The Book of Playing Cards

Rewards—however many brave deeds, rivaling those of the Gods, they may have achieved, or however much they were able to conquer or equal great men and mark the high offices original: fasces; symbols of Roman magisterial authority with their achievements—are known to Latium The region of Italy including Rome.; sacred Athens testifies to this through her studies, and they record that their own garlands were given to ancient Princes.

    But now the scene of the world is utterly overturned; everything has collapsed, and high virtue remains in no theater. Now, O grief, the name of the Muses is idle; it departs from the great cities and breathes its last into thin shadows. It is just as when dark visions infect the human brain and mock the mind, striking the eyes with a false image, and are heaped with empty hope.

Indeed, every matter is weighed by utility and everything by its use. That which is beneficial is dear. No rewards now remain for the Muses original: Camœnas; the Roman goddesses of song and poetry; mortals applaud themselves in name alone, and carry their proclamations to a deaf heaven. Furthermore, a deceitful mind wars against our ungrateful world, and allows itself to be moved by no praise. Utility joins friendships and superfluous pacts; utility nourishes the laws, the arts grow from use, and it is clear that the forms of things are proven by their usefulness. To this point has everything returned: that each man considers only those things worth following which fill his heart with profitable deeds; he despises all else, however much honorable things may be praised. And do we still hesitate to mourn such great sorrows?

    Yet, even with virtues despised, even with the Muses scorned—those solaces, I say, remain for wretched Apollo original: Phœbo; the god of music, poetry, and the sun; those things are the only hope that lifts up the abandoned. Although the number of Cyclopes A reference to the uncivilized or those lacking spiritual and artistic "vision," contrasting with the enlightened poet. is vast in all the world, our age has nonetheless given some men who are a little better—rivals to the prior virtue of our ancestors—under a happy star; men whose hearts are not lacking in virtue, but are burning with a wondrous love for the Pierides original: Pieridum; another name for the Muses, derived from their birthplace Pieria...