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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=457205" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Conversation. A Tale</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">It always has been a thought discreet<br>To know the company you meet;<br>And sure there may be secret danger <br>In talking much before a stranger.<br>Agreed: what then? Then drink your ale;<br>I'll pledge you, and repeat my tale.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No matter where the scene is fix'd,<br>The persons were but oddly mix'd;<br>When sober Damon thus began,<br>(And Damon is a clever man!)<br>I now grow old, but still from youth<br>Have held for modesty and truth;<br>The men who by these sea-marks steer<br>In life's great voyage never err:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Upon this point I dare defy <br>The world; I pause for a reply.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir, either is a good assistant, <br>Said one, who sat a little distant;<br>Truth decks our speeches and our books,<br>And modesty adorns our looks:<br>But farther progress we must take;<br>Not only born to look and speak,<br>The man must act. The Stagirite<br>Says thus, and says extremely right.<br>Strict justice is the sovereign guide<br>That o'er our actions should preside;<br>This queen of virtues is confess'd<br>To regulate and bind the rest.<br>Thrice happy if you can but find<br>Her equal balance poise your mind;<br>All different graces soon will enter,<br>Like lines concurrent to their centre.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Twas thus, in short, these two went on,<br>With yea and nay, and <br>pro<br>and <br>con<br>.<br>Through many points divinely dark,<br>And Waterland assaulting Clarke,<br>Till, in theology half lost, <br>Damon took up the Evening Post,<br>Confounded Spain, composed the north,<br>And deep in politics held forth.<br>Methinks we're in the like condition<br>As at the Treaty of Partition:<br>That stroke, for all King William's care,<br>Begat another tedious war.<br>Matthew, who knew the whole intrigue,<br>Ne'er much approved that mystic league:<br>In the vile Utrecht treaty, too, <br>Poor man, he found enough to do. <br>Sometimes to me he did apply,<br>But downright Dunstable was I,<br>And told him where they were mistaken,<br>And counsell'd him to save his bacon: <br>But (pass his politics and prose)<br>I never herded with his foes;<br>Nay, in his verses, as a friend, <br>I still found something to commend;<br>Sir, I excused his Nut brown Maid,<br>Whate'er severer critics said;<br>Too far, I own, the girl was try'd; <br>The women all were on my side.<br>For Alma I return'd him thanks;<br>I liked her with her little pranks:<br>Indeed poor Solomon in rhyme<br>Was much too grave to be sublime.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Pindar and Damon scorn transition,<br>So on he ran a new division;<br>Till out of breath he turn'd to spit; <br>(Chance often helps us more than wit)<br>Th' other that lucky moment took, <br>Just nick'd the time, broke in, and spoke.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Of all the gifts the gods afford,<br>(If we may take old Tully's word)<br>The greatest is a friend whose love<br>Knows how to praise and when reprove:<br>From such a treasure never part,<br>But hang the jewel on your heart:<br>And pray, Sir (it delights me) tell,<br>You know this author mighty well -<br>Know him! d'ye question it? odds fish! <br>Sir, does a beggar know his dish?<br>I loved him, as I told you, I<br>Advised him - here a stander by<br>Twitch'd Damon gently by the cloke,<br>And thus, unwilling, silence broke:<br>Damon, 'tis time we should retire,<br>The man you talk with is Matt. Prior.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Patron through life, and from thy birth my friend,<br>Dorset! to thee this fable let me send;<br>With Damon's lightness weigh thy solid worth;<br>The foil is known to set the diamond forth:<br>Let the feign'd tale this real moral give,<br>How many Damons how few Dorsets live.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Matthew+Prior">Matthew Prior</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=457205" data-title="The Conversation. A Tale de Matthew Prior" data-description="It always has been a thought discreet
To know the company you meet;
And sure there may be secret danger 
In talking much before a stranger.
Agreed: what then? Then drink your ale;
I'll pledge you, and repeat my tale.

No matter where the scene is ..."></div>
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