The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
applause. Let them bear their vile presents elsewhere!"
[1408] _Tecum habita._ "Retire into yourself; examine yourself
thoroughly; your abilities and powers of governing: and you will find
how little fitted you are for the arduous task you have undertaken."
Compare the end of the Alcibiades. Juv., xi., 33, "Te consule, die tibi
qui sis." Hor., i., Sat. iii., 34, "Te ipsum concute." Sen., Ep. 80,
_fin._, "Si perpendere te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, dignitatem:
intus te ipse considera. Nunc qualis sis, aliis credis."
SATIRE V.
ARGUMENT.
On this Satire, which is the longest and the best of all, Persius
may be said to rest his claims to be considered a Philosopher
and a Poet. It may be compared with advantage with the Third
Satire of the second book of Horace. As the object in that is to
defend what is called the Stoical paradox, "that none but the
Philosopher is of _sound mind_,"
"Quem mala stultitia et quemcunque inscitia veri
Cæecum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex
Autumat:" i., 43-45,
so here, Persius maintains that other dogma of the Stoics, "that
none but the Philosopher is truly a _free_ man." Horace argues
(in the person of a Stoic) that there can be but _one_ path that
leads in the right direction; all others must lead the traveler
only farther astray. "Unus utrique error sed variis illudit
partibus" (ἐσθλοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἁπλῶς, παντοδαπῶς δὲ κακοί. Arist.,
Eth., II., vi., 4). So Persius argues, whatever are the varied
pursuits of different minds, he that is under the influence of some
overwhelming passion, can offer no claim to be accounted a free
agent. "Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus." (52.) In
fact, if we substitute "freedom" for "wisdom," the whole argument
of the last part of the Satire may be expressed in the two lines of
Horace:
"Quisquis
_Ambitione_ malâ aut _argenti_ pallet amore
Quisquis _Luxuria_ tristive _Superstitione_
Aut alio mentis morbo calet:"
that man can neither be pronounced free or of sound mind.
The Satire consists of two parts; the first serving as a Proëm to
the other. It is, in fact, the earnest expression of unbounded
affection for his tutor and early friend Annæus Cornutus, from
whom he had imbibed those principles of philosophy, which it is
the object of the latter part of the Satire to elucidate. After a
few lines of ridicule at the hackneyed prologues of the day, he
puts into the mouth of Cornutus that just criticism of poetical
composition which there is very little doubt Persius had in reality
derived from his master; and in answer to this, he takes occasion
to profess his sincere and deep-seated love and gratitude toward
the preceptor, whose kind care had rescued him from the vicious
courses to which a young and ardent temperament was leading him;
and whose sound judgment and dexterous management had weaned him
from the temptations that assail the young, by making him his own
companion in those studies which expanded his intellect while
they rectified the _obliquity_ (to use the Stoics' phrase) of his
moral character. Such mutual affection, he urges, could only exist
between two persons whom something more than mere adventitious
circumstances drew together; and he therefore concludes that the
same natal star must have presided over the horoscope of both.
He then proceeds to the main subject of the Satire, viz., that all
men should aim at attaining that freedom which can only result from
that perfect "soundness of mind" which we have shown to be the
summum bonum of the Stoics. This real freedom no mere external or
adventitious circumstances can bestow. Dama, though freed at his
master's behest, if he be the slave of passion, is as much a slave
as if he had never felt the prætor's rod. Until he have really cast
off, like the snake, the slough of his former vices, and become
changed in heart and principles as he is in political standing,
he is so far from being really free from bondage that he can not
rightly perform even the most trivial act of daily life. True
freedom consists in virtue alone; but "Virtus est vitium fugere:"
and he who eradicates all other passions, but cherishes still one
darling vice, has but changed his master. The dictates of the
passions that sway his breast are more imperious than those of the
severest task-master. Whether it be avarice, or luxury, or love,
or ambition, or superstition, that is the dominant principle, so
long as he can not shake himself free from the control of these, he
is as much, as real a slave as the drudge that bears his master's
strigil to the bath, or the dog that fancies he has burst his bonds
while the long fragment of his broken chain still dangles from his
neck. The last few lines contain a dignified rebuke of the sneers
which such pure sentiments as these would provoke in the coarse
minds of some into whose hands these lines might fall; perhaps,
too, they may be meant as a gentle reproof of the sly irony in
which the Epicurean Horace indulged, while professing to enunciate
the Stoic doctrine, that none but the true Philosopher can be said
to be of sound mind.
It is the custom of poets to pray for a hundred voices,[1409] and to
wish for a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues for their verses;[1410]
whether the subject proposed be one to be mouthed[1411] by a
grim-visaged[1412] Tragœdian, or the wounds[1413] of a Parthian drawing
his weapon from his groin.[1414]
CORNUTUS.[1415] What is the object of this? or what masses[1416]
of robust song are you heaping up, so as to require the support
of a hundred throats? Let those who are about to speak on grand
subjects collect mists on Helicon;[1417] all those for whom the pot
of Procne[1418] or Thyestes shall boil, to be often supped on by the
insipid Glycon.[1419] You neither press forth the air from the panting
bellows, while the mass is smelting in the furnace; nor, hoarse with
pent-up murmur, foolishly croak out something ponderous, nor strive to
burst your swollen cheeks with puffing.[1420] You adopt the language of
the Toga,[1421] skillful at judicious combination, with moderate style,
well rounded,[1422] clever at lashing depraved morals,[1423] and with
well-bred sportiveness to affix the mark of censure. Draw from this
source what you have to say; and leave at Mycenæ the tables, with the
head[1424] and feet, and study plebeian dinners.
PERSIUS. For my part, I do not aim at this, that my page may be
inflated with air-blown trifles, fit only to give weight[1425]
to smoke. We are talking apart from the crowd. I am now, at the
instigation of the Muse, giving you my heart to sift;[1426] and delight
in showing you, beloved friend, how large a portion of my soul is
yours, Cornutus! Knock then, since thou knowest well how to detect what
rings sound,[1427] and the glozings of a varnished[1428] tongue. For
this I would dare to pray for a hundred voices, that with guileless
voice I may unfold how deeply I have fixed thee in my inmost breast;
and that my words may unseal for thee all that lies buried, too deep
for words, in my secret heart.
When first the guardian purple left me, its timid charge,[1429] and my
boss[1430] was hung up, an offering to the short-girt[1431]
Lares; when my companions were kind, and the white centre-fold[1432]
gave my eyes license to rove with impunity over the whole Suburra; at
the time when the path is doubtful, and error, ignorant of the purpose
of life, makes anxious minds hesitate between the branching cross-ways,
I placed myself under you. You, Cornutus, cherished my tender years
in your Socratic bosom. Then your rule, dexterous in insinuating
itself,[1433] being applied to me, straightened my perverse morals; my
mind was convinced by your reasoning, and strove to yield subjection;
and formed features skillfully moulded by your plastic thumb. For I
remember that many long nights I spent with you; and with you robbed
our feasts of the first hours of night. Our work was one. We both alike
arranged our hours of rest, and relaxed our serious studies with a
frugal meal.
Doubt not, at least, this fact; that both our days harmonize by some
definite compact,[1434] and are derived from the selfsame planet.
Either the Fate, tenacious of truth,[1435] suspended our natal hour in
the equally poised balance, or else the Hour that presides over the
faithful divides between the twins the harmonious destiny[1436] of us
two; and we alike correct the influence of malignant Saturn[1437] by
Jupiter, auspicious to both. At all events, there is some star, I know
not what, that blends my destiny with thine.
There are a thousand species of men; and equally diversified is the
pursuit of objects. Each has his own desire; nor do men live with one
single wish. One barters beneath an orient sun,[1438] wares of Italy
for a wrinkled pepper[1439] and grains of pale cumin.[1440] Another
prefers, well-gorged, to heave in dewy[1441] sleep. Another indulges
in the Campus Martius. Another is beggared by gambling. Another riots
in sensual[1442] pleasures. But when the stony[1443] gout has crippled
his joints, like the branches of an ancient beech--then too late they
mourn that their days have passed in gross licentiousness, their light
has been the fitful marsh-fog; and look back upon the life they have
abandoned.[1444] But your delight is to grow pale over the midnight
papers; for, as a trainer of youths, you plant in their well-purged
ears[1445] the corn of Cleanthes.[1446] From this source seek, ye young
and old, a definite object for your mind, and a provision against
miserable gray hairs.
"It shall be done to-morrow."[1447] "To-morrow, the case will be just
the same!" What, do you grant me one day as so great a matter? "But
when that other day has dawned, we have already spent yesterday's
to-morrow. For see, another to-morrow wears away our years, and will be
always a little beyond you. For though it is so near you, and under the
selfsame perch, you will in vain endeavor to overtake the felloe[1448]
that revolves before you, since you are the hinder wheel, and on the
second axle."
It is liberty, of which we stand in need! not such as that which,
when every Publius Velina[1449] has earned, he claims as his due the
mouldy corn, on the production of his tally. Ah! minds barren of all
truth! for whom a single twirl makes a Roman.[1450] Here is Dama,[1451]
a groom,[1452] not worth three farthings![1453] good for nothing and
blear-eyed; one that would lie for a feed of beans. Let his master give
him but a twirl, and in the spinning of a top, out he comes Marcus
Dama! Ye gods! when Marcus is security, do you hesitate to trust your
money? When Marcus is judge, do you grow pale? Marcus said it: it must
be so. Marcus, put your name to this deed? This is literal liberty.
This it is the cap of liberty[1454] bestows on us.
"Is any one else, then, a freeman, but he that may live as he pleases?
I may live as I please; am not I then a freer man than Brutus?"[1455]
On this the Stoic (his ear well purged[1456] with biting vinegar) says,
"Your inference is faulty; the rest I admit, but cancel '_I may_,' and
'_as I please_.'"
"Since I left the prætor's presence, made my own master by his
rod,[1457] why _may_ I not do whatever my inclination dictates, save
only what the rubric of Masurius[1458] interdicts?"
Learn then! But let anger subside from your nose, and the wrinkling
sneer; while I pluck out those old wives' fables from your breast. It
was not in the prætor's power to commit to fools the delicate duties
of life, or transmit that experience that will guide them through the