28
REMAINS OF HESIOD.
And snatch'd among the clouds: beneath the stroke
This piteous shriek'd, and that imperious spoke:
"Wretch! why these screams? a stronger holds thee now:
Where'er I shape my course a captive thou,
Maugre thy song, must company my way:
I rend my banquet or I loose my prey.
Senseless is he who dares with power contend:
"Defeat, rebuke, despair shall be his end."
The swift hawk spake, with wings spread wide in air;
But thou to justice cleave, and wrong forbear.
Wrong, if he yield to its abhorr'd controul,
Shall pierce like iron in the poor man's soul:
Wrong weighs the rich man's conscience to the dust,
When his foot stumbles on the way unjust:
Far diff'rent is the path; a path of light,
That guides the feet to equitable right.
The end of righteousness, enduring long,
Exceeds the short prosperity of wrong.
This piteous shriek'd, and that imperious spoke:
"Wretch! why these screams? a stronger holds thee now:
Where'er I shape my course a captive thou,
Maugre thy song, must company my way:
I rend my banquet or I loose my prey.
Senseless is he who dares with power contend:
"Defeat, rebuke, despair shall be his end."
The swift hawk spake, with wings spread wide in air;
But thou to justice cleave, and wrong forbear.
Wrong, if he yield to its abhorr'd controul,
Shall pierce like iron in the poor man's soul:
Wrong weighs the rich man's conscience to the dust,
When his foot stumbles on the way unjust:
Far diff'rent is the path; a path of light,
That guides the feet to equitable right.
The end of righteousness, enduring long,
Exceeds the short prosperity of wrong.
in Italian: (rossignol, French). The belly is white. The parts under the wings, breast, and throat, are of a darker colour, with a tincture of green." Willoughby's Ornithology, fol. 1678.
