Go not, go not, Achilles; is all in vain? Is this the fulfilment of long delight, The promise of favouring heaven, The praise of our song, The choice of Thetis for thee, Thy merry disguise, And happy betrothal? We pray thee, O we beseech thee, all, Son of Thetis, we counsel well, 1650 Do not thy bride this wrong. 2. For if to-day thou goest, thou wilt go far, Alas, from us thy comrades away, To a camp of revengeful men, The accursed war By warning fate forbidden, To angry disdain, A death unworthy. We pray thee, O we beseech thee, all, Son of Peleus, we counsel well, 1660 This doom the oracle told. _Lyc._ What said the oracle? _Ach._ It darkly boded That glory should be death. _Lyc._ And so may be: Nay, very like. Yet men who would live well, Weigh not these riddles, but unfold their life From day to day. Do thou as seemeth best, Nor fear mysterious warnings of the powers. But, if my voice can reckon with thee at all, I’ll tell thee what myself I have grown to think: That the best life is oft inglorious. 1670 Since the perfecting of ourselves, which seems Our noblest task, may closelier be pursued Away from camps and cities and the mart Of men, where fame, as it is called, is won, By strife, ambition, competition, fashion, Ay, and the prattle of wit, the deadliest foe To sober holiness, which, as I think, Loves quiet homes, where nature laps us round With musical silence and the happy sights That never fret; and day by day the spirit 1680 Pastures in liberty, with a wide range Of peaceful meditation, undisturbed. All which can Scyros offer if thou wilt.— _Ul._ This speech is idle, thou art bound to me. _Ach._ I hear you all: and lest it should be said I once was harsh and heedless, where such wrong Were worse than cowardice, I now recall Whate’er I have said. I will not forth to Troy: I will abide in Scyros, and o’erlook The farms and vineyards, and be lessoned well 1690 In government of arts, and spend my life In love and ease, and whatsoever else Our good king here hath praised—I will do this If my bride bid me. Let her choose for me; Her word shall rule me. If she set our pleasure Above my honour, I will call that duty, And make it honourable, and so do well. But, as I know her, if she bid me go Where fate and danger call, then I will go, And so do better: and very sure it is, 1700 Pleasure is not for him who pleasure serves.