Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/79

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HESIOD'S PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY.
65
"The summer dayEndures not ever: toil ye while ye may,"—E. 698, 699.

and rising betimes in the morning, on the faith that

"The morn the third part of thy work doth gain;The morn makes short thy way, makes short thy pain."—C.

Shrewd and practical as all this teaching is, its author deprecates anything that is not honest and straightforward. "Dishonest gains," he declares in v. 352, "are tantamount to losses;" and perhaps his experience of the detriment of such ill gains to his brother enabled him to judge of their hurtfulness the more accurately. Referable to this experience is a maxim that is certainly uncomplimentary to brotherly love and confidence:—

"As if in joke, that he no slight may feel,Call witnesses, if you with brother deal."—D. 371.

And there is a latent distrust of kinsfolk and connections involved in another proverb:—

"When on your home falls unforeseen distress,Half-clothed come neighbours: kinsmen stay to dress."—D. 345.

Perhaps his bardic character won him the goodwill of his neighbours, and so he estimated them as he found them; for he says a little further on, with considerable fervour—

"He hath a treasure, by his fortune signed,That hath a neighbour of an honest mind."—C. 347.
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