he tale is true.
She says you saw her earliest birth
Upon your nursing mountain-earth,

She dipped her blades, a maiden launch,
First in your waves, and bent her course
Thence, ever to her master staunch,
Through seas that plied their utmost force.
If right or left the breeze did strike,
Or gentle Jove did strain alike,

Each sheet before the wind. She came
From that remotest ocean-spot
To this clear inlet, still the same,
And yet audaciously forgot
The bribes which, under doubtful skies,
Are vowed to sea-side deities.

Her deeds are done, her tale is told,
For those were feats of bygone strength;
In secret peace she now grows old,
And dedicates herself at length,
Twin-brother Castor, at thy shrine,
And Castor's brother twin, at thine.

GRATIAN.--Hand me the book. I thought so--that "audaciously forgot" is
your audacious interpolation. She does not forget her vows, for she
never made any. You bring her back, good Master Curate, not a little in
the sulks, like a runaway wife, that had forgotten her vows, and
remembered all her audacity. We see her reluctantly taken in
tow--looking like a profligate, weary, and voyage worn, buffeted and
beaten by more storms than she likes to tell of. You must alter
audaciously.

AQUILIUS.--And I object to bribes; it is a satire upon the underwriters.

CURATE.--The underwriters?

AQUILIUS.--Yes, the "Littoralibus Diis;" what were they but an insurance
company, with their chief temple, some Roman "Lloyd's," and offices in
every sea-port?

CURATE.--Or perhaps the "Littoralibus Diis," referred to a
"coast-guard."

GRATIAN.--Worse and worse, for that would imply that they took bribes,
and that she was an old smuggler. Keep to the original, and if you will
modernize Catullus, you must merely say, she was so safe a boat that the
owner did not think it worth while to insure.

CURATE.--The learned themselves dispute as to the identity of the "Dii
Littorales." In the notes, I find they are said to be Glaucus, Nereus,
Melicerta, Neptune, Thetis, and others; but in the notes to Statius, you
will find Gevartius bids the aforesaid learned tell that to the marines.
He knows better. I remember his words,--"Sed male illi marinos et
littorales deos confundunt. Littorales enim potissimum Dii Caelestes
erant, Pallas, Apollo, Hercules, &c., unde illi potius apud Catullum
sunt intelligendi."

GRATIAN.--She might have been doubly ins