Page:The Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean, including the Shield of Hercules - Elton (1815).djvu/123

Shame to low indigence declining tends:
Bold zeal to wealth's proud pinnacle ascends.
But shun extorted riches;^[1] oh far best
The heaven-sent wealth without reproach possest.
Whoe'er shall mines of hoarded gold command,
By fraudful tongue or by rapacious hand;
As oft betides when lucre lights the flame,
And shamelessness expels the better shame;
Him shall the god cast down, in darkness hurl'd,
His name, his offspring wasted from the world:

occurs in the Iliad, 24; and in the Odyssey, 17, we meet with

An evil shame the needy beggar holds:

but Le Clerc should have known better than to follow Plutarch in the supposition of the lines being inserted from Homer by some other hand. It is one of the proverbial and traditionary sayings which frequently occur in their writings, and which belong rather to the language than to the poet.
The admirable Jewish scribe, in that ancient book of the Apocrypha entitled Ecclesiasticus, uses the same proverb:
Observe the opportunity and beware of evil; and be not ashamed when it concerneth thy soul.
For there is a shame that bringeth sin; and there is a shame which is glory and grace. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, iv. 20, 21.

1. But shun extorted riches.] He that hasteth to be rich, hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. Proverbs, xxviii. 22.
   He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Ch. xxviii. 8.