"Yet one song more! one high and solemn strain,
Ere, Phoebus! on thy temples ruined wall
I hang the silent harp: one song more!
Penates! hear me! for to you I hymn
The votive lay. Venerable powers!
Hearken your hymn of praise. Though from your rites
Estranged, and exiled from your altars long,
I have not ceased to love you, Household Gods!
O ye whom youth has 'wildered on your way,
Or vice with fair mask'd foulness, or the lure
Of Fame that calls ye to her crowded path
With folly's rattle, to your Household Gods
Return: for not in Vice's gay abodes,
{158}
Not in the unquiet, unsafe halls of Fame
Doth Happiness abide!"
-----------------"To your Household Gods
Return, for by their altars, Virtue dwells,
And Happiness with her; hearken your hymn of praise,
Penates! to your shrines I come for rest,--
There only to be found. Household Deities,
There only shall be Happiness on earth
When man shall feel your sacred power, and love
Your tranquil joys; then shall the city stand
A huge, void sepulchre, and rising fair
Amid the ruins of the palace pile,
The olive grow, there shall the tree of peace
Strike its roots deep, and flourish."