The Grave, a gay Companion, fhun;

Far from the Sad the Jovial run ;

The Gay, the Witty, and Sedate,
Are Objects of each other's Hate,

And they, who quaff their midnight Glass,
Scorn them, who dare a Bumper pass,
Although they loudly fwear, they dread
A fick Debauch and aching Head.
Be every Look ferenely gay,
And drive all cloudy Cares away.
The Modeft oft too dark appear,
The Silent thoughtfully fevere.
Confult the Wisdom of each Page,
Enquire of every scienc'd Sage,
How you may glide with gentle Ease
Adown the Current of your Days,
Nor vex'd by mean and low Defires,
Nor warm'd by wild Ambition's Fires,
By Hope alarm'd, depreft by Fear,
For things but little worth your Care.
Enquire if Virtue's hallow'd Rules
Proceed from Nature, or the Schools;
What may the Force of Carefufpend,
And make you to your-felf a Friend;
Whether the tranquil Mind and pure,
Honours or Wealth our Blifs infure,
Or down through Life unknown to Aray,
Where lonely leads the filent Way.

When

102. Quid purè tranquillet.] Horace adds the Word pure because a falfe Tranquillity may deceive, but is incapable of fatisfying us. The Tranquillity, which Honours, Reputation, Riches and Employments yield, is very different from that, which Virtue beftows, undifturbed by Defires, Hopes, or Fears.

DAC.

Me quoties reficit gelidus Digentia rivus,

105

Quem Mandela bibit, rugofus frigore pagus ;
Quid fentire putas, quid credis, amice, precari?
Sit mihi, quod nunc eft; etiam minùs : & mihi vivam
Quod fupereft ævi, fi quid fupereffe volunt Dî:
Sit bona librorum & provifæ frugis in annum
Copia, ne fluitem dubiæ fpe pendulus horæ,
Sed fatis eft orare Jovem, quæ ponit & aufert :
Det vitam, det opes: æquum mî animum ipfe parabo.

110

104. Me quoties reficit.] Inftead of methodically deciding what kind of Life yields greatest Happiness, he proposes his own Example and Experience. A manner of Reasoning more decifive and powerful than a thousand Arguments, which often derive their whole Force from the Authoriy and Affistance of Examples.

DAC.

109. Provifa frugis in annum copia.] The Poet wishes he may always have a Year's Income in his Purfe, that he may not be continually perplexed with an anxious Concern for To-morrow, or de pend upon the various and uncertain Accidents of it. He prays only for the Conveniences and Happiness of the Body, which are usually called the Gifts of Fortune, but asks not her Affiftance for the Cultivation of his Understanding and his Improvement in Virtue. Such were the Sentiments, not of any particular Sect, but of the Philofophers in general.

112. Equum mi animum.] Mr. Sanadon reads animum mihi.ego ipfe parabe, upon Authority of one Manufcript, fupported by a Wri ter of the twelfth Century, who thus quotes the Line. Certainly this Reading does not want Merit; for when the Poet prays for Life and a moderate Fortune, there is no need of an Equality of Mind, æquum, to enjoy them. This is a Virtue better proved in doubtful or unhappy Circumstances..

When happy in my rural Scene,
Whose Fountain chills the fhuddering Swain,
Such is my Prayer

Let me poffefs

My present Wealth, or even lefs,
And if the bounteous Gods defign
A longer Life, that Life be mine.
Give me of Books the mental Chear,
Of Wealth, fufficient, for a Year,
Nor let me float in Fortune's Power,
Dependant on the future Hour.
To Jove for Life and Wealth I
These Jove may give, or take away,
But, for a firm and tranquil Mind,
That Bleffing in myself I'll find.

pray,

EPIST.

1

P

EPIST. XIX. Ad MECENATEM.

RISCO fi credis, Mæcenas docte, Cratino,
Nulla placere diu, nec vivere carmina poffunt,
Quæ fcribuntur aquæ potoribus. Ut malè fanos
Adfcripfit Liber Satyris Faunifque poetas,
Vina ferè dulces oluerunt manè Camenæ.
Laudibus arguitur vini vinofus Homerus.
Ennius ipfe pater nunquam nifi potus
Profiluit dicenda. Forum putealque Libonis
Mandabo ficcis, adimam cantare feveris.

ad arma

Hoc

This Epiftle is a Satire on the Poets, in our Author's Time, who under Pretence that Bacchus was God of Poetry, and that the best ancient Bards loved Wine, imagined they might equal their Merit by drinking as largely. Horace laughs at fuch ridiculous Imitation. He raillies the methodical Dulness of their Compofitions; nor makes a Difficulty of propofing his own Example in imitating Alcæus and Ar

chilochus.

DAC.

Verfe 1. Do&e Macenas, Cratino.] This is not an Expreffion of Flattery, for Mæcenas had not only very confiderable Abilities for the Field, and the Council, but was really a Man of Learning.

Cratinus loved Wine to fuch Excefs, that Ariftophanes tells us he died with Grief at feeing a Hogfhead broken, and the Wine running

out.

2 Nulla placere diu.] This was probably one of Cratinus his Verfes which Horace hath tranflated. A Greek Epigram hath preferved one of his drinking Maxims; that Wine is a Race-horse to a Poet of Genius, and that a Water-drinker never made a goood Dithy. rambic. Some Imaginations are indeed fo naturally cold, that Wine may warm them, but it feldom produces a correct and regular Poem. Such phlegmatie Rhimers would do well to remember, that there is fome Difference between drinking and being drunk.

DAC.

EPIST. XIX. To MÆCENAS.

Tofage Cratinus if You Credit give,

No Water drinker's Verses long shall live,
Or long shall please. Among his motley Fold,
Satyrs and Fawns, when Bacchus had enrol'd
The brain-fick Rhimer, foon the tuneful Nine
At Morning breath'd, and not too fweet, of Wine.
When Homer fings the Joys of Wine, 'tis plain,
Great Homer was not of a fober Strain;
And Father Ennius, 'till with drinking fir'd,
Was never to the martial Sang inspir'd.
Let thirsty Spirits make the Bar their Choice,
Nor dare in chearful Song to raise their Voice.

Soon

6. Laudibus arguitur vini.] Homer calls Wine, fweet and freet as Honey, generous, joyous to the Spirits, and a divine Beverage, that foftens the Rudeness of our Tempers. From whence, perhaps, Tully reproaches Antony with fuch an Afperity and Ferocity of Temper, as Wine with all its natural Softness could not meliorate. Yet, as Mr. Sanadon obferves, this is but an uncertain Proof, for Homer might have written Verfes in Praise of Wine, as a Poet may write LoveVerses without being in Love.

8. Forum putealque.] Torrentius firft perceived, that these Words could not be spoken either by Cratinus or Ennius, who were both dead long before Libo was born; nor by Bacchus, who furely would not have waited fo long to publish a Decree, which the Usages of fo many Poets had already established; nor by Mæcenas, unless we read edixti and pallers, contrary to all the Manufcripts. We must therefore acknowledge Horace himself, giving forth his Laws in the Style and Tone of a Legiflator, Hoc fimul edixi, which is of more than five Manufcripts, and received by our beft Editors.