Part VI

Take to thy house a woman for thy bride
When in the ripeness of thy manhood’s pride:
Thrice ten thy sum of years; the nuptial prime;
Nor fall far short, nor far exceed the time.
Four years the ripening virgin should consume,
And wed the fifth of her expanded bloom.
A virgin choose: and mould her manners chaste:
Chief be some neighbouring maid by thee embraced:
Look circumspect and long: lest thou be found
The merry mock of all the dwellers round.
No better lot has Providence assign’d
Than a fair woman with a virtuous mind:
Nor can a worse befall, then when thy fate
Allots a worthless, feast-contriving mate:
She, with no torch of mere material flame,
Shall burn to tinder thy care-wasted frame:
Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within,
And age unripe in bloom of years begin.

Th’ unsleeping vengeance heed of heaven on high.—
None as a friend should with a brother vie:
But if like him thou hold another dear,
Let no offences on thy side appear:
Nor lie with idle tongue: if he begin
Offence of word and deed, chastise his sin
Once for each act and word; but if he grieve,
And make atonement, straight his love receive:
Wretched! his friends who changes to and fro!
Let not thy face thy mind’s deep secrets show.
Be not the host of many nor of none:
The good revile not, and the wicked shun.
Rebuke not want, that wastes the spirit dry;
It is the gift of blessed gods on high.
Lo! the best treasure is a frugal tongue:
The lips of moderate speech with grace are hung:
The evil-speaker shall perpetual fear
Return of evil ringing in his ear.
When many guests combine in common fare
Be not morose nor grudge thy liberal share:
When all contributing the feast unite,
Great is the pleasure and the cost is light.

When the libation of the morn demands
The sable wine, forbear with unwash’d hands
To lift the cup: with ear averted Jove
Shall spurn thy prayer, and every god above.

Forbear to let your water flow away
Turn’d upright tow’rds the sun’s all-seeing ray:
E’en when his splendour sets, till morn has glow’d
Take heed; nor sprinkle, as you walk, the road,
Nor the road-side; nor bare affront the sight;
For there are gods who watch and guard the night.
The holy man discreet sits decently,
And to some sheep-fold’s fenced wall draws nigh.

From rites of love unclean the hearth forbear,
Nor sit beside ungirt, for household gods are there.

Leave not the funeral feast to sow thy race;
From the gods’ banquet seek thy bride’s embrace.

Whene’er thy feet the river-ford essay,
Whose flowing current winds its limpid way,
Thy hands amidst the pleasant waters lave,
And lowly gazing on the beauteous wave
Appease the river-god: if thou perverse
Pass with unsprinkled hands, a heavy curse
Shall rest upon thee from th’ observant skies,
And after-woes retributive arise.

When in the fane the feast of gods is laid,
Ne’er to thy five-branch’d hand apply the blade
Of sable iron; from the fresh forbear
The dry excrescence at the board to pare.

Ne’er let thy hand the wine-filled flaggon rest
Upon the goblet’s edge; th’ unwary guest
May from thy fault his own disaster drink,
For evil omens lurk around the brink.

Ne’er in the midst th’ unfinished house forego,
Lest there perch’d lonely croak the garrulous crow.

Ne’er from unhallow’d vessels hasty feed,
Nor lave therein; for thou mayst rue the deed.

Set not a twelve-day or a twelve-month boy
On moveless stones; they shall his strength destroy.

Ne’er in the female baths thy limbs immerse;
In its own time the guilt shall bring the curse.

Ne’er let the mystic sacrifices move
Deriding scorn; but dread indignant Jove.

Ne’er with unseemly deeds the fountains stain,
Or limpid rivers flowing to the main.

Do thus: and still with all thy dint of mind
Avoid that evil rumour of mankind;
Easy the burthen at the first to bear,
And light when lifted as impassive air;
But scarce can human strength the load convey,
Or shake th’ intolerable weight away.
Swift rumour hastes nor ever wholly dies,
But borne on nations’ tongues a very goddess flies.

Thy household teach a decent heed to pay,
And well observe each Jove-appointed day.
The thirtieth of the moon inspect with care
Thy servants’ tasks and all their rations share;
What time the people to the courts repair.
These days obey the all-wise Jove’s behest:
The first new moon, the fourth, the seventh is blest:
Phœbus, on this, from mild Latona born,
The golden-sworded god, beheld the morn.
The eighth, nor less the ninth, with favouring skies,
Speeds of th’ increasing month each rustic enterprise;
And on th’ eleventh let thy flocks be shorn,
And on the twelfth be reap’d thy laughing corn:
Both days are good: yet is the twelfth confest
More fortunate, with fairer omen blest.
On this the air-suspended spider treads
In the full noon his fine and self-spun threads;
And the wise emmet, tracking dark the plain,
Heaps provident the store of gather’d grain.
On this let careful woman’s nimble hand
Throw first the shuttle and the web expand.

On the thirteenth forbear to sow the grain;
But then the plant shall not be set in vain.
The sixteenth profitless to plants is deem’d
Auspicious to the birth of men esteem’d;
But to the virgin shall unprosperous prove,
Then born to light or join’d in wedded love.

So to the birth of girls with adverse ray
The sixth appears, an unpropitious day:
But then the swain may fence his wattled fold,
And cut his kids and rams; male births shall then be bold.
This day is fond of biting gibes and lies,
And jocund tales and whisper’d sorceries.

Cut on the eighth the goat and lowing steer
And hardy mule; and when the noon shines clear,
Seek on the twenty-ninth to sow thy race,
For wise shall be the fruit of thy embrace.

The tenth propitious lends its natal ray
To men, to gentle maids the fourteenth day:
Tame too thy sheep on this auspicious morn,
And steers of flexile hoof and wreathed horn,
And labour-patient mules; and mild command
Thy sharp-tooth’d dog with smoothly flattering hand.

The fourth and twenty-fourth no grief should prey
Within thy breast, for holy either day.

Fourth of the moon lead home thy blooming bride,
And be the fittest auguries descried.
Beware the fifth, with horror fraught and wo:
’Tis said the furies walk their round below
Avenging the dread oath; whose awful birth
From discord rose, to scourge the perjured earth.

On the smooth threshing-floor, the seventeenth morn,
Observant throw the sheaves of sacred corn:
For chamber furniture the timber hew,
And blocks for ships with shaping axe subdue.

The fourth upon the stocks thy vessel lay,
Soon with light keel to skim the watery way.

The nineteenth mark among the better days
When past the fervour of the noon-tide blaze.

Harmless the ninth: ’tis good to plant the earth,
And fortunate each male and female birth.

Few know the twenty-ninth, nor heed the rules
To broach their casks, and yoke their steers and mules,
And fleet-hoof’d steeds; and on dark ocean’s way
Launch the oar’d galley; few will trust the day.

Pierce on the fourth thy cask; the fourteenth prize
As holy; and when morning paints the skies
The twenty-fourth is best; (few this have known;)
But worst of days when noon has fainter grown.

These are the days of which the careful heed
Each human enterprise will favouring speed:
Others there are, which intermediate fall,
Mark’d with no auspice and unomen’d all:
And these will some, and those will others praise,
But few are versed in mysteries of days.
In this a step-mother’s stern hate we prove,
In that the mildness of a mother’s love.

Oh fortunate the man! oh blest is he,
Who skill’d in these fulfils his ministry:
He to whose note the auguries are given,
No rite transgress’d, and void of blame to heav’n.