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