Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/193

 Page 30., &c. Paul to Titus, "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."

,, 31.Quisnam igitur, &c. Horace's Satires, II., 7. "Who then is free? The wise man, who has absolute rule over himself."

,, 31.Oenomaus, father of Hippodameia, would give her only to the suitor who could overcome him in a chariot race. Suitors whom he could overtake he killed. He killed himself when outstripped by Pelops, whom a god assisted, or, according to one version, a man who took the nails out of Oenomaus' chariot wheels, and brought him down with a crash.

,, 45.Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus. Never less alone than when alone.

,, 47.Sic ego, &c. From Tibullus, IV., 13.

,, 51.O quis me gelidis, &c. From the Second Book of Virgil's Georgics, in a passage expressing the poet's wish: Ye sacred Muses, with whose beauty fired, My soul is ravished and my brain inspired; Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear, Would you your poet's first petition hear: Give me the ways of wandering stars to know; The depths of Heaven above, and Earth below; Teach me, &c But if my heavy blood restrain the flight Of my free soul aspiring to the height Of Nature, and unclouded fields of light: My next desire is, void of care and strife, To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life. A country cottage near a crystal flood, A winding valley and a lofty wood; Some god conduct me to the sacred shades Where bacchanals are sung by Spartan maids, Or lift me high to Haemus hilly crown, Or in the vales of Tempe lay me down, Or lead me to some solitary place, And cover my retreat from human race. Dryden's translation.

,, 56.Nam neque divitibus. Horace's Epistles, I., 18.