HKB
Solon's Lay.
The Father's voice hath spoken, Whose word is Destiny, And the blest Gods have willed it, The Gods who shall not die; That ne'er shall the Destroyer Prevail against our land; The Dread Sire's valiant Daughter Guards us with eye and hand. Yet her own sons, in folly, Would lay their country low, For pelf; and in her leaders An heart of sin doth grow. For them--their pride's fell offspring-- There waiteth grievous pain; For sated still, they know not Their proud lust to contain. Not theirs, if mirth be with them, The decent, peaceful feast; To sin they yield, and sinning Rejoice in wealth increased. No hallowed treasure sparing, Nor people's common store, This side and that his neighbour Each robs with havoc sore. The holy law of Justice They guard not. Silent she, Who knows what is and hath been, Awaits the time to be. Then cometh she to judgement, With certain step, tho' slow; E'en now she smites the city, And none may 'scape the blow. To thraldom base she drives us, From slumber rousing strife,-- Fell war of kin, destroying The young, the beauteous life. The foemen of their country In wicked bands combine, Fit company; and stricken The lovely land doth pine. These are the Wrong, the Mischief, That pace the earth at home; But many a beggared exile To other lands must roam-- Sold, chained in bonds unseemly; For so to each man's hall Comes home the People's Sorrow, And leaps the high fence-wall. No courtyard door can stay it; It follows to his side, Flee tho' he may, and crouching In inmost chamber hide. Such warning unto Athens My spirit bids me sound, That Lawlessness in cities Spreads evil all around; But Lawfulness and Order Make all things good and right, Chaining Sin's hands in fetters, Quenching the proud soul's light, Smoothing the rough, the sated Staying, and withering The flowers, that, fraught with ruin, From fatal seed upspring. The paths of crooked justice Are turned into straight; The ways of Pride grow gentle, The ways of Strife and Hate; Then baleful Faction ceases, Then Health prevails alway, And Wisdom still increases, Beneath Law's wholesome sway.