If any strive to injure, or defame
Your honour, filching from you your good name;
Consider, he believes this blame your due,
...
I.
Great Epictetus, pardon if we praise!
'Tis not thy character to raise:
The top of all fame's pyramid is thine,
...
If then thou dost desire such things as these,
If thou wouldst tread these flow'ry ways of peace,
Remember that with fervency and care,
...
In ev'ry thing thou undertak'st, 'tis fit
Thou in true judgement's scales examine it;
Weigh ev'ry circumstance, each consequence,
...
When you have ought to do, or are to treat
With persons whose authority is great,
Let Socrates and Zeno shew you how,
...
These things before-hand to yourself propose,
When you're about to visit one of those,
Who are call'd great; perhaps he's not within,
...
Boast not in company of what you've done,
What battles you have fought, what hazards run;
How first at such a siege of such a town,
...
'Tis but a sorry sort of praise to be
A droll, the jester of each company,
A raiser of loud laughter, a buffoon,
...
You make yourself contemptible and mean,
A member of the rabble, if obscene
In conversation; wherefore when you find
...
As walking you tread warily, for fear
You strain your leg, or lest some nail should tear
Your feet, let the like caution be your guide,
...