For shame, dear friend, renounce this canting strain!
What would'st thou have a good great man obtain?
Place? titles? salary? a gilded chain?
Or throne of corses which his sword had slain? 10
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends!
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
The good great man? three treasures, Love, and Light,
And Calm Thoughts, regular as infant's breath:
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night, 15
Himself, his Maker, and the Angel Death!
1802.
FOOTNOTES:
[381:1] First published in the Morning Post (as an 'Epigram', signed ΕΣΤΗΣΕ), September 23, 1802: reprinted in the Poetical Register for 1802 (1803, p. 246): included in The Friend, No. XIX, December 28, 1809, and in Literary Remains, 1836, i. 53. First collected in 1844.
LINENOTES:
[Title]] Epigram M. P.: Epigrams P. R.: Complaint Lit. Rem., 1844, 1852: The Good, &c. 1893.
[[6]]
Reply to the above M. P.: Reply The Friend, 1809: Reproof Lit. Rem., 1844.