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The works of Horace, translated into verse

With a prose interpretation, for the help of students. And occasional notes. By Christopher Smart ... In four volumes

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ODE XXIV. UPON THE RICH AND COVETOUS.
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33

ODE XXIV. UPON THE RICH AND COVETOUS.

Though richer than the hoarded gain
Of Araby and Ind unplunder'd yet,
You of th'Appulian and Tyrrhenian main,
Should with casoons and piers possession get;
If deepest on the highest head
Dire fate his adamantine hooks will drive,
You cannot rid your fearful soul from dread,
Nor from the snares of death escape contrive.
The Scythians have a better lot,
Who dwell in plains, and carry in a cart
From place to place their customary cot,
And those rough Getans, negligent of art,
Whose common acres, unsurvey'd,
Yield corn and fruit, that's bread for all the race;
Nor do they drive the plough, or ply the spade,
Above a year in one continu'd place.
And when their annual toil is o'er,
Another set the vacant lands receive,
Who on the self-same terms with those before,
As they succeed, the prior hands relieve.

35

There her step-childrens orphan life
The woman in her innocence will spare;
Nor does the man obey a portion'd wife,
Nor does she make a well-dress'd rake her care.
Their parents great and virtuous fame,
And, cautious, constant chastity's their dow'r.
Thus runs the law: “Keep clear of sin and shame,
“Or death's the wages from offended pow'r.”
O that some sage would rise to quell
Our impious slaughter, and our civil rage,
Fond as his country's father to excel—
So call'd beneath his bust—let him engage
Our monstrous licence to revise—
Fam'd to the latest times—since we, O shame!
Hate virtue, when she's seen before our eyes,
But envious, when she's gone, her worth proclaim.
For what are all these woful cries,
If sin by punishment is not cut off?—
Laws without morals!—Can mere forms suffice
For any thing but vanity and scoff?
If such presumption still subsists,
That neither torrid zone, nor northern pole,
Nor solid snow, that mountain-high exists,
Can terrify the merchant's sordid soul?

37

The mariners expertly dare
The horrid seas; for in their rough account
Want is disgrace—they rather do or bear
All ills, than virtue's arduous way surmount.
Let us our gold and gems refund,
Source of our woe, into the neighb'ring main,
Or Capitol, where all our ears are stunn'd
With party clamours, and the servile train.
If we are penitent in truth,
The very seeds of vice should be eras'd,
And the too tender spirits of our youth,
And nerves with exercise severer brac'd.
Our noble youth have got no seat
Upon their horse, and fear to urge the chace,
As far more learned in the idle feat
Of Grecian tops, or law-forbidden ace.
Mean time the father's perjur'd heart
Imposes on his partner and his guest,
And hastes to try each method, and each mart,
To make a worthless heir of wealth possest.

39

For why? Ill-gotten goods increase—
Yet after all their toil and time mis-spent,
They have acquir'd by far too much for peace,
And far too little to insure content.