How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity.
[Lat., Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent!]

How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity.
[Lat., Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent!]

Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust,
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Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust,
Trod under foot, the sport of every wind,
Swept from the earth and blotted from his mind,
There, secret in the grave, he bade them lie,
And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty eye.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of read more

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of honor is a private station.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Darkness is to space what silence is to sound, i.e., the interval.

Darkness is to space what silence is to sound, i.e., the interval.

Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

Yet was he but a squire of low degree.

Yet was he but a squire of low degree.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not read more

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.