WEALTH.
Here Wisdom calls, "Seek virtue first, be bold;
As gold to silver, virtue is to gold."
There London's voice, "Get money, money still,
And then let Virtue follow if she will."
Imitations of Horace, Epistle I. Bk. I. A. POPE.
The devil was piqued such saintship to behold,
And longed to tempt him, like good Job of old;
For Satan now is wiser than of yore,
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
Moral Essays, Epistle III. A. POPE.
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From heaven; for even in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than ought divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific.
Paradise Lost, Bk. I. MILTON.
Religious, punctual, frugal, and so forth;
His word would pass for more than he was worth.
One solid dish his week-day meal affords,
An added pudding solemnized the Lord's.
Constant at church and change, his gains were sure,
His giving Rare, save farthings to the poor.
Moral Essays, Epistle III. A. POPE.
Gold begets in brethren hate;
Gold in families debate;
Gold does friendship separate;
Gold does civil wars create.
Anacreontics: Gold. A. COWLEY.
Trade it may help, society extend,
But lures the Pirate, and corrupts the friend:
It raises armies in a nation's aid,
But bribes a senate, and the land's betrayed.
Moral Essays, Epistle II. A. POPE
The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest;
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.
Irene, Act i. Sc. I. DR. S. JOHNSON.
But in the temple of their hireling hearts
Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn
All earthly things but virtue.
Queen Mab, Pt. V. P.B. SHELLEY.
Gold! gold! gold! gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold,
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled;
Heavy to get, and light to hold;
Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold.
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled:
Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old
To the very verge of the churchyard mold;
Price of many a crime untold:
Gold! gold! gold! gold!
Good or bad a thousand-fold!
How widely its agencies vary,—
To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless,—
As even its minted coins express.
Now stamped with the image of good Queen Bess,
And now of a Bloody Mary.
Miss Kilmansegg. T. HOOD.
But all thing, which that shineth as the gold,
Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told.
Canterbury Tales. Chanones Yemannes Tale. CHAUCER.
Shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey;
The horse doth with the horseman run away.
Imitations of Horace, Bk. I. A. COWLEY.
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.
Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.