The Spectator Volume Iii Part 161

582. JUV. Sat. vii. 51.

'The curse of writing is an endless itch.'

(Ch. Dryden).

583. VIRG. Georg. iv. 112.

'With his own hand the guardian of the bees, For slips of pines may search the mountain trees, And with wild thyme and sav'ry plant the plain, Till his hard h.o.r.n.y fingers ache with pain; And deck with fruitful trees the fields around, And with refreshing waters drench the ground.'

(Dryden).

584. VIRG. Ecl. x. 42.

'Come see what pleasures in our plains abound; The woods, the fountains, and the flow'ry ground: Here I could live, and love, and die with only you.'

(Dryden).

585. VIRG. Ecl. v. 68.

'The mountain-tops unshorn, the rocks rejoice; The lowly shrubs partake of human voice.'

(Dryden).

586. CIC. de Div.

'The things which employ men's waking thoughts and actions recur to their imaginations in sleep.'

587. PERS. Sat. iii. 30.

'I know thee to thy bottom; from within Thy shallow centre to the utmost skin.'

(Dryden).

588. CICERO.

'You pretend that all kindness and benevolence is founded in weakness.'

589. OVID, Met. viii. 774.

'The impious axe he plies, loud strokes resound: Till dragg'd with ropes, and fell'd with many a wound, The loosen'd tree comes rushing to the ground.'

590. OVID, Met. xv. 179.

'E'en times are in perpetual flux, and run, Like rivers from their fountains, rolling on.

For time, no more than streams, is at a stay; The flying hour is ever on her way: And as the fountains still supply their store, The wave behind impels the wave before; Thus in successive course the minutes run, And urge their predecessor minutes on.

Still moving, ever new; for former things Are laid aside, like abdicated kings; And every moment alters what is done, And innovates some act, till then unknown.'

(Dryden).

591. OVID, Trist. 3 El. li. 73.

'Love the soft subject of his sportive Muse.'

592. HOR. Ars Poet. ver 409.

'Art without a vein.'

(Roscommon).

593. VIRG. aen. vi. 270.

'Thus wander travellers in woods by night, By the moon's doubtful and malignant light.'

(Dryden).

594. HOR. 1 Sat iv. 81.

'He that shall rail against his absent friends, Or hears them scandalized, and not defends; Sports with their fame, and speaks whate'er he can, And only to be thought a witty man; Tells tales, and brings his friends in disesteem; That man's a knave; be sure beware of him.'

(Creech).

595. HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 12.