Page:Q Horati Flacci Carminum librum quintum.djvu/66

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games, gnaw at them hesitatingly and they cherish strength destined to push aside their strengths.

Smaller men pretend to seek larger things which, not being found, they sit down like doctors to measure spirits descending into profound earth and, spotted all over, none the less elevating all things towards the breath of morning. But these persons labour like dumb stars or rivers or ages with mouths hardly opened, revealing the council of Gods not of mankind. Having gained anything they do not beg for triumphs nor, being lost, consider themselves excused. The images having been drawn into the city, it is of no interest whether those pulling shall have been rewarded by death or thin white money. Moreover, if the temples remain, why are you or I ashamed or proud that we had been either imprisoned or set upon a throne before taciturn thresholds?

FINIS.