third book of his Georgics, announces a resolution of rendering himself celebrated, if possible.
————tentanda via est qua me quoque possim
Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora.
I, too, will strive o’er earth my flight to raise,
And wing’d by victory, catch the gale of praise.—Sotheby.
And Horace, in the conclusion of his first Ode, expresses himself in terms which indicate a similar purpose.
Quad si me lyricis vatibis inseres,
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.
> But if you rank me with the choir,
> Who tuned with art the Grecian lyre;
> Swift to the noblest heights of fame,
> Shall rise thy poet’s deathless name.—Francis.Even Sallust, a historian, in his introduction to Catiline’s Conspiracy, scruples not to insinuate the same kind of ambition. > Quo mihi rectius videtur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere; et quoniam vita ipsa, qua fruimur, brevis