Part 12 (1/2)
Wealth is notoriously a fatal gift, and should be shunned, not sought
No one need fear poison if he drinks his wine out of a cheap cup If the love of money is the root of all evil, the possession of e to all evil-doers What, then, htly desire? Power?
This is just as fatal to its possessor
Soreat power, subject itself to envy just as great; they are wrecked by their long and brilliant roll of honors; down from the pedestals come their statues, and now the stroke of the axe shatters the very wheels of the triu, now, by dint of bellows and forge, that head, the people's idol, is aglow; and the great Sejanus is a crackling! And soon from the face, second to one only in the whole world, they arepipkins, and basins, and a pan--ay, and even meaner vessels! What laid low a Crassus, and a Pompey, and that leader who broke the proud Roht the for the highest place, and the prayer of ambition, heard but too well by thedoes not take a murderous croith him down to Ceres' son-in-law; seldoh Hannibal How reatest of leaders? This is the man for whom Africa is too s thence to the tepid Nile; and, on another side again, to the Ethiopian tribes with their towering elephants! He adds Spain to his empire; he bounds over the Pyrenees; Nature barred his path with her Alp and her snow; he rives the rocks and bursts the ar Now he holds Italy, yet he still strains forward ”Nothing,” cries he, ”is gained unless we storates with our Punic soldiery, and this hand plants ht! oh, what a subject for a caricature--the one-eyed general bestriding the Gaetulian lory! Why, he in his turn is conquered, and flies headlong into exile; and there he sits, that august dependent--a gazing stock at a king's gates--until it may please His Majesty of Bithynia to awake The soul which once turned the world upside down shall be quelled, not by a sword, not by a stone, no, nor by a javelin; but by that Ne[E]
Off with you, madman! Scour the bleak Alps, that so you may--catch the fancy of schoolboys, and become a theme for declamation!
[E] Hannibal always carried with hi, a dose of poison, hich, at last, he took his own life, to escape capture by the Roth of days, Juvenal's dark and repulsive picture of old age would effectually banish that desire One by one the physical and mental powers fail and the man is left but a pitiful wreck of his former self
But suppose his faculties be sound, yet still he aze at the pyre of his beloved wife, and of his brother, and on urns filled as once his sisters This is the forfeit laid upon longevity, to pass to old age ariefs, and one weary round of laarb of the s not alone loss of friends, but inand disaster from which one would be mercifully delivered by a eneral, found to his cost:
That banishary in conquered Carthage, all had their origin in a long life What happier being in the world than that Roman could nature, could Ro round the train of captives amid all the circulory, when just stepping down from his Teutonic car?
As for beauty, foolish indeed is that hter that he or she may possess this; for it is the ed training of the old Sabine school of reat beauty from the poisonous, insidious temptations, if not actual violence, of the wicked world What then?
Shall ? If you will take my advice, you will allow the Gods themselves to determine what is ive us--not what is pleasant, but what isin each case Man is dearer to theed on by impulse, by blind and violent desires, we pray for a wife, and for offspring; but only they (the Gods) knohat the children will be, and of what character the wife Still, if youat the shrine, then pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body; pray for a brave spirit free froards life's close as one of nature's boons, that can endure any toil, that is innocent of anger and free fros of Hercules and his cruel labors as , and down-couches of a Sardanapalus
Perhaps the appeal of Juvenal that coeneration, and contains theto fathers and hters are following in their footsteps, bound to copy them, and reproduce their faults in later life The presence of a child is as sacred as a teuarded fro influence It is surely notable to find this wholesoenerate age
It smacks neither of fervid rhetoric nor of cold and fors true and natural as childhood itself
Let no foul word or sight coh the threshold where dwells the father of a fa aught that is base, despise not your boy's tender years; but let the ie of sin_ For should he some day do a deed to earn the censor's wrath, and show hiure, but heir of your character as well--one to follow in your steps, and sin every sin in worse degree--you will chide and scold hie your will But whence that boldness, whence those parental rights, when you do worse, despite your age? If co, none of your people will have any rest Sweep the pave! Doith the shriveled spider and all her web! Ho! you polish the plain silver, and you the figured cups! So thetheet lest the hall may offend your friend's eye, when he comes, and lest the vestibule be splashed with e with one half-peck of sawdust puts to rights--but yet bestow no thought on this, that your son's eye shall rest upon a household unsullied, stainless, innocent of vice? We thank you that you gave a citizen to your country and your people, if you make him worthy of that country, helpful to its soil, helpful in public work, in peace and war; for it will matter much in what lessons and principles you train him
Such wholesome truths as these and eneration And he speaks no less to all humanity; for the problee, but are always and everywhere the same
We have now revieo centuries of Roman preachers, and it may naturally be asked, ”What was their influence upon the Roman world?” No direct results are traceable to their efforts Society went on its accustorew to ht forth their natural fruits of national destruction in due season, apparently unchecked by the counter influences of which we have spoken These influences cannot yet be weighed and known--not until account has been taken of all the factors in the world's life problerand totals cast up and the trial balance made But in that time the bead-roll of the world's real benefactors will contain the naainst an age of wrong in immemorial protest, ere the numb and dormant conscience of the huue
SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
_Roman Satire_, as illustrated by the works of Ennius (239-169 B C), Lucilius (180-103 B C), Horace (65-8 B C), Persius (34-62 A D), and Juvenal (48(?)-138(?) A D)
1 What position did the Roman satirist occupy as a teacher of reat Greek writers served asRoman men of letters 3 In what literary field did the Romans strike out for themselves? 4 What may we suppose was the character of the rude satire of ancient Italy? 5 What position does Ennius hold a Roman satirists? 6 What famous events took place within the lifetime of Lucilius? 7 How did his social position help to s effective? 8 What did the Roments of his works been preserved to us? 10 What picture of life in the Roman Forus of Lucilius 12 Quote his definition of virtue 13 How does Horace's attitude toward his fellow-e had he in his early education? 15 Illustrate his habit of personal reflection upon the events of the day 16 What are the ument in favor of contentht out in his famous satire on this subject? 19 What is his criticism of Lucilius?
20 Give an account of Horace's own life 21 What ideas does he set forth in his satire to Maecenas? 22 What description does he give of his father? 23 What picture does he give of his life on his farm as contrasted with his life in Rome? 24 How did the circumstances of the life of Persius differ from those of Horace? 25 How different is his poetry for this reason? 26 Illustrate the poet's high estimate of Stoicism 27 How does he treat the subject of prayer in one of his famous satires? 28 How is his skill shown in his picture of the false suppliant? 29 What do we know of the life of Juvenal? 30 What was the character of the times in which he lived? 31 How does his style differ fro tendencies of his time? 33 Give an outline of his satire upon the vanity of hu to parents?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SIMcox, _History of Latin Literature_: Early Satire, Lucilius, Vol I, pp 62-68; Horace, pp 283-300; Persius, Vol II, pp 80-86; Juvenal, pp 118-138
SELLAR, _The Roman Poets of the Republic_: Early Roman Satire, C