And took his earth but from an humble maid;
Then what can birth, or mortal men, bestow, Since floods no bigher than their fountains flow?
389 We, who for name and empty honor strive, Our true nobility from him derive. Your ancestors, who puff your mind with pride,
And vast estates to mighty titles tied,
Did not your honor, but their own advance;
For virtue comes not by inheritance.
If you tralineate from your father's mind,
What are you else but of a bastard kind ?
Do as your great progenitors have done,
And, by their virtues, prove yourself their
No father can infuse or wit or grace;
A mother comes across, and mars the race.
A grandsire or a grandame taints the blood,
And seldom three descents continue good.
Were virtue by descent, a noble name
Could never villanize his father's fame;
But, as the first, the last of all the line
Would, like the sun, ev'n in descending
shine.
Take fire, and bear it to the darkest house,
Betwixt King Arthur's court and Caucasus;
If you depart, the flame shall still remain, 410
And the bright blaze enlighten all the plain;
Nor, till the fuel perish, can decay,
By nature form'd on things combustible to
That, tho' my homely ancestors were rude,
Mean as I am, yet I may have the grace
To make you father of a generous race;
And noble then am I, when I begin,
In virtue cloth'd, to cast the rags of sin.
If poverty be my upbraided crime,
And you believe in Heav'n, there was a time
When he, the great controller of our fate, 460
Deign'd to be man, and liv'd in low estate:
Which he who had the world at his dispose,
If poverty were vice, would never choose.
Philosophers have said, and poets sing,
That a glad poverty 's an honest thing.
Content is wealth, the riches of the mind;
And happy he who can that treasure find.
But the base miser starves amidst his
store,
Broods on his gold, and, griping still at
Temptations are in beauty, and in youth, And how can you depend upon my truth? Now weigh the danger with the doubtful bliss,
And thank yourself, if aught should fall amiss."
Sore sigh'd the knight, who this long sermon heard;
At length, considering all, his heart he cheer'd,
And thus replied: "My lady, and my wife, To your wise conduct I resign my life: Choose you for me, for well you under
The future good and ill, on either hand. But if an humble husband may request, Provide, and order all things for the best; Yours be the care to profit, and to please; And let your subject-servant take his ease.”
and natural philosophy of Pythagoras: on both which our author enlarges; and which are the most learned and beautiful parts of the whole Metamorphoses.
A KING is sought to guide the growing state,
One able to support the public weight, And fill the throne where Romulus had sate.
Renown, which oft bespeaks the public voice,
Had recommended Numa to their choice:
A peaceful, pious prince; who, not content
To know the Sabine rites, his study bent
To cultivate his mind; to learn the laws
Of nature, and explore their hidden cause.
Urg'd by this care, his country he forsook,
And to Crotona thence his journey took. 11
Arriv'd, he first enquir'd the founder's
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