Mediocrity

Place me, ye powers, in some obscure retreat; O keep me innocent! make others great! In quiet shades, content with rural sports, Give me a life remote from guilty courts, Where free from hopes or fears, in humble ease Unheard of, I may live and die in peace! Happy the man who thus retir'd from sight, Studies himself, and seeks no other light: But most unhappy he, who plac'd on high, Expos'd to every tongue and every eye: Whose follies blaz'd about to all are known, And are a secret to himself alone: Worse is an evil name, much worse than none.

If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, With any wish so mean as to be great, Continue heaven still from me to remove, The humble blessings of the life I love.