Page:Q Horati Flacci Carminum librum quintum.djvu/45

This page has been validated.

For these delights will he disgorge
The State enormous benefice,
But—by the head of either George—
He pays not twice!

Whom neither lust for public pelf
Nor itch to make orations vex—
Content to honour his own self
With his own cheques—

That man is clean. At least, his house
Springs cleanly from untainted gold—
Not from a conscience or a spouse
Sold and resold.

Time was, you say, before men knew
Such arts, and rose by Virtue guided?
The tables rock with laughter—you
Not least derided.

Rudyard Kipling.

XIV

YE moulders of musical numbers,
Serene and celestial Nine,
Awake from your perilous slumbers,
Strange enemies threaten your shrine.
Despising the joyance of living
They hold, in their haughty disdain,
That genius consists in the giving
Of infinite pain.

47