vxpnrsTrjXa KaraKpfjOtv xii Kapirbv oyxvai Kal poial KaifirfXiai ayXaoKctpiroi critical TtyXoictpai jccu IXcdai TTjXtBotucrai tCjv ottot' LOvou 6 yepiov liri XiP(Tl ftdaaaQai Tag 8' dvsfxoQ pi-KracKt. irori vsfea aKioevra. Or, as it is translated by Pope, " There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds, Pours out deep groans (with groans all hell resounds); Ev'n in the circling floods refreshment craves, And pines with thirst among a sea of waves ; When to the water he his lip applies, Back from his lip the treacherous water flies. Above, beneath, around his hapless head, Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread ; There figs, sky-dyed, a purple hue disclose, Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows ; There dangling pears exalting scents unfold, And yellow apples ripen into gold. The first he strives to seize ; but blasts arise, Toss it on high, and whirl it to the skies." ON SPECIAL LAWS. 375 peared, the productiveness of the trees becoming suddenlybarren ; for as those implacable and inexorable mistresses of the body, thirst and hunger, do very often strain it more, or at all events not less, than those unhappy persons are strained who are racked by the torture even to death, unless when they have become violent some one appeases them with meat and drink ; in like manner, covetous desire, having first rendered the soul empty through its forgetfulness of what is present and its recollection of what is removed to a great distance, fills it with impetuosity and madness, and introduces into it masters worse than even its former tyrants, but having the same names with them, namely, hunger and thirst, not, however, now of those things which eonduce to the enjoyment of the belly, but of money, and glory, and authority, and beauty, and of innumerable other things which appear to be objects of desire and contention in human life. And as the disease which the physicians call the herpes,* does not stop in one part of the body, but moves about and overruns the skin, and, as its name shows, creeps about {hteomt), and becomes diffused in every direction, and spreading widely seizes hold of and infects with its contact the whole combination of the different parts of the body from the head to the feet, so in the same manner does covetous desire spread over the whole soul, and leave not even the smallest portion of it free from its inroads, imitating the power of fire when supplied with abundant fuel, for that spreads and burns away till it has devoured and destroyed everything with which it meets.