We conclude with one or two instances of his language to justify our strictures upon it. Horace had used the expression _naso suspendis adunco_, a legitimate and intelligible metaphor; Persius imitates it, _excusso populum suspendere naso_, [19] thereby rendering it frigid and weak. Horace had said _clament periisse pudorem Cuncti paene patres_; [20] Persius caricatures him, _exclamet_ Melicerta _perisse_ Frontem _de rebus_. [21] Horace had said _si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi_; [22] Persius distorts this into _plorabit qui me volet_ incurvasse _querela_. [23] Other expressions more remotely modelled on him are _iratum Eupoliden praegrandi cum sene palles_, [24] and perhaps the very harsh use of the accusative, _linguae quantum sitiat canis_, [25] "as long a tongue as a thirsty dog hangs out." Common sense is not to be looked for in the precepts of so immature a mind. Accordingly, we find the foolish maxim that a man not endowed with reason (_i.e._ stoicism) cannot do anything aright: [26] that every one should live up to his yearly income regardless of the risk arising from a bad season; [27] extravagant paradoxes reminding us of some of the less educated religious sects of the present day; with this difference, that in Rome it was the most educated who indulged in them. A good deal of the obscurity of these Satires was forced upon the poet by the necessity of avoiding everything that could be twisted into treason. We read in Suetonius that Nero is attacked in them; but so well is the battery masked that it is impossible to find it. Some have detected it in the prologue, others in the opening lines of the first Satire, others, relying on a story that Cornutus made him alter the line-- "Auriculas asini Mida rex habet," to _quis non habet_? have supposed that the satire lies there. But satire so veiled is worthless. The poems of Persius are valuable chiefly as showing a good _naturel_ amid corrupt surroundings, and forming a striking comment on the change which had come over Latin letters. Another Stoic philosopher, probably known to Persius, was C. MUSONIUS RUFUS, like him an Etruscan by birth, and a successful teacher of the young. Like almost all independent thinkers he was exiled, but recalled by Titus in his old age. The influence of such men must have extended far beyond their personal acquaintance; but they kept aloof from the court. This probably explains the conspicuous absence of any allusion to Seneca in Persius's writings. It is probable that his stern friends, Thrasea and Soranus disapproved of a courtier like Seneca professing stoicism, and would show him no countenance. He was not yet great enough to compel their notice, and at this time confined his influence to the circle of Nero, whose tutor he was, and to those young men, doubtless numerous enough, whom his position and seductive eloquence attracted by a double charm. Of these by far the most illustrious was his nephew Lucan.