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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=472314" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Traveller; or, A Prospect of Society (excerpt)</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">...</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But where to find that happiest spot below<br> Who can direct, when all pretend to know?<br> The shudd'ring tenant of the frigid zone<br> Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own;<br> Extols the treasures of his stormy seas,<br> And his long nights of revelry and ease:<br> The naked negro, panting at the line,<br> Boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine,<br> Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave,<br> And thanks his gods for all the good they gave.<br> Such is the patriot's boast where'er we roam,<br> His first, best country ever is at home.<br> And yet, perhaps, if countries we compare,<br> And estimate the blessings which they share,<br> Tho' patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find<br> An equal portion dealt to all mankind;<br> As different good, by Art or Nature given,<br> To different nations makes their blessings even.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Nature, a mother kind alike to all,<br> Still grants her bliss at Labour's earnest call:<br> With food as well the peasant is supplied<br> On Idra's cliffs as Arno's shelvy side;<br> And though the rocky-crested summits frown,<br> These rocks by custom turn to beds of down.<br> From Art more various are the blessings sent,--<br> Wealth, commerce, honour, liberty, content.<br> Yet these each other's power so strong contest,<br> That either seems destructive of the rest.<br> Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails,<br> And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.<br> Hence every state, to one lov'd blessing prone,<br> Conforms and models life to that alone.<br> Each to the favourite happiness attends,<br> And spurns the plan that aims at other ends:<br> Till carried to excess in each domain,<br> This favourite good begets peculiar pain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But let us try these truths with closer eyes,<br> And trace them through the prospect as it lies:<br> Here for a while my proper cares resign'd;<br> Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind;<br> Like yon neglected shrub at random cast,<br> That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Far to the right, where Apennine ascends,<br> Bright as the summer, Italy extends:<br> Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side,<br> Woods over woods in gay theatric pride;<br> While oft some temple's mould'ring tops between<br> With venerable grandeur mark the scene.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Could Nature's bounty satisfy the breast,<br> The sons of Italy were surely blest.<br> Whatever fruits in different climes are found,<br> That proudly rise or humbly court the ground;<br> Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,<br> Whose bright succession descks the varied year;<br> Whatever sweets salute the northern sky<br> With vernal lives, that blossom but to die;<br> These, here disporting, own the kindred soil,<br> Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil;<br> While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand<br> To winnow fragance round the smiling land.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,<br> And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.<br> In florid beauty groves and fields appear;<br> Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.<br> Contrasted faults through all his manners reign:<br> Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain;<br> Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue;<br> And e'en in penance planning sins anew.<br> All evils here contaminate the mind<br> That opulence departed leaves behind;<br> For wealth was theirs; not far removed the date,<br> When commerce proudly flourish'd through the state;<br> At her command the palace learnt to rise,<br> Again the long-fall'n column sought the skies,<br> The canvas glow'd, beyond e'en nature warm,<br> The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form;<br> Till, more unsteady than the southern gale,<br> Commerce on other shores display'd her sail;<br> While nought remain'd of all that riches gave,<br> But towns unmann'd, and lords without a slave:<br> And late the nation found with fruitless skill<br> Its former strength was but plethoric ill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied<br> By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride;<br> For these the feeble heart and long-fall'n mind<br> An easy compensation seem to find.<br> Here may be seen, in bloodless pomp array'd,<br> The pasteboard triumph and the cavalcade,<br> Processions form'd for piety and love,<br> A mistress or a saint in every grove.<br> By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd;<br> The sports of children satisfy the child.<br> Each nobler aim, repress'd by long control,<br> Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul;<br> While low delights, succeeding fast behind,<br> In happier meanness occupy the mind:<br> As in those domes where Caesars once bore sway,<br> Defac'd by time and tott'ring in decay,<br> There in the ruin, heedless of the dead,<br> The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed;<br> And, wond'ring man could want the larger pile,<br> Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile....</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Oliver+Goldsmith">Oliver Goldsmith</a><div class=q>
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 But where to find that happiest spot below
 Who can direct, when all pretend to know?
 The shudd'ring tenant of the frigid zone
 Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own;
 Extols the treasures of his stormy seas,
 And his long nights of r..."></div>
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