Time, however, effects strange things, as the poet says, and many
have been the passions which have since agitated, and have been
also quelled in the bosom of ROSCIUS.
[3] NYKY is a half-pay officer of marines. A horse-marine is a kind
of _meretricious_ HOBBY-HORSE, _modò vir modò fæmina_.
Yet to Euryalus as Nisus true,
So shall thy ROSCIUS, NYKY, prove to you;
Whether by impulse mov'd, itself divine,
Or so I'm bound to call it, as it's mine,
A mighty feat presents itself to view,
Which for our mutual gain I yet will do.
Mean-time do thou beware, while I bemoan,
How far thou trustest seas or lands unknown.
To Tyber's stream, or to the banks of Po,
Safe in thy love, safe in thy virtue, go;
Yet even there with caution be thou kind,
And look out sharp and frequently behind.
But ah, beware, nor trust, tho' native Mud,[4]
The banks of Liffy, or of Shannon's flood;
Or there, if driv'n by fate, be hush'd thy strain?
Nor of thy wayward lot, nor mine complain.