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THEOGN1S. no mind to take a part in it, and expresses liis reasons in language wherein the Epicurean vein is no less conspicuous than the touching common-sense : "I envy not these sumptuous obsequies, U The stately car, the purple canopies ;

Much better pleased am I, remaining here, 

VylVith cheaper equipage, and better cheer. A couch of thorns, or an embroidered bed, Are matters of indifference to the dead." (F.) This old-world expression of the common-place that the grave levels all distinctions is not unlike, save that it lacks the similitude of life to a river, the stanzas on " Man's Life," by a Spanish poet, Don Jorge Manrique, translated by Longfellow : " Our lives are rivers, gliding free To that unfathomed boundless sea, The silent grave ! Thither all earthy pomp and boast Roll to be swallowed up and lost In one dark wave. Thither the mighty torrents stray : Thither the brook pursues its way ; And tinkling rill. There all are equal : side by side, The poor man and the son of pride Lie calm and still." But before Theognis could give proof of this levelling change, he had a stormy career to fulfil, as we shall find in the next chapter.