Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/427

Rh The child of Aristophanes

Went to the height of manliness, no further

Is it easy to go over the untraveled sea,

Beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

One with native virtues

Greatly prevails; but he who

Possesses acquired talents, an obscure man,

Aspiring to various things, never with fearless

Foot advances, but tries

A myriad virtues with inefficient mind.

Yellow-haired Achilles, meanwhile, remaining in the house of Philyra,

Being a boy played

Great deeds; often brandishing

Iron-pointed javelins in his hands,

Swift as the winds, in fight he wrought death to savage lions;

And he slew boars, and brought their bodies

Palpitating to Kronian Centaurus,

As soon as six years old. And all the while

Artemis and bold Athene admired him,

Slaying stags without dogs or treacherous nets;

For he conquered them on foot.

Whatever virtues sovereign destiny has given me,

I well know that time, creeping on,

Will fulfill what was fated.