Horace: Ode: 10: Lib 2

A Mediocrity to be observed in both Fortunes

Thou may'st live happy, if thy minde
Neither aspire too high, nor grind
Upon the shelf of baseness lowe,
But in the mid'st twixt both delight to goe.

The golden Mediocrity
Whoe loves is safe, for Poverty
Is base, and too great Sumptuousness
Procureth Envy, Cares, and wretchednes.

For oft the higher towers, and Pines
Have greater falls, when struck with windes,
And those high mountaines, which aspire
E'en to the Skies, are soonest struck with fire.

A well form'd minde in miserre
Hopes that good Fortune will him free,
And in felicity doth feare
Least Fortune cast him downe, whoe him did reare.

Jove causeth winters frozen showres
For to deface the Summer flowers
He is the cause of both, ne still
Doth Fortune stand, but turnes from good to ill.

When as hard Fortune frownes, then be
The more couragious and free;
But when she smiles, be wise; strike Saile,
Least thou beest sunk with too too fayre a gale.