The Scheme of Epicurus; A Rendering Into Engl. Verse of 'de Rerum Natura', by T.C. Baring (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK II. 'T is sweet, when on the mighty sea the storm winds rouse the main, To watch from shore another toil with all his might in vain: Not that the hurt of others can to us delightful be, But that we like to look on ills from which ourselves are free. Sweet is it too to view in line the mighty strife of war Arrayed across the plains when we from danger stand afar. But nothing more delightful is than Wisdom's quiet steep, Set up on high and walled about with learning well, to keep; Whence one may gaze on other folk adown, and see them stray Hither and thither, wandering in search of life's true way. Competitors in character, rivals in rank, each tries Day after day, night after night, by toil's excess to rise To riches' topmost height, and make the Commonwealth his prize. Oh ! hapless mind of human kind ! Oh ! bosoms blind, alas ! In what deep life-long darkness, 'mid what dangers dire, men pass This time of ours, such as it is ! And will they not perceive That Nature craves not for herself aught, save that pain should leave The body from its presence free, and that the mind be fed With pleasant feelings, far removed from carefulness and dread ? Therefore we see that Nature for the body's sake has need Of things but few, such as have power distress to supersede, And in so doing much of true enjoyment to provide. Nay for the most part she herself is not dissatisfied, Though no boys' statues wrought of gold along the chambers stand Grasping a lamp that carries fire in each upraised right hand, That ample light they may afford to banquets held at night; Nor all the house with silver sheen and glints of gold be bright, Nor gilt and fretted roofs give back the notes of the guitar; If still upon the tender grass, where streams of water are, Men, laid at ...