University of Virginia Library

A competence is vital to content.
Much wealth is corpulence, if not disease:
Sick, or encumber'd, is our happiness.
A competence is all we can enjoy.
O be content where Heaven can give no more!
More, like a flash of water from a lock,
Quickens our spirit's movement for an hour;
But soon its force is spent, nor rise our joys
Above our native temper's common stream.
Hence Disappointment lurks in every prize,
As bees in flowers, and stings us with success.