Juxta epulis accumbit homo conviva leonis,
Nec crudos dubitat participare cibos.

Quis tamen ista ferat desertæ tædia vitæ ?
Vix furor ultoris tristior esset heri.

Devotum certis caput objectare periclis
Et patrios statuit rursus adire lares.
Traditur hic, fera facturus spectacula, plebi,
Accipit et miserum tristis arena reum.
Irruit e caveis fors idem impastus et acer,
Et medicum attonito suspicit ore leo.

Suspicit, et veterem agnoscens vetus hospes ami

cum

Decumbit notos blandulus ante pedes.

Quid vero perculsi animis, stupuere Quirites?
Equid prodigii, territa Roma, vides?
Unius naturæ opus est; ea sola furorem
Sumere quæ jussit, ponere sola jubet.

Ꮓ

RECIPROCAL KINDNESS

THE PRIMARY LAW OF NATURE.

ANDROCLES from his injur'd lord in dread
Of instant death, to Libya's desert fled.

Tir'd with his toilsome flight, and parch'd with

heat,

He spied, at length, a cavern's cool retreat;
But scarce had given to rest his weary frame,
When hugest of his kind, a lion came:

He roar'd approaching: but the savage din
To plaintive murmurs chang'd-arriv'd within,
And with expressive looks, his lifted

paw

Presenting, aid implor'd from whom he saw.
The fugitive, through terror at a stand,
Dar'd not awhile afford his trembling hand,
But bolder grown, at length inherent found
A pointed thorn, and drew it from the wound.

The cure was wrought; he wip'd the sanious

blood,

And firm and free from pain the lion stood.
Again he seeks the wilds, and day by day,
Regales his inmate with the parted prey.
Nor he disdains the dole, though unprepar'd,
Spread on the ground, and with a lion shar❜d.
But thus to live-still lost-sequester'd still-
Scarce seem'd his lord's revenge an heavier ill.
Home! native home! O might he but repair!
He must-he will, though death attends him there.
He goes, and doom'd to perish, on the sands
Of the full theatre unpitied stands;

When lo! the self-same lion from his cage
Flies to devour him, famish'd into' rage.
He flies, but viewing in his purpos'd prey
The man, his healer, pauses on his way,
And soften'd by remembrance into sweet
And kind composure, crouches at his feet.

Mute with astonishment th' assembly gaze:

But why, ye Romans? Whence your mute amaze?

All this is nať'ral: Nature bade him rend

An enemy; she bids him spare a friend.

MANUALE

TYPOGRAPHIA OMNI ANTIQUIUS, NULLI USPIAM LIBRORUM

INSERTUM CATALOGO.

EXIGUUS liber est, muliebri creber in usu,
Per se qui dici bibliotheca potest.
Copia verborum non est, sed copia rerum;
Copia (quod nemo deneget) utilior.

Rubris consuitur pannis; fors texitur auro;
Bis sexta ad summum pagina claudit opus.
Nil habet a tergo titulive aut nominis; intus

Thesauros artis servat, et intus opes:

Intus opes, quæ nympha sinu pulcherrima gestet, Quas nive candidior tractet ametque manus,

Quando instrumentum præsens sibi postulat usus, Majusve, aut operis pro ratione, minus.

Et genere et modulo diversa habet arma, gradatim Digesta, ad numeros attenuata suos.

Primum enchiridii folium majuscula profert, Qualia quæ blæso est lumine poscat anus. Quod sequitur folium, matronis arma ministrat,

Dicere quæ magnis proximiora licet.

Tertium, item quartum, quintumque minuscula supplet

Sed non ejusdem singula quæque loci.

Disposita ordinibus certis, discrimina servant;
Quæ sibi conveniant, seligat unde nurus.
Ultima quæ restant
restant quæ multa minutula nympha
Dicit, sunt sexti divitæ folii.

Quantillo in spatio doctrina O quanta latescit!
Quam tamen obscuram vix brevitate voces.
Non est interpres, non est commentarius úllus,
Aut index; tam sunt omnia perspicua.