If such petty crimes as this deserve such prison fare,
Come now, honest reader, what is your just share?
Was that old Greek right, who, tho' a man of sense,
Could mete out death to all for each small offense?
Apply his heartless rule, and can you truly say
Any man or woman would be left to slay?
Man is only mortal, and to sin is prone;
Never cure another's faults till you quit your own.
Many are convicted by the press at large;
The Public Mind is rarely Heaven's peculiar charge.