Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/508

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From household gods and from our parents dear—

Some unto alien husbands, some to men

Of stranger race, and some to homes full strange,

Or full of turmoil: and when one night binds us,

We needs must bear, and think of it as right.

Among mankind we all are born alike

Of father and of mother. None excels

Another in his nature, but the fate

Of evil chance holds some of us, and some

Good fortune favours, and necessity

Holds some in bondage.

Praise no man much until thou see his death.

Within the tablets of thy mind write this

That I have said to thee.

Well, well, what greater joy could'st thou receive

Than touching land, and then, beneath a roof,

With slumbering mind to hear the pelting storm?

We should not speak of one that prospers well

As happy, till his life have run its course,

And reached its goal. An evil spirit's gift

In shortest time has oft laid low the state

Of one full rich in great prosperity,

When the change comes, and so the Gods appoint.

No one who sins against his will is base.

Tell not to many what Fate sends on thee;

'Tis comelier far in silence to lament.