Page:Poetical works (IA poeticalworks00grayrich).pdf/141

Since sorrow never comes too late
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their Paradise.
No more;—where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise. 100

 

HYMN TO ADVERSITY.*

 

―Zijva―
Τὸν φρονεῖν Βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
σαντα, τῷ πάθει μαθών
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
SII. AGAM. ver. 181.

 

[This Ode, suggested by Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis, v. Aratus, ed Oxford, p. 51, translated by S. Meyrick, in Bell's Fug. Poetry, vol. xviii. p. 161.]

 

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast,

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Notes

1. sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know." And Dodsley, Old Plays, xi. p. 119:
   —"Ignorance is safe;
   I then slept happily; if knowledge mend me not,
   Thou hast committed a most cruel sin
   To wake me into judgment."
   
   
2. This Hymn first appeared in Dodsley. Col. vol. iv. together with the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard;" and not, as Mason says, with the three foregoing Odes, which were published in the second volume. In Mason's edition it is called an Ode; but the title is now restored, as it was given by the author. The motto from Æschylus is not in Dodsley.
3. V. 1. "Arn, who may be called the goddess of Adversity.