But, weighing justly a mortal ant's condition, In thy vast barns millions of quarters store; And to augment your own you need not strive; Your life's whole business, than ten thousand, do. To some great river for it must you go, When a clear spring just at your feet does flow? And of the rapid stream itself, which may, He catches at the stream with greedy lips, PARAPHRASE ON HORACE, B. III. ODE XVI. A TOWER of brass, one would have said, And locks, and bolts, and iron bars, And guards, as strict as in the heat of wars, Might have preserved one innocent maidenhead. The jealous father thought he well might spare All further jealous care; And, as he walk'd, to' himself alone he smiled, To think how Venus' arts he had beguiled; And, when he slept, his rest was deep: But Venus laugh'd to see and hear him sleep. She taught the amorous Jove A magical receipt in love, Which arm'd him stronger, and which help'd him more, [before. Than all his thunder did, and his almightyship, She taught him love's elixir, by which art No guards did then his passage stay, To blow up towns, a golden mine did spring. The ensign 'tis at land, and 'tis the seaman's star. Let all the world slave to this tyrant be, Yet it shall never conquer me. A guard of virtues will not let it pass, And wisdom is a tower of stronger brass. As in the violent meteor's way to lie. Wealth for its power do we honour and adore? The things we hate, ill-fate, and death, have more. From towns and courts, camps of the rich and great, Which hold the straits of poverty. With all the bounteous summer's store, Slaves to the things we too much prize, That more than this falls to his share. To him who much desires. Thrice happy he VIII. THE DANGERS OF AN HONEST MAN IN MUCH COMPANY. IF twenty thousand naked Americans were not able to resist the assaults of but twenty wellarmed Spaniards, I see little possibility for one honest man to defend himself against twenty thousand knaves who are all furnished cap-à-pié, with the defensive arms of worldly prudence, and the offensive too of craft and malice. He will find no less odds than this against him, if he have much to do in human affairs. The only advice therefore which I can give him is, to be sure not to venture his person any longer in the open campaign, to retreat and entrench himself, to stop up all avenues, and draw up all bridges, against so numerous an enemy. The truth of it is, that a man in much business must either make himself a knave, or else the world will make him a fool: and, if the injury went no farther than the being laughed at, a wise man would content himself with the revenge of retaliation: but the case is much worse; for these civil cannibals too, as well as the wild ones, not only dance about such a taken stranger, but at last devour him. A sober man cannot get too soon out of drunken company, though they be never so kind and merry among themselves; it is not unpleasant only, but dangerous, to him. Do ye wonder that a virtuous man should love to be alone? It is hard for him to be otherwise; he is so, when he is among ten thousand: neither is the solitude so uncomfortable to be alone without any other creature, as it is to be alone in the midst of wild beasts. Man is to man all kind of beasts; a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture. The civilest, methinks, of all nations are those whom we account the most barbarous; there is some |