Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Initium Sapientiae Timor

Here is another distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey,

Initium Sapientiae Timor
Speraret caelos nemo, si nemo timeret
Infera; Prudenti spem facit ipse metus.


WISDOMS BEGINNING
None would for Heaven hope, if none fear’d Hell:
Fear in the prudent hope creates: ’tis well.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:

(image source)