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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420383" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Shepherd and the Philosopher</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Remote from cities liv'd a swain,<br>Unvex'd with all the cares of gain;<br>His head was silver'd o'er with age,<br>And long experience made him sage;<br>In summer's heat and winter's cold,<br>He led his flock and penn'd the fold;<br>His hours in cheerful labour flew,<br>Nor envy nor ambition knew:<br>His wisdom and his honest fame<br>Through all the country rais'd his name</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A deep philosopher (whose rules<br>Of moral life were drawn from schools)<br>The shepherd's homely cottage sought,<br>And thus explor'd his reach of thought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil<br>O'er books consum'd the midnight oil?<br>Hast thou old Greece and Rome survey'd,<br>And the vast sense of Plato weigh'd?<br>Hath Socrates thy soul refin'd,<br>And hast thou fathom'd Tully's mind?<br>Or, like the wise Ulysses, thrown,<br>By various fates, on realms unknown,<br>Hast thou through many cities stray'd,<br>Their customs, laws, and manners weigh'd?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The shepherd modestly replied,<br>'I ne'er the paths of learning tried;<br>Nor have I roam'd in foreign parts,<br>To read mankind, their laws and arts;<br>For man is practis'd in disguise,<br>HE cheats the most discerning eyes.<br>Who by that search shall wiser grow?<br>By that ourselves we never know. <br>The little knowledge I have gain'd,<br>Was all from simple nature drain'd;<br>Hence my life's maxims took their rise, <br>Hence grew my settled hate to vice.<br>The daily labours of the bee<br>Awake my soul to industry.<br>Who can observe the careful ant,<br>And not provide for future want?<br>My dog (the trustiest of his kind)<br>With gratitude inflames my mind:<br>I mark his true, his faithful way,<br>And in my service copy Tray.<br>In constancy and nuptial love,<br>I learn my duty from the dove.<br>The hen, who from the chilly air,<br>With pious wing protects her care,<br>And ev'ry fowl that flies at large,<br>Instructs me in a parent's charge.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'From nature too I take my rule,<br>To shun contempt and ridicule.<br>I never, with important air,<br>In conversation overbear.<br>Can grave and formal pass for wise,<br>When men the solemn owl despise?<br>My tongue within my lips I rein;<br>For who talks much must talk in vain,<br>We from the wordy torrent fly:<br>Who listens to the chatt'ring pye?<br>Nor would I, with felonious flight,<br>By stealth invade my neighbour's right:<br>Rapacious animals we hate;<br>Kites, hawks, and wolves, deserve their fate.<br>Do not we just abhorrence find<br>Against the toad and serpent kind?<br>But envy, calumny, and spite, <br>Bear stronger venom in their bite.<br>Thus ev'ry object of creation<br>Can furnish hints to contemplation;<br>And from the most minute and mean,<br>A virtuous mind can morals glean.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Thy fame is just,' the sage replies;<br>'Thy virtue proves thee truly wise.<br>Pride often guides the author's pen,<br>Books as affected are as men:<br>But he who studies nature's laws,<br>From certain truth his maxims draws;<br>And those, without our schools, suffice,<br>To make men moral, good, and wise.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Gay">John Gay</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=420383" data-title="The Shepherd and the Philosopher de John Gay" data-description="Remote from cities liv'd a swain,
Unvex'd with all the cares of gain;
His head was silver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage;
In summer's heat and winter's cold,
He led his flock and penn'd the fold;
His hours in cheerful labour fl..."></div>
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