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!

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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!

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,

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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,

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

Que nascesteis em dias mais ditosos.

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220

To teach vain wits a science little known,

Tadmire 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,

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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 with wind:

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

And fills up all the mighty void of sense:

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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.

Para ensinár a os genios prezumidos

A sciencia, que pouco se conhece
D'apreciar talentos supriores.

E com modestia duvidar dos proprios.
Das causas todas, que a cegar, conspirao
A mente errante, e a desgarrár o senso;

A que domina mais cabeças fracas

He soberba, dos tollos vicio certo.
Quanto em merito nega a natureza

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Suprem remendos de precizo orgulho.
Assim como nos corpos, n'alma achamos

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Que onde espirito e sangue falta, ha vento.

Trepa a soberba onde o juiso he nullo.

E se deffende enchendo os vaos que encontra:

A little learning is a dang❜rous thing;

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,

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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,

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

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The growing labours of the lengthened way;

Th' increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes,

Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

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