FROM A PROSE TRANSLATION IN SIR WILLIAM JONES’ ESSAY ON THE POETRY OF
THE EASTERN NATIONS.
Guard thou, my son, the helpless and the poor,
Nor in the chains of thine own indolence
Slumber enervate, while the joys of sense
Engross thee, and thou say’st, “I ask no more.”—
Wise men the shepherd’s slumber will deplore
When the rapacious wolf has leapt the fence,
And ranges thro’ the fold.—My son, dispense
Those laws, that justice to the wrong’d restore.—
The common-weal should be the first pursuit
Of the crown’d warrior, for the royal brows
The people first enwreath’d.—They are the root,
The king the tree. Aloft he spreads his boughs
Glorious; but learn, impetuous youth, at length,
Trees from the root alone derive their strength.