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I hate the uninitiate crowd and keep them far away. Observe a reverent silence! I, the Muses' priest, sing for maids and boys songs not heard before.
The rule of dreaded kings is over their own peoples; but over the kings themselves is the rule of Jove, glorious for his victory o'er the Giants, and controlling all things with the nod of his brow.
'Tis true that one man plants his vineyards over wider acres than his fellow; that one candidate for office who comes down to the Campus is of nobler birth, another of greater worth and fame,
while still another has a larger band of followers; yet with impartial justice Necessity allots the fates of high and low alike. The ample urn keeps tossing every name.
Over whose impious head the drawn sword hangs, for him Sicilian feasts will produce no savor sweet, nor will music of birds or lutes bring back sleep to his couch.
Soft slumber scorns not the humble cottage of the peasant, nor the shady bank, nor the valley by the zephyrs fanned.
He who longs for only what he needs is troubled not by stormy seas, not by the fierce onslaught of setting Arcturus or rising Haedus -
not by the lashing of his vineyards with the hail, nor by the treachery of his farm, the trees complaining now of too much rain, now of the dog- star parching the fields, now of the cruel winters.
The fishes note the narrowing of the waters by piers of rock laid in their depths. Here the builder with his throng of slaves, and the master who disdains the land, let down the rubble.
But Fear and Threats climb to the selfsame spot the owner does: nor does black Care quit the brass-bound galley and even takes her seat behind the horseman.
But if neither Phrygian marble nor purple brighter than the stars nor Falernian wine nor Persian nard can soothe one in distress,
why should I rear aloft in modern style a hall with columns to stir envy? Why should I change my Sabine dale for the greater burden of wealth?
