Says Phædria to his man, Believe me, friend, To this uneafy love I'll put an end :

235

Shall I run out of all? My friends difgrace,
And be the firft lewd unthrift of my race?
Shall I the neighbours' nightly reft invade
At her deaf doors, with fome vile ferenade?
Well haft thou freed thyself, his man replies, 240
Go, thank the gods, and offer facrifice.
Ah, fays the youth, if we unkindly part,
Will not the poor fond creature break her heart?
Weak foul! and blindly to destruction led!
She break her heart! fhe'll fooner break

head.

your

245

She knows her man, and when you rant and

fwear,

Can draw you to her with a fingle hair.
But fhall I not return? Now, when fhe fues?
Shall I my own, and her defires refufe?
Sir, take your courfe: but my advice is plain: 250
Once freed, 'tis madness to refume your chain.
Ay; there's the man, who loos'd from luft
and pelf,

Lefs to the prætor owes, than to himself.
But write him down a flave, who, humbly proud,
With prefents begs preferments from the crowd;

Ver. 234. This alludes to the play of Terence, called the Eunuch, which was excellently imitated of late in English by Sir Charles Sedley. In the firft fcene of that comedy, Phædria was introduced with his man Pamphilus, difcourfing, whether he 1hould leave his miftrefs Thais, or return to her, now that she had invited him.

That early fuppliant, who falutes the tribes, 256
And fets the mob to scramble for his bribes:
That fome old dotard, fitting in the fun,
On holidays may tell, that fuch a feat was done:
In future times this will be counted rare.

260

Thy fuperftition too may claim a fhare: When flowers are ftrew'd, and lamps in order plac'd,

And windows with illuminations grac'd,
On Herod's day; when fparkling bowls go

round,

264

And tunny's tails in favoury fauce are drown'd, Thou mutter'ft prayers obfcene; nor dost refuse The fafts and fabbaths of the curtail'd Jews. Then a crack'd egg-fhell thy fick fancy frights, Befides the childish fear of walking fprights.

Ver. 256. He who fued for any office amongst the Romans was called a candidate, because he wore a white gown, and fometimes chalked it to make it appear whiter. He rofe early, and went to the levees of thofe who headed the people; faluted alfo the tribes feverally, when they were gathered together to chufe their magiftrates, and diftributed a largefs amongft them, to engage them for their voices, much refembling our elections of parliament men.

Ver. 264. The commentators are divided what Herod this was whom our author mentions; whether Herod the Great, whofe birth-day might poffibly be celebrated after his death by the Herodians, a fect amongst the Jews, who thought him their Meffiah, or Herod Agrippa, living in the author's time, and after it. The latter feems the more probable opinion.

Ver. 268. The ancients had a fuperftition, contrary to ours, concerning egg-fhells; they thought that if an egg-fhell were cracked, or a hole bored in the bottom of it, they were fubje& to the power of forcery: we as vainly break the bottom of an egg-fhell, and cross it when we have eaten the egg, left fome hag

271

Of o'ergrown gelding priests thou art afraid;
The timbrel, and the fquintifego maid
Of Ifis, awe thee: left the gods for fin,
Should, with a fwelling dropfy, stuff thy skin:
Unless three garlick heads the curse avert,
Eaten each morn, devoutly, next thy heart. 275
Preach this among the brawny guards, fay'ft
thou,

And fee if they thy doctrine will allow :
The dull fat captain, with a hound's deep throat,
Would bellow out a laugh, in a base note;
And prize a hundred Zeno's just as much
As a clipt fixpence, or a fchilling Dutch,

280

fhould make use of it in bewitching us, or failing over the fea in it if it were whole. The reft, of the priests of Ifis, and her one-eyed or squinting prieftefs, is more largely treated in the Sixth Satire of Juvenal, where the fuperftitions of women are related,

THE

SIXTH SATIRE

OF

PERSIUS.

THE ARGUMENT.

This firth fatire treats an admirable common-place of Moral Philofophy; Of the true Ufe of Riches. They are certainly intended, by the Power who beftows them, as inftruments and helps of living commodiously our felces, and of adminiftering to the wants of others who are oppreffed by fortune. There are two extremes in the opinions of men concerning them. One error, though on the right hand, yet a great one, is, That they are no helps to a virtuous life; The other places all our happinefs in the acquifition and poffeffion of them; and this is, undoubtedly, the worfe extreme. The mean betwixt thefe, is the opinion of the Stoicks ; which is, That riches may be useful to the leading a virtuous life; in cafe we rightly understand how to give according to right reafon; and how to receive what is given us by others. The virtue of giving well, is called Liberality; and it is of this