Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgment and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth denied,
She gives in large recruits of needful pride;
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind:
Pride where wit fails, steps in to our defense,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day.
Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of every friend—and every foe.
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts;
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanced behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky;
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;
But, those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labors of the lengthened way,
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!
πολλαῖς μὲν οὖν πλαναῖσιν ἄνθρωποι φρένας
τυφλούμενοι πίπτουσιν εἰς ἄτην κακήν,
πλείστῃ δ’ ἀνάσσει τῶν μάτην ζώντων ῥοπῇ
ὕβρις, καλὴ δέσποινα τῶν ἀφρασμόνων.
εἰ δὴ μεγαίρει δυσμενὴς Φύσις τινί,
τούτῳ δίδωσιν ἀφθόνους κόμπους ἀεί·
τόσον γὰρ αὔρας ἐμφύει τῷ σώματι,
ὅσονπερ αἵματός τε καὶ φρενῶν κενός.
τοῖς οὖν ἀβούλοις ξύμμαχος γενήσεται
ὕβρις βέβαιος ἀντὶ τοῦ φρονήματος·
ἀλλ’ εἴπερ ἐκβληθεῖεν ἀτηροὶ σκότοι,
ἅπαντ’ ἂν ἔλθοι γ’ αὐτίκ’ εἰς τὸ φῶς κακά.
σαυτῷ δ’ ἄπιστος ἴσθι, χὠς αἰδοῖος ᾖς
χρῆσθαί σε δεῖ φίλοις τε καὶ παλιγκότοις.
μαθὼν δὲ πάσχει νήπιος πάλιν κακῶς·
δεῖ δὴ καταπιεῖν ἢ φυγεῖν Μουσῶν πόσιν·
σταγὼν μὲν ὑγρὰ νοῦν σέθεν βλάψειεν ἄν,
μέθῃ δὲ βρεχθεὶς μᾶλλον εἶ σοφώτερος.
πρῶτον μὲν οὖν δώροισιν ἐκπλαγεὶς θεῶν
εἰς ἔσχατον Παρνασσὸν ὁρμᾶται νεός,
μάτην, ἐπεί νιν προσβλέποντα τἀγγύθεν
λέληθε πάνθ’ ὅσ’ ἐστὶ τηλόθι στίβου.
ἔπειτ’ ἐλαύνων τῆς ὁδοῦ πορρωτέρω
ῥοαῖς ἀπείροις θαυμάτων πολλῶν κυρεῖ.
οὕτω δ’ ὁδίτης πρῶτα μὲν προσέρχεται
ταῖς Ἄλπεσιν πρόθυμος οὐρανὸν πατεῖν
τέλος δὲ κορυφῆς, ὡς δοκεῖ, λαβὼν χερὶ
χιόνα κελεύει καὶ πάγους χαίρειν ἑκών.
ἀλλ’ ἢν τοσούτων τῶνδ’ ἀπαλλαχθῇ πόνων,
μακρὸς μένει νιν οἷμος, οὐ τλητὸς βλέπειν.
ἐπεὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς πολλὰ παπταίνει κάτω,
κεῖται λόφος λόφοισι κἄλπις Ἄλπεσιν.