40 Limat, non odio obfcuro morfuque venenat : EPISTOLA XV. AD C. NUMONIUM VALAM. Veliam aut Salernum ad balneas profecturus, de locorum falubritate ac deliciis quærit. UE fit hiems Veliæ, quod cœlum, Vala, Salerni, Mufa fupervacuas Antonius: et tamen illis 5 Præteragendus equus. Quo tendis? non mihi Cuma : Eft iter, aut Baias, læva ftomachofus habena Dicet with obfcure malice, and biting flander: the neighbours fmile at me removing clods and ftones. You had rather be munching your daily allowance with the flaves in town; you ardently with to be of the number of these. While my cunning foot-boy envies you the use of the firing, the flocks, and the garden. The lazy ox wishes for the horfe's trappings: the horfe wishes to go to plough. But I fhall be of opinion, that each of them ought contentedly to exercise that art which he understands. EPISTLE To C. NU MONIUS XV. VALA. Preparing to go to the baths either at Velia or Salernum, be enquires after the bealthfulness and agreeableness of the places. IS your part, my Vala, to write to me, and mine to give credit to your information, what fort of a winter it generally is at Velia, what the air at Salernum, what kind of inhabitants the country confifts of, and how the road is? (for † Antonius Mufa pronounces Baie to be of no fervice to me; yet makes me obnoxious to the place, when I am bathed in cold water ev'n in the midst of the froft by his prefcription. In truth, the village murmurs to fee the myrtle groves deferted, and the fulphureous waters, faid to expel lingering diforders from the nerves, defpifed; envying thofe invalids, who have the courage to expofe their head and breast to the Clufian springs, and retire to Gabii, and fuch cold countries. My course therefore must be altered, and my horse driven beyond his accuftomed ftages. Whither are you going? will the angry rider say, pulling in the left-hand rein, I am not for Cuma or Baie: but the horse's The natural conftruction in the original does not begin till line 25. +Phyfician to Auguftus, who is faid to be the first that ever prefcribed the ufe of cold bathing. K 6 car 15 Dicet eques: (a) fed equis frenato eft auris in ore.) Mænius ut, rebus maternis atque paternis 25 30 35 Verterat in fumum et cinerem ; Non hercule miror, Aiebat, fi qui comedunt bona: cum fit obeso 40 (a) Sed equi frenato eft auris in ore. (b) Corrector Reftius. Bentl. (e) Quidquid erat nactus, Nil *ear is in the bit.) You must inform me likewife which of the two people is fupported by the greatest abundance of corn whether they drink rain-water collected in refervoirs, or from perennial wells of sweet element? for as to the wine of that part I give myfelf no trouble to enquire: at my country feat I can dispense and bear with any thing: but when I've arrived at a fea-port, I infift upon that which is generous and mellow, fuch as may drive away my cares, fuch as may flow into my veins and animal spirits with a large portion of hope, fuch as may fupply me with words, fuch as may make me appear young in the eyes of my Lucanian mistress.) Which tract of land produces most hares, which moft boars; which feas harbour the most fishes and fea urchins, that I may be able to return home from thence in good cafe, and like a luxurious Phaecian. When Manius, having manfully made away with his paternal and maternal eftates, began to be accounted a merry fellow; a vagabond droll, who had no certain place of living; who, when dinnerlefs, could not distinguish a fellow-citizen from an enemy; unmerciful in forging any fcandal against any person; the peft, and hurricane, and gulf of the market; whatever he cou'd get, he gave to his greedy gut. This fellow, when he had extorted little or nothing from the favourers of his iniquity, or those that dreaded it, would eat up whole dishes of coarse harflet and lamb's entrails: as much as wou'd have fufficed three bears Then truly, like reformer † Beftius, would he fay, that the bellies of extravagant fellows ought to be branded with a red-hot iron. The fame man, however, when he had reduced to fmoak and ashes whatever more confiderable booty he had got; Faith, faid he, I do not wonder if there are fuch persons, as eat up their estates: fince nothing certainly is better *Equis inftead of equi is of the beft MSS. and editions.---FRANCIS. + Cornelius Beftius, mentioned as a person of great austerity by Perfius. Tune bona incolumis minuas? Eft Beftius urget PER, Sat. VI. than Nil melius turdo, nil vulva pulchrius ampla. Nimirum hic ego fum: nam tuta et parvula laudo, Cum res deficiunt, fatis inter vilia fortis : Verum, ubi quid melius contingit et unctius; idem Vos fapere, et folos aio bene vivere, quorum Confpicitur nitidis fundata pecunia villis. EPISTOL A XVI. AD QUINTIUM. 45 Villa fue formam, fitum, commoda Quintio defcribit: tum recte factorum confcientia probitatem, probitate libertatem conftare admonet. E perconteris, fundus meus, optime Quinti, Arvo pafcat herum, an baccis oppulentet olivæ, Pomifne, an pratis, an amicta vitibus ulmo; Scribetur tibi forma loquaciter et fitus agri. Continui montes, ni diffocientur opaca Valle; fed ut veniens dextrum latus afpiciat Sol, (a) Lævum decedens curru fugiente vaporet. Temperiem laudes. quid? (b) fi rubicunda benigni Corna vepres et pruna ferant? fi quercus, et ilex Multa fruge pecus, multa dominum juvet umbra ? 1 Dicas adductum propius frondere Tarentum, Fons etiam rivo dare nomen idoneus ut nec Frigidior Thracam nec purior ambiat Hebrus, (a) Lævum defcendens, (b) Si ribicunda benigne. 5: Infirm |