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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=415769" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Numa Pompilius</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">O well is thee! King Numa,<br>Within thy secret cave,<br>Where thy bones are ever moistened<br>By sad Egeria’s wave;<br>None now have power to pilfer<br>The treasure of thy tomb,<br>And reveal the institutions<br>And secret Rites of Rome.<br>O blessed be the Senate<br>That stowed those books away,<br>Curst be the attempt of Niebuhr<br>To drag them into day;<br>Light be the pressure, Numa,<br>Around thy watery bed,<br>May no perplexing problems<br>Infest thy kingly head!<br>As thus I blessed King Numa<br>And struggled hard with sleep,<br>I felt unwonted chillness<br>O’er all my members creep;<br>Before mine eyes in fragments<br>The fireplace seemed to roll,<br>The chillness left my body<br>And slid into my soul.<br>Deep in Egeria's grotto<br>I saw the darksome well;<br>I slowly sunk to Numa,<br>But why I cannot tell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;What! Livest thou still, old Sabine,<br>With thy mysterious wife?&quot;<br>&quot;Yes, here beneath the surface,<br>We lead a torpid life.<br>But little think the Critics<br>Who nullify old Rome,<br>That in these benumbing waters<br>I always lived at home.<br>Never was I a Sabine,<br>Or lived like men above;<br>No mortal wight was Numa,<br>Who quelled the fear of Jove.<br>Before my day the Romans<br>Served gods of wood and stone,<br>But what each man had fashioned<br>That worshipped he alone;<br>With care he saved the silver,<br>With pains the mould designed,<br>He loved and feared the offspring<br>Of his pocket and his mind.<br>To him he went for counsel<br>And then to Common Sense;<br>When both of these had failed him<br>He took to tossing pence;<br>But I forbade all tossing,<br>Made men enquire of beasts,<br>Pulled down all private idols<br>And set up public priests.<br>Birds, too,’ said I, ‘are holy,<br>They show us things to come,<br>They have more subtle spirits<br>Than wooden idols dumb.<br>No longer burn your incense<br>Before your private shrine,<br>My Vestals are most careful<br>To feed the flame divine;<br>Dismiss all fear of idols,<br>Of demons, and of gods,<br>My Augurs will protect you<br>With their long crooked rods.<br>(With such the careful shepherd<br>Drags lambs from ditches deep;<br>With such he points to heaven<br>When they are fast asleep.)<br>O, trust me, those same Augurs<br>Know more about the stars<br>Than you whose only business<br>Is everlasting wars.<br>How can you be religious,<br>How can they work for bread?<br>You sinners must be shriven,<br>My Augurs must be fed.<br>You know dividing labour<br>To nations riches brings,<br>So let my Augurs shrive you<br>While you mind earthly things.<br>Your case I’ve set before you,<br>You see the thing to do,<br>If you fork out the needful,<br>They do your job for you.’<br>With this and other speeches<br>I brought the people round,<br>Till not a single Roman<br>In Jove’s house can be found.<br>For well he knows each evening<br>When bells in steeples toll,<br>’Tis a sign that well-paid Augurs<br>Are helping on his soul.<br>’Twas this that kept ’em quiet<br>Through all my fabled reign,<br>Till quarrelsome young Tullus<br>Brought battles back again.<br>Thus my cold-blooded doctrines<br>The fear of Jove could quell,<br>Wonder not then to find me<br>Alive here in a well.&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=James+Clerk+Maxwell">James Clerk Maxwell</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=415769" data-title="Numa Pompilius de James Clerk Maxwell" data-description="O well is thee! King Numa,
Within thy secret cave,
Where thy bones are ever moistened
By sad Egeria’s wave;
None now have power to pilfer
The treasure of thy tomb,
And reveal the institutions
And secret Rites of Rome.
O blessed be the Senate
Tha..."></div>
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