[64] _Smooth is the track of vice._] The way of sinners is made plain with stones: but at the end thereof is the pit of hell. WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH, xxi. 10. Both Plato and Xenophon who quote this line of Hesiod, read λειη, smooth, instead of ολιγη, short. Krebsius prefers the reading, as a _short_ road and _dwells near_ make a vapid tautology: and _smooth_ forms a good antithesis to _rough_. [65] _The sweat that bathes the brow._] Spenser has imitated this parable in his description of Honour: In woods, in waves, in wars she wonts to dwell, And will be found with peril and with pain: Ne can the man that moulds in idle cell Unto her happy mansion attain. Before her gate high God did sweat ordain, And wakeful watches ever to abide: But easy is the way and passage plain To Pleasure’s palace: it may soon be spied, And day and night her doors to all stand open wide. This allegory of Hesiod seems the basis of the apologue of Hercules, Virtue and Vice, which Xenophon in his “Memorabilia,” 2, 21, quotes by memory from Prodicus’s “History of Hercules.” [66] _To the wiser friend._] The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth to counsel is wise. PROVERBS, xii. 15. A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise. Ch. xv. 12. [67] _Oh son of Dios._] Διον γενος: Tzetzes had written in the margin Διου γενος, and this is in all probability the true reading; not that there is any thing extraordinary in the application of the term _divine_, as the Greeks used it in a wide latitude, and on frequent occasions. Homer applies it to the swineherd of Ulysses. It was a term of courtesy or respect; and Hesiod may have intended to compliment, not Perses, but their father. We have, however, the testimony of Ephorus, as recorded by Plutarch, that Dius was the father of Hesiod; and a copyist might easily have mistaken a υ for a ν. The author of the “Contest of Homer and Hesiod” seems to have read Διου γενος, as he makes Homer address his competitor, Ησιοδ’ εκγονη Διου— Oh Hesiod! Dius’ son! The reading is recommended by the Abbé Sevin in the “Histoire de l’Académie des Inscriptions,” and by Villoison; and is adopted by Brunck in his “Gnomici Poetæ Græci.” The herma of Hesiod exhibited by Bellorio in his “Veterûm Poetarûm Imagines” has the inscription, Ησιοδου Διου Ασκραιος, Ascræan Hesiod the son of Dios. [68] _Still on the sluggard hungry want attends._] He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. PROVERBS, x. 5. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. Ch. xxviii. 19. Hate not laborious work; neither husbandry: which the Most High has ordained. WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH, vii. 15. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. PROVERBS, x. 4.