Could’st thou (O Earth) live thus obscure, and now
Within an Age, shew forth thy plentious brow
Of rich variety, gilded with fruitful Fame,
That (Trumpet-like) doth Heraldize thy Name,
And tells the World there is a Land now found,
That all Earth’s Globe can’t parallel its Ground?
Dwell, and be prosperous, and with thy plenty feed
The craving Carkesses of those Souls that need.
CHAP. II. Of the Government and Natural Disposition of the People.
MARY-LAND, not from the remoteness of her situation, but from the regularity of her well ordered Government, may (without sin, I think) be called Singular: And though she is not supported with such large Revenues as some of her Neighbours are, yet such is her wisdom in a reserved silence, and not in pomp, to shew her well-conditioned Estate, in relieving at a distance the proud poverty of those that wont be seen they want, as well as those which by undeniable necessities are drove upon the Rocks of pinching wants: Yet such a loathsome creature is a common and folding-handed Beggar, that upon the penalty of almost a perpetual working in Imprisonment, they are not to appear, nor lurk near our vigilant and laborious dwellings. The Country hath received a general spleen and antipathy against the very name and nature of it; and though there were no Law provided (as there is) to suppress it, I am certainly confident, there is none within the Province that would lower themselves so much below the dignity of men to beg, as long as limbs and life keep house together; so much is a vigilant industrious care esteem’d. {45}