The general tenor of the closing lines recalls Horace's
treatment
of
the same theme in _Sat.
the same theme in _Sat.
John Donne
_Communitie_, p. 33, ll. 20-1.
PAGE =154=, l. 107. _meanes blesse_. The reading of _1633_ has the
support of the best MSS. Grosart and Chambers prefer the reading of
the later editions, 'Meane's blest. ' This, it would seem to me, needs
the definite article. The other reading gives quite the same sense,
'in all things means (i. e. middle ways, moderate measures) bring
blessings':
Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Horace, _Odes_, ii. 10.
The general tenor of the closing lines recalls Horace's treatment of
the same theme in _Sat. _ ii. 2. 88, 125, more than either Juvenal,
_Sat. _ ix, or Persius, _Sat. _ vi.
Grosart states that 'means, then as now, meant riches, possessions,
but never the mean or middle'. But see O. E. D. , which quotes for the
plural in this sense: 'Tempering goodly well Their contrary dislikes
with loved means. ' Spenser, _Hymns_. In the singular Bacon has, 'But
to speake in a Meane. ' _Of Adversitie_.
PAGE =154=. SATYRE III.
