With my stream of pure water, few acres of wood, And secure that my harvest will pay, A pleasure I have more substantial than could Be to him that o’er Afric holds sway. Though for me never works the Calabrian bee, Though for me is no Formian wine, Though no sheep in the pastures of Gaul feed for me. Yet poverty never is mine. Much must that man want ever who much shall demand; What he gains whets the covetous vice; Happy he to whom God with a niggardly hand Has granted what yet will suffice.”—YARDLEY. TO PYRRHA. “What scented stripling, Pyrrha, wooes thee now In pleasant cavern, all with roses fair? For whom those yellow tresses bindest thou With simple care? Full oft shall he thine altered faith bewail, His altered gods; and his unwonted gaze Shall watch the waters darken to the gale In wild amaze, Who now believing gloats on golden charms; Who hopes thee ever kind and ever void; Nor, hapless! knows the changeful wind’s alarms, Nor thee, untried. For me, let Neptune’s temple wall declare How, safe escaped, in votive offering My dripping garments own, suspended there, Him Ocean-king.” GLADSTONE. =Varius= (74-14 B.C.).—Older than Horace or Virgil in the Augustan galaxy was Varius, the friend who introduced them both to Mæcenas. An epic on the death of Cæsar, highly esteemed by his countrymen,—and a tragedy entitled “Thyestes,” classed with the finest Greek dramas,—have won for Varius an enviable fame. Both are lost; but we still have the benefit of the poet’s labors as the editor of Virgil’s Æneid. =Albius Tibullus= (59-19 B.C.), another poet of the Augustan age, perfected the erotic elegy which Catullus had introduced from Greece. The meagre accounts that remain of his life inform us that he was a knight, and lost his estates near Rome for political reasons, after the overthrow of Pompey. These he partially recovered, it is supposed through the influence of Messa’la, a noble of the old school, whose praises he never tired of sounding. As aide-de-camp, he accompanied Messala in his expedition against the rebellious Aquitanians, and doubtless figured in the triumph decreed his victorious friend by the emperor. A peaceful life, however, was more in accordance with his tastes. The hills and dales, the corn-fields, vineyards, and meadows, possessed greater charms for him than the favor of Augustus, who vainly sought to attract Tibullus to his court. Hence we find the poet generally living at his country-seat, amid rural enjoyments.