Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/462

 Captive Good Attending Captain Ill

(Athenian tragic poet, B.C. 480-406; the most modern of ancient writers. Translation by John Addington Symonds)

Doth some one say that there be gods above? There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool, Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you. Look at the facts themselves, yielding my words No undue credence; for I say that kings Kill, rob, break oaths, lay cities waste by fraud, And doing thus are happier than those Who live calm pious lives day after day. How many little states that serve the gods Are subject to the godless but more strong, Made slaves by might of a superior army!

Poverty

(Greek lyric poet, B.C. 611-580; banished for his resistance to tyrants. Translation by Sir William Jones)

"The worst of ills, and hardest to endure,   Past hope, past cure, Is Penury, who, with her sister-mate Disorder, soon brings down the loftiest state,    And makes it desolate. This truth the sage of Sparta told,    Aristodemus old,— "Wealth makes the man." On him that's poor Proud Worth looks down, and Honor shuts the door.