So soon hath Asiaticus
 The gift of eloquence achieved?
 It was in Thebes it happened thus,
 The story well may be believed.

Ammianus.

XI. 151

The statue of an advocate, as like as like can be.
 And why? The statue cannot speak a word, no more could he.

Anon.

XI. 152

Paul, dost thou wish to make thy boy
 An advocate like these his betters?
 Then let him not his time employ
 To useless ends in learning letters.

Ammianus.

XI. 251

The parties were as deaf as deaf could be,
 The judge was far the deafest of the three.
 Said plaintiff, "Sir, I ask for five months' rent."
 Defendant, "Grinding corn all night I spent."
 "Why," quoth the judge, "dispute? Your mother's claim
 Is good, and you must both support the dame."

Nicarchus.

XI. 350

Remember justice and her yoke, and know
 That 'gainst the wicked votes of "Guilty" go.
 Thou trustest in thy cunning speech, thy power
 Of speaking words that vary with the hour.
 Hope what thou wilt, thy trifling tricks are vain,
 Thou canst not make the path of law less plain.

Agathias.

XI. 376

Once to Diodorus came a client in a state of doubt,
 And to that most learned counsel thus he set the matter out:
 "Alpha Beta found a slave-girl who had run away from me:
 To a slave of his he wed her, though she was my property,
 Well he knew she was my chattel; she has had a child or two;
 Now I cannot tell for certain whose the children are, can you?"
 Diodorus thought, consulted all authorities on "Slave,"
 To his client turned his furrowed brows and slowly answer gave:
 "'Tis to you or to the other who, you say, has done you wrong,
 That the children of the handmaid rightfully of course belong,
 Your best plan will be the matter in the proper court to place,
 So you'll get a good opinion whether you have any case."

Agathias.

Plan, 193

"Good Hermes, only just one cabbage plant."
 "Stop, stop, my thieving traveller, you can't."
 "What, grudge me one poor cabbage! is it so?"
 "Nay, I don't grudge it, but the law says no.
 The law says, Keep your itching palms, d'ye see,
 From meddling with another's property."
 "Well, this beats anything I ever saw!
 Hermes against a thief invokes the law."

Philippus.

Appendix, 385

Pupils seven of Aristides,
 Tell me, how are ye?
 Four of you are walls, beside is
 Nought but benches three.

Another Version

Seven pupils of the rhetor
 Aristides, how are ye?
 Seven! Hoc et nihil præter,
 Four are walls and benches three.

Anon.

MARTIAL

In Caium

"Lend me sestertia, Caius, only twenty,
 'Tis no great thing for you who roll in plenty."
 He was an old companion, and his coffers
 Were full enough to stand such friendly offers.
 "Go, plead in court," said he; "'tis pleadings pay us."
 "I want your money, not your counsel, Caius."

Martial, ii. 30.

In Causidicum

'Tis said that some bold advocate
 Has dared to criticise my poem,
 His name I have not learned, his fate
 Will be a warning when I know him.

Martial, v. 33.

In Postumum Causidicum

No claim for trespass do I bring,
 Or homicide, or poisoning.
 I claim that by my neighbour's theft
 Of she-goats three I was bereft.
 The judge of course wants evidence,
 But you go wandering far from thence,
 And with a mighty voice declaim
 Of Mithridates and the shame
 Of Cannæ, and the lies of old
 That Punic politicians told.
 And why should you pass Sylla by,
 The Marii and Mucii?
 When, Postumus, d'ye hope to reach
 My stolen she-goats in your speech?

Martial, vi. 19.

In Cinnam

Is this advocacy, Cinna, this a type of lawyers' powers,
 This immense oration, Cinna, some nine words in some ten hours?
 Waterclocks I grant you asked for, Cinna, yes, you called for four;
 There you stopped, such wealth of silence, Cinna, ne'er was seen before.

Martial, viii. 7.

THE COURT OF REASON

A thousand doubts and pleadings in a day
 Are filed in Empress Reason's court supreme
 By angry Love—his eyes with anger gleam.
 "Which of us twain hath been more faithful, say.
 'Tis all through me that Cino can display
 The sail of fame on life's unhappy stream."
 "Thee," quoth I, "root of all my woe I deem,
 I found what gall beneath thy sweetness lay."
 Then he: "Ah, traitorous and truant slave!
 Are these the thanks thou renderest, ingrate,
 For giving thee a maid without a peer?"
 "Thy left," cried I, "slew what thy right hand gave."
 "Not so," said he. The judge, "Your wrath abate.
 I must have time to give true judgment here."

Cino da Pistoia.

[Imitated by Petrarch in the conclusion of the Canzone, Quell' antico mio dolce empio signore.]

TO ROME

Tell me, proud Rome, why dost these edicts read,
 These many laws by prince or people made,
 Or answers by the prudent duly weighed,
 When now thou canst the world no longer lead?
 Thou readest, sad one, of each ancient deed
 Where thy unconquered sons their might displayed,
 Afric and Egypt at thy feet were laid,
 But slavery, not rule, is now thy meed.
 What boots it that thou wast of old a queen,
 And over foreign nations heldest rein,
 If thou and all thy fame no more exist?
 Forgive me, God, if all my days have been
 Devoted to man's laws, unjust and vain
 Unless Thy law within the heart be fixed.

Cino da Pistoia.

JUSTICE

Ah! justice is a virtue bepraised and full of worth,
 It castigates the sinner, and peoples all the earth,
 And kings with care should guard it—instead they now forget
 The gem that is most precious in all the coronet.
 Some think they may do justice by cruelty, I wist;
 But 'tis an evil counsel, for justice must consist
 In showing deeds of mercy, in knowledge of the truth,
 And executing judgment it executes with ruth.

Pedro Lopez de Ayala.

THE POET AND THE ADVOCATE

Glory and gain thus mixed distract the thought,
 We owe to honour all, to fortune nought;
 The poet, like the soldier, scorns for pay
 Peruvian gold, but seeks the wreath of bay.
 How is the advocate the poet's peer?
 The poet's glory is complete and clear;
 He far outlives the advocate's renown,
 Patru is e'en by Scarron's name weighed down.
 The bar of Greece and Rome you point me out,
 A bar that trained great men, I do not doubt,
 For then chicane with language void of sense
 Had not deformed the law and eloquence.
 Purge the tribune of all this monstrous growth,
 I mount it, and my soul will sink, though loth,
 Will yield to fortune and will speak in prose.
 But since reform in this so slowly grows,
 Leave me my tastes, for I aspire to be
 By verse ennobled to posterity,
 To hold first place in arts above the law,
 More grave and noble than it ever saw.
 Fraud in this age of ours unpunished can
 Tread down the equity so dear to man.
 Can you for spirits just and generous find
 A fairer cause to plead before mankind?
 Mother or stepmother let Fortune be,
 The theatre and not the bar for me;
 For client virtue, truth for counsel's wage;
 For judge the present and the coming age.

Piron, La Métromanie, Act iii. Sc. 7.

MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.