Ευλαβηθῆναι και μη, κατα την παροιμιαν, ωσπερ νηπιον παθονται γνωναι. Beware lest, after the proverb, you get knowledge like the fool, by suffering. [56] _Walks in awful grief the city-ways._] Something similar is the prosopopœia of Wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon, ch. viii. She standeth on the top of high places, by the way, and the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates: at the entry of the city: at the coming in of the doors. [57] _O’er their stain’d manners._] Grævius observes that the interpreters render ηθεα λαῶν, “most foolishly” by _the manners_ of the people: because ηθεα signifies also _habitations_. But as it is not pretended that ηθεα does not equally signify _manners_, “the extreme folly” of the interpreters has, I confess, escaped my penetration. Is it so very forced an image that Justice should weep over the manners of a depraved people? [58] _They and their cities flourish._] This passage resembles one in the nineteenth book of the Odyssey: but not so closely as to justify the charge of plagiarism which Dr. Clarke prefers against Hesiod, and which might be retorted upon Homer. These were sentiments common to the popular religion. Like the praise of some great king Who o’er a numerous people and renown’d, Presiding like a deity, maintains Justice and truth. Their harvests overswell The sower’s hopes: their trees o’erladen scarce Their fruit sustain: no sickness thins the folds: The finny swarms of ocean crowd the shores, And all are rich and happy for his sake. COWPER. [59] _Reflects the father’s face._] Montesquieu remarks: “The people mentioned by Pomponius Mela (the Garamantes) had no other way of discovering the father but by resemblance. Pater est quem nuptiæ demonstrant.” But this uncertain criterion was considered as infallible generally by the ancients. She whom no conjugal affections bind, Still on a stranger bends her fickle mind: But easy to discern the spurious race, None in the child the father’s features trace. THEOCRITUS—_Encomium of Ptolemy._ Oh may a young Torquatus bending From his mother’s breast to thee, His tiny infant hands extending, Laugh with half-open’d lips in childish ecstasy: May he reflect the father in his face: Known for a Mallius to the glancing eye Of strangers unaware, who trace In the boy’s forehead of paternal grace A mother’s shining chastity. CATULLUS—_Epithalamium on Julia and Mallius._ [60] _Holy demons rove_ _This breathing world._] Milton is thought to have copied Hesiod in this passage: Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep. But the coincidence seems merely incidental, as the parallel wants completeness. There is nothing of angelic guardianship or judicial inspection in the spirits of Milton: he says only,