IN YOUTH AND PROSPERITY. 135

pursuits more congenial to his vocation and intellec- tual cultivation, as is seen in his apparently early thirst for knowledge, and discovery, that suck thirst does not admit of thorough satisfaction : " Learning and wealth the wise and wealthy find Inadequate to satisfy the mind A craving eagerness remains behind ; Something is left for which we cannot rest, ) And the last something always seems the best Something unknown, or something unpossest." (F.) ) One who could give vent to such a sentiment may be supposed to have laid up in youth a store of the best learning attainable j and the bent of his talents, which was towards vocal and instrumental music and com- pMsition of elegies, was so successfully followed that in time of need he was able to turn it to means of sub- sistence. Indeed, that he knew what was really the real secret of success in a concert or a feast is seen in a remark which he addressed to a certain Simonides (whom there is no reason to identify with the famous poet), recommending lt Inoffensive, easy merriment, Like a good concert, keeping time and measure ; Such entertainments give the truest pleasure." (F.) ]3jjiui the poet was able to preserve the health which he besought the gods to grant him, ill spite of what we should call hard living, ty. RTO ]n'nt.s in his poetry that the "peace " which he coupled with it did not bless him uninterruptedly. OLII one of his earlier elegiac fragments theia.ls_fl hint of a youthful passion,