l62 



Delitiseque meie Latris cul nomcn ab ufu eft, 

 Ne (peculum domino: porrigat ilia novs. 



> If Cynthia's mem'ry to thy foul is dear, 

 Her laft requeft, her parting words revere : 

 My nurfe was friendly to thine early love ; 

 When I am fled, thy bounty let her prove. — 

 On the laft verge of weary life's decline. 

 To guard her trembling age from want be thine. — 

 Thy bounty let my fav'rite Latris (liare. 

 With gen'rous hand reward her duteous care. 



Propcrtius feems every •where to be deeply imprefl:, with the con- 

 fcious dignity of fong, to be a man of great refinement, full of vir- 

 tuous feelings, and honed principles. There is throughout his writings, 

 blended with the mod paffionate and intoxicating exprefEons of love, a 

 noble drain of morality, and bitter inveftivc againd the luxury and 

 vices of the age, in which he lived. In his fird elegy, he laments, with 

 animated feeling and good fenfe, that the difdain and cruelty of his 

 midrefs had driven him to a courfe of idle diflipation, and vicious fo- 

 ciety. 



Donee me docuit cartas odifle puellas, 

 Improbus, et nuUo vivere confilio. 



Unhappy love deprav'd my wandering foul, 



To hate the modeft fair, and reafon's wife controul. 



The poets defcants, with much indignation and energy, on the lux- 

 ury and immodedy in drefs and furniture of the Romans of his time. 

 He thus expodulates with his midrefs, on her too great fohcitude to 

 adorn her perfon. 



Quid juvat ornato procedere vita capillo. 

 Et tenues coa vefte movere finus ? 

 Aut quid Oronted crines perfundere myrrha, 

 Teque peregrinis vendere muneribus J 

 Naturseque decus mercato perdere cultu, 

 Nee finere in propriis membra nitere bonis ? 



Why 



