Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/154

 no mind to take a part in it, and expresses his reasons in language wherein the Epicurean vein is no less conspicuous than the touching common-sense:—

This old-world expression of the common-place that the grave levels all distinctions is not unlike, save that it lacks the similitude of life to a river, the stanzas on "Man's Life," by a Spanish poet, Don Jorge Manrique, translated by Longfellow:—

But before Theognis could give proof of this levelling change, he had a stormy career to fulfil, as we shall find in the next chapter.