The vindication of Pope from the charge of borrowing his well-known
sentiment--"_Worth_ makes a man," &c.--from Petronius, is not so
completely made out by "P.C.S.S." as it might be; for surely there is a
sufficient similitude of idea, if not of expression, between the couplet
of Pope and the sentence of Petronius, as given in all four of the
translations cited by him (No. 23. p. 362.)--"The _heart_ makes the
man," &c.--to warrant a notion that the one was suggested by the other.
But the surmise of plagiarism originates in a misconception of the terms
employed by the Latin author--_virtus_, _frugalitas_, and more
especially _corcillum_,--which have been misunderstood by every one of
these translators. _Virtus_ is applied to mental as well as bodily
superiority (_Cic. Fin._ v. 13.).--The sense in which _frugalitas_ is
employed by Petronius may be collected from a preceding passage in the
same chapter, where Trimalchio calls his pet _puerum frugalissimum_--a
very _clever_ lad--as he explains the epithet by adding that "he can
read at sight, repeat from memory, cast up accounts, and turn a penny to
his own profit." _Corcillum_ is a diminutive of _corculum_ (like
_oscillum_, from _osculum_), itself a diminutive of _cor_, which word,
though commonly put for "the heart," is also used by the best authors,
Lucretius, Horace, Terence, &c, in the same sense as our _wit_,
_wisdom_, _intellect_. The entire passage, if correctly translated,
might then be expressed as follows:

"The time has been, my friends, when I myself was no better off
than you are; but I gained my present position solely by my own
talents (_virtute_). Wit (_corcillum_) makes the man--(or,
literally, It is wisdom that makes men of us)--everything else
is worthless lumber. I buy in the cheapest and sell in the
dearest market. But, as I said before, my own shrewdness