on, of the truth of which I shall give no other
proof than the last lines of an elegy, written by Samazarius,
a Neapolitan gentleman." The sense of which in English runs thus.

Since vig'rous youth, all blooming, brisk, and gay,
Excites our tender souls to sport and play,
Let's taste ambrosial pleasures while we may.
Those joys to which our souls are most inclin'd,
And suit the throbbing passions of the mind.
Let's love while soft ecstatic fires engage,
And shew us lovers on the world's great stage,
Dull reason only suits with frightful age.
And see, she comes, for ever to destroy,
For ever all our bliss, and all our joy.
Unwelcome age comes on with swiftest pace;
Let's then prevent this wretched sad disgrace.
O may the terrors of approaching fate,
Excite new fires, inspire fresh vig'rous heat;
That love may sov'reign reign in ev'ry part,
And drive unworthy weakness from our heart.
Thrice happy, if surpriz'd by death one day,
Absorpt in sweetest bliss we die away.

But to return to my subject. We are told for certain, that the Scythians
used to drink out of a skull; and probably they had the same design in
doing so as the Egyptians had in looking on their skeletons. But leaving
these objects, which cannot be very diverting, in what view soever one
may consider them, let us come to the Romans. Gruter tells us in his
Inscriptions[8], that they used to cry out at their feasts,

AMICI,
DUM VIVIMUS,
VIVAMUS.

That is, "Friends, while we live, let us be merry." For Raderus has
evidently made it appear, by several examples out of Catullus, Cecilius,
Varro, Anacreon, and other ancient authors, that _vivere_, or _to live_,
signifies to make merry, to give one's self up to all kinds of
pleasures, making good cheer, &c.

I know not whether the Gascogns, who pronouncing the _V_ consonant like
_B_, instead of VIVIS _et regnas in secula seculorum_, say (as I have
been informed, how true it is I know not) BIBIS _et regnas in secula
seculorum_, are of the same sentiment with Raderus in this point: but
very probably that good honest German was, who in a kind of ecstasy over
a bottle cry'd out,

O felices populi, quorum _vivere_ est _bibere_!

However, to prove this, as also at the same time to confirm what has
been said above, in relation to the motives that induced people of old
times to make merry, I shall instance some passages of the ancients. But
first let