as a possession for all times, and not merely as a rhetorical display to catch the applause of my contemporaries. THE BEST SECURITY OF POWER. For power is more firmly secured by treating our equals with justice than if, elated by present prosperity, we attempt to enlarge it at every risk. EXPOSTULATION WITH FRIENDS. Expostulation is just towards friends who have failed in their duty; accusation is to be used against enemies guilty of injustice. ACTS OF INJUSTICE, AND ACTS OF VIOLENCE. Mankind, as it seems, are more apt to resent acts of injustice than acts of violence. Those that are inflicted by equals are regarded as the result of a grasping and rapacious disposition; those coming from superiors are submitted to as a matter of necessity. THE PRESENT IS GRIEVOUS TO SUBJECTS. The present is always burdensome to subjects. THE SUCCESS of war depenDS VERY MUCH ON MONEY. The success of war is not so much dependent on arms, as on the possession of money, by means of which arms are rendered serviceable, and more particularly so when a military power is fighting with a naval. WAR SOMETIMES IS TO BE PREFERRED TO PEACE. if the war should be protracted beyond expecta tions-a very likely event. HOW MARITIME SUPREMACY IS TO BE ATTAINED. Seamanship, and a knowledge of maritime affairs, is as much a science as any other art. It cannot be learned by snatches, nor can a knowledge of it be acquired except by a persisting and uninterrupted devotion to its study. UNCERTAINTY OF WAR. For the events of war are ever changing, and fierce attacks are frequently made by small numbers with great fury. Often, too, an inferior body, by cautious measures, have defeated a superior force, whom contempt of their opponent had led to neglect proper precautions. In an enemy's country it is always the duty of soldiers to have their minds girt up for action, and looking around with circumspection, to have their arms ready to resist. Thus they will find themselves best able to rush forward to the attack, and least likely to suffer from the attacks of their opponents. DISCIPLINE. The noblest sight, and surest defence for a numerous army, is to observe strict discipline and undeviating obedience to their officers. ENVY. For the praises bestowed upon others are only to be endured so long as men imagine that they are able to perform the actions which they hear others to have done; they envy whatever they consider to be beyond their power, and are unwill It is, indeed, the part of the wise, so long as they are not injured, to be lovers of peace. But it is the part of the brave, if they are injured, to give up the enjoyments of peace, that they may enter upon war, and, as soon as they are success-ing to believe in its truth. ful, to be ready to sheathe their swords. Thus, they ought never to allow themselves to be too much elated by military success, nor yet to be so fond of peace as to submit to insult. DIFFERENCE OF RESULTS IN PLANS. For many enterprises, that have been badly planned, have come to a successful issue, from the thoughtless imprudence of those against whom they were directed; and a still greater number, that have appeared to be entering on the path of victory, have come to a disastrous end. This arises from the very different spirit with which we devise a scheme, and put it into execution. In council, we consult in the utmost security; in execution, we fail from being surrounded with dangers. EQUALITY. For we possess a form of government of such excellence, that it gives us no reason to envy the laws of our neighbors. We often serve as a pattern to others: but we have never found it neces sary to follow their example. It is called a popular government, because its object is not to favor the interests of the few, but of the greater number. In private disputes we are all equal in the eye of the law; and, in regard to the honors of the state, we rise according to merit, and not because we belong to a particular class. Though we are poor, if we are able to serve our country by our talents, obscurity of birth is no obstacle. We carry on public affairs with gentlemanly feeling, having no unworthy suspicions of each other in the daily affairs of life, nor indulging in angry passion tow THE POOR MORE WILLING TO GIVE THE SERVICES ards our neighbor for pursuing his own course, zens. OF THEIR BODIES THAN THEIR MONEY. Accumulated wealth is a far surer support of war than forced contributions from unwilling citiThe poor, who gain their livelihood by the sweat of their brow, are more willing to give the services of their body in defence of their country, than to contribute from their contracted means. The former, though at some risk, they think it possible may survive the crisis; while the latter, they are certain will be gone forever, especially nor yet putting on that look of displeasure, which pains, though it can do nothing more. Conversing with the kindliest feeling towards each other in private society, above all things we avoid to break the enactments of the state, rever encing the magistrates, and obeying the lawsthose more particularly that have been enacted for the protection of the injured, as well as those which, though they are unwritten, bring sure disgrace on the transgressors. In addition to all this, |