The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

552 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK i., EPISTLE II.
sions/ Ulysses did not taste the contents of the cap until he had made
aae of the plant given him by Mercury, as of sovereign power against en-
chantments.—25. TuTpis et excors. "A debased and senseless slave."
—26, Vixissei canU immundus. Supply sicuti before canis.—27. Nos
numerus sumus, &c. " We are a mere number." Numerus is here a
word of contempt, and spoken of men as mere ciphers, who served no other
end but to fill np places. The connection in the train of ideas is as folbws
: We, therefore, who do not follow the example of virtue and of wis
dom, which is set before us in the character of Ulysses, seem bom only to
consume the productions of the earth, and to add to the bulk of mankind.
We are no better than the suitors of Penelope ; we are no better than the
effeminate and luxurious Phaeacians, whose chief employment consisted
in pampering their bodies, in prolonging their slumbers until middayt and
in dispelling their cares with wine, dancing, and song.
28-30. 28. Sponsi PendoptEt ndmlones Alcinoique. "Mere suitors of
Penelope, mere effeminate and luxurious subjects of Alcinous." The term
nehulones is here used in a somewhat softened sense, though still foil of
reproach, and the allusion is to the Phseacians, over whom Alcinous mled,
and who were famed for their soft and effeminate mode of life, as well as
their luxurious indulgence. The Fheeacia of Homer was the Cort^a of
later geography, now Coirfu.—29. In cute curandaplus tequo operatej^
jentus. "A race occupied, more than was proper, in pampering their
bodies," i. e., in feasting, and the pleasures of the table. The allusion ia
still to the subjects of Alcinous, and this is continued to the end of the
31st verse.—30. £it acL strepitum cithans cessatum d/ucere cwram. " And
to lull care to rest by the tones of the lyre." Cessatum is the supine.
32-37. 32. UtjugvXent homines, Sec. The poet now calls off the atteu
tion of his young iriend &om the picture he has just drawn of indolence
and effeminacy, to the importance of active and industrious exertion in
promoting the great ends of moral and mental improvement.—33. Ut ie
ipsum serves. "To save thyself." The idea is this : Even common robbers
are alert, and rise by night to commit crime ; how much more, then,
shouldst thou exert thyself to preserve thy moral health.— ^33. Atqvi si
notes sanus, curres hydropiciis. "Well, then, if thou wilt not use exer-
cise when in health, tliou wilt have to run when dropsical." People in
the dropsy were ordered by their physicians to use active exercise. Horace,
it wUl be observed, intends the allusion to the dropsy in a metaphor-
ical sense, and the idea which he means to convey is simply this: If thou
wilt not ,exert thy power when thou canst, thou shatt be made to do so
when no alternative is left.—^34. Et niposces ante diem librum cum lu-
mzTie. According to the pld^Loman custom, every individual arose at the
break of day to attend to his^particular avocations. To prolong one's slum
bers into the day, as the luxurious Fhseacians did, would have been as
dishonorable to a freeman as appearing abroad intoxicated in the public
streets. To get up, therefore, before break of day, for the purposes of
mental improvement, was not requiring too much of a young man of fam-
ily like LolliuB, who was desirous of acting a distinguished part on the
theatre of life, and who would therefore feel the strongest inducement to
put in operation this good old rule of former days.—37. VigiL "In thy
waking moments," i. e., after thou shalt h»ve extended thy slumbers into