That oft hast spurred Corinna's wavering will,
To my fond love's distresses faithful still;
Take these my tablets, scrawled at break of day;
Give in thy mistress' hands; forbear delay;
Say, when Corinna asks, Is Ovid well?'

'He lives in hope'; the rest the wax may tell.
But while I speak time flies; go, give with speed

The note; at earliest leisure let her read.

Mind while she reads, watch close her brow, her eyes;

The future limned in silent features lies.

Let her, when read, a lengthened answer trace;

I hate the waxen tablet's glaring space;
Close let her press her lines, her letters write
Even on the edge, that I may strain my sight.
Why tire her fingers with the pen? the sum
Be this, the eloquence of answer, 'Come.'
With laurel then will I the tablets twine,
And as an offering lay at Venus' shrine:
Mean maple-wood no more; inscribed above,

'Ovid to Venus these, true ministers of love.'"-Elton.

MINOR POETS OF THE GOLDEN AGE.

CONTEMPORARY with Catullus was a number of other poets of some note in their day, but whose works have not survived. We may name Calvus, Cinna, Cato, Valgius and Varro.

The first of these was an orator, as well as a poet; his orations being, indeed, much superior to his poems. His verses, the brief fragments of which are very highly praised by Niebuhr, were similar in tone to those of Catullus. Cinna was the author of an epic, entitled Smyrna, now lost, but greatly esteemed by Virgil and Catullus. Cato was a grammarian, but has left some poems, of which a fragment, called Diræ, or Curses, has been ascribed to Virgil, but is far from reaching his level. It bestows curses on his lost home, reft from him by military confiscation, and bewails his loss of rural joys. This poem is now ascribed to Cato on little other grounds than that it cannot belong to Virgil. In regard to Valgius we know nothing, except that Pliny speaks of his learning, and Horace expresses confidence in his critical taste and judgment. Varro's main work was a translation of the Argonautica of Apollonius. He also wrote geographical and heroic poems, from which Virgil has done him the honor to plagiarize.

Among the minor poets of the Augustan age we may mention Mæcenas, celebrated for his munificent encouragement of genius, though his own efforts at poetry were excessively weak.

Three others of some note in the same period were Valgius Rufus, Varius and Gallus. The first of these was

a great favorite with Horace, but none of his verses have stood the test of time. Varius shared with Virgil and Horace the strong friendship of Mæcenas, but of his poems only a few lines, of no special merit, have been preserved. Gallus was more distinguished as a general than as a poet. He wrote four books of elegies, which were praised by his contemporaries, but have not survived.

The only two of these minor poets who have left works of any value were Tibullus and Propertius. Both of these, like Virgil, Horace and Cato, suffered from the loss. of their estates by confiscation, the result of the civil wars of that period.

There are four books of poems ascribed to Tibullus, of which two only are genuine. They are deficient in vigor, but display good taste, and sweetness and tenderness of tone. Muretus praises his simplicity, and his natural and unaffected genius.

Propertius differed from the other Augustan poets in imitating the Alexandrian writers instead of the authors of the earlier age. This has vitiated the value of his works, which, despite their grace and elegance, display neither the tenderness of Tibullus nor the facility of Ovid.

TIBULLUS.-EXTRACT FROM PASTORAL ELEGY.

"Let others pile their yellow ingots high,

And see their cultured acres round them spread;
While hostile borderers draw their anxious eye,
And at the trumpet's blast their sleep is fled.

Me let my poverty to ease resign;

While my bright hearth reflects its blazing cheer;
In season let me plant the pliant vine,

And with light hand my swelling apples rear.

Content with little, I no more would tread

The lengthening road, but shun the summer day
Where some o'erbranching tree might shade my head;
And watch the murmuring rivulet glide away.

Be this my lot; be his the unenvied store,
Who the dread storm endures, and raging sea;
Ah! perish emeralds and the golden store,

If one fond anxious nymph must weep for me."

PROPERTIUS.-THE EFFIGY OF LOVE.

"Had he not hands of rare device, whoe'er
First painted love in figure of a boy?
He saw what thoughtless beings lovers were,
Who blessings lose, while lightest cares employ.

Nor added he those airy wings in vain,

And bade through human hearts the godhead fly; For we are tost upon a wavering main;

Our gale, inconstant, veers around the sky.

Nor, without cause, he grasps those barbèd darts,
The Cretan quiver o'er his shoulder cast;
Ere we suspect a foe, he strikes our hearts;
And those inflicted wounds forever last.

In me are fixed those arrows, in my breast;
But sure his wings are shorn, the boy remains;
For never takes he flight, nor knows he rest;

Still, still I feel him warring through my veins."

-Elton.

EARLY ROMAN ORATORS.

ELOQUENCE, rude though it may have been, must have been, at an early period, a Roman characteristic. In a republican nation, amid a free people, where the lowliest born often reached the loftiest rank, where oppression kindled the fires of indignation, and where an incessant contention between plebeians and patricians existed, the art of the orator must frequently have been called into requisition, and the burning tongue of eloquence have wrought the half-barbarous multitude to fury, or given to the army the spirit that achieved victory.

Such speeches probably partook of the vigorous, direct, practical nature of the people; rude in language, empty of rhetorical ornament, marked only by the simplicity of pathos or the brevity of passion. The first speech on record is one made by Ap'pius Clau'dius Cæ'cus (the author of a poem to which reference is made by Cicero). This was delivered against the celebrated Macedonian ruler Pyrrhus, represented by Cin'eas, his wily minister. The eloquence of the blind old Roman proved so powerful that the accomplished Greek was obliged to quit Rome. without gaining the peace which he came to negotiate.

Other orators of note in these early days were Metullus, the two Scipios, Cato the censor, the celebrated Gracchi, and numerous others of less importance. One phrase exists, showing the nervous vigor of style of the elder Scipio. He had been accused of peculation, but disdained to answer the charges of his malignant opponent, detailing,