University of Virginia Library

Soon as Wisdom thus had sung,
He began, with plainer tongue,
Sooth to sing his sayings thus,
And himself to speak to us.

O how full of blessing then
Was the first glad age to men!
When earth's fruitful plenty came
(Not as now,) to all the same;
When through all the world were there
No great halls of costly care;
No rich feasts of meat or drink;
Neither did they heed or think
Of such jewels, then unknown,
As our lordlings long to own;
Nor did seamen aye behold
Nor had heard of gems or gold.
More; with frugal mind they fared;
And for pleasures only cared,
As at Christ's and kindred's voice
They were bidden to rejoice.
Once in the day, at eventide,
They ate earth's fruits, and nought beside;
No wine they drank, their stoup was clear;
No cunning slave was mingling near
Meats and drinks, to glut their greed,
Or make the heated honeymead;
No silk-sewn weeds wish'd they to wear;
No good-webs dyed with crafty care;
Nor set on high with skilful power
The mighty dome, or lofty tower.
But, under the sweet shade of trees
They slept at all times well at ease,
And, when thirsting, gladly took
Water from the running brook;
Never trader wandered o'er
Seas to seek a foreign shore,
Never had one heard indeed
Of ships to till the briny mead;
Nowhere yet with blood of men
Was the earth besmitten then,
Nowhere had the sun beheld
Steel that struck, or wound that well'd.
Those who work'd an evil will
Won not worship for their ill;
All would then have loathed them sore:
O that this could be once more!
O that God would now on earth
Make us all so purely worth!
But alas, men now are worse;
Lust of getting sets a curse
As a clog upon each mind,
Reckless other good to find.
Lust of gain unfathomed glows
In the heart with bubbling throes;
Swart it lies, and sweltering deep,
Like old Etna's boiling heap,
Which, in Sicily's broad isle,
Burns with brimstone many a mile,
So that men around it tell,
Of its fires as fires of hell,
For that ever still it burns
Bitter everywhere by turns.

Woe! that ever should have been
In this world the sinner seen,
Who was first so basely bold
As to dig for gems and gold:
Cares for many then he found
Darkly hidden in the ground,
Dangerous wealth and deadly worth
In the deeps of sea and earth.