Thou the triumphant Castorean song,
With music that th' Æolian lyre shall make,
To which the seven harmonious chords belong,
Skill'd as thou art, with willing candour take. 125
Let witless boys extol the shape
Of the deform'd unsightly ape:
But we the lofty song of praise
To Rhadamanthus justly raise—
Clear-sighted judge! whose rigorous mind 130
With wisdom and experience fraught,
Ne'er by the mists of flattery blind,
In her seducing wiles is caught.
How often from her whisper'd lies
Inextricable evils rise! 135
To him whose lips with foxlike art
The slanderous calumnies impart;
And him who with believing ear
The tale of falsehood joys to hear.
From such deceit what good can spring? 140
Will this or fame or profit bring?
As in the fisher's watery toil,
Aloft the buoyant cork remains,
While laden with its finny spoil,
The whelming gulf his net retains. 145
So I from fear and danger free,
Float corklike on the briny sea. 147
Ne'er is a good and potent word
From lips of treacherous townsman heard.
His wiles that all alike deceive, 150
A web of endless mischief weave. [1]
Such boldness ne'er can I approve—
Still be it mine a friend to love;
But like a wolf the foe to view,
- ↑ I have here followed Heyne's emendation, αταν instead of the common reading αγαν.
ware of being misled by the arts of whispering slanderers, is sufficiently obvious.
