For thee in gratitude is wove
The garland of a people's love;
Then still let bless'd Cyrene share
Thy kind and persevering care. 492
Now, monarch, with attentive ear500
This maxim of the poet hear;[1]
A virtuous messenger will crown
Each action with supreme renown;
And thus will to the muse accrue
Praise from the herald's message true.505
Long time through fair Cyrene's town
Has just Demophilus been known;
And Battus' glorious house confess'd
The graces of his spotless breast.
Ere yet complete youth's narrow span,510
Among the boys he shone a man:
In solemn counsel he appears
The Nestor of a hundred years:
Slander's free tongue he bids be mute,
His virtues all her tales confute: 504515
Taught the base railer to abhor,
And with the good to wage no war;
Protracting naught by slow delay,
For short with man occasion's stay.
Well can he seize the fitting hour,[2]520
No slave to wayward fortune's power.
The heaviest this of human woes,
That he who each fair blessing knows,
Bound by necessity's strong chain,
Must his encumber'd foot restrain.525
Like Atlas, tottering with the weight
