Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/511

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They that fare ill become not only deaf,

But, even though they gaze, they see not clear

What lies before them.

Sore evil still, and all unmanageable,

Is want of knowledge. Folly proves itself

Of wickedness true sister.

We cannot speak good words of deeds not good.

We should not joy in pleasures that bring shame.

Fortune ne'er helps the man whose courage fails.

Shame brings but little help in evil things;

Your silence is the talker's best ally.

What means this praise? The man who yields to wine

Is void of understanding, slave to wrath,

And wont, though babbling many words and vain,

To hear full loth what eagerly he spoke.

When one is found as taken in the act

Of fraud and wrong, whate'er his skill of speech,

The only course for him is silence then;

Yet that is hard to bear for one who feels

Conscious of innocence.

In vows, forsooth, a woman shuns the pangs

And pains of childbirth ; but the evil o'er,

Once more she comes within the self-same net,

O'ercome by that strong passion of her soul.