And the dark jealous mind annoy
That hears with pain another's joy.
But unsubdued by envious hate, [1] 170
(For pity were a lower state,)
Still be thine honest actions sung;
With steady hand direct the helm,
Protector of the peopled realm,
And on truth's whetstone edge thy tongue. 168
For know, a fault of lightest blame [2] 176
Would brand a king with flagrant shame.
Since be thy bearing good or ill,
Unnumber'd eyes survey thee still.
Then tarnish not thy generous mind, 180
If thy delighted ear rejoice
In honest fame's applauding voice,
Be all thy bounties unconfined.
Like the skill'd pilot, spread thy sail
Before the free and liberal gale. 177 185
Nor, friend, let flattery's specious wile
Thy better judgment e'er beguile.
When life's brief span is past away,
And closed the transitory scene,
The storied page or poet's lay 190
Declares how bright that life has been.
Still Crœsus' philanthropic virtue lives;
While Phalaris, who made his victims flame
Within the brazen bull's ignited frame,
To everlasting infamy survives: 195
- ↑ That is, as the scholiast explains the passage, you had better be praised for your virtues than pitied for your vices or bad actions.
- ↑ A similar sentiment occurs in Fletcher's Thierry and Theodoret, (act i., sc. 1.), where the Prince of Austracia says of royal delinquents,
"The sins we do people behold through optics,
Which show them ten times more than common vices,
And often multiply them."
