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ON THE FOLLY OF VINDICTIVENESS.

FROM

THE 13th SATIRE OF JUVENAL. (174.)

"Nulla ne perjuri capitis fraudisque nefandæPœna erit?" &c.
"What! shall the perjured wretch no suffering pay"For his foul crime?"———Suppose him dragged awayIn heaviest chains: suppose the power to kill(Could anger ask aught more?) lay in your will:Yet still the loss you mourn for, would remain;Nor would you your embezzled gold regain.———"But let him suffer for it!—then my mind"Some consolation for its loss may find:"His guilty blood is what I wish to see:"Revenge is sweet—sweeter than life to me!"———Why thus th' unlearned talk, whose anger springsOfttimes for nought, ofttimes for trifling things;Whom every cross, however frivolous,Supplies with phrensy's fuel. 'Tis not thusChrysippus teaches thee. Wise Thales feltNot thus;—nor he the good old man, who dweltNear sweet Hymettus; whom it would have pain'dTo see the hemlock, which he drank while chain'd,Shared by his own accuser. By degrees
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