ARGUMENT.

This Satire contains an animated attack upon the hypocrisy of the philosophers and reformers of the day, whose ignorance, profligacy, and impiety it exposes with just severity.

Domitian is here the object; his vices are alluded to under every different name; and it gives us a high opinion of the intrepid spirit of the man who could venture to circulate, even in private, so faithful a representation of that blood-thirsty tyrant.

I would like to flee hence, beyond the Sauromatae A nomadic people living near the icy northern ocean. and the frozen ocean, as often as those who pretend to be Curii A family representing old-fashioned Roman austerity. and yet live like Bacchanals Participants in the orgiastic rites of Bacchus. dare to speak of morals. They are unlearned, though you may find all their homes filled with plaster busts of Chrysippus A Stoic philosopher.; for the most perfect among them is the one who buys a likeness of Aristotle or Pittacus, and commands his shelves to store the original works of Cleanthes.

Trust not the countenance: for what street does not abound with these grave-looking hypocrites? Do you reprove base things when you are yourself the most notorious bottom-feeder among the Socratic catamites? Rough limbs, indeed, and hard bristles on the arms promise a fierce mind; but in the lower parts...