English poem
Horace, Book IV, Ode IX, Addressed To Archbishop King,[1] 1718
Virtue conceal'd within our breast Is inactivity at best: But never shall the Muse endure To let your virtues lie obscure; Or suffer Envy to conceal Your labours for the public weal. Within your breast all wisdom lies, Either to govern or advise; Your steady soul preserves her frame, In good and evil times, the same. Pale Avarice and lurking Fraud, Stand in your sacred presence awed; Your hand alone from gold abstains, Which drags the slavish world in chains. Him for a happy man I own, Whose fortune is not overgrown; And happy he who wisely knows To use the gifts that Heaven bestows; Or, if it please the powers divine, Can suffer want and not repine. The man who infamy to shun Into the arms of death would run; That man is ready to defend, With life, his country or his friend.
More by Jonathan Swift
- Horace, Book II, Ode I, Paraphrased; Addressed To Richard Steele, Esq.
- Horace, Book Iii, Ode Ii
- Horace, Book III, Ode II; To The Earl Of Oxford, Late Lord Treasurer
- Horace, Book Iv, Ode Ix
- Horace, Book IV, Ode IX; Addressed To Humphry French, Esq.[1] Late Lord Mayor Of Dublin
- Horace, Epist. I, VII; Imitation Of Horace To Lord Oxford, A.D. [1]
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