Two miles I go to see you; and two more
When I return; and two and two make four.
Often denied; often from home you're gone:
Are busy oft; and oft would be alone.
Two miles, to see you, give me no great pain:
Four, not to see you, go against the grain.

THE PRETTY GENIUS.

YES, you're a pretty preacher, sir, we know it; Write pretty novels, are a pretty poet;

A pretty critic, and tell fortunes too;
Then, who writes farce or epigrams like you?
At every ball how prettily you nick it!
You fiddle, sing, play prettily at cricket.
Yet, after all, in nothing you excel,
Do all things prettily, but nothing well.
What shall I call you? say the best I can,
You are, my friend, a very busy man.

CHLOE.

I COULD resign that eye of blue,

Howe'er its splendor used to thrill me;
And ev'n that cheek of roseate hue-

To lose it, Chloe, scarce would kill me.

That snowy neck I ne'er should miss,
However much I've raved about it;
And sweetly as that lip can kiss,

I think I could exist without it.

In short, so well I've learned to fast,

That sooth, my love, I know not whether

I might not bring myself at last
-To do without you altogether.

THE ONLY SURE WEALTH.

YOUR slave will with your gold abscond,
The fire your home lay low,

Your debtor will disown his bond,

Your farm no crops bestow:

Your steward a mistress frail shall cheat;
Your freighted ship the storms will beat;
That only from mischance you'll save,
Which to your friends is given;
The only wealth you'll always have
Is that you've lent to heaven.

CHLOE'S KISSES.

COME, Chloe, and give me sweet kisses,
For sweeter sure girl never gave;
But why, in the midst of my blisses,
Do you ask me how many I'd have?

I'm not to be stinted in pleasure,

Then, prithee, my charmer, be kind, For, while I love thee above measure, To numbers I'll ne'er be confined.

Count the bees that on Hybla are playing.
Count the flowers that enamel its fields;
Count the flocks that on Tempe are straying;
Or the grain that rich Sicily yields.

Go, number the stars in the heaven;
Count how many sands on the shore;
When so many kisses you've given,

I still shall be craving for more.

To a heart full of love let me hold thee,

To a heart, which, dear Chloe, is thine; With my arms I'll forever enfold thee,

And twist round thy limbs like a vine.

What joy can be greater than this is?
My life on thy lips shall be spent ;
But the wretch that can number his kisses.
With few will be ever content.

THE AUTHOR'S RECOMPENSE.

"Tis not the city only doth approve My muse, or idle ears my verses love.

The rough centurion, where cold frosts o'erspread The Scythian fields, in war my books doth read.

My lines are sung in Britain far remote;

But yet my empty purse perceives it not.

What deathless numbers from my pen would flow,
What wars would my Pierian trumpet blow,

If, as Augustus now again doth live,
So Rome to me would a Mæcenas give?

THE GIRL OF MY CHOICE.

You ask, were I to change my life,
What kind of girl I'd take to wife?
Not one who coy or easy seems,
I hate alike the two extremes;
She satiates who at first complies,
She starves my love who long denies.
The maid must not, I'd call my own,
Say "No" too oft, or "Yes" too soon.

PLINY THE YOUNGER.

PLINY the Younger was, in his writings, an imitator of Cicero, and resembled that illustrious Roman in his virtues as well as his weaknesses. Like Cicero, he was conceited and vain-glorious. As to intellectual capacity, he stood below either Cicero or his own friend Tacitus, and he knew it; but he was a clever, cultivated man of wide sympathies, who took an active part in public life, and was well acquainted with many phases of society. A rather severe recent critic has pronounced him a prig.

Caius Plinius Cæcilius Secundus was born at Comum in 61 A.D. His father, C. Cæcilius, having died, he was adopted by his uncle, Pliny the Elder, who consulted the best interests of his charge. The young man began public life as an advocate in his nineteenth year. He held in succession some of the highest offices in the state, was a favorite with the emperor Trajan, and an intimate friend of Tacitus. Though not so indefatigably industrious as his uncle, the younger Pliny was always desirous to learn, and was never happier than when surrounded by his books and papers in his country retreat. Under Nerva he began to collect and publish his

speeches, none of which have been preserved, with the exception of his panegyric on the Emperor Trajan for his own elevation to the consulate. The only works of Pliny which have reached us are his "Letters," which occupy nine books. They treat agreeably of art, literature, politics, town and country life, with here and there an anecdote of some distinguished man or woman of the time. They were written with a view to publication, and therefore have not the freshness of unpremeditated correspondence; yet a kind of modern element, both in thought and expression, makes Pliny more congenial than many earlier writers.

PLINY'S LETTER CONCERNING THE CHRISTIANS.

PLINY, while governor of Bithynia, wrote the following letter to the Emperor Trajan in 103 A.D.

It is a rule, sir, which I inviolably observe, to refer myself to you in all my doubts; for who is more capable of removing my scruples, or informing my ignorance? Having never been present at any trials concerning those persons who are Christians, I am unacquainted, not only with the nature of their crimes or the measure of their punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an examination concerning them. Whether, therefore, any difference is usually made with respect to the ages of the guilty, or no distinction is to be observed between the young and the adult; whether repentance entitles them to a pardon; or, if a man has been once a Christian, it avails nothing to desist from his error; whether the very profession of Christianity, unattended with any criminal act, or only the crimes themselves inherent in the profession, are punishable: in all these points I am greatly doubtful. In the meanwhile, the method I have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians, is this: I interrogated them whether they were Christians; if they confessed, I repeated the question twice, adding threats at the same time; and if they still persisted, I ordered them to be immediately punished. For I was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction. There were others also brought

before me possessed with the same infatuation; but being citizens of Rome, I directed that they should be conveyed thither. But this crime spreading (as is usually the case) while it was actually under prosecution, several instances of the same nature occurred. An information was presented to me without any name subscribed, containing a charge against several persons: these, upon examination, denied they were, or ever had been, Christians. They repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and frankincense before your statue (which for that purpose I had ordered to be brought, together with those of the gods), and even reviled the name of Christ; whereas it is impossible, it is said, to force those who are really Christians into any of these compliances. I thought it proper, therefore, to discharge them. Some among those who were accused by a witness in person, at first confessed themselves Christians, but immediately after denied it; the rest owned, indeed, they had been of that number formerly, but had now (some above three years ago, others more, and a few above twenty) renounced that error. They all worshiped your statue, and the images of the gods, uttering imprecations at the same time against the name of Christ. They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a certain stated day before it was light, and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ, as to some god, binding themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of any wicked design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery; never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which, it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal. From this custom, however, they desisted after the publication of my edict, by which, according to your commands, I forbade the meeting of any assemblies. In consequence of this their declaration, I judged it the more necessary to endeavor to extort the real truth, by putting two female slaves to the torture, who were said to officiate in their religious functions; but all I could discover was, that these people were actuated by an absurd and excessive superstition. I deemed it expedient, therefore, to adjourn all farther proceedings, in order to con