Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/463

 will in vain pursue it, seeing that your wheel is the hind wheel, and that your axle is the second, not the first.

What we want is true liberty; not by that kind is it that any Publius enrolled in the Veline tribe becomes the possessor of a ticket for a ration of mangy corn. O souls barren of truth, you who think that one twirl of the thumb can make a Roman citizen! Look at Dama here; an under-strapper not worth three groats; blear-eyed from drink; a man who would tell a lie about a half-feed of corn; his master gives him one spin, when lo and behold! in the turning of a top, he comes forth as Marcus Dama! —"What? Do you hesitate to lend money when Marcus is the surety?—Are you uneasy with Marcus for a judge?"—"Marcus has said it, it must be so!"—"Pray, Marcus, put your signature to these deeds."—This, indeed, is liberty undefiled! This is the kind we get from our caps of liberty!

"And pray how otherwise would you describe a free man than as one who is free to live as he chooses? I am free to live as I choose; am I not more free than Brutus?"—"Your logic is at fault," says my Stoical friend, whose ears have been well washed with pungent vinegar; "I accept the rest; but you must strike out the words 'you are free' and 'as you choose."' 377