Or else the Ministry will lose their votes,

And patriotism, so delicately nice,

Her loaves will lower to the market price;[eu]

For ah! "the loaves and fishes," once so high,

Are gone—their oven closed, their ocean dry,[ev]

And nought remains of all the millions spent,

Excepting to grow moderate and content.

They who are not so, had their turn—and turn610

About still flows from Fortune's equal urn;

Now let their virtue be its own reward,