While others are asking for beauty or fame,
Or praying to know that for which they should pray,
Or courting Queen Venus, that affable dame,
Or chasing the Muses the weary and grey,
The sage has found out a more excellent way—
To Pan and to Pallas his incense he showers,
And his humble petition puts up day by day,
For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers.
from BALLADE OF TRUE WISDOM. (Ballades & Rhymes from Ballades in Blue China and Rhymes a la Mode by Andrew Lang, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3138 )
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