Do tend their flocks) partake man's general lot[456]
With little mitigation. They escape,
Perchance, the heavier woes of guilt; feel not[457]
The tedium of fantastic idleness:
Yet life, as with the multitude, with them
Is fashioned like an ill-constructed tale;
That on the outset wastes its gay desires,
Its fair adventures, its enlivening hopes,
And pleasant interests—for the sequel leaving
Old things repeated with diminished grace;