6
GENERAL ARGUMENT OF THE POEM.
"Get all by honest means, would you secure
Wealth and respect that will through life endure.
Who seeks to heap his store by force or fraud,
Shall lose it all: though half the world applaud
His ill-gained wealth, there's an all-seeing Eye
That closely scans his actions from on high;
And Retribution soon or late shall sweep
Himself and treasures to oblivion's deep."
To prevent a misconstruction of Hesiod's true meaning, in his constant exhortations to get wealth, it may be proper to add that he means simply the acquisition of an easy competence; and nothing he says can be construed as urging his countrymen to join in a general scramble for building up fortunes, as we do at the present day, and in which people must of necessity resort to all sorts of trickery in order to encompass that end. Indeed, this feature of it he strongly condemns, for he says:
"But be not eager to acquire too much.
Or Modesty will flee your filthy touch.
She loathes the man who pays no just regard
To what is right; let scorn be his reward."
His idea is: Get enough, and something—possibly plenty—to spare, and you will not only avoid becoming, in helpless age, a charge upon others, b«t be able, also, to assist others with whom fortune may not have dealt so kindly. But in order to get enough, constant watchfulness and industry are necessary; for in the acquisition of wealth, as in that of virtue, vigilance is essential to enable us to retain what we have already become possessed of.
