The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1836. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... SATIRE II. HYPOCRISY OF PHILOSOPHERS AND REFORMERS. Oh, I could flee, inflamed with just disdain, To the bleak regions of the frozen main, When from their lips the cant of virtue falls, Who talk like Curii, live like Bacchanals (3) Devoid of knowledge, as of worth, they thrust In every nook some philosophic bust; For he, among them, counts himself most wise, Who most old sages of the sculptor buys; Sets most true Zenos, most Cleanthes' heads, To guard the volumes which he--never reads Trust Not To Outward Show; in every street, Obscenity, in formal garb, we meet. And dost thou, hypocrite, our lusts arraign, Thou of Socratic pathics the mere dain? Nature thy rough and shaggy limbs design'd, To mark a stern, inexorable mind; But all so smooth below --the surgeon smiles, And scarcely can, for laughter, lance the piles. Gravely demure, in wisdom's awful chair, His beetling eyebrows longer than his hair, In silent state, the affected Stoic sits, And drops his maxims on the crowd by fits c . Yon Peribomius, whose emaciate air, And tottering gait, his rank disease declare, With patience I can view; he braves disgrace, Nor skulks behind a sanctimonious face: Him may his folly or his fate excuse, -- But whip me those who Virtue's name abuse, 3. The Curii were noble Romans descended from the ancient and heroic family of that name. See Sat. iii. and xi. And, soil'd with all the vices of the times, Thunder damnation on their neighbours' crimes Why should I shrink at Sextus? can I be, Whatever my infamy, more base than he? Varillus cries: The man who treads aright May mock the halt, the swarthy Moor, the white; This we allow; but Patience' self must fail, To hear the Gracchi at sedition rail (24) Who would not mingle earth, and sea, and sky, Should Milo murder, .