THE TENTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL. THE ARGUMENT. The poet's defign, in this divine fatire, 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. Loak 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! What in the conduct of our life appears So well defign'd, fo luckily begun, 5 But, when we have our wifh, we wish undone ? 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. Johnfon, in imitation of this Tenth Satire of his favourite Juvenal. In point of fprightlinefs, 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 reprefentation was a favourite topic with our author, touched as he was with a morbid melancholy; but furely to magnify and dwell too much on these evils, is, after all, very falfe philofophy, and an affront to our most benevolent 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 opi nion of the prepollence of evil in the world. It may not be unpleafant to lay before the reader fome paffages of Johnfon'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 strength 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 lost : 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 Crofus, in the fcale, 20 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, He dreads no poison 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. Then fear the deadly drug, when gems divine Enchase the cup, and sparkle in the wine. 40 45 50 Will you not now the pair of fages praife, Who the fame end purfu'd, by feveral ways? One pity'd, one contemn'd the woeful times: One laugh'd at follies, one lamented crimes: Laughter is eafy; but the wonder lies, What ftore of brine fupply'd the weeper's eyes. Democritus could feed his fpleen, and shake His fides and fhoulders till he felt 'em ake; Though in his country-town no lictors were, Nor rods, nor ax, nor tribune did appear; Nor all the foppifh gravity of fhow, Which cunning magiftrates on crowds beftow: What had he done, had he beheld, on high Our prætor feated, in mock majefty; His chariot rolling o'er the dufty place, While, with dumb pride, and a fet formal face, He moves, in the dull ceremonial track, With Jove's embroider'd coat upon his back: A fuit of hangings had not more opprest His fhoulders, than that long, laborious veft: 60 A heavy gewgaw, (call'd a crown) that spread About his temples, drown'd his narrow head: And would have crush'd it with the maffy freight, But that a sweating slave sustain'd the weight: 55 Ver. 53. What had he done,] All this is falfe, on the unavoidable marks of state and distinction in every country. Dr. J. WARTON. A flave in the fame chariot feen to ride, 65 70 In their own natures falfe and flatt'ring tribes, But made his friends, by places and by bribes. 75 In his own age, Democritus could find Sufficient cause to laugh at human kind : Learn from fo great a wit; a land of bogs With ditches fenc'd, a heaven fat with fogs, May form a spirit fit to sway the state; And make the neighb'ring monarchs fear their fate. He laughs at all the vulgar cares and fears; At their vain triumphs, and their vainer tears: 80 An equal temper in his mind he found, When Fortune flatter'd him, and when she frown'd. 'Tis plain, from hence, that what our vows requeft, Are hurtful things, or useless at the best. 84 Ver. 66. To mortify] One of his happiest alliterations. |