Laudator Temporis Acti

Alexander Pope, "The Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace," lines 125-152:

Thus in a sea of folly tost,        125
My choicest hours of life are lost;
Yet always wishing to retreat:
O, could I see my country-seat!
There leaning near a gentle brook,
Sleep, or peruse some ancient book,        130
And there, in sweet oblivion drown
Those cares that haunt the Court and town.
O charming Noons! and Nights divine!
Or when I sup, or when I dine,
My friends above, my folks below,        135
Chatting and laughing all-a-row,
The beans and bacon set before 'em,
The grace-cup served with all decorum;
Each willing to be pleas'd, and please,
And ev'n the very dogs at ease!        140
Here no man prates of idle things,
How this or that Italian sings,
A Neighbour's madness, or his Spouse's,
Or what 's in either of the Houses;
But something much more our concern,        145
And quite a scandal not to learn;
Which is the happier or the wiser,
A man of merit, or a miser?
Whether we ought to choose our friends
For their own worth or our own ends?        150
What good, or better, we may call,
And what the very best of all?

Horace, Satires 2.6.59-76 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough):

Amid such trifling, alas! I waste my day, praying the while: O rural home: when shall I behold you! When shall I be able, now with books of the ancients, now with sleep and idle hours, to quaff sweet forgetfulness of life's cares! O when shall beans, brethren of Pythagoras, be served me, and with them greens well larded with fat bacon! O nights and feasts divine! When before my own Lar we dine, my friends and I, and feed the saucy slaves from the barely tasted dishes. Each guest, as is his fancy, drains cups big or small, not bound by crazy laws, whether one can stand strong bumpers in gallant style, or with mild cups mellows more to his liking. And so begins a chat, not about other men's homes and estates, nor whether Lepos dances well or ill; but we discuss matters which concern us more, and of which it is harmful to be in ignorance — whether wealth or virtue makes men happy, whether self-interest or uprightness leads us to friendship, what is the nature of the good and what is its highest form.

perditur haec inter misero lux non sine votis:
o rus, quando ego te adspiciam quandoque licebit        60
nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis
ducere sollicitae iucunda oblivia vitae?
o quando faba Pythagorae cognata simulque
uncta satis pingui ponentur holuscula lardo?
o noctes cenaeque deum, quibus ipse meique        65
ante Larem proprium vescor vernasque procacis
pasco libatis dapibus. prout cuique libido est,
siccat inaequalis calices conviva solutus
legibus insanis, seu quis capit acria fortis
pocula seu modicis uvescit laetius. ergo        70
sermo oritur, non de villis domibusve alienis,
nec male necne Lepos saltet; sed, quod magis ad nos
pertinet et nescire malum est, agitamus, utrumne
divitiis homines an sint virtute beati,
quidve ad amicitias, usus rectumne, trahat nos        75
et quae sit natura boni summumque quid eius.