Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/202

184 Thou, harsh, uncouth, and ignorant of life, Dost spend thy youth to joy and love unknown Think'st thou that this is man's allotted task, To suffer hardships, curb the rushing steeds, And fight like savage beasts in bloody war? When be beheld the boundless greed of death, The mighty father of the world ordained A means by which the race might be renewed. Suppose the power of Venus over men Should cease, who doth supply and still renew The stream of life, then would this lovely world Become a foul, unsightly thing indeed: The sea would bear no fish within its waves, The woods no beasts of prey, the air no birds; But through its empty space the winds alone Would rove. How various the forms of death That seize and feed upon our mortal race: The wrecking sea, the sword, and treachery! But say that these are lacking: still we fall Of our own gravity to gloomy Styx. Suppose our youth should choose a mateless life, And live in childless state: then all this world Of teeming life which thou dost see, would live This generation only, and would fall In ruins on itself. Then spend thy life As nature doth direct; frequent the town, And live in friendly union with thy kind. Hippolytus: There is no life so free, so innocent, Which better cherishes the ancient rites, Than that which spurns the crowded ways of men And seeks the silent places of the woods. His soul no maddening greed of gain inflames Who on the lofty levels of the hills His blameless pleasures finds. No fickle breath Of passing favor frets him here, no sting Of base ingratitude, no poisonous hate. He fears no kingdom's laws; nor, in the quest Of power, does he pursue the phantom shapes Of fame and wealth. From hope and fear alike