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THEOGNIS

the laugh against an ungenerous rival, and this in the spirit of a true gentleman, he finds a sly means of paying a delicate compliment to the taste of the public, upon whose appreciation of music he had to depend for support. It is plain that he gauged that public accurately. By degrees it becomes evident that he is getting on in his chosen profession not indeed to the extent of being able, as he puts it in a terse couplet, "to indulge his spirit to the full in its taste for the graceful and beautiful," but, at all events, of having wherewithal to discourse critically on the question of indulgence and economy, from which we infer that he had made something to save or to lose. After weighing the pros and cons in a more than usually didactic passage, he confides to his hearers and readers the reason why he inclines to a moderate rather than a reckless expenditure:—

"For something should be left when life is fledTo purchase decent duty to the dead;Those easy tears, the customary debtOf kindly recollection and regret.Besides, the saving of superfluous costIs a sure profit, never wholly lost;Not altogether lost, though left behind,Bequeathed in kindness to a friendly mind.And for the present, can a lot be foundFairer and happier than a name renowned,And easy competence, with honour crowned;The just approval of the good and wise,Public applauses, friendly courtesies;Where all combine a single name to grace
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