138 THEOGNIS

a set-off to the passages which, have led us to picture him as more or less of an easy liver : "/To rear a child is easy, but to teach | Morals and manners is beyond our reach ; ITo make the foolish wise, the wicked good, Vrhat science yet was never understood. The sons of Esculapius, if their art Could remedy a perverse and wicked heart, Might earn enormous wages ! But in fact The mind is not compounded and compact Of precept and example ; human art In human nature has no share or part. Hatred of vice, the fear of shame and sin, Are things of native growth, not grafted in : Else wives and worthy parents might correct In children's hearts each error and defect : Whereas we see them disappointed still, ) ^.Q scheme nor artifice of human skill Can rectify the passions or the will" (F.) ) Xot often, however, despite his sententiousness, which has been the cause of his metamorphose by posterity into a coiner of maxims for the use of schools and the instruction of life and morals, does Theognis muse in such a strain of seriousness. Oftener far his vein is bright and gay, as when he makes ready for a feast, which, if we are not mistaken, was destined to take most of the remainder of his " solid day." " Now that in mid career, checking his force, The bright sun pauses in his pride and force, Let us prepare to dine ; and eat and drink The best of everything that heart can think :