SATIRE XIV. Argument, In none THE subjects of this Satire are of the most important kind, and the poet, as if fully aware of it, has treated them in his best manner. of his works does he take a loftier flight; in none is he more vigorous and energetic; in none more clear and precise in his style, more original in his conceptions, more happy in his illustrations, nor more powerful and commanding in his general deductions. The whole is directed to the one great end of self-improvement. By shewing the dreadful facility with which children copy the vices of their parents, he points out the necessity, as well as the sacred duty, of giving them examples of domestic purity and virtue. After briefly enumerating the several vices, gluttony, cruelty, debauchery, &c. which youth imperceptibly imbibe from their seniors; he enters more at large into that of avarice; of which he shews the fatal and inevitable consequences. Nothing can surpass the exquisiteness of this division of the Satire, in which he traces the progress of that passion in the mind, from the paltry tricks of saving a broken meal, to the daring violation of every principle human and divine. Having placed the absurdity, as well as the perplexity and danger of immoderate desires in every possible point of view, the piece concludes with a solemn admonition to be satisfied with those comforts and conveniences which nature and wisdom require, and which a decent competence is easily calculated to supply. Beyond this, desire is infinite a gulf which nothing can fill, an ocean without soundings and without shores! SATIRE XIV. TO FUSCINUS. v. 1-9. YES, there are faults, Fuscinus, that disgrace } VER. 9. Who, tutor'd by the epicure his sire, Gray-headed prodigal! knows, &c.] This is appositely applied by old Knowell. Speaking of the education he gave his son, he says, "Drest snails or mushrooms curiously before him; "Perfum'd my sauces, and taught him to make 'em, 66 Preceding still, with my gray gluttony, "At all the ord'naries, and only fear'd "His palate should degenerate, not his manners." Quintilian reprobates, no less strongly than Juvenal, that early gluttony in Gray-headed prodigal! knows, with nice care, Ere twice four springs have blossom'd o'er his head, which the children of his time were indulged: "we form their palate," says he," before their tongue;" ante palatum eorum quam os instituimus. In looking at this passage, in Professor Spalding, I observed that the very learned editor has been induced, probably by his recollection of Juvenal, to give a meaning to his author's expression, which it will not bear. "Quid non adultus concupiscet, qui in purpuris repserit? Nondum prima verba exprimit, et jam coccum intelligit, jam conchylium poscit !" Lib. 1. Coccum, he would read, or rather interpret coquum, and understand conchylium not of the colour, but of the fish which produced it. This is specious; but when the obvious meaning of the words is so pertinent, why should we meddle with the text? Where does it appear that the shell-fish which produced the purple dye, was ever eaten at Rome? besides, the word purpuris determines the sense. The child, whose swaddling clothes were of purple, was brought to distinguish and call for the most costly colours, (the bright, and the ferruginous or dark-red purple,) before he could speak distinctly! An instance of absurd and pernicious indulgence, which well deserved the lash of the satirist, and which it is rather singular that Juvenal should have overlooked, Or fury? Rutilus, who hears the thong, With far more pleasure than the Syren's song ; When his stretch'd ears drink in the wretches' cries, Dost thou expect a girl, from Larga sprung, But that she stopt and breath'd, and stopt again? Employs the self-same pimps, and hopes ere long, VER. 22. that slaves have powers, &c.] One of the best chapters in Macrobius is on the subject of slavery. In one part of it, he has a direct allusion to this passage. Tibi autem unde in servos tantum et tam immane fastidium? quasi non ex iisdem tibi et constent et aluntur elementis, eundemque spiritum ab eodem principe carpant! Vis tu cogitare eos, quos jus tuum vocas, iisdem seminibus ortos, eodem frui cælo, æque vivere atque mori? Lib 1. ii. These last expressions are taken from Seneca, who is, indeed, a magazine of good things, to which, by the way, our author, as well as Macrobius, was fond enough of applying. |