Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage,

Destructive

war,

and all-involving age.

See from each clime the learn’d their incense bring!

Hear, in all tongues consenting pæans ring!

186

In praise so just let ev'ry voice be join'd,

And fill the general chorus of mankind.

Hail, Bards triumphant! born in happier days ;

Immortal heirs of universal praise !

190

Whose honours with increase of ages grow,

As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow;

Nations unborn your mighty name shall sound,

And worlds applaud that must not yet be found!

O may some spark of your celestial fire,

195

The last, the meanest, of your sons inspire,

(That on weak wings, from far, pursues your flights ;

Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes),

Da colera feróz, da inveja izentos,

215

Da guerra e tempo gastador, seguros.

Vede os sabios, que vem trazendo incensos

De cada clima os pæans aprovadores,
Atentos escutai, nas linguas varias,
Ressoe em cada vós taõ justo aplauso,
E do genero humano o córo se 'encha.

Salve! oh bardas sublimes triumphantes

220

Que nascesteis em dias mais ditosos.

Herdeiros immortais do geral premio

225

Cujas honras co' tempo vaõ crescendo
Como engrossaõ torrentes, que se augmentað
A medida que as terras vaõ lavando.
Vossos nomes potentes, hao-de ouvilos
Nações que haõ-de nascer; haõde aplaudilos

inda naõ foraõ descobertos.

Mundos que

230

Desse fogo celeste huma faisca

Venha inflammar a debil, triste Alcipe,
Que adejando de longe quer seguir-vus
Que arde quando vos lê, treme s'escreve

P

To teach vain wits a science little known,

T admire superior sense, and doubt their own! 200

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,

What the weak head with strongest bias rules,

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

Whatever Nature has in worth deny'd,

205

She gives in large recruits of needful pride:

For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find

What wants in blood and spirits, swell’d wilh wind:

Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence,

And fills up all the mighty void of sense:

210

If once right reason drives that cloud

away,

Truth breaks upon us with resistless day.

Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,

Make use of ev'ry friend--and ev'ry foe.

235

Para ensinar a os genios prezumidos
A sciencia, que pollco se conhece
D'apreciar talentos supriores.
E com modestia duvidar dos proprios.
Das causas todas, que a cegar, conspiraõ

A mente errante, e a desgarrár o senso;

240

A que domina mais cabeças fracas

He soberba, dos tollos vicio certo.

Quanto em merito nega a natureza

245

Suprem remendos de precizo orgulho.
Assim como nos corpos, n’alma achamos
Que onde espirito e sangue falta, ha vento.
Trepa a soberba onde o juiso he nullo.
E se deffende enchendo os vaõs que encontra:
Se a resaõ chega e este vapor dissipa,
Sobre nós desce, e rompe o dia claro

250

Da verdade, com luz irrèsestivel.

Naõ nos fiemos de nds mesmos, quando

Quisermos descobrir nossos deffeitos

Consultemos amigos, e epimigos.

A little learning is a dang’rous thing;

215

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again.

Fir'd at first sight with what the Muse imparts,

In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts, 220

While, from the bounded level of our mind,

Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;

But more advanc'd, behold with strange surprise,

New distant scenes of endless science rise!

So pleas’d at first the tow'ring Alps we try,

225

Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky!

Th' eternal snows appear already past,

And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;

But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey

The growing labours of the lengthened way;

230

Th' increasing prospect tires our wand’ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise! !