AMYNTAS.
101
Or possibly himself may come this way.
THYRSIS.
I'll willingly be more particular.
For such ingratitude should not escape
Without it's recompense of infamy.
[1]Ingratitude! that bold, licentious monster,
That tramples on the tenderest rights of man!
The fiend stalks impudently in the sunshine;
It plumes itself on it's unpunished treason;
It is not hunted down by human laws;
Therefore the heart's tribunal should arraign it:
It calls, at least, for virtue's detestation;
I'll willingly be more particular.
For such ingratitude should not escape
Without it's recompense of infamy.
[1]Ingratitude! that bold, licentious monster,
That tramples on the tenderest rights of man!
The fiend stalks impudently in the sunshine;
It plumes itself on it's unpunished treason;
It is not hunted down by human laws;
Therefore the heart's tribunal should arraign it:
It calls, at least, for virtue's detestation;
- ↑ These lines recall to my mind a passage in Xenophon, the quotation of which may be agreeable to the reader.
The Persians take rigid cognizance of the charge of ingratitude, a crime which renders a man extremely odious; yet not in any country but Persia is it comprehended in the animadversion of the laws. For the Persian who returns not a good office, when he has it in his power, is most severely punished. They conclude that the ungrateful man must pay no regard to his friends, to his relations, to his parents, to his country, or to the gods. Besides, they think he must immediately become impudent in consequence of his ingratitude; and impudence they deem the forerunner of all vice, and profligacy. Cyropædia, Book I.
And
