8
REMAINS OF HESIOD.
Oh Perses! thou within thy secret breast
Repose the maxims by my care imprest;
Nor ever let that evil-joying strife
Have power to wean thee from the toils of life;
The whilst thy prying eyes the forum draws,
Thine ears the process, and the din of laws.
Small care be his of wrangling and debate
For whose ungather'd food the garners wait;
Who wants within the summer's plenty stored,
Earth's kindly fruits, and Ceres' yearly hoard.
With these replenish'd, at the brawling bar
For others' wealth go instigate the war.
But this thou mays't no more: let justice guide,
Best boon of heaven, and future strife decide.
Not so we shared the patrimonial land[1]
When greedy pillage fill'd thy grasping hand:
Repose the maxims by my care imprest;
Nor ever let that evil-joying strife
Have power to wean thee from the toils of life;
The whilst thy prying eyes the forum draws,
Thine ears the process, and the din of laws.
Small care be his of wrangling and debate
For whose ungather'd food the garners wait;
Who wants within the summer's plenty stored,
Earth's kindly fruits, and Ceres' yearly hoard.
With these replenish'd, at the brawling bar
For others' wealth go instigate the war.
But this thou mays't no more: let justice guide,
Best boon of heaven, and future strife decide.
Not so we shared the patrimonial land[1]
When greedy pillage fill'd thy grasping hand:
- ↑ The patrimonial land.] The manner of inheritance in ancient Greece was that of gavelkind: the sons dividing the patrimony
which Hesiod cannot be suspected. The bard, as is evident from Homer’s Odyssey, enjoyed a sort of conventional hospitality, bestowed with reverence and affection. It should seem, however, from this passage that the asker of alms was not regarded in the light of a common mendicant with us. It was a popular superstition that the gods often assumed similar characters for the purpose of trying the benevolence of men. A noble incentive to charity, which indicates the hospitable character of a semi-barbarous age.
