Parerga/On the Folly of Vindictiveness

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ON THE FOLLY OF VINDICTIVENESS.

FROM

THE 13th SATIRE OF JUVENAL. (174.)

"Nulla ne perjuri capitis fraudisque nefandæPœna erit?" &c.
"What! shall the perjured wretch no suffering pay"For his foul crime?"———Suppose him dragged awayIn heaviest chains: suppose the power to kill(Could anger ask aught more?) lay in your will:Yet still the loss you mourn for, would remain;Nor would you your embezzled gold regain.———"But let him suffer for it!—then my mind"Some consolation for its loss may find:"His guilty blood is what I wish to see:"Revenge is sweet—sweeter than life to me!"———Why thus th' unlearned talk, whose anger springsOfttimes for nought, ofttimes for trifling things;Whom every cross, however frivolous,Supplies with phrensy's fuel. 'Tis not thusChrysippus teaches thee. Wise Thales feltNot thus;—nor he the good old man, who dweltNear sweet Hymettus; whom it would have pain'dTo see the hemlock, which he drank while chain'd,Shared by his own accuser. By degrees ​Man from his errors Heavenly Wisdom frees,And teaches him the truth. Only a mindPetty, infirm, and narrow, e'er can findPleasure in vengeance. This you straight must see,Since no man so revengeful e'er can beAs women are. And yet, why should you thinkYour criminal escaped, who still must shrinkFrom his own memory conscious of the deed;Whose bosom 'neath the silent lash must bleed;While his own spirit, forced itself to urgeWith torture, brandishes the secret scourge?
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