you read; Would it were all a fable, that Great ills, we grant, in former times did reign, gain. Lefs admiration to great crimes is due, 841 Which they through wrath, or through revenge, purfue. For, weak of reafon, impotent of will, The fex is hurry'd headlong into ill: 845 And, like a cliff from its foundations torn, 850 And, cool in mifchief, meditate the fin. 'They read th' example of a pious wife, Redeeming, with her own, her husband's life; Yet, if the laws did that exchange afford, Would fave their lap-dog fooner than their lord. Ver. 833. The widow of Drymon poifoned her fons, that fhe might fucceed to their eftate: This was done either in the poet's time, or just before it. Ver. 838. Medea, out of revenge to Jafon who had forfaken her, killed the children which she had by him. 855 Where'er you walk, the Belides you meet; And Clytemneftras grow in ev'ry street: But here's the difference; Agamemnon's wife Was a grofs butcher with a bloody knife ; But murder, now, is to perfection grown, And fubtle poifons are employ'd alone: Unless fome antidote prevents their arts, And lines with balfam all the nobler parts: In fuch a cafe, referv'd for fuch a need, Rather than fail, the dagger does the deed. 860 Ver. 854. the Belides] Who were fifty fifters, married to fifty young men, their coufin-germans; and killed them all on their wedding-night, excepting Hypermneftra, who faved her hufband Linus. Ver. 855. Clytemnestra] The wife of Agamemnon, who in favour to her adulterer Ægyfthus, was confenting to his murder. Ver. 863. Rather than fail,] It will eafily be understood, why it was impoffible to make a fingle obfervation on this Sixth Sa tire, which, as he finely fays in another place, is, Too foul to name, too fulfome to be read. Yet Lud. Prateüs wrote long notes for the ufe of the Dauphin under the infpection of Boffuet. Dr. J. WARTON. THE TENTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL. THE ARGUMENT. The poet's defign, in this divine satire, is to reprefent the various wishes and defires of mankind; and to fet out the folly of them. He runs through all the feveral heads of riches, honours, eloquence, fame for martial atchievements, long life, and beauty; and gives inftances, in each, how frequently they have proved the ruin of those that owned them. He concludes therefore, that fince we generally chufe fo ill for ourselves, we should do better to leave it to the gods, to make the choice for us. All we can fafely afk of heaven, lies within a very small compafs. 'Tis but health of body and mind. And if we have thefe, it is not much matter what we want befides; for we have already enough to make us happy. LOOK round the habitable world, how few Know their own good; or knowing it, pursue. Ver. 1. Look round] There is not perhaps in our language a poem of the moral and didactic species, written with more vigo How void of reafon are our hopes and fears! 5 But, when we have our wish, we wish undone ? When made obnoxious to our own defire. With laurels fome have fatally been crown'd; Some, who the depths of eloquence have found, In that unnavigable ftream were drown'd. 10 rous and strong fentiments, more penetrating and useful obfervations on life, in a diction remarkably clofe and compact, than the Vanity of Human Wishes, by Dr. Johnson, in imitation of this Tenth Satire of his favourite Juvenal. In point of sprightlinefs, and poignancy of wit and farcafm, it may not be equal to his imitation of the Third; but indeed the nature and tone of the two pieces are effentially different; for here all is ferious, folemn, and even devout. The evils of life are indeed aggravated and painted in the darkest and most disagreeable colours; but fuch an unwarrantable representation was a favourite topic with our author, touched as he was with a morbid melancholy; but furely to magnify and dwell too much on thefe evils, is, after all, very falfe philofophy, and an affront to our most benevo lent and bounteous Creator. Thofe who hold this uncomfortable and gloomy opinion, would do well to confider attentively what fuch men as Cudworth, Archbishop King, Hutchefon,. and Balguy, have fo ftrongly urged in confutation of this opinion of the prepollence of evil in the world. It may not be unpleasant to lay before the reader fome paffages of Johnson's Imitations, which feem particularly happy in the accommodation of modern facts and characters to the ancient; and we may imagine he put forth all his ftrength when he was to contend with Dryden, He certainly would not have fucceeded fo well if he had ever attempted to imitate Horace. Dr. J. WARTon. The brawny fool, who did his vigour boast, In that prefuming confidence was loft: But more have been by avarice oppreft, And heaps of money crowded in the cheft: Unwieldy fums of wealth, which higher mount 'Than files of marshall'd figures can account. To which the ftores of Cræfus, in the fcale, 201 Would look like little dolphins, when they fail In the vaft fhadow of the British whale. For this, in Nero's arbitrary time, 15. When virtue was a guilt, and wealth a crime, Of all the vows, the firft and chief request 35 Of each is, to be richer than the reft: And yet no doubts the poor man's draught controul, He dreads no poifon in his homely bowl, Ver. 14. Milo, of Crotona, who, for a trial of his ftrength, going to rend an oak, perished in the attempt; for his arms were caught in the trunk of it, and he was devoured by wild beasts. |