Georgics 2.458–474

458O farmers, fortunate beyond measure, if they knew their blessings! 459for whom, far from clashing arms, the most just earth herself pours from the soil an easy living. 461If no lofty house with proud doors spews out from all its halls a huge tide of morning callers, nor do they gape at doorposts inlaid with lovely tortoiseshell, and garments embroidered with gold, and Corinthian bronzes, nor is their white wool stained with Assyrian dye, nor the use of their clear olive oil spoiled with cassia: yet carefree quiet and a life that knows no deceit, rich in wealth of many kinds, yet leisure on broad estates — caves and living lakes and cool Tempe, the lowing of cattle and soft sleep beneath a tree — are not lacking; 471there are glades and the lairs of wild beasts, and youth patient of toil and used to little, worship of the gods and fathers held in reverence; 473among them Justice, as she departed from the earth, left her last footprints.