TOIL.

ISTHMIA I. 65-71.

One reward of labors is sweet to one man, one to another,

To the shepherd, and the plougher, and the bird-catcher,

And whom the sea nourishes.

But every one is tasked to ward off
Grievous famine from the stomach.

THE VENALITY OF THE MUSE.

ISTHMIA II. 9-18.

Then the Muse was not

Fond of gain, nor a laboring woman;

Nor were the sweet-sounding,

Soothing strains

Of Terpsichore sold,

With silvered front.

But now she directs to observe the saying
Of the Argive, coming very near the truth,
Who cried, "Money, money, man,"
Being bereft of property and friends.

HERCULES' PRAYER CONCERNING AJAX, SON
OF TELAMON.

ISTHMIA VI. 62-73.

"If ever, O Father Zeus, thou hast heard

My supplication with willing mind,

Now I beseech thee, with prophetic
Prayer, grant a bold son from Eriboa

To this man, my fated guest;

Rugged in body

As the hide of this wild beast

Which now surrounds me, which, first of all My contests, I slew once in Nemea; and let his

To him thus having spoken, Heaven sent
A great eagle, king of birds,

And sweet joy thrilled him inwardly.

THE FREEDOM OF GREECE.

First at Artemisium

The children of the Athenians laid the shining

Foundation of freedom,

And at Salamis and Mycale,

And in Platæa, making it firm

As adamant.

FROM STRABO.

APOLLO.

Having risen he went

Over land and sea,

And stood over the vast summits of mountains, And threaded the recesses, penetrating to the foundations of the groves.

FROM PLUTARCH.

Heaven being willing, even on an osier thou mayest sail.

[Thus rhymed by the old translator of Plutarch: "Were it the will of heaven, an osier bough Were vessel safe enough the seas to plough."]

FROM SEXTUS EMPIRICUS.

Honors and crowns of the tempest-footed
Horses delight one;

Others live in golden chambers;

And some even are pleased traversing securely The swelling of the sea in a swift ship.

FROM STOBÆUS.

This I will say to thee:

The lot of fair and pleasant things

It behooves to show in public to all the people; But if any adverse calamity sent from heaven befall

Men, this it becomes to bury in darkness.

Pindar said of the physiologists, that they "plucked the unripe fruit of wisdom.”

Pindar said that "hopes were the dreams of those awake."

FROM CLEMENS OF ALEXANDRIA.

To Heaven it is possible from black
Night to make arise unspotted light,

And with cloud-blackening darkness to obscure
The pure splendor of day.

First, indeed, the Fates brought the wise-counseling

Uranian Themis, with golden horses,

By the fountains of Ocean to the awful ascent
Of Olympus, along the shining way,

To be the first spouse of Zeus the Deliverer.
And she bore the golden-filleted, fair-wristed
Hours, preservers of good things.

Equally tremble before God
And a man dear to God.

FROM ELIUS ARISTIDES.

Pindar used such exaggerations [in praise of poetry] as to say that even the gods themselves, when at his marriage Zeus asked if they wanted anything, "asked him to make certain gods for them who should celebrate these great works and all his creation with speech and song."

POEMS

INSPIRATION

IF with light head erect I sing,
Though all the Muses lend their force,

From my poor love of anything,

The verse is weak and shallow as its source.

But if with bended neck I grope,

Listening behind me for my wit,

With faith superior to hope,

More anxious to keep back than forward it;

Making my soul accomplice there

Unto the flame my heart hath lit,

Then will the verse forever wear,

Time cannot bend the line which God hath writ.

I hearing get, who had but ears,
And sight, who had but eyes before;

I moments live, who lived but years,

And truth discern, who knew but learning's

lore.