Ge. How have you escaped it?

Ph. Because we do not spread nets for hawks and kites that do us harm; the net is for the harmless birds. The fact is, pigeons may be plucked-hawks and kites mock our pains. Various dangers beset people who can be pilfered-I am known to have nothing. You will say: "They will get a writ of habeas corpus.' They would rather not keep a large eater; and I certainly think they are right to decline requiting a bad turn with a signal favour.

Ge. Antipho can never repay his obligation to you.

Ph. On the contrary, a man can never quite repay his patron. Think of your coming empty-handed, perfumed and fresh from the bath, with your mind at ease, while he is devoured with care and expense, all for your gratification! He snarls, you can smile;—the wine is to come to you first—you are to sit down first—a puzzling banquet is served.

Ph. One at which you are puzzled what to take. When you reflect how delightful and precious all this is, must you not look upon their provider as simply a god on earth?

R. C. J.

V.

OMNIA MUTANTUR, NIL INTERIT.

Principio quoniam terrai corpus et umor aurarumque leues animae calidique uapores, e quibus haec rerum consistere summa uidetur, omnia natiuo ac mortali corpore constant, debet eodem omnis mundi natura putari. quippe etenim quorum partis et membra uidemus. corpore natiuo ac mortalibus esse figuris, haec eadem ferme mortalia cernimus esse

et natiua simul. quapropter maxima mundi cum uideam membra ac partis consumpta regigni, scire licet caeli quoque item terraeque fuisse principiale aliquod tempus clademque futuram. illud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis

me mihi, quod terram atque ignem mortalia sumpsi esse neque umorem dubitaui aurasque perire atque eadem gigni rursusque augescere dixi, principio pars terrai nonnulla, perusta solibus adsiduis, multa pulsata pedum ui, pulueris exhalat nebulam nubesque uolantis quas ualidi toto dispergunt aere uenti. pars etiam glebarum ad diluuiem reuocatur imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt. praeterea pro parte sua, quodcumque alid auget, redditur; et quoniam dubio procul esse uidetur omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum, ergo terra tibi libatur et aucta recrescit.

LUCRETIUS, V. 235-260.

V.

THE WORLD LIABLE TO DISSOLUTION.

Now since the solid earth, the flowing wave,
Breezes' light breath, and fiery heat, whereof
The sum of this our world seems constitute,
Are all of substance that is born and dies;
We cannot choose but deem the same is true
Of the whole nature of the universe.
For surely things whose parts or limbs we see
To be of substance that is born, in forms
That augur death, we know full well fore-doomed
To perish even as they once were born.

So when I see the mighty limbs and parts

Of the great world destroyed re-born, 'tis plain

There must have been some starting-time for heaven
And earth alike, some ruin be in store.
But lest thou think that in this inference
I have been hasty, in that I assume
That earth and fire do perish, neither doubt
That wave and wind decay, and then anew
Are born and grow again-now let me say,—
Great part of the earth scorched by incessant suns,
Beaten by sturdy tramp of many feet,

Breathes forth a mist and flying clouds of dust,
Which strong winds scatter wide throughout the air.
Part of the soil, again, is fluid made

By rains; and tearing rivers gnaw their banks.
Besides, whate'er doth nourish something else
Itself's restored; and since earth doubtless seems
Mother at once and common tomb of all-
Therefore, I say, she is, although consumed,
With increase new replenished evermore.

W. E. C.

VI.

PHASELI SENECTUS.

Phaselus ille quem uidetis, hospites, ait fuisse nauium celerrimus,

neque ullius natantis impetum trabis nequisse praeterire, siue palmulis

opus foret uolare, siue linteo.

Et hoc negat minacis Adriatici

negare litus, insulasue Cycladas

Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam

Propontida, trucemue Ponticum sinum,

ubi iste post phaselus antea fuit

VI.

THE SUPERANNUATED YACHT'.

She says she was the fastest ship afloat,
The yacht you see there, friends: no timber swims
But she could pass its spurt, whate'er the need,
To fly on wings of oarage or of sail.

And this, she says, not blustering Adria's shore
Dares to gainsay; no, nor the Cyclad isles,

Or famous Rhodes, or, rough with Thracian storms,
Propontis; nor that surly Pontic sea

Where this, the yacht of later days, was once

1 Near his villa at Sirmio, on Lake Benacus (Lago di Garda), Catullus is pointing out to some guests the light galley-built on the Euxine, at Amastris, in Bithynia-which had carried him from Bithynia to Italy, and which is now laid up on the shore of the lake.

2 The route, here given backwards (cf. vv. 18-24), was as follows:-(1) The yacht, launched at Amastris or Cytorus on the Euxine, is sent round through the Bosporus into the Propontis, and there takes Catullus on board,—perhaps at Myrlea : (2) Thence through the Hellespont, down the coast of Asia Minor, to Rhodes; and thence, through the Cyclades, probably to Corinth, where the galley is taken across the isthmus by the dioλkos: (3) Thence, first along the Greek coast, then across the Adriatic, to the Italian coast: (4) Catullus having disembarked at Brindisi, or at the mouth of the Po, the galley is taken up the Po, and Mincio to Lago di Garda. Stages 2 and 3 are marked off by the particle ue.

3 Prof. Robinson Ellis retains the comma at Thraciam, comparing Ovid Fast. V. 257. Mr Munro (waiving Lachmann's objection that Catullus could not have used Thraciam as subst., for Thracam or Thracen) makes Thraciam the epithet of Propontis, (1) because the yacht did not coast Thrace, (2) because the clause is thus symmetrical with trucem Ponticum sinum. (Journal of Philology, vol. VI. p. 231.)