Non possint alios alii convincere sensus.
Nec porro poterunt ipsi reprendere sese,
Æqua fides quoniam debebit semper haberi.
Proinde, quod in quoque 'st his visum tempore, ve-
Lib. iv. 471.
rum 'st.
Who holds that nought is known, denies he knows
E'en this, thus owning that he nothing knows.
With such I ne'er could reason, who, with face
Retorted, treads the ground just trod before.
Yet grant e'en this he knows, since nought exists
Of truth in things, whence learns he what to know.
Or what not know? what things can give him first
The notion crude of what is false or true ?
What prove aught doubtful, or of doubt devoid?
Search, and this earliest notion thou wilt find
Of truth and falsehood, from the senses drawn ;
Nor aught can' e'er refute them: for what once,
By truths opposed, their falsehood can detect,
Must claim a trust far ampler than themselves.
Yet what than these an ampler trust can claim?
Can reason, born forsooth of erring sense,
Impeach those senses whence alone it springs?
And, which if false, itself can ne'er be true?
Can sight correct the ears? can ears the touch?
Or touch the tongue's fine flavour? or, o'er all,
Can smell triumphant rise? absurd the thought.
For
every sense a separate function boasts,
power prescribed; and hence or soft, or hard,
Or hot or cold, to its appropriate sense
Alone appeals. The gaudy train of hues,
With their light shades, appropriate thus alike
Perceive we; tastes appropriate powers possess;
Appropriate, sounds and odours; and hence, too,
One sense another ne'er can contravene,
Nor e'en correct itself; since every hour,
In every act, each claims an equal faith;
So what the senses notice must be true.
It being my intention to quote from the sixth book some lines descriptive of a disease the most dreadful that afflicts humanity, I have chosen on an intervening page, and with a view to gratify the mind by the charm of contrast, as well as to evince the exquisite beauty of the original and translation, to present a picture taken from the conclusion of the fifth book, where the poet is expatiating on the origin of man, and on the progress of the useful and elegant arts. It is a design which has all that amenity of conception, harmony of colouring and delicacy of finish which distinguish the pencil of Albani.
At specimen sationis, et insitionis origo
Ipsa fuit rerum primùm Natura creatrix.
Arboribus quoniam baccæ, glandesque caducæ
Tempestiva dabant pullorum examina subter.
Unde etiam libitum 'st stirpeis committere ramis:
Et nova defodere in terram virgulta per agros :
Inde aliam, atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli
Tentabant, fructusque feros mansuescere terra
Cernebant indulgendo, blandèque colendo.
Inque dies magis in montem succedere sylvas
Cogebant, infraque locum concedere cultis:
Prata, lacus, rivos, segetes, vinetaque læta
Collibus, et campis ut haberent, atque olearum
Cærula distinguens inter plaga currere posset
Per tumulos, et convalleis, camposque profusa:
Ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore
Omnia, quæ pomis intersita dulcibus ornant:
Arbustisque tenent felicibus obsita circùm.
At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore
Antè fuit multo, quàm lævia carmina cantu
Concelebrare homines possent, aureisque juvare.
Et Zephyri cava per calamorum sibila primum
Agresteis docuere cavas inflare cicutas,
Inde minutatim dulceis didicere querelas,
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum,
Avia per nemora, ac sylvas saltusque reperta,
Per loca pastorum deserta, atque otia dia:
Sic unum quicquid paullatim protrahit ætas
In medium, ratioque in luminis eruit oras.
But nature's self the race of man first taught
To sow, to graft; for acorns ripe they saw,
And purple berries, shattered from the trees,
Soon yield a lineage like the trees themselves.
Whence learn'd they, curious, thro' the stem mature
To thrust the tender slip, and o'er the soil
Plant the fresh shoots that first disorder'd sprang.
Then, too, new cultures tried they, and, with joy,
Mark'd the boon earth, by ceaseless care caress'd,
Each vagrant fruitage sweeten, and enlarge.
So loftier still, and loftier, up the hills
Drove they the woodlands daily, broadening thus
The cultur'd landscape, that the sight might trace
Meads, corn-fields, rivers, lakes and vineyards gay,
O'er hills and mountains thrown; while wound below
The purple scene of olives; as ourselves
Still o'er the grounds mark every graceful hue
Where blooms the dulcet apple, and around
Trees of like lustre spread their loaded arms.
And from the liquid warblings of the birds.
Learn'd they their first rude notes, ere music yet
To the rapt ear had tun'd the measur'd verse;
And zephyr, whispering thro' the hollow reeds,
Taught the first swains the hollow reeds to sound:
Whence woke they soon those tender-trembling tones
Which the sweet pipe, when by the fingers prest,
Pours o'er the hills, the vales, and woodlands wild,
Haunts of lone Shepherds and the rural gods.
So growing time points, ceaseless, something new,
And human skill evolves it into day.
The ravages of the plague, and the symptoms of fever form subjects little calculated for the decorations of the Muse, yet has Lucretius, by the magic of his poetry, rendered a
description peculiarly susceptible of horror and disgust, productive of emotions the most sublime and pathetic. Thucydides had with great accuracy furnished the facts, being himself not only a spectator of, but a sufferer under this dreadful calamity. To the elegant and faithful detail of the Historian the Roman Bard has added all that was necessary to convert the description into pure poetry. Than the prosopopæia of Medicine,
-mussabat tacito Medecina timore, what can be more striking and terrific, and the external symptoms of approaching dissolution, the facies Hippocratica, are depicted with equal harmony, fidelity and spirit. A small portion of this admirable description, for to insert the whole would occupy too much space. in a work of this kind, will convey no inadequate idea of the general merits of the episode.
Hæc ratio quondam morborum, et mortiferæ vis
Finibus in Cecropiis funestos reddidit agros,
Vastavitque vias, exhausit civibus urbem.
Nam penitus veniens Ægypti è finibus ortus,
Aëra permensus multum, camposque'; natanteis,
Incubuit tandem populum Pandionis omnem.
Inde catervatim morbo mortique dabantur.
Principiò, caput incensum fervore gerebant:
Et dupliceis oculos suffusa luce rubenteis,
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