GRATIAN.--Hand me the book. I thought so--that "audaciously forgot" is your audacious interpolation. She does not forget her vows, for she never made any. You bring her back, good Master Curate, not a little in the sulks, like a runaway wife, that had forgotten her vows, and remembered all her audacity. We see her reluctantly taken in tow--looking like a profligate, weary, and voyage worn, buffeted and beaten by more storms than she likes to tell of. You must alter audaciously. AQUILIUS.--And I object to bribes; it is a satire upon the underwriters. CURATE.--The underwriters? AQUILIUS.--Yes, the "Littoralibus Diis;" what were they but an insurance company, with their chief temple, some Roman "Lloyd's," and offices in every sea-port? CURATE.--Or perhaps the "Littoralibus Diis," referred to a "coast-guard." GRATIAN.--Worse and worse, for that would imply that they took bribes, and that she was an old smuggler. Keep to the original, and if you will modernize Catullus, you must merely say, she was so safe a boat that the owner did not think it worth while to insure. CURATE.--The learned themselves dispute as to the identity of the "Dii Littorales." In the notes, I find they are said to be Glaucus, Nereus, Melicerta, Neptune, Thetis, and others; but in the notes to Statius, you will find Gevartius bids the aforesaid learned tell that to the marines. He knows better. I remember his words,--"Sed male illi marinos et littorales deos confundunt. Littorales enim potissimum Dii Caelestes erant, Pallas, Apollo, Hercules, &c., unde illi potius apud Catullum sunt intelligendi." GRATIAN.--She might have been doubly insured; for besides Glaucus, Neptune, Thetis, and Co., there was the company registered by Gevartius. CURATE.--I have looked again at the passage, and think I have not quite given the meaning of "novissimo." I doubt if it does mean remote--it more likely means the last voyage--so let me substitute this:-- She came, 'Twas her last voyage, from far sea, To this clear inlet-home, the same Good bark and true, and proudly free From vows which under doubtful skies, Are made to sea-side Deities.