Therefore have colleges and hospitals risen upon orphans' wrongs,
Chapels and cathedrals have thriven on the welcome wages of iniquity,
And fraud, in evil compensation, hath salved his guilty conscience,
Not by restoring to the cheated, but by ostentatious giving to the grateful.
So, those who reap rejoice; and reaping, bless the sower:
No one is eager to discover, where discovery tendeth unto loss:
Yet, if knowledge of a theft make gainers thereby guilty,
Can he be altogether innocent, who never asked the honesty of gain?
Therefore, O preacher, zealous for charity, temper thy warm appeal,—
Warning the debtor and unjustly rich, they may not dare to give: