Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/157

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IN OPPOSITION.
143
(The swift and mighty wings, Music and Verse).Your name in easy numbers smooth and terseIs wafted o'er the world; and heard amongThe banquetings and feasts, chaunted and sung,Heard and admired: the modulated airOf flutes, and voices of the young and fairRecite it, and to future times shall tell;When, closed within the dark sepulchral cell,Your form shall moulder, and your empty ghostWander along the dreary Stygian coast.Yet shall your memory flourish green and young,Recorded and revived on every tongue,In continents and islands, every placeThat owns the language of the Grecian race.No purchased prowess of a racing steed,But the triumphant Muse, with airy speed,Shall bear it wide, and far, o'er land and main,A glorious and imperishable strain;A mighty prize gratuitously won,Fixed as the earth, immortal as the sun."—(F.)

But, to catch the thread of Theognis's story, we must go back to earlier verses than these, addressed to the young noble whom he regarded with, a pure and almost paternal regard—the growth, it may be, in the first instance of kindred political views. The verses of Theognis which refer to the second period of his life begin with a caution to Cyrnus to keep his strains as much a secret as the fame of his poetry will allow, and evince the same sensitiveness to public opinion as so many other of his remains. He cannot gain and keep, he regrets to own, the goodwill of his fellow-citizens, any more than Zeus can please all parties, whilst—

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