That dares prefer the toils of Hercules
To dalliance, banquet, and ignoble ease.
The path to peace is virtue: what I show,
Thyfelf may freely on thyself bestow:
Fortune was never worthipp'd by the wife
But, fet aloft by fools, ufurps the skies.
THE ARGUMENT.
The poet in this fatire, proves, that the condition of a foldier is much better than that of a countryman: first, because a country-man, however affronted, provoked, and ftruck himself, dares not ftrike a foldier; who is only to be judged by a court-martial: and by the law of Camillus, which obliges him not to quarrel without the trenches, he is alfo affured to have a speedy hearing, and quick dispatch: whereas, the townfman or peafant is delayed in his fuit by frivolous pretences, and not fure of juflice when he is heard in the The foldier is also privileged to make a will, and to give away his eftate, which he got in war, to whom he pleafes, without confideration of parentage, or relations; which is denied to all other Romans. This fatire was written by Ju
venal, when he was a commander in Ægypt: it is certainly bis, tho I think it not finished. And if it be well obferved, you will find he intended an invective against a standing army.
HAT vaft prerogatives, my Gallus, are
Accruing to the mighty man of war!
For, if into a lucky camp I light,
Tho raw in arms, and yet afraid to fight,
Befriend me, my good stars, and all goes right:
One happy hour is to a foldier better,
Than mother Juno's recommending letter,
Or Venus, when to Mars he would prefer
My fuit, and own the kindnefs done to her.
See what our common privileges are:
As, firft, no faucy citizen fhall dare
To ftrike a foldier, nor when ftruck, refent
The wrong, for fear of farther punishment:
Not tho his teeth are beaten out, his eyes
Hang by a ftring, in bumps his forehead rife,
Shall he prefume to mention his difgrace,
Or beg amends for his demolish'd face.
A booted judge fhall fit to try his cause,
Not by the ftatute, but by martial laws;
Which old Camillus order'd, to confine
The brawls of foldiers to the trench and line:
A wife provifion; and from thence 'tis clear,
That officers a foldier's caufe fhould hear:
And taking cognizance of wrongs receiv'd;
An honest man may hope to be reliev'd:
So far 'tis well: but with a gen'ral cry,
The regiment will rife in mutiny;
The freedom of their fellow-rogue demand,
And, if refus'd, will threaten to difband.
Withdraw thy action, and depart in peace ;
The remedy is worse than the disease:
This caufe is worthy him, who in the hall
Would for his fee, and for his client, bawl:
But wouldst thou, friend, who haft two legs alone,
(Which, heav'n be prais'd, thou yet mayft call thy
own)
Wouldst thou to run the gantlet these expofe
To a whole company of hob-nail'd shoes?
Sure the good-breeding of wife citizens
Should teach 'em more good-nature to their shins.
Befides whom canft thou think so much thy friend,
Who dares appear thy bufinefs to defend?
Dry up thy tears and pocket up th' abuse,
Nor
put thy friend to make a bad excufe:
The judge cries out, Your evidence produce.
Will he, who faw the foldier's mutton-fift,
And saw thee maul'd, appear within the lift,
To witnefs truth? When I fee one fo brave,
The dead, think I, are rifen from the
And with their long fpade beards, and matted
Our honeft ancestors are come to take the air.
Against a clown, with more fecurity,
A witness may be brought to fwear a lye,
Than, tho his evidence be full and fair,
To vouch a truth against a man of war.
More benefits remain, and claim'd as rights,
Which are a standing army's perquifites.
any rogue vexatious fuits advance
my known inheritance, Enter by violence my fruitful grounds,
Or take the facred land-mark from my bounds, Those bounds, which with poffeffion and with pray'r,
And offer'd cakes, have been my annual care:
Or if my debtors do not keep their day,
Deny their hands, and then refufe to pay;
I must with patience all the terms attend,
Among the common caufes that depend,
Till mine is call'd; and that long look'd-for day
Is ftill encumber'd with fome new delay:
Perhaps the cloth of ftate is only spread,
Some of the quorum may be fick a-bed;
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