Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/302

 IV.

Raise the loud shout to Pan, Arcadia's king; Praise to the Nymphs' loved comrade sing! Come, O Pan, and raise with me   The song in joyful ecstasy.

V.

We have conquer'd as we would, The gods reward us as they should, And victory bring from Pandrosos to Pallas.

VI.

Oh, would the gods such grace bestow, That opening each man's breast, One might survey his heart, and know How true the friendship that could stand that test.

VII.

Health's the best gift to mortal given; Beauty is next; the third great prize Is to grow rich, free both from sin and vice; The fourth, to pass one's youth with friends beloved by heaven.

And when this had been sung, and everybody had been delighted with it; and when it had been mentioned that even the incomparable Plato had spoken of this scolium as one most admirably written, Myrtilus said, that Anaxandrides the comic poet had turned it into ridicule in his Treasure, speaking thus of it—

The man who wrote this song, whoe'er he was, When he call'd health the best of all possessions, Spoke well enough. But when the second place He gave to beauty, and the third to riches, He certainly was downright mad; for surely Riches must be the next best thing to health, For who would care to be a starving beauty?

After that, these other scolia were sung—

VIII.

'Tis well to stand upon the shore, And look on others on the sea; But when you once have dipp'd your oar, By the present wind you must guided be.

IX.

A crab caught a snake in his claw, And thus he triumphantly spake,— 'My friends must be guided by law, Nor love crooked counsels to take."