Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/160

but he soon found that his neutrality only procured abuse of both friends and foes; a discovery which he expresses thus:—

"The city's mind I cannot comprehend—
Do well or ill, they hold me not their friend.
From base and noble blame is still my fate,
Though fools may blame, who cannot imitate."—(D.)

It was hard, he thought, that his friends should look coolly upon him, if, with a view to the wellbeing of his party, he gave no offence to the opposite faction,—if, as he puts it,

"I cross not my foe's path, but keep as clear,
As of hid rocks at sea the pilots steer."—(D.)

And he is almost querulous in his sensibility to public opinion, when he sings,—

"The generous and brave in common fame
From time to time encounter praise or blame:
The vulgar pass unheeded: none escape
Scandal or insult in some form or shape.
Most fortunate are those, alive or dead,
Of whom the least is thought, the least is said."—(F.)

It is as if he administered to himself the comfort which Adam gives Orlando—

"Know you not, master, to some kind of men
Their graces serve them but as enemies?
No more do yours; your virtues, gentle master,
Are sanctified and holy traitors to you."
—'As you like it,' II. iii.

But a candid study of the character of Theognis induces the impression that his neutrality was only fit-