[174] Birt _regit_ with the MSS. (he suggests _nequit_); Heinsius _legit_.
anxious reckoning. He sought the forces that move the heavens, the fixed (though errant) path of the planets, the calculation which predicts the over-shadowing of the sun and its surely-fixed eclipse, and the line that sentences the moon to be left in darkness by shutting out her brother. Soon as from afar he beheld the shining face of the Maiden[175] and recognized the goddess, reverencing that dear countenance, he hurries to meet her, effacing from the sand the diagrams he had drawn.
The goddess was the first to speak. “Manlius, in whom are gathered all the virtues unalloyed, in whom I see traces of ancient justice and manners moulded of a purer metal, thou hast devoted time enough now to study; all these years have the Muses reft from me my pupil. Long has Law demanded thy return to her allegiance. Come, devote thyself once more to my service, and be not content with the glory of thy past. To the service of mankind what boundary ever set the limits? Wisdom accepts no ends for herself. Then, too, to many has this office fallen, as well it might, but only the worthy return thereto; reappointment to office is the best commendation of office well held, and virtue brings back him whom chance elects. Deemst thou it a better and a worthier aim to spend thy days in exploring Nature’s secret laws? Dost thou think it was thy Plato’s precepts raised his country to glory rather than he[176] who, in obedience to the oracle, sank the Persian fleet, put his city on shipboard and saved from the Medes Athens destined for the flames? Lycurgus could dower the mothers of Sparta with a man’s courage and by his austere laws correct the weakness of their sex; by forbidding
[175] Virgo (= Astraea) was a recognized synonym for the goddess Justice; see Virg. _Ec._ iv. 6.
civibus et vetitis ignavo credere muro 155 tutius obiecit nudam Lacedaemona bellis: at non Pythagorae monitus annique silentes famosum Oebalii luxum pressere Tarenti. “Quis vero insignem tanto sub principe curam respuat? aut quando meritis maiora patebunt 160 praemia? quis demens adeo qui iungere sensus cum Stilichone neget? similem quae protulit aetas consilio vel Marte virum? nunc Brutus amaret vivere sub regno, tali succumberet aulae Fabricius, cuperent ipsi servire Catones. 165 nonne vides, ut nostra soror Clementia tristes obtundat gladios fratresque amplexa serenos adsurgat Pietas, fractis ut lugeat armis Perfidia et laceris morientes crinibus hydri lambant invalido Furiarum vincla veneno? 170 exultat cum Pace Fides, iam sidera cunctae liquimus et placidas inter discurrimus urbes. nobiscum, Theodore, redi.” Subit ille loquentem talibus: “agrestem dudum me, diva, reverti cogis et infectum longi rubigine ruris 175 ad tua signa vocas. nam quae mihi cura tot annis altera quam duras sulcis mollire novales, nosse soli vires, nemori quae commoda rupes, quis felix oleae tractus, quae glaeba faveret frugibus et quales tegeret vindemia colles? 180 terribiles rursum lituos veteranus adibo et desueta vetus temptabo caerula vector?