Well, is callid Liberality : And 'tis of this Virtue that Persius writes in this Satyr; wherein be not only shews the lawful Use of Riches, but also sharply inveighs against the Vices which are oppos’d to it; and especially of those, which consist in the Defects of Giving or Spending; or in the Abuse of Riches. He writes to Cælius Bassus bis Friend, and a Poet also. Enquires first of bis Health and Studies; and afterwards informs bim of his own, and where he is now resident. He gives an account of himself, that he is endeavouring by little and little to wear off his Vices; and particularly, that he is combating Ambition, and the Desire of Wealth. He dwells upon the latter Vice: And being sensible that few Men either desire or use Riches as they ought, he endeavours to convince them of their Folly; which is the main Design of the whole Satyr.

The S I X T H SA TYR

H

To Cælius Ballus, & Lyrick Poet.
AS Winter caus'd thee, Friend, to change thy Seat,

And seek' in Sabine Air a warm Retreat ?
Say, do't thou yet the Roman Harp Command?
Do the Strings Answer to thy Noble Hand?
Great Master of the Muse, infpir’d- to Sing
The Beauties of the first-created Spring;.
The Pedigree of Nature to rehearse,
And found the Maker's Work, in equal Verse.

I And seek, in Sabine Air, &c. of their studies, wascall'd their All the Studious, and particular. Elucubrations, or Nightly Laly the Poets, about the end of bours. They who had Country

August, began to set themselves Seats, retir'd to them while they on Work: Refraining from Wri- Studied : As Perfius did to his, ting, during the Heats of the which was near the Port of the Summer. They wrote by Night, Moon in Etruria ; and Ballus to and sat up the greatest part of it: his which was in the

Country of For which Reafon the Product the Sabines, nearer Rome.

Now

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Now fporting on thy Lyre the Loves of Youth,
Now Virtuous Age, and Venerable Truth;
Expressing juftly Sapro's wanton Art
of Odes, and Pindar's more Majestick Part:

For me, my warmer Conftitution wants
More Cold, than our Ligurian Winter grants;
And therefore to my Native Shoars retir’d,
I view the Coast old Ennius once admir'd;
Where Clifts on either side their Points display:
And, after, opening in an ampler way,
Afford the pleasing Prospect of the Bay.
'Tis worth your while, o Romans, to regard
Th: Port of Luna, says our Learned. Bard;
Who in 3 a drunken Dream beheld his Soul
The Fifth within the Transmigrating Roll;
Which firft a Peacock, then Euphorbus, was,
Then Homer next, and next Pyrhagoras;
And last of all the Line did into Ennius pass.

Secure and free from Business of the Statej
And more fecure of what the Vulgar prate,
Here I enjoy my private Thoughts; nor care
What Rots for Sheep the Southern Winds prepare :
Survey the Neighb'ring Fields, and not repine,

То When I behold a larger Crop than mine:

2. Now sporting on shy Lyre, &c. , five Drinker of Wine. In a Dream, This proves Casius Bassus to have or Vision, call you it which you Been a Lyrick Poet,? 'Tis said please, he thought it was revcáľd of him, that by an Eruption of to him, that the Soul of Pythathe Flaming Mountain Vesuvius, goraswastransmigrated into him: near which the greatest Part of As Pythagoras, before him believe his Fortune lay, he was burnt ed, that himself had been Esmo himself, together with all his phorbws in the Wars of Troy.Com Writings.

mentators differ in placing the 3. Who in a drunken Dream, &c. Order of this soul, and who had I call it a Drunken Dream of it filft I have here given it to Ennius; not that my Author in the Peacock, because it looks. this place gives me any encou more according to the Order ragement for ube Epithet; but of Nature, that it houd lodge because Horaces and all who men- in a Creature of an inferior siou Ennius, fay he was an excell. Species i and so by Gradation

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To see a Beggar's Brat in Riches flow,
Adds not a Wrinkle to my even Brow;
Nor, envious at the sight, will I forbear
My plenteous Bowl, nor bate my bountcous Cheer,
Nor yet unseal the Dregs of Wine that stink
Of Cask; nor in a nafty Flaggon drink;
Let others stuff their Guts with homely Fare;
For Men of diffrent Inclinations are;
Tho'born perhaps beneath one common Star.
In Minds and Manners Twins oppos'd we fee
In the same Siga, almost the fame Degree:
One, frugal, on his Birth-Day fears to Dine ;
Does at a Penny's cost in Herbs repine,
And hardly dares to dip his Fingers in the Brine.
Prepar'd as Priest of his own Rites to stand,
He sprinkles Pepper with a sparing hand.
His Jolly Brother, opposite in Senfe,
Laughs at his Thrift; and lavish of Expence,
Quaffs, Crams, and Guttles, in his own defence.

For me, I'll use my own; and take my Mare;
Yet will not Turbots for my Slaves prepare:
Nor be so nice in Taste my self, to know
If what I fwallow be a Thrush, or no.
Live on thy Annual Income; Spend thy Store;
And freely grind, from thy full threshing-Floor;
Next Harvest promises as much, or more.
Thus I wou'd live: But Friendship's holy Band,
And Offices of Kindness hold my hand :
My Friend is Shipwreck'd on the Brutian Strand,
His Riches in th' Tonian Maia are loft;
And he himself stands shiv'ring on the Coast;

Where, rise to the informing of a Man. , and not, that any such AcciAnd Perfius favours me, by fay, dent had happen'd'to

one of the ing, that Finnius was the Fifth Friends of Perfius. But, howefrom ihe Pythagorean Peacock. ver, this is the moft Poetical

4 My Friend is Shipwreckid, Description of any in our Alu&c. Perhaps this is only a fine chor : And Gince he and Lucan Tranfition of the Poet, to intro. were fo grear Friends, I know duçc thç Buliacfs of the Saryr; nor bur Lucan might help him,

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