So little is known of this poet, that the critics have not yet been able to determine even his real name, some calling him Manilius, others Manlius, and others again varying it to Mallius. Equal doubt also prevails as to the country which gave him birth; and all that we can aver with any degree of certainty respecting him, is that he wrote in the age of Augustus. This, indeed, seems evident from several passages of his work, more especially from his dedication of it to that monarch, and from his allusions in it to Tiberius's retirement at Rhodes.

The title of his poem is "Astronomicon," though it might, with greater propriety, have been entitled Astrologicôn; but the distinction between astronomy and astrology was unknown in that day. With all its faults, however, it is a work

of considerable merit. The physical part of it is luminous, and its philosophy often sublime. He adopts the Ptolemaic hypothesis, that the earth is immoveably suspended in the centre of the universe; but his general notions of the nature and position of the stars are consistent with astronomical science; and he supposes, with the Pythagoreans, that the phenomenon of the Milky Way is but the undistinguished lustre of unnumbered stars-a conjecture which the modern telescope has confirmed.

The system of Manilius is interwoven with the stellar fatality of the Stoics, and contains, likewise, a complete scheme of ancient astrology.-The "Astronomicon" was discovered in a German monastery, during the fifteenth century, by the learned Poggio Bracciolini.

CONNEXION OF THE UNIVERSE. NATURE instinct with mind, my theme shall be, And God infused in sky, and earth, and sea : Tempering the mighty mass with equal laws, Alternate harmony creation draws: A reason deep-instilled within it moves: Through all its parts one ruling spirit roves: Round the vast orb its irrigations roll, The world the animal, and God the soul. Unless the mass, of kindred parts combined, Were moved beneath a master's ruling mind, Unless an all-foreseeing wisdom reign'd, And the vast sum of things in order chain'd, Earth from its airy seat would start away, And planets, reeling in their orbits, stray: No more the darkness of alternate night Would now avoid, and now pursue the light; Showers nourish earth; winds ether; seas with

rain

Fill the swoln clouds; nor rivers feed the main;
Nor from the deep perennial fountains glide;
Nor this great whole, with equal parts allied,
From its just parent each proportion know,
That stars might ever shine, and waters flow,
And through their course the heavenly bodies fly,
Nor from their balanced orbit swim on high;
Not changed by motion, but sustained, they roll,
And ordered worlds pursue the leading soul.

This God, this ruling instinct, from on high
Rules earthly beings by the starry sky.
Though far removed by interval immense,
He makes the stars be felt: their orbs dispense
The death and life of all that live or die;
Each mind's peculiar bent, and quality.

Let me this truth by sure example prove : The heavens control the fields: bestow, remove

Earth's varying fruits: the rolling ocean sway;
Heave on the land, or snatch the waves away—
For lo! the seas, that in their rage rebel,
Now moved beneath the lunar planet swell,
Or foam with swift reflux; now ductile roll,
Following the sun, that yearly turns the pole.
So animals, that deep the waters range,
In shelly dungeons shut, their bodies change
With motions of the moon: so Luna! thou
Reveal'st thy forehead by thy brother's brow;
By his resum'st thy shining visage, bright
Or dim, as his clear aspect lends thee light:
And by another star thy star ascends to sight.
So beasts of earth, and reptiles mute below,
Unconscious of themselves, nor skill'd to know
What secret law their charm'd existence bind,
Are still uncall'd to heaven, their parent mind;
By guiding instinct lift their soul on bigb,
And keep the seasons of the stars and sky.
At the full moon their bodies cleanse : declare
The coming storm, and the serener air.

Who then shall doubt, that man's allied to

swell!

Me, they deceive not; for I know you well,
Within, without.-And blush you not to see,
Loose Natta's life and yours so well agree?
-But Natta's is not life: the sleep of sin
Has seiz'd his powers, and palsied all within;
Huge cawls of fat envelope every part,
And torpor weighs on his insensate heart.-
Absolv'd from blame by ignorance so gross,
He neither sees, nor comprehends his loss;
Content in guilt's profound abyss to drop,
Nor, struggling, send one bubble to the top.
Dread Sire of Gods! when lust's envenom'd
stings

Stir the fierce natures of tyrannic kings;
When storms of rage within their bosoms roll,
And call, in thunder, for thy just control,
O, then relax the bolt, suspend the blow;
And thus, and thus alone, thy vengeance show,
In all her charms, set Virtue in their eye,
And let them see their loss, despair, and-die!

Say could the wretch severer tortures feel, Closed in the brazen bull?-Could the bright steel That, while the board with regal pomp was spread,

Gleam'd o'er the guest, suspended by a thread,
Worse pangs inflict, than he endures, who cries,
(As, on the rack of conscious guilt, he lies,)
In mental agony, "Alas! I fall,

young nobility, and their sottish vanity in resting their claims to approbation on the judgment of a worthless rabble.

WHAT! you, my Alcibiades, aspire

To sway the state!-(Suppose that bearded sire
Whom helmock from a thankless world remov'd,
Thus to address the stripling that he loved.)-
On what apt talents for a charge so high,
Ward of great Pericles, do you rely?
Forecast on others by gray hairs conferr'd,
Haply, with you, anticipates the beard;
And prompts you, prescient of the public weal,
Now to disclose your thoughts, and now conceal!
Hence, when the rabble form some daring plan,
And factious murmurs spread from man to man,
Mute and attentive you can bid them stand,
By the majestic wafture of your hand!

Rash youth! relying on a specious skin,
While all is dark deformity within,

Check the fond thought; nor, like the peacock, proud,

Spread your gay plumage to the applauding crowd

Before your hour arrive:-ah, rather drain
Whole isles of hellebore, to cool your brain!

call!"

And withers at the heart, and dares not show His bosom wife, the secret of his woe!

Mount, hapless youth, on Contemplation's wings,
And mark the causes and the end of things;-
Learn what we are, and for what purpose born,
What station here 'tis given us to adorn;
How best to blend security with ease,
And win our way through life's tempestuous seas;
What bounds the love of property requires,
And what to wish, with unreproved desires;
How far the genuine use of wealth extends;
And the just claims of country, kindred, friends;
What Heaven would have us be; and where our
stand,

And ask him, if he knows Vectidus' farm? "Whose?" he replies. That rich old chuff's,

whose ground

Would tire a hawk to wheel it fairly round.

"O, ho! that wretch, on whose devoted head, Ill stars and angry gods their rage have shed! Who, on high festivals, when all is glee, And the lose yoke hangs idly on the tree, As, from the jar, he scrapes the incrusted clay, Groans o'er the revels of so dear a day; Champs on a coated onion dipt in brine; And, while his hungry hinds exulting dine On barley-broth, sucks up, with thrifty care, The mothery dregs of his pall'd vinegar!"

But, if You bask you in the sunny ray, And doze the careless hours of youth away,

FROM SATIRE IV.

THIS satire is founded on the first Alcibiades of Plato, and many of the expressions are closely copied from that celebrated dialogue. It naturally arranges itself under three heads; the first of which treats of the preposterous ambition of those who aspired to take the lead in state affairs, before they had learned the first principles of civil government. The second division turns on the general neglect of self-examination, enforcing, at the same time, the necessity of moral purity, from the impossibility of escaping detection; and of restraining all wanton propensity to exaggerate the foibles of others, from its tendency to provoke severe recrimination on our own vices. The conclusion, or third part, reverts to the subject with which the satire opens, and arraigns, in

And spit their venom on your life, in turn;
Expose, with eager hate, your low desires,
Your secret passions, and unhallow'd fires.—
Why, while the beard is nurs`d with every art,
Those anxious pains to bear the shameful part?
In vain: should five athletic knaves essay,
To pluck, with ceaseless care, the weeds away,
Still the rank fern, congenial to the soil,
Would spread luxuriant, and defeat their toil!"

Misled by rage, our bodies we expose,
And while we give, forget to ward, the blows;
This, this is life! and thus our faults are shown,
By mutual spleen: we know-and we are
known.

But your defects elude inquiring eyes!—
Beneath the groin the ulcerous evil lies,
Impervious to the view; and o'er the wound,
The broad effulgence of the zone is bound!

But can you, thus, the inward pang restrain,
Thus, cheat the sense of languor and of pain?
"But if the people call me wise and just,
Sure, I may take the general voice on trust!"-
No: If you tremble at the sight of gold;
Indulge lust's wildest sallies uncontroll'd;
Or, bent on outrage, at the midnight hour,
Girt with a ruffian band, the forum scour;

The ineffable sensations of my soul.

When first I laid the purple by-and free,*
Yet trembling at my new-felt liberty,
Approach'd the hearth, and on the Lares hung
The bulla, from my willing neck unstrung;
When gay associates, sporting at my side,
And the white boss, display'd with conscious
pride,

Gave me, uncheck'd, the haunts of vice to trace,
And throw my wandering eyes on every face;
When life's perplexing maze before me lay,
And error, heedless of the better way,
To straggling paths, far from the route of truth,
Woo'd, with blind confidence, my timorous youth,
I fled to you, Cornutus, pleas'd to rest
My hopes and fears on your Socratic breast;
Nor did you, gentle sage, the charge decline:
Then, dexterous to beguile, your steady line
Reclaim'd, I know not by what winning force,
My morals, warp'd from virtue's straighter course,
While reason, press'd incumbent on my soul,
That struggled to receive the strong control,
And took, like wax, subdued by plastic skill,
The form your hand impos'd-and bears it still!
Can I forget, how many a summer's day,
Spent in your converse, stole, unmark'd, away?

And from one horoscope their fortunes draw:
And whether destiny's unerring doom,
In equal Libra, pois'd our days to come;
Or friendship's holy hour our fates combin'd,
And to the twins, a sacred charge, assign'd;
Or Jove, benignant, broke the gloomy spell
By angry Saturn wove;-I know not well-
But sure some star there is, whose bland control,
Subdues, to yours, the temper of my soul!

Countless the various species of mankind, Countless the shades which separate man from

mind;

No general object of desire is known;
Each has his will, and each pursues his own.
With Latian wares, one roams the eastern main,
To purchase spice, and cummin's blanching grain;
Another, gorg'd with dainties, swill'd with wine,
Fattens in sloth, and snores out life supine;
This loves the Campus; that destructive play;
And those, in wanton dalliance, melt away:-
But when the knotty gout their strength has broke,
And their dry joints crack like some wither'd oak,
Then they look back, confounded and aghast
On the gross days in fogs and darkness past;
With late regret the waste of life deplore:
No purpose gain'd, and time, alas! no more.

But you, my friend, whom nobler views delight,
To pallid vigils give the studious night;
Cleanse youthful breasts from every noxious
weed,

And sow the tilth with Cleanthean seed.-* There seek, ye young, ye old, (secure to find,) That certain end, which stays the wavering mind;

Stores, which endure, when other means decay, Through life's last stage, a sad and cheerless way! "Right: and to-morrow this shall be our care." Alas! to-morrow, like to-day, will fare.

"What! is one day, forsooth, so great a boon?" But when it comes, (and come it will too soon,) Reflect, that yesterday's to-morrow's o'er.Thus one "to-morrow!" one "to-morrow!" more, Have seen long years before them fade away; And still appear no nearer than to-day!

of the school.