The high-shoe'd ploughman, should he quit the land, } To take the pilot's rudder in his hand, } Artless of stars, and of the moving sand, } No need of public sanctions this to bind, } Which nature has implanted in the mind,-- } Not to pursue the work, to which we're not designed. } Unskilled in hellebore, if thou should'st try } To mix it, and mistake the quantity, } The rules of physic would against thee cry. } The high-shoe'd ploughman, should he quit the land, } To take the pilot's rudder in his hand, } Artless of stars, and of the moving sand, } The gods would leave him to the waves and wind, And think all shame was lost in human kind. Tell me, my friend, from whence had'st thou the skill, So nicely to distinguish good from ill? Or by the sound to judge of gold and brass, What piece is tinkers' metal, what will pass? And what thou art to follow, what to fly, This to condemn, and that to ratify? When to be bountiful, and when to spare, But never craving, or oppressed with care? The baits of gifts, and money to despise, And look on wealth with undesiring eyes? When thou canst truly call these virtues thine, Be wise and free, by heaven's consent and mine. But thou, who lately of the common strain Wert one of us, if still thou dost retain The same ill habits, the same follies too, Glossed over only with a saint-like show, Then I resume the freedom which I gave; Still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave. Thou canst not wag thy finger, or begin "The least light motion, but it tends to sin." How's this? Not wag my finger, he replies? } No, friend; nor fuming gums, nor sacrifice, } Can ever make a madman free, or wise. } "Virtue and vice are never in one soul; A man is wholly wise, or wholly is a fool."[247] A heavy bumpkin, taught with daily care, Can never dance three steps with a becoming air. PERSIUS. In spite of this, my freedom still remains. CORNUTUS.