66

105

66

"hands:

110

115

109. " If haply money be seen."] Here the philosopher explains himself, and seems to say, "I grant that your bodily health is good, but how is your mind? does not this labour under the diseases of covetousness, fleshly lust, intemperance, fear, and anger? As a proof of this, let me ask you, if a large sum of money comes in view, or your neighbour's handsome daughter should smile upon you, does your heart move calmly as it ought, do you feel no desire of possessing either?"

111.There is placed," &c.] What think you of a vile dish of hard, halfboiled cabbage, or coleworts, and coarse bread, such as the common people eat. Farina is lit. meal or flour; here, by meton. the bread itself which is made of it. Shaken through the sieve of the people-i. e. of the poorer sort, who used coarse sieves, which let more of the bran and husks through, and therefore their bread was coarser than that of the gentry.

113. Try your jaws.] Whether they can devour such coarse fare, or whether you would not find yourself as unable to chew, or swallow it, as if you had a sore and putrid ulcer lurking in your mouth, too tender for such coarse food, and which it would not be at all fitting

to injure, by scratching or rubbing against it with vulgar food.

114. Beet.] Beta-some sort of hard, coarse, and unsavoury herb. AINSW. Put here, by meton. for any kind of ordinary harsh food.

If you found this to be the case, you may be certain that you have a luxurious appetite.

115. When white fear, &c.] You said that you had no cold in the extremes of your feet and hands-but how is it with you when you shudder with fear?-The Stoics were great advocates for apathy, or freedom from all passions, fear among the rest. White fear, so called from the paleness of countenance that attends it.

115. Rous'd the bristles.] Arista signifies an ear of corn, or the beard of corn. Sometimes, by catachresis, an hair or bristle, which is often said to stand an end when people are in a fright.

116. Now with a torch, &c.] He now charges him with the disease of violent anger, the blood set on fire, as if a burning torch were applied, and eyes sparkling and flashing fire as it were. In this situation, says he, you say and do things, that even Orestes himself, mad as he was, would swear were the words and

actions of a person out of his senses. So that, though you may think you are well, because you find no feverish heat in your body, yet you are troubled with a fever of the mind every time you are angry. Therefore in this, as well as with regard to the diseases of covetousness, lust, luxury, and fear, which are all within you, you as much stand in need of a physician for your mind, as the poor wretch whom I have been speaking of, stood in need of a physician for his body; nor did he act more oppositely to the dictates of sound reason by despising his physician, and rejecting his remedies for his bodily complaints,

than you do, by despising the philosophers, and rejecting their precepts, which are the only remedies for the disorders of the mind.

Thus the philosopher is supposed to conclude his discourse with his opponent, leaving an useful lesson on the minds of his idle and lazy pupils, who neglected their studies to indulge in sloth and luxury, not considering the fatal distempers of their minds, which, if neglected, must end in their destruction.

117. Orestes.] Was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He slew his own mother, and Ægisthus, her adulterer, who had murdered his father.

He killed Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, in the temple of Apollo, for marrying Hermione, who had been promised to him by her father Menelaus. Apollo sent furies to haunt him for the profanation of his temple, and forced him to expiate his crimes at the altar of Diana Taurica. See Juv. sat. xv. 1. 116-19.

See HOR. sat. iii. lib. ii. 1. 133, et seq. in which satire Horace, with a degree of humour and raillery peculiar to himself, exposes the doctrine of the Stoic philosophers, which was, that all mankind were madmen and fools, except those of their own sect; this he, with

infinite humour and address, turns upon themselves, and naturally concludes, upon their own premises, that they were greater fools than the rest of the world.

The Stoics were a proud, harsh, severe, and sour sect, in many particulars not very different from the Cynics. The reader may find an instructive account of their principles, doctrines, and practices, as well as an edifying use made of them, in that masterly performance of Dr. Leland, entitled, "The Advantage "and Necessity of the Christian Reve"lation," vol. ii. p. 140-223.

actions of a person out of his senses. So that, though you may think you are well, because you find no feverish heat in your body, yet you are troubled with a fever of the mind every time you are angry. Therefore in this, as well as with regard to the diseases of covetousness, lust, luxury, and fear, which are all within you, you as much stand in need of a physician for your mind, as the poor wretch whom I have been speaking of, stood in need of a physician for his body; nor did he act more oppositely to the dictates of sound reason by despising his physician, and rejecting his remedies for his bodily complaints,

than you do, by despising the philosophers, and rejecting their precepts, which are the only remedies for the disorders of the mind.

Thus the philosopher is supposed to conclude his discourse with his opponent, leaving an useful lesson on the minds of his idle and lazy pupils, who neglected their studies to indulge in sloth and luxury, not considering the fa tal distempers of their minds, which, if neglected, must end in their destruction.

117. Orestes.] Was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He slew his own mother, and Ægisthus, her adulterer, who had murdered his father.