“Nunc vero a mane ad noctem, festo atque profesto, Totus item pariterque dies, populusque patresque Jactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam, Uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti; Verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose, Blanditia certare, bonum simulare virum se, Insidias facere, ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes.” The verses in which our poet bitterly ridicules the superstition of those who adored idols, and mistook them for true gods, are written in something of the same spirit— “Terricolas Lamias, Fauni quas, Pompiliique Instituere Numæ, tremit has, his omnia ponit: Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere, et esse homines; et sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant: credunt signis cor inesse ahenis— Pergula pictorum, veri nihil, omnia ficta(421).” On this passage Lactantius remarks, that such superstitious fools are much more absurd than the children to whom the satirist compares them, as the latter only mistake statues for men, the former for gods. There are two lines in the 26th book, which every nation should remember in the hour of disaster— “Ut populus Romanus victus vi, et superatus præliis Sæpe est multis; bello vero nunquam, in quo sunt omnia(422).” But the most celebrated and longest passage we now have from Lucilius, is his definition of _Virtus_— “Virtus, Albine, est, pretium persolvere verum, Queis in versamur, queis vivimus rebus, potesse: Virtus est homini, scire id quod quæque habeat res; Virtus, scire homini rectum, utile, quid sit honestum, Quæ bona, quæ mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inhonestum; Virtus, quærendæ rei finem scire modumque: Virtus, divitiis precium persolvere posse: Virtus, id dare quod re ipsa debetur honori; Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum, Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bonorum, Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum: Commoda præterea patriæ sibi prima putare, Deinde parentûm, tertia jam postremaque nostra(423).” Lactantius has cavilled at the different heads of this definition(424), and perhaps some of them are more applicable to what we call wisdom, than to our term virtue, which, as is well known, does not precisely correspond to the Latin _Virtus_. If we possessed a larger portion of the writings of Lucilius, I have no doubt it would be found that subsequent Latin poets, particularly the satirists, have not only copied various passages, but adopted the plan and subjects of many of his satires. It has already been mentioned, that Horace’s journey to Brundusium is imitated from that of Lucilius to Capua. His severity recommended him to Persius and Juvenal, who both mention him with respect. Persius, indeed, professes to follow him, but Juvenal seems a closer imitator of his manner. The jingle in the two following lines, from an uncertain book of Lucilius— “Ut me scire volo mihi conscius sum, ne Damnum faciam. Scire hoc se nescit, nisi alios id scire scierit,”