Theognis of Megara Poems

Now that in mid career, checking his force,
The bright sun pauses in his pride and force,
Let us prepare to dine; and eat and drink
The best of everything that heart can think:
...

My brain grows dizzy, whirled and overthrown
With wine: my senses are no more my own.
The ceiling and the walls are wheeling round!
But let me try! perhaps my feet are sound.
Let me retire with my remaining sense,
For fear of idle language and offence.
...

The worldly-minded and the worldly wise,
In ignorance and arrogance, despise
All talents and attainments but their own;
Wisdom is their's, they think-and their's alone.
...

Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind;
Accommodate your humour to mankind
And human nature-take it as you find!
A mixture of ingredients, good or bad,
...

The gods send Insolence, to lead astray
The man whom Fortune and the Fates betray,
Predestined to precipitate decay.
Wealth nurses Insolence, and wealth, we find,
...

Rash, angry words, and spoken out of season,
When passion has usurp'd the throne of reason,
Have ruin'd many. Passion is unjust,
And for an idle, transitory gust
Of gratified revenge, dooms us to pay
With long repentence at a later day.
...

Our state is pregnant; shortly to produce
A rude avenger of prolong'd abuse.
The commons hitherto seem sober-minded,
But their superiors are corrupt and blinded.
...

Let no persuasive art tempt you to place
Your confidence in crafty minds and base!
How can it answer? Will their help avail
When danger presses, and your foes assail?
...

Never engage with a poltroon or craven
Avoid him, Kurnus, as a treach'rous haven!
These friends and hearty comrades, as you think,
(Ready to join you, when you feast and drink),
These easy friends from difficulty shrink.
...

I walk by rule and measure, and incline
To neither side, but take an even line;
Fix'd in a single purpose and design.
With learning's happy gifts to celebrate,
To civilize and dignify the State;
Not leaguing with the discontented crew,
Nor with the proud and arbitrary few.
...