WORKS.
77
Oh witless Perses! thus for honest gain,
Thus did our mutual father plough the main.
Erst, from Æolian Cuma's distant shore,
Hither in sable ship his course he bore;
Through the wide seas his venturous way he took;
No rich revenues; prosperous ease forsook:
His wandering course from poverty began,
The visitation sent from heaven to man:
Ascra's sad hamlet he his dwelling chose
Where nigh impending Helicon arose:
In summer irksome[1] and in winter drear,
Nor ever genial through the joyless year.
Each labour, Perses! let the seasons guide:
But o'er thy navigation chief preside:
Decline a slender bark:[2] intrust thy freight
To the strong vessel of a larger rate:
Thus did our mutual father plough the main.
Erst, from Æolian Cuma's distant shore,
Hither in sable ship his course he bore;
Through the wide seas his venturous way he took;
No rich revenues; prosperous ease forsook:
His wandering course from poverty began,
The visitation sent from heaven to man:
Ascra's sad hamlet he his dwelling chose
Where nigh impending Helicon arose:
In summer irksome[1] and in winter drear,
Nor ever genial through the joyless year.
Each labour, Perses! let the seasons guide:
But o'er thy navigation chief preside:
Decline a slender bark:[2] intrust thy freight
To the strong vessel of a larger rate:
- ↑ In summer irksome.] This inconvenience arose from the site of the place: as the scholiasts Proclus and Tzetzes relate: for by the neighbourhood of so high a mountain as Helicon, the breezes, which might have alleviated the summer heat, were intercepted: and in winter, the rays of the sun were excluded from the village; which was also exposed to torrents from the melting of the snow. Robinson.
- ↑ Decline a slender bark.] Αινειν, commend. This passage is quoted by Plutarch in illustration of words used in a different sense from what they seem to import. Praise means refuse. The same idiom occurs in Virgil's second Georgic:
