University of Virginia Library

Why is extensive wealth bestow'd on men?
To be as greatly useful as they can,
Not merely their own in'trests to pursue,
Or meanly hoard as wretched misers do;
Alas! while thousands of their betters starve,
Or only have their barest wants to serve.

God, in dispensing favours here below,
Wisely dispens'd, would have all orders know,
Howe'er the lots unequal seem to fall,
He seeks the welfare not of one, but all.
Not that a pride-swoln purse-vain tyrant, born
Both the disgrace of mankind, and the scorn,
Should raise, with unremitted bent of mind,
His fortune on the ruins of his kind;
Sole, rigid arbiter of right and wrong,
Holding high jurisdiction o'er the throng;
A pow'r which only from presumption flows,
Or something foreign to himself bestows:
His only merit—save but to himself,
The merit of the mine, a little pelf,
Though here unlike, his to himself confin'd,
The mine bestows its blessings on mankind.
All are the objects of God's special care,
His Providence all undistinguish'd share;
His rains and dews the barren soil enrich,
No matter which the lord, the vassal which;
His radiant sun, his moon, his stars, display
To all one indiscriminating ray.
The monarch and the hamlet's servile clown,
Howe'er on him the royal eye looks down,
Howe'er the first by prostrate crouds obey'd,
Stand on a level, when by Him survey'd;
For to the last, so equal He bestows,
The first his diadem and sceptre owes;
While in return, though casual ills endur'd,
The peasant's life and property's secur'd.
No titles, no distinctions, that exist
Only while Fortune smiles, or factions list,
Expos'd to accidents of time and place,
Avail with Him whose empire is all space;
Whose eye, which through no partial medium sees,
Beholds, as one, all stations and degrees;
As gilded clouds dispers'd o'er evening-sky,
Some of a brighter, some a fainter dye,
But all alike, at the approach of night,
Snatch'd in surrounding darkness from the sight.

For what are all the haughty boasts of pow'r,
But the fantastic playthings of an hour,
Which Fortune from her lap in pastime throws,
While in the scramble friends turn mortal foes?
So have we seen two mastiffs fierce engage,
With rival hatred, and contentious rage,
The strongest sure the mighty prize to own,
The mighty prize—a crumble or a bone.

Say not that Virtue suffers by the charge,
We censure thus her merit to enlarge;
Thus too applause on Reason we bestow,
Reason, man's grand prerogative below;
For seldom either seems concern'd at all
With Mankind's incidental rise or fall;
Seldom the last claims Pity's tender sigh,
The first one glance of their approving eye.
Refrain to call their honour injur'd then,
But let the censure justly light on men.
Men who, when plumes or stars within their reach,
Think no excess a law's notorious breach;
Surmount each obstacle, as in their way
An insect flutter'd, or a molehill lay;
The first that can obtain, or best defend,
(No matter how) most lucky in the end.
Rather pronounce the satire dipt in gall,
That thus their favour is denied to all.
And why denied? because (O lasting blot
In Fame's escutcheon) priz'd and courted not.

Riches, consider'd right, are not our own,
But lent us as a temporary loan,
To be, as the fam'd Hebrew understood,
Laid out discreetly for the common good.
A certain test, a grand criterion this,
As manag'd with discretion, or amiss,
God in superiour wisdom means to try
The rectitude of our intentions by;
Whence the reward, or glory or disgrace,
Will with impartial equity take place.

Such then reverse the universal law,
Whose hearts relent not, and whose hands withdraw.
Such counteract Heav'n's uniform design,
And boldy would oppose the will divine,
Who, to the circle of themselves confin'd,
Their thoughts extend not to the human kind;
Whom no kind gen'rous sentiments impress,
Averse to aid, though they the means possess.
For shame! thus faithless to the noblest trust,
To God ungrateful, and to man unjust.
To God, of whom unmerited you hold
Your lease of life, your honours, and your gold.
To man, related by one common tye,
Whate'er proud mottoes boast, or crests imply.
Reason, to man intrusted as a grant,
Lest he should ever sink oppress'd with want,
Makes him the common creditor of all,
Whate'er hard fate betides, or ills befall.
To whom all, places chang'd, commutual owe
What each would wish the other to bestow.
A diamond is a diamond, whether seen
On dunghill, or in bracelet of a queen.
Yon sun the same, when vapours foul obscure,
As when he shines through boundless æther pure.
For shall a being form'd by breath divine,
In whom the graces of an angel shine,
Destin'd, when life's vain senseless farce is o'er,
To live with kindred spirits evermore,
Shall he, unhonour'd by a gen'rous sigh,
Live unassisted, or neglected die?
Shall he alone demand his birth-right due,
Yet, with reproach, meet a refusal too?
No; first the open air let glow-worms shun;
Lest in his glory they eclipse the sun;
Let wretches guard their bags with bolted door,
Starving with plenty, in abundance poor.
Let emmets boast their hoarded grains, but man
Should act upon a better, nobler plan.
Nor let the bard, who freely censures them,
Be guilty of a fault his lays condemn.
Thus would he take the disingenuous side,
And from his actions his belief divide.