Book II
THE FLIGHT OF POMPEIUS
41
'Shall launch itself on thee, for who, when faint
'And wounded, would not rush upon thy sword,
'Take thence his death, and make the murder thine?
'Do thou live on thy peaceful life apart 300
'As on their paths the stars unshaken roll.
'The lower air that verges on the earth
'Gives flame and fury to the levin bolt;
'The deeps below the world engulph the winds
'And tracts of flaming fire. By Jove's decree
'Olympus rears his summit o'er the clouds:
'In lowlier valleys storms and winds contend,
'But peace eternal reigns upon the heights.
'What joy for Cæsar, if the tidings come
'That such a citizen has joined the war? 310
'Glad would he see thee e'en in Magnus' tents;
'For Cato's conduct shall approve his own.
'Pompeius, with the Consul in his ranks,
'And half the Senate and the other chiefs,
'Vexes my spirit; and should Cato too
'Bend to a master's yoke, in all the world
'The one man free is Cæsar. But if thou
'For freedom and thy country's laws alone
'Be pleased to raise the sword, nor Magnus then
'Nor Cæsar shall in Brutus find a foe. 320
'Not till the fight is fought shall Brutus strike,
'Then strike the victor.'
Brutus thus; but spake
Cato from inmost breast these sacred words:
'Chief in all wickedness is civil war,
'Yet virtue in the paths marked out by fate
'Treads on securely. Heaven's will be the crime
'To have made even Cato guilty. Who has strength
'To gaze unawed upon a toppling world?
'When stars and sky fall headlong, and when earth
'Slips from her base, who sits with folded hands? 330
'And wounded, would not rush upon thy sword,
'Take thence his death, and make the murder thine?
'Do thou live on thy peaceful life apart 300
'As on their paths the stars unshaken roll.
'The lower air that verges on the earth
'Gives flame and fury to the levin bolt;
'The deeps below the world engulph the winds
'And tracts of flaming fire. By Jove's decree
'Olympus rears his summit o'er the clouds:
'In lowlier valleys storms and winds contend,
'But peace eternal reigns upon the heights.
'What joy for Cæsar, if the tidings come
'That such a citizen has joined the war? 310
'Glad would he see thee e'en in Magnus' tents;
'For Cato's conduct shall approve his own.
'Pompeius, with the Consul in his ranks,
'And half the Senate and the other chiefs,
'Vexes my spirit; and should Cato too
'Bend to a master's yoke, in all the world
'The one man free is Cæsar. But if thou
'For freedom and thy country's laws alone
'Be pleased to raise the sword, nor Magnus then
'Nor Cæsar shall in Brutus find a foe. 320
'Not till the fight is fought shall Brutus strike,
'Then strike the victor.'
Brutus thus; but spake
Cato from inmost breast these sacred words:
'Chief in all wickedness is civil war,
'Yet virtue in the paths marked out by fate
'Treads on securely. Heaven's will be the crime
'To have made even Cato guilty. Who has strength
'To gaze unawed upon a toppling world?
'When stars and sky fall headlong, and when earth
'Slips from her base, who sits with folded hands? 330
