Volume VIII Part 45 (1/2)

'Estque serena dies post longos gratior imbres, Et post triste malum gratior ipsa salus.'

EIGHTHLY, That, in the words of Mantuan, her 'parents' and 'uncles' could not 'help loving her' all the time they were 'angry at her':

'aequa tamen mens est, & amica voluntas, Sit licet in natos austere parentum.'

NINTHLY, That the 'ills she hath met with' may be turned (by the 'good use' to be made of them) to her 'everlasting benefit'; for that,

'c.u.m furit atque ferit, Deus olim parcere quaerit.'

TENTHLY, That she will be able to give a 'fine lesson' (a 'very' fine lesson) to all the 'young ladies' of her 'acquaintance,' of the 'vanity'

of being 'lifted up' in 'prosperity,' and the 'weakness' of being 'cast down' in 'adversity'; since no one is so 'high,' as to be above being 'humbled'; so 'low,' as to 'need to despair': for which purpose the advice of 'Ausonius,'

'Dum fortuna juvat, caveto tolli: Dum fortuna tonat, caveto mergi.'

I shall tell her, that Lucan saith well, when he calleth 'adversity the element of patience';

'----Gaudet patientia duris:'

That

'Fortunam superat virtus, prudential famam.'

That while weak souls are 'crushed by fortune,' the 'brave mind' maketh the fickle deity afraid of it:

'Fortuna fortes metuit, ignavos permit.'

ELEVENTHLY, That if she take the advice of 'Horace,'

'Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus,'

it will delight her 'hereafter' (as 'Virgil' saith) to 'revoke her past troubles':

'----Forsan & haec olim meminisse juvabit.'

And, to the same purpose, 'Juvenal' speaking of the 'prating joy' of mariners, after all their 'dangers are over':

'Gaudent securi narrare pericula nautae.'

Which suiting the case so well, you'll forgive me, Sir, for 'popping down' in 'English metre,' as the 'translative impulse' (pardon a new word, and yet we 'scholars' are not fond of 'authenticating new' words) came upon me 'uncalled for':

The seaman, safe on sh.o.r.e, with joy doth tell What cruel dangers him at sea befell.

With 'these,' Sir, and an 'hundred more' wise 'adages,' which I have always at my 'fingers' end,' will I (when reduced to 'form' and 'method') entertain Miss; and as she is a 'well-read,' and (I might say, but for this 'one' great error) a 'wise' young lady, I make no doubt but I shall 'prevail' upon her, if not by 'mine own arguments,' by those of 'wits'

and 'capacities' that have a 'congeniality' (as I may say) to 'her own,'

to take to heart,

----Nor of the laws of fate complain, Since, though it has been cloudy, now't clears up again.----

Oh! what 'wisdom' is there in these 'n.o.ble cla.s.sical authors!' A 'wise man' will (upon searching into them,) always find that they speak 'his'

sense of 'men' and 'things.' Hence it is, that they so readily occur to my 'memory' on every occasion--though this may look like 'vanity,' it is too true to be omitted; and I see not why a man may not 'know these things of himself,' which 'every body' seeth and 'saith of him'; who, nevertheless, perhaps know not 'half so much as he,' in other matters.