HESIOD'S PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 67

takes up his parable against women, and likens them to the drones, " Which gather in their greedy maw the spoils Of others' lahour," E. 797, 798. Hesiod has in his mind's eye that ancient proverb touching " one sowing and another reaping," which Callimachus gives as follows in his hymn to Ceres (137)- " And those who ploughed the field shall reap the corn " but which, in some shape or other, must have existed previously even to Hesiod's date. In most modern languages it has its counterpart ; and it was recognised and applied by our Lord, and His apostle St Paul.* Earlier in the poem, the saw that " Blest is he whom the Muses love " is probably pre-Hesiodian ; but it is too obviously a commonplace of poets in general to deserve commemoration as a proverb. We cannot cite any adages from l The Shield,' and an examination of ' The Fragments ' adds but few to the total of Hesiod's stock. These few are chiefly from the ' Maxims of Chiron/ supposed to have been dictated by that philo- sophic Centaur to his pupil Achilles. One of these, preserved by Harpocration from an oration of Hyperi- des, may be thus translated : " Works for the young, counsels for middle age ; The old may best in vows and prayers engage." Another savours of the philosophy of the ' Works and Days : '

• St Matt. xxv. 24 j Gal. vi. 7 ; 2 Cor, ix. 6.