_Read the Passage carefully._--Notice as you read the many allusions and key-words in the passage, _e.g._ +Acherontis+, +Pana+, +Silvanum+, +Nymphas+, +Dacus ab Istro+, +res Romanae+, +rerum causas+, and +populi fasces+. These, taken in connection with the main predicates +felix+, +fortunatus+, +non flexit+, +neque doluit+, +aut invidit+, will readily suggest to you the main thought of the passage:--
_Happy is Nature’s bard who knows and fears not: happy he too who knows the gods of the country. He is not distressed by ambition, nor wars, nor pain, nor envy._
+Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subiecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!+
+inexorabile+ = _relentless_; lit. _that cannot be moved by entreaty_. +in+ (_not_) + +ex+ (_easily_) + +orabilis+ (_entreated_).
For +oro+ cf. +ōs+ = _mouth_; +orator+ = _speaker_; +oratio+ = _speech_.
+fatum+ = _fate_, _i.e._ of _death_, as the common lot of all men, the decree of nature.
+fatum+ = _that which is said_, espec. prophetically. √+fa+, φα. Cf. +for+ (+fā-ri+), _speak_; +fā-ma+, _report_; +fā-bula+, _a story_; +in-fans+, _that cannot speak_; +fā-cundus+, _eloquent_.
+strepitum+ = _roar_; lit. a wild, confused noise, din of any kind; cf. _obstreperous_.
+Acherontis+ = _Acheron_ = (a) a river in the Lower World; (b) the Lower World itself. Perh. +Acheron+ = ὁ ἄχεα ῥέων = the stream of woe; cf. Κωκυτός = _Cocytus_, river of _wailing_.
(ii.) _Translation._-- You cannot be in doubt about the principal subject and predicate. +Felix+ is the only word outside the subordinate clause from +qui ... avari+. The sense, too, of these lines is clear, so you may translate at once; but you must take special care to use dignified and appropriate language:--
_Happy the man who has availed to know the causes of things, and so trampled under foot all fears and fate’s relentless decree, and the roar of insatiate Acheron._
+Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, Silvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores!+
+agrestes+ = _of the country_; cf. +ager+ (ἀγρός), +agrarius+, _agrarian_; +peragro+ (+per + ager+), _travel over_. Perhaps to be traced to the same root as +ag-o+ = _drive_, +ager+ and ἀγρός being so named +a pecore agendo+ (cf. Germ. +trift+ = _pasturage_, +treiben+ = _drive_).