<h2><SPAN name="Niccolo_Machiavelli" id="Niccolo_Machiavelli"></SPAN>Niccolo Machiavelli</h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">From thy serene abode thou lookest down<br/></span>
<span class="i0">With pitying eye upon a rabble rout<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Who strive and plot and fight and turn about,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Endeavouring to seize some phantom crown,—<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Whether of kingdom or of some small town,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Or village—or one single home—their own:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">They stumble, and with hurried steps awry<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Blindly they miss their opportunity;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Whilst, all the time, thy Golden Book is there,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ripe with earth's wisdom; but they only stare<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Or pass along with stupid scoff and curse,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Using thy name for 'scoundrelly' or worse.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Of all those who have striven to endow<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The world with garnered knowledge, only thou<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Hast for so long endured of thorns the crown;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Beneath the feet of swine thy name is thrown;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And in the streets thy priceless wit doth lie;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">So that, alone, the stooping passer-by<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Undaunted by an epithet, may find;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And treasuring like gold seven times refined,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Open the casket with exultant air<br/></span>
<span class="i0">To see the Pearl of Wisdom lying there.<br/></span>
<span class="pagenum">[47]</span></div>
</div>
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