Songs and Verses Social and Scientific: By An old contributor to Maga [i.e. Charles Neaves]: Fourth Edition, Enlarged |
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DON'T FORGET THE RICH.
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28
DON'T FORGET THE RICH.
A SUPPLEMENT TO “THE THREE R'S.”
“We'll educate the Poor,” you say; and clearly it is right
To try to lead our humble friends from darkness into light:
To help their hands, to fill their hearts with feelings just and true,
To make them skilled in handicrafts, and wise and happy too;
Yet take with me a wider range, and seek a higher pitch,
And while you educate the Poor, pray, don't forget the Rich.
To try to lead our humble friends from darkness into light:
To help their hands, to fill their hearts with feelings just and true,
To make them skilled in handicrafts, and wise and happy too;
Yet take with me a wider range, and seek a higher pitch,
And while you educate the Poor, pray, don't forget the Rich.
The Poor are to be pitied much, of food and clothing scant;
Yet there's a kind of schooling, too, in poverty and want.
They learn to use their eyes and ears, they can't be idle quite;
They must be up and doing, let the thing be wrong or right.
But when no motive stirs the mind, there comes a serious hitch;
For laziness and luxury are open to the Rich.
Yet there's a kind of schooling, too, in poverty and want.
They learn to use their eyes and ears, they can't be idle quite;
They must be up and doing, let the thing be wrong or right.
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For laziness and luxury are open to the Rich.
The rich man's son, I therefore think, may claim our pity too:
He finds no want unsatisfied, he sees no work to do.
His bed is made: he's softly laid: and when he lists to rise,
Pleasure invites and Flattery's voice its Siren magic plies:
Strange power have these confederate foes men's spirits to bewitch;
So while we don't neglect the Poor, we'll also mind the Rich.
He finds no want unsatisfied, he sees no work to do.
His bed is made: he's softly laid: and when he lists to rise,
Pleasure invites and Flattery's voice its Siren magic plies:
Strange power have these confederate foes men's spirits to bewitch;
So while we don't neglect the Poor, we'll also mind the Rich.
The rich man's daughter often, too, may mourn a hapless fate,
If head and heart ne'er learned the art to dignify her state;
If life without a task or sphere is miserably spent
In languor or in levity or peevish discontent:
Scarce sadder lot has Hood's poor girl, condemned to sew and stitch,
Than hers the unidea'd maid, the daughter of the Rich.
If head and heart ne'er learned the art to dignify her state;
If life without a task or sphere is miserably spent
In languor or in levity or peevish discontent:
Scarce sadder lot has Hood's poor girl, condemned to sew and stitch,
Than hers the unidea'd maid, the daughter of the Rich.
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The untaught Poor are dangerous, they know not what they need:
By clamour or pernicious threats they seek their cause to speed:
They quarrel with their truest friends; and look with envious glare
On those whose industry and thrift have made them what they are.
But all the Blind, of guides bereft, may fall into the ditch;
So give true insight to us all, the Poor as well as Rich.
By clamour or pernicious threats they seek their cause to speed:
They quarrel with their truest friends; and look with envious glare
On those whose industry and thrift have made them what they are.
But all the Blind, of guides bereft, may fall into the ditch;
So give true insight to us all, the Poor as well as Rich.
What citizen can well be worse than one with wealth to spend,
Who neither has the power nor will to serve a noble end?
Trained in his body he may be, and taught to race and game,
But ignorant of letters and untouched by virtue's flame:
Corrupted, nay corrupting too,—it little matters which—
Oh, if the vicious Poor are bad, what are the vicious Rich?
Who neither has the power nor will to serve a noble end?
Trained in his body he may be, and taught to race and game,
But ignorant of letters and untouched by virtue's flame:
Corrupted, nay corrupting too,—it little matters which—
Oh, if the vicious Poor are bad, what are the vicious Rich?
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If you possess compulsion's power, compel us all to learn
How we may best the Good and Bad, the Fair and Foul discern:
Let God's great laws, let Britain's weal, be rightly understood;
Show us the gain of growing wise, the joy of doing good:
Give in the social edifice to each his proper niche,
And teach their duties and their rights alike to Poor and Rich.
How we may best the Good and Bad, the Fair and Foul discern:
Let God's great laws, let Britain's weal, be rightly understood;
Show us the gain of growing wise, the joy of doing good:
Give in the social edifice to each his proper niche,
And teach their duties and their rights alike to Poor and Rich.
In hopes our social ills to cure, our ancient Kings and Laws
Built schools and founded colleges to prosper the good cause.
There all who came were kindly lured, or led by firm control,
To learn whate'er would form the mind or purify the soul.
These wise foundations seek to aid and elevate their pitch:
You'll benefit both Rich and Poor—by training well the Rich.
Built schools and founded colleges to prosper the good cause.
There all who came were kindly lured, or led by firm control,
To learn whate'er would form the mind or purify the soul.
These wise foundations seek to aid and elevate their pitch:
You'll benefit both Rich and Poor—by training well the Rich.
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