University of Virginia Library

This is the favorite argument of the Epicurean poets. Anacreon, Horace, and Menzini, have given it a thousand exquisite turns: but it has never been expressed with more grace and vivacity, than by Redi, in the opening of his incomparable dithyrambic.

Se dell' uve il sangue amabile
Non rinfranca ognor le vene,
Questa vita è troppo labile,
Troppo breve, e sempre in pene,
Sì bel sangue è un raggio acceso
Di quel sol che in ciel vedete,
E rimase avvinto e preso
Di più grappoli alla rete.
Su su dunque in questo sangue
Rinnoviam l' arterie e i musculi;
E per chi s'invecchia e langue
Prepariam vetri majusculi:
Ed in festa baldanzosa,
Tra gli scherzi, e tra le risa,
Lasciam pur, lasciam passare
Lui che in numeri e in misure
Si ravvolge e si consuma,
E quaggiù Tempo si chiama:
E bevendo, e ribevendo,
I pensier mandiamo in bando.

I may, perhaps, gratify the English reader, by subjoining a translation of this passage.

If the grape's celestial blood
Restore not every hour the veins,
This life rolls on, a turbid flood,
A fleeting tide of tears and pains.
This purple blood was once a ray
Of yon refulgent orb of day,
Drawn by the grape's bright-clustering snare,
And captured, and concentered there.
Then with this liquid solar beam
Replenish we our vital stream,
And for the oldest, feeblest soul
Prepare the most capacious bowl:
And while in sport and festal song
We roll the autumnal hours along,
Heed we not that foe of pleasures,
Foe of all things fair and blooming,
Who, in numbers and in measures,
Self-revolving, self-consuming,
Sounding one eternal chime,
Is called by careful mortals Time:
Nor let one thought our bliss deform
Of evening-cloud and wintry storm.

Selon les livres des Parses, Zoroastre a consulté Ormuzd sur les montagnes, et l'on assuroit du tems de Dion Chrysostome, que par un principe d'amour pour la sagesse et pour la justice, ce législateur s'étoit éloigné du commerce des hommes, et avoit vécu seul dans une montagne. Vie de Zoroastre, par M. Anquetil du Perron.

See the Tusculan Disputations.

The difference between the effect of a perception and an idea, in awakening associated thoughts and feelings, is finely described in the introduction to the fifth book De finibus.

We agreed, says Cicero, that we should take our afternoon's walk in the academy, as at that time of the day it was a place where there was no resort of company. Accordingly, at the hour appointed, we went to Piso's.—We passed the time in conversing on different matters during our short walk from the double gate, till we came to the academy, that justly celebrated spot; which, as we wished, we found a perfect solitude. “I know not,” said Piso, “whether it be a natural feeling, or an illusion of the imagination founded on habit, that we are more powerfully affected by the sight of those places which have been much frequented by illustrious men, than when we either listen to the recital, or read the detail, of their actions. At this moment, I feel strongly that emotion which I speak of. I see before me the perfect form of Plato, which was wont to dispute in this place: these gardens not only recall him to my memory, but present his very form to my senses. I fancy to myself, that here stood Speusippus, there Xenocrates; and here, on this bench, sat his disciple Polemo. To me, our ancient senate-house seems peopled with the like visionary forms: for often when I enter it, the shades of Scipio, of Cato, and of Lælius, and, in particular, of my venerable grandfather, rise to my imagination. In short, such is the effect of local situation in recalling associated ideas to the mind, that it is not without reason, some philosophers have founded on this principle a species of artificial memory.” Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind.

Yet the modern Athenians “walk with supine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity: and it would not be easy, in the country of Plato and Demosthenes, to find a reader, or a copy, of their works.” See the sixty-second chapter of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Haud procul Teutoburgiensi saltu, in quo reliquiæ Vari legionumque insepultæ dicebantur. Igitur cupido Cæsarem invadit solvendi suprema militibus, ducique; permoto ad miserationem omni, qui aderat, exercitu, ob propinquos, amicos, denique ob casus bellorum, et sortem hominum. Præmisso Cæcina, ut occulta saltuum scrutaretur, pontesque et aggeres humido paludum et fallacibus campis imponeret, incedunt mœstos locos, visuque ac memoria deformes. Prima Vari castra, lato ambitu, et dimensis principiis, trium legionum manus ostentabant: dein semiruto vallo, humili fossa, accisæ jam reliquiæ consedisse intelligebantur: medio campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, ut restiterant, disjecta vel aggerata: adjacebant fragmina telorum, equorumque artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora: lucis propinquis barbaræ aræ, apud quas tribunos, ac primorum ordinum centuriones mactaverant: et cladis ejus superstites, pugnam aut vincula elapsi, referebant: “Hic cecidisse legatos; illic raptas aquilas; primum ubi vulnus Varo adactum; ubi infelici dextra, et suo ictu mortem invenerit; quo tribunali concionatus Arminius; quot patibula captivis, quæ scrobes; utque signis et aquilis per superbiam inluserit.” Igitur Romanus qui aderat exercitus, sextum post cladis annum, trium legionum ossa, nullo noscente alienas reliquias an suorum humo tegeret, omnes ut conjunctos, ut consanguineos, aucta in hostem ira, mœsti simul et infensi condebant. Primum exstruendo tumulo cespitem Cæsar posuit, gratissimo munere in defunctos, et præsentibus doloris socius. Tacitus.

The Romans were now at a small distance from the forest of Teutoburgium, where the bones of Varus and his legions were said to be still unburied. Touched by this affecting circumstance, Germanicus resolved to pay the last human office to the relics of that unfortunate commander and his slaughtered soldiers. The same tender sentiment diffused itself through the army: some felt the touch of nature for their relations, others for their friends; and all lamented the disasters of war, and the wretched lot of human kind. Cæcina was sent forward to explore the woods; where the waters were out, to throw over bridges, and by heaping loads of earth on the swampy soil, to secure a solid footing. The army marched through a gloomy solitude. The place presented an awful spectacle, and the memory of a tragic event increased the horror of the scene. The first camp of Varus appeared in view. The extent of the ground, and the three different inclosures for the eagles still distinctly seen, left no doubt but the whole was the work of the three legions. Farther on were traced the ruins of a rampart, and the hollow of a ditch well nigh filled up. This was supposed to be the spot, where the few who escaped the general massacre made their last effort, and perished in the attempt. The plains around were white with bones, in some places thinly scattered, in others lying in heaps, as the men happened to fall in flight, or in a body resisted to the last. Fragments of javelins, and the limbs of horses, lay scattered about the field. Human sculls were seen upon the trunks of trees. In the adjacent woods stood the savage altars, where the tribunes and principal centurions were offered up a sacrifice with barbarous rites. Some of the soldiers who survived that dreadful day, and afterwards broke their chains, related circumstantially several particulars. “Here the commanders of the legions were put to the sword: on that spot the eagles were seized. There Varus received his first wound: and this the place where he gave himself the mortal stab, and died by his own sword. Yonder mound was the tribunal from which Arminius harangued his countrymen; here he fixed his gibbets; there he dug the funeral trenches; and in that quarter he offered every mark of scorn and insolence to the colors and the Roman eagles.” Six years had elapsed since the overthrow of Varus; and now, on the same spot, the Roman army collected the bones of their slaughtered countrymen. Whether they were burying the remains of strangers, or of their own friends, no man knew; all however considered themselves as performing the last obsequies to their kindred and brother soldiers. While employed in this pious office, their hearts were torn with contending passions, by turns oppressed with grief, and burning for revenge. A monument to the memory of the dead was raised with turf: Germanicus with his own hand laid the first sod; discharging at once the tribute due to the legions, and sympathising with the rest of the army.

Murphy.

Petrarca: S. ccx. in Vita di M. L.

See the sonnets of Petrarch in Morte di M. Laura, particularly the thirteenth:

Tasso: G.L. xviii. 18.

The Welch have a very pleasing ballad, Morwynnion glân Meirionnydd, which assigns, with strict poetical justice, the palm of female loveliness to the young ladies of that most picturesque and beautiful county.

In journeying from Llanvair to the Traeth Mawr, our crusaders must have passed either through or very near the town of Harlech, and as it remains unnoticed by Giraldus, I should imagine that no fortress of any consequence existed there at the period of Baldwin's progress through Wales. Mr. Pennant says, “That an ancient fortress at this place bore the name of Twr Bronwen, from Bronwen, or the White Necked, sister to Bran ap Llyr, King of Britain. In after times it got the name of Caer Collwyn, from Collwyn ap Tango, who lived there in the time of Prince Anarawd, about the year 877, and was lord of Efionydd, Ardudwy, and part of Llyn. He resided some time in a square tower of the ancient fortress, whose remains are very apparent, as are part of the old walls, which the more modern, in certain places, are seen to rest upon.” Its present name of Harddlech, or Harlech, is derived from hardd, towering or bold, and llech, a rock, and is truly applicable to its situation. The present stately castle, seated on a high and bold projecting rock, is supposed to owe its foundation to the same royal hand that erected the magnificent fortresses of Conwy, Caernarvon, and Beaumaris.

In the year 1283, Hugh de Wlonkeslow received the annual salary of one hundred pounds, as constable of the castle. When England was embroiled in the civil wars, David ap Ievan, ap Eineon, a British nobleman, who sided with the House of Lancaster, defended this castle stoutly against Edward the Fourth, until William Herbert,Earl of Pembroke, forcing his way, with incredible difficulty, through the British Alps, attacked it with so much vigor, that it was surrendered into his hands. The rugged track by which his army marched to the siege, is said to have retained the name of Lhe Herbert, or Herbert's way.

Hoare's Giraldus Cambrensis.

Marius, upon his expulsion from Rome, retired to his own villa at Salonium; and, being unprovided for a longer flight, sent his son to the farm of one Mutius, a friend in the neighbourhood, to procure what might be necessary for a voyage by sea. The young man was discovered at this place, and narrowly escaped, in a waggon loaded with straw, which, the better to deceive his pursuers, was ordered to take the road to Rome. The father fled to Ostia, and there embarked on board a vessel which was provided for him by Numerius, who had been one of his partizans in the late troubles. Having put to sea, he was forced by stress of weather to Circeii, there landed in want of every necessary, and made himself known to some herdsmen, of whom he implored relief. Being informed of the parties that were abroad in pursuit of him, he concealed himself in a neighbouring wood. Next day, as he was within a few miles of the town of Minturnæ, he was alarmed at the sight of some horsemen, ran with all the speed he could make to the shore, and, with much difficulty, got on board of a boat which was passing. The persons, with whom he thus took refuge, resisted the threats and importunities of the pursuers, to have him delivered up to them, or thrown into the sea; but having rowed him to a supposed place of safety, at the mouth of the Liris, they put him on shore, and left him to his fate. Here he first took refuge in a cottage, afterwards under a hollow bank of the river, and, last of all, on hearing the tread of horsemen, who still pursued him, he plunged himself to the chin in the marsh; but, though concealed by the reeds and the depth of the water, he was discovered, and dragged from thence all covered with mud. He was carried to Minturnæ, and doomed by the magistrates of the place to suffer the execution of the sentence, which had been denounced against himself and his partizans at Rome. He was, however, by some connivance, allowed to escape from hence, again put to sea, and, at the island Ænaria, joined some associates of his flight. Being afterwards obliged to land in Sicily for a supply of water, and being known, he narrowly escaped with the loss of some of the crew that navigated his vessel. From thence he arrived on the coast of Africa; but being forbid the province by the Prætor Sextilius, continued to shift his abode among the islands or places of retirement on the coast.

Marius was in his seventieth year, when he made this attempt to overturn the Roman republic by means of popular tumults, and when he strove to obtain the command of an army in the busiest and most arduous service which the Roman empire had then to offer. Being forced, by his miscarriage in this attempt, into the state of an outlaw, he still amused the world with adventures and escapes, which historians record with the embellishments of a picturesque, and even romantic, description. A Gaulish or German soldier, who was employed at Minturnæ to put him to death, overawed by his aspect, recoiled from the task; and the people of the place, as if moved by the miracle, concurred in aiding his escape. The presence of such an exile on the ground where Carthage had stood, was supposed to increase the majesty and the melancholy of the scene. “Go,” he said to the Lictor, who brought him the orders of the Prætor to depart, “tell him that you have seen Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage.”

Ferguson's Roman Republic.