TO THE READER.
HOPE the reader will forgive the liberty I have taken in translating thefe Verfes fomewhat at large, without which it would have been almost impoffible to have given any kind of turn in English poetry to so dry a fubject. The fenfe of the Author is, I hope, no where mistaken; and if there feems in fome places to be fome additions in the English verfes to the Greek text, they are only fuch as may be juftified from Hierocles's, Commentary, and delivered by him as the larger and explained fenfe of the Author's fhort precept. I have in fome few places ventured to differ from the learned Mr Dacier's French interpretation, as those that shall give themselves the trouble of a ftrict comparison will find. How far I am in the right, is left to the reader to determine.
When fools and lyars labour to perfuade,
Be dumb, and let the babblers vainly plead.
This above all, this precept chiefly learn,
This nearly does, and first, thyself concern;
Let not example, let no foothing tongue,
Prevail upon thee with a Syren's fong,
To do thy foul's immortal effence wrong,
Of good and ill by words or deeds expreft,
Choose for thyfelf, and always choose the best.
Let wary thought each enterprize forerun,
And ponder on thy task before begun,
Left folly should the wretched work deface,
And mock thy fruitless labours with disgrace.
Fools huddle on, and always are in haste,
A&t without thought, and thoughtless words they waste.
But thou, in all thou doft, with early cares
Strive to prevent at first a fate like theirs ;
That forrow on the end may never wait,
Nor fharp repentance make thee wife too late.
Beware thy meddling hand in aught to try,
That does beyond thy reach of knowledge lie;
But feek to know, and bend thy ferious thought
To search the profitable knowledge out.
So joys on joys for ever shall increase,
Wisdom fhall crown thy labours, and fhall blefs
Thy life with pleasure, and thy end with peace.
Nor let the body want its part, but share
A juft proportion of thy tender care :
For health and welfare prudently provide,
And let its lawful wants be all fupply'd.
Let fober draughts refresh, and wholesome fare
Decaying nature's wafted force repair;
And fprightly exercise the duller fpirits chear.
In all things still which to this care belong,
Obferve this rule, to guard thy foul from wrong. 95
By virtuous ufe thy life and manners frame,
Manly and fimply pure, and free from blame.
Provoke not envy's deadly rage, but fly
The glancing curfe of her malicious eye.
Seek not in needlefs luxury to waste
Thy wealth and substance with a spendthrift's haste.
Yet flying these, be watchful, left thy mind,
Prone to extremes, an equal danger find,
And be to fordid avarice inclin'd.
Distant alike from each, to neither lean,
But ever keep the happy Golden Mean.
Be careful still to guard thy foul from wrong,
And let thy thought prevent thy hand and tongue.
Let not the stealing God of Sleep furprize,
in flumbers on thy weary eyes, Ere every action of the former day
Strictly thou doft and righteously survey.
With reverence at thy own tribunal stand,
And anfwer juftly to thy own demand.
Where have I been? In what have I trangrefs'd? 115 What good or ill has this day's life express'd?
Where have I fail'd in what I ought to do?
In what to God, to man, or to myself I owe?
Inquire fevere what-e'er from first to last,
From morning's dawn, till evening's gloom,has paft. 120
If evil were thy deeds, repenting mourn,
And let thy foul with ftrong remorse be torn.
If good, the good with peace of mind repay,
And to thy fecret felf with pleafure fay,
Rejoice, my heart, for all went well to-day.
Thefe thoughts, and chiefly these thy mind should
Employ thy ftudy, and engage thy love.
These are the rules which will to Virtue lead,
And teach thy feet her heavenly paths to tread.
This by his name I fwear, whofe facred lore
First to mankind explain'd the myftic Four,
Source of eternal nature and almighty power.
In all thou dost firft let thy prayers afcend,
And to thy gods thy labours first commend:
From them implore fuccefs, and hope a profperous end.
So fhall thy abler mind be taught to foar,
And wifdom in her fecret ways explore;
To range through heaven above and earth below,
Immortal gods and mortal men to know.
So fhalt thou learn what power does all control,
What bounds the parts, and what unites the whole :
And rightly judge, in all this wondrous frame,
How univerfal Nature is the fame;
So fhalt thou ne'er thy vain affections place
On hopes of what shall never come to pass.
Man, wretched inan, thou shalt be taught to know, Who bears within himself the inborn caufe of woe. Unhappy race! that never yet could tell,
How near their good and happiness they dwell.
Depriv'd of sense, they neither hear nor fee;
Fetter'd in vice, they feek not to be free,
But ftupid, to their own fad fate agree:
Like ponderous rolling-ftones, opprefs'd with ill,
The weight that loads them makes them roll on still,
Bereft of choice and freedom of the will;
For native ftrife in every bofom reigns,
And fecretly an impious war maintains:
Provoke not this, but let the combat ceafe,
And every yielding paffion fue for peace.
Would't thou, great Jove,thou father of mankind,
Reveal the Dæmon for that talk affign'd,
The wretched race an end of woes would find,
And yet be bold, O man, divine thou art,
And of the gods celeftial effence part.
Nor facred nature is from thee conceal'd,
But to thy race her myftic rules reveal`d.
Thefe if to know thou happily attain,
Soon fhalt thou perfect be in all that I ordain.
Thy wounded foul to health thou shalt restore,
And free from every pain fhe felt before.
Abstain, I warn, from meats unclean and foul,
So keep thy body pure, fo free thy foul;
So rightly judge; thy reafon fo maintain;
Reafon which heaven did for thy guide ordain,
Let that beft reafon ever hold the rein.
Then if this mortal body thou forfake,
And thy glad flight to the pure æther take,
Among the gods exalted halt thou shine,
Immortal, incorruptible, divine:
The tyrant death fecurely fhalt thou brave,
And fcorn the dark dominion of the grave,
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