brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises
the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the
proud, -- Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high.

Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with
righteousness. And I, Perses, would tell of true things.

(ll. 11-24) So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife
alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a
man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the
other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature.
For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man
loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men
pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the other is the elder
daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and
dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she
is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil;
for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a
rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in
good order; and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries
after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is
angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is
jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.

(ll. 25-41) Perses, lay up these things in your heart, and do not
let that Strife who delights in mischief hold your heart back
from work, while you peep and peer and listen to the wrangles of
the court-house. Little concern has he with quarrels and courts
who has not a year's victuals laid up betimes, even that which
the earth bears, Demeter's grain. When you have got plenty of