84

And of his Importunate

Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.
Nec semel hoc fecit, nec si retractus erit, jam
Fiet homo et ponet famosæ mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet cur versus factitet, utrum
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit, ac velut ursus,
Objectos caveæ valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus ;
Quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditque legendo,
Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo.

470

475

He who saves a man against his will does the same as the man who kills him. Nor has he done this only once, nor, if he shall be recovered, will he now become a man and lay aside his love for the éclat of a distinguished death. Nor does it sufficiently appear why he makes verses, whether he has polluted his father's ashes, or has impiously removed the melancholy trophy of devastations made by lightning. Undoubtedly he is raging mad, and, like the bear, if he has been able to break through the grates put up against his den, as a merciless reciter he persecutes both the unlearned and the learned alike. But whomever he has seized upon, he keeps and kills him by his reading, just like the leech which will not let go his hold of the skin unless it is full of blood.

THE END.

and Tormenting Annoyances.

He that would save a man against his will
Acts just the same as if that man he'd kill.
Nor has he done this merely once, nor yet
If he's restored will he more wisdom get,
He will not be a man, nor lay aside
A wish to die to gratify his pride.

Nor why he writes can any mortal say:
Has he defiled his father's grave to-day?

Or moved the sad memorial of the storm

85

820

Which marks where lightning flashed with dire alarm?
No doubt he's mad, and, like the raging bear,

That bursts the barriers placed to guard his lair,
Unlearned and learned he persecutes the same,
Recites his rhymes without remorse or shame;
But whom he gets to listen to his verse,

He tortures and torments from worse to worse,
Annoys him, plagues him, takes away his breath,
And by his reading gives him up to death;

Just like a leech that sucks the purple gore,

830

And will not leave the skin till it can gorge no more.

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.