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ESSAY III.

Proinde si videbitur, fingant isti me latrunculis interim animi causá lusisse, ant si malint, equitásse in arundine longá. Nam quæ tandem est iniquitas, cum omni vita instituto suos lusus concedamus, studiis nullum omnino lusum permittere: maxime si ita tractentur ludicra, ut es his aliquando plus frugis referat lector non omnino navis obesæ quam ex quorundum tetricis ac splendidis argumentis.

ERASMI Præf. ad Mor. Enc.

Translation.—They may pretend, if they like, that I amuse myself with playing at Fox and Goose, or, if they prefer it, equitasse in arundine longâ, that I ride the cockhorse on my grandam's crutch. But wherein, I pray, consists the unfairness or impropriety, when every trade and profession is allowed its own sport and travesty, in extending the same permission to literature: especially if trifles are so handled, that a reader of tolerable quickness may occasionally derive more food for profitable reflection than from many a work of grand or gloomy argument?

IRUS, the forlorn Irus, whose nourishment consisted in bread and water, whose cloathing

of one tattered mantle, and whose bed of an arm-full of straw, this same lrus, by a rapid transition of fortune, became the most prosperous mortal under the sun. It pleased the Gods to snatch him at once out of the dust, and to place him by the side of princes. He beheld himself in the possession of incalculable treasures. His palace excelled even the temple of the gods in the pomp of its ornaments; his least sumptuous cloathing was of purple and gold, and his table might well have been named the compendium of luxury, the summary of all that the voluptuous ingenuity of men had invented for the gratification of the palate. A numerous train of admiring dependants followed him at every step; those to whom he vouchsafed a gracious look, were esteemed already in the high road of fortune, and the favoured individual who was permitted to kiss his hand, appeared to be the object of common envy. The name of Irus sounding in his ears an unwelcome memento and perpetual reproach of his former poverty, he for this reason named himself Ceraunius, or the Lightningflasher, and the whole people celebrated this

splendid change of title by public rejoicings. The poet, who a few years ago had personified poverty itself under his former name of Irus, now made a discovery which had till that moment remained a profound secret, but was now received by all with implicit faith and warmest approbation. Jupiter, forsooth, had become enamoured of the mother of Ceraunius, and assumed the form of a mortal in order to enjoy her love. Henceforward they erected altars to him, they swore by his name, and the priests discovered in the entrails of the sacrificial victim, that THE GREAT CERAUNIUS, this worthy son of Jupiter, was the sole pillar of the western world. Toxaris, his former neighbour, a man whom good fortune, unwearied industry, and rational frugality, had placed among the richest citizens, became the first victim of the pride of this new demi-god. In the time of his poverty Irus had repined at his luck and prosperity, and irritable from distress and envy, had conceived that Toxaris had looked contemptuously on him; and now was the time that Ceraunius would make him feel the power of him, whose father grasped the thun

der-bolt. Three advocates, newly admitted into the recently established order of the Cygnet, gave evidence that Toxaris had denied the gods, committed peculations on the sacred treasury, and increased his treasures by acts of sacrilege. He was hurried off to prison and sentenced to an ignominious death, and his wealth confiscated to the use of Ceraunius, the earthly representative of the deities. Ceraunius now found nothing wanting to his felicity but a bride worthy of his rank and blooming honours. The most illustrious of the land were candidates for his alliance. Euphorbia, the daughter of the noble Austrius, was honoured with his final choice. To nobility of birth nature had added for Euphorbia a rich dowry of beauty, a nobleness both of look and stature. The flowing ringlets of her hair, her lofty forehead, her brilliant eyes, her stately figure, her majestic gait, had enchanted the haughty Ceraunius: and all the bards told what the inspiring muses had revealed to them, that Venus more than once had pined with jealousy at the sight of her superior charms. The day of espousal arrived, and the illustrious son

of Jove was proceeding in pomp to the temple, when the anguish-stricken wife of Toxaris, with his innocent children, suddenly threw themselves at his feet, and with loud lamentations entreated him to spare the life of her husband. Enraged by this interruption, Ceraunius spurned her from him with his feet and-Irus awakened, and found himself lying on the same straw on which he had lain down, and with his old tattered mantle spread over him. With his returning reason, conscience too returned. He praised the gods and resigned himself to his lot. Ceraunius indeed had vanished, but the innocent Toxaris was still alive, and Irus poor yet guiltless.

Can my reader recollect no character now on earth, who sometime or other will awake from his dream of empire, poor as Irus, with all the guilt and impiety of Ceraunius?

P. S. The reader will bear in mind, that this fable was written and first published, at the close of 1809.

ῥέχθεν δὲ τε νήπιος ἔγνω.

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