Note 167 — FIRST SECTION.
Reading edition
Cicero, Orat. pro Coelio, ch. 20., Si quis est, qui etiam meretriciis amoribus interdictum iuventuti putet, est ille quidem valde severus, negare non possum: sed abhorret non modo ab huius seculi licentia, verum etiam a maiorum consuetudine atque concessis. Quando enim factum non est? quando reprehensum, quando non permissum? (If any is found to think that young men should be forbidden to indulge simple intrigues with harlots, I can only say he is an exceedingly stern moralist, I cannot deny he is right in the abstract. But his view is opposed not merely to the free habits of the present age, but also to the usage and permitted licence of our fathers? When, I ask, has this not been done? when rebuked, when not allowed?
Horace, Sat., bk. I. 2. vv. 31-35.,
Quidam notus homo, cum exiret fornice: Macte Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis. Nam simul ac venas inflavit tetra libido, Huc iuvenes aequum est descendere; non alienas Permolere uxores.
(When a certain well-known citizen came out of a brothel, “Bravo! go on and prosper!” was the word of Cato, great and wise. For when fierce desire has swollen the veins, right it is that young men should resort hither, and not grind their neighbours’ wives),—a passage that involuntarily reminds us of the fragment of Philemon quoted above.