Imatges de pàgina
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High, mountain high: in years a Nestor prove,
And, loving none, ne'er know another's love!

VER. 184. Than Nero plunder'd; &c.] The rapacity of this tyrant (see p. 324,) was proverbial. The sums he extorted from the provinces under various pretences exceed all belief, and almost all arithmetic. He gave no office, says Suetonius, without the addition of this special charge: scis quid mihi opus sit; et hoc agamus, ne quis quicquam habeat. You know what I want; let us manage in such a manner, that nobody else may have any thing.

SATIRE XIII.

Argument.

CALVINUS (at setting out on a journey, we may suppose) had left a sum of money in the hands of a confidential person: no uncommon thing in those days, when there were no public banks. This person, when he came to redemand it, forswore the deposit. The indignation and fury expressed by Calvinus at this breach of trust, seem to have reached the ears of his friend Juvenal, who endeavours to soothe and comfort him under his loss.

Such is the simple foundation on which the beautiful structure before us is raised! It is needless to analyse it, for the different topics of consolation and advice follow one another so naturally, that it would only be to recapitulate in less forcible language what is already rendered, too clear for doubt, and too intelligible for illustration.

Juvenal is here almost a Christian. I say almost: for though his ignorance of" that light which was come into the world,” did not enable him to number among the dreadful consequences of impenitent guilt, the certain punishment of the life to come; yet on every other topic that can alarm or terrify the sinner, he is energetic and awful beyond example. Perhaps the horrors of a troubled conscience were never depicted with such impressive solemnity as in this Satire.

Bishop Burnet recommended the Tenth Satire to his Clergy, in his Pastoral Letters; the present would have been more to his purpose. It is not, indeed, so poetic, so fervid, so majestical as that; but, on the other hand, it enters more into the common business of life. All cannot be statesmen and kings; but all may be injured by treachery, and all have need to be reminded, that guilt sometimes finds its punishment on this side the grave!

SATIRE XIII.

TO CALVINUS.

v. 1-6.

MAN, wretched man, whene'er he stoops to sin,
Feels, with the act, a strong remorse within;
'Tis the first vengeance: Conscience tries the cause,
And vindicates the violated laws;

Though the brib'd Prætor at their judgment spurn,
And falsify the verdict of the Urn.

VER. 5. Though the brib'd Prætor, &c.] This can only be understood by a reference to the judicial forms of the Romans. In criminal causes, the Prætor Urbanus, who sat as chief judge, put into an urn the names of his assessors, (a kind of jurymen, who, to the amount of some hundreds, were annually chosen for this purpose,) from which he drew out the number prescribed by law, usually about fifty, who sat by him at the trial. When the pleadings were over, they retired, and deliberated on what had passed. On their return, they had each three waxen tablets put into their hands, one of which was marked with the letter C. for condemno, guilty; another with the letter A. for absolvo, not guilty; and the third with the letters N. L. for non liquet, I am doubtful. One of these tablets each person dropt privately into the urn, which was then brought to the Prætor, who took them out, and pronounced sentence according to the decision of the majority.

In this last transaction, a perverse or corrupt judge had an opportunity of juggling, which the history of those times proves he did not always let slip. It is to this Juvenal alludes.

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