He is a savage who delights in punishment and seems to make the vengeance of the laws his own; when his heart is inflamed with the poison of wrath he is goaded by fury and rushes on knowing nothing of the cause and eager only to do hurt. But he whom reason, not anger, animates is a peer of the gods, he who, weighing the guilt, can with deliberation balance the punishment. Let others boast them of their bloody swords and wish to be feared for their ferocity, while they fill their treasuries with the goods of the condemned. Gently flows the Nile, yet is it more beneficent than all rivers for all that no sound reveals its power. More swiftly the broad Danube glides between its quiet banks. Huge Ganges flows down to its mouths with gently moving current. Let torrents roar horribly, threaten weary * * * * * Page 356 pontibus et volvant spumoso vertice silvas: pax maiora decet; peragit tranquilla potestas, quod violenta nequit, mandataque fortius urget 240 imperiosa quies. Idem praedurus iniquas accepisse preces, rursus, quae digna petitu, largior et facilis; nec quae comitatur honores, ausa tuam leviter temptare superbia mentem. frons privata manet nec se meruisse fatetur, 245 quae crevisse putat; rigidi sed plena pudoris elucet gravitas fastu iucunda remoto. quae non seditio, quae non insania vulgi te viso lenita cadat? quae dissona ritu barbaries, medii quam non reverentia frangat? 250 vel quis non sitiens sermonis mella politi deserat Orpheos blanda testudine cantus? qualem te legimus teneri primordia mundi scribentem aut partes animae, per singula talem cernimus et similes agnoscit pagina mores. 255 Nec dilata tuis Augusto iudice merces officiis, illumque habitum, quo iungitur aulae curia, qui socio proceres cum principe nectit, quem quater ipse gerit, perfecto detulit anno deposuitque suas te succedente curules. 260 crescant virtutes fecundaque floreat aetas. ingeniis patuit campus certusque merenti stat favor: ornatur propriis industria donis. surgite sopitae, quas obruit ambitus, artes. nil licet invidiae, Stilicho dum prospicit orbi 265 * * * * * Page 357 bridges, and sweep down forests in their foaming whirl; ’tis repose, befits the greater; quiet authority accomplishes what violence cannot, and that mandate compels more which comes from a commanding calm.