1. Know your time and accept what it offers generously
For he who contends with it will meet hardship and misery

2. And if you want safety from its unpredictability
Then make none of its people known to him, not one

3. For most of its people follow its example
In permitting what it permits or forbidding what it forbids

4. So he who denounces it, denounces them for their nature
And people's critic fears their evil evermore