Part 6

Here are other lines, the origin of which is unknown:

"Scribenti mi dictat Amor, monstrat que Cupido Ah peream, sine te si Deus esse velim!"

How many modern poets have uttered the same exclamation! They little dreamed that a Pompeian, a slave no doubt, had, eighteen centuries before their time, scratched, it with a nail upon the wall of a basilica. Here is a sentence that mentions gold. It has been carried out by the English poet, Wordsworth:

"Minimum malum fit contemnendo maximum, Quod, crede mi, non contemnendo, erit minus."

Let us copy also this singular truth thrown into rhyme by some gourmand who had counted without his host:

"Quoi perna cocta est, si convivæ adponitur, Non gustat pernam, lingit ollam aut caccabum."

This quoi is for cui; the caccabus was the kettle in which the fowl was cooked.

Here follows some wholesome advice for the health of lovers:

"Quisquis amat calidis noil debet fontibus uti: Nam nemo flammis ustus amare potest."

I should never get through were I to quote them all. But how many short phrases there are that, scratched here and there, cause this old monument to spring up again, by revealing the thoughts and fancies of the loungers and passers-by who peopled it so many years ago.

A lover had written this:

"Nemo est bellus nisi qui amavit."

A friend:

"Vale, Messala, fac me ames."

A superlative wag, but incorrect withal:

"Cosmus nequitiae est magnussimae."

A learned man, or a philosopher:

"Non est exsilium ex patria sapientibus."

A complaining suitor:

"Sara non belle facis. Solum me relinquis, Debilis...."

A wrangler and disputant threatening the other party with a law-suit:

"Somius Corneilio (Cornelio) jus pendre (perendie?)"

A sceptic who cherishes no illusions as to the mode of administering justice:

"Quod pretium legi?"

A censor, perhaps a Christian, who knew the words addressed by the Jews to the blind man who was cured:

"Pyrrhus Getae conlegae salutem. Moleste fero quod audivi te mortuom (sic). Itaque vale."

A jovial wine bibber:

"Suavis vinari sitit, rogo vas valde sitit."