Saturnalibus huc fugisti; sobrius ergo

Dic aliquid dignum promissis: incipe, nil est.
Culpantur frustrà calami, immeritusque laborat
Iratis natus paries dis atque poëtis. (3)
Atqui vultus erat multa et præclara minantis,
Si vacuum tepido cepisset villula tecto.
Quorsum pertinuit stipare Platona Menandro?
Eupolin, Archilocho, comites educere tantos? (4)
Invidiam placare paras, virtute relictâ?
Contemnêre, miser; vitanda est improba siren
Desidia: aut quicquid vitâ meliore parâsti

reserved for a separate dissertation.-The paper or piece of vellum referred to by Damasippus in the opening of the dialogue, (membranam poscas) has its prototype in the light space immediately before the head of Stoicus, whose attitude is such that he may be fancied, at pleasure, to be either reading or writing..

(2) The sleepiness of Stoicus's figure (as implied by somni) is plainly perceivable; and the term vini may refer to the drinking-glass, the prototype of which has been so often pointed out, as standing before him.

(3) Calami. There is the appearance of a pen in the light which crosses Stoicus's face; and the wall (composed of the whole of the light part of the moon as contradistinguished from its shadows) is spotted over, as it were with ink.

(4) Platona Menandro, &c. alludes to the appearance of books at Stoicus's side near the drinking-glass, as introduced in the figure of the Lawyer, No. 38, ante.

Ponendum æquo animo. Sro. Di te, Damasippe,

dexque

Verum ob consilium donent tonsore! sed unde (5) Tam bene me nôsti? Postquam omnis res mea

Janum

Ad medium fracta est, aliena negotia curo, (6)
Excussus propriis: (7) olim nam quærere amabam,
Quo vafer ille pedes lavisset Sisyphus are; (S)
Quid sculptum infabre, aut quid fusum duriùs esset;
Callidus huic signo ponebam millia centum;
Hortos egregiasque domos mercarier unus
Cum lucro nôram; unde frequentia Mercuriale
Imposuere mihi cognomen compita. DAM. Novi;
Et morbi miror purgatum te illius. Sro. Atqui

(5) Donent tonsore. Damasippus (Ralph) has a most plentiful beard.

(6) Omnis res mea fracta, refers to the marks of light, as of fractures, scattered over Stoicus's person; and Janum ad medium, to the double outline of his face, as drawn in fig. 79; sometimes indeed conceived to be treble.

(7) Aliena negotia curo, conveys an intimation that the moon only shines by a borrowed light, and the same idea is implied presently by malis ridentem alienis: Excussus propriis, alludes to the motion attendant on the moon's librations.

(8) The different objects here noticed, such as antique vases, busts, and drawings of architecture, have either been pointed out, as in the moon, in former notes, or may now be traced there in front of Stoicus's person.

Emovit veterem mirè novus, ut solet, in cor
Trajecto lateris miseri capitisque dolore; [urget.
Ut lethargicus hic, quum fit pugil, et medicum
DAM. Dum ne quid simile huic, esto ut libet.
Sro. O bone, ne te

Frustrere insanis et tu, stultique propè omnes,
Si quid Stertinius veri crepat: unde ego mira
Descripsi docilis præcepta hæc, tempore quo me
Solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam,
Atque à Fabricio non tristem ponte reverti.
Nam, malè re gestâ, quum vellem mittere operto
Me capite in flumen, dexter stetit; et, cave faxis
Te quicquam indignum: pudor (inquit) te malus
Insanos qui inter vereare insanus haberi. [urget,
Primùm nam inquiram, quid sit furere? hoc si erit
Solo, nil verbi, pereas quin fortiter, addam. [in te
Quem mala stultitia et quæcunque inscitia veri
Cœcum agit, insanum Crysippi porticus et grex
Autumat; hæc populos, hæc magnos formula

reges,

Excepto sapiente, tenet: nunc accipe quare
Desipiant omnes, æquè ac tu, qui tibi nomen
Insano posuere ; velut sylvis, ubi passim (9)
Palantes error, certo de tramite pellit;

(9) Velut sylvis error, &c. These four lines refer as well to the librations of the moon, as to her being (in the esti mation of the ancients) a planet.

7

İlle sinistrorsùm,hic dextrorsùm abit; unus utrique
Error, sed variis illudit partibus. Hoc te

Crede modo insanum: nihilo ut sapientior ille,
Qui te deridet, caudam trahať. Est genus unum
Stultitiæ nihilum metuenda timentis: ut ignes,
Ut rupes, Auviosque in campo obstare queratur:
Alterum et huic varium, et nihilo sapientius, ignes
Per medios fluviosque ruentis: clamet amica
Mater, honesta soror, cum cognatis, pater, uxor:
Hic fossa est ingens, hic rupes maxima; serva ;
Non magis audierit, quam Fusius ebrius olim,
Quum Ilionam edormit, catienis mille ducentis,
Mater te appello, clamantibus: huic ego vulgum
Errori similem cunctum insanire docebo.
Insanit veteres statuas Damasippus emendo.
Integer est mentis Damasippi creditor? esto.
Accipe quod nunquam reddas mihi, si tibi dicam,
Tune insanus eris si acceperis? an magis excors
Rejectâ prædâ, quam præsens Mercurius fert?
Scribe decem à Nerio: non est satis: adde Cicutæ
Nodosi tabulas centum: mille adde catenas:
Effugiet tamen hæc sceleratus vincula Proteus.
Quum rapies in jus, malis ridentem alienis ;
Fiet aper, modò avis, modò saxum; et, quum
volet, arbor.

Si malè rem gerere, insani est: contra benè, sani:
Putidius multo cerebrum est (mihi crede) Perilli,
Dictantis quod tu nunquam rescribere possis.
Audire, atque togam jubeo componere, quisquis

Ambitione malá, aut argenti pallet amore:
Quisquis luxuriá, tristive superstitione,

Aut alio mentis morbo calet; huc propiùs me,
Dum doceo insanire omnes, vos ordine adite.
Danda est ellebori multo pars maxima avaris:
Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem,
Hæredes Staberî summam incidêre sepulchro,
Ni sic fecissent, gladiatorum dare centum [Arri,
Damnati populo paria, atque epulum arbitrio
Frumenti quantum metit Africa. Sive ego pravè,
Seu rectè, hoc volui: ne sis patruus mihi; credo
Hoc Staberi prudentem animum vidisse. Quidergo
Sensit, quum summam patrimonî insculpere saxo
Hæredes voluit? Quoad vixit, credidit ingens
Pauperiem vitium, et cavit nihil acrius: ut si
Fortè minus locuples uno quadrante periret,
Ipse videretur sibi nequior: omnis enim res,
Virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque pulchris
Divitiis parent: quas qui construxerit, ille
Clarus erit, fortis, justus, sapiens etiam, et rex,
Et quicquid volet: hoc, veluti virtute paratum,
Speravit magnæ laudi fore. Quid simile isti
Græcus Aristippus? qui servos projicere aurum
In mediâ jussit Libyâ, quia tardiùs irent
Propter onus segnes, uter est insanior horum ?
Nil agit exemplum, litem quod lite resolvit.
Si quis emat citharas, emptas comportet in unum,
Nec.studio citharæ nec musæ deditus ulli:

Si scalpra et formas, non sutor: nautica vela,