Bribes And Gifts Get All.

All has been plunder'd from me but my wit:
Fortune herself can lay no claim to it.

In Den'shire Kersey Lusk, when he was dead,
Would shrouded be and therewith buried.
When his assigns asked him the reason why,
He said, because he got his wealth thereby.

        (To a Modern Politician.)


        I grant these facts: corruption sways,
        Self-interest does pervert man's ways;
        That bribes do blind; that present crimes
        Do equal those of former times:
        Can I against plain facts engage
        To vindicate the present age?
        I know that bribes in modern palm
        Can nobler energies encalm;
        That where such argument exists
        There itching is in modern fists.
        And hence you hold that politicians
        Should drive their nails on such conditions,
        So they might penetrate sans bending,
        And win your way past comprehending.

        Premising no reflection's meant,
        Unto such doctrine I dissent.
        T...

For punishment in war it will suffice
If the chief author of the faction dies;
Let but few smart, but strike a fear through all;
Where the fault springs there let the judgment fall.

"Who gives and hides the giving hand,
Nor counts on favor, fame, or praise,
Shall find his smallest gift outweighs
The burden of the sea and land.

Who gives to whom hath naught been given,
His gift in need, though small indeed
As is the grass-blade's wind-blown seed,
Is large as earth and rich as heaven.

Forget it not, O man, to whom
A gift shall fall, while yet on earth;
Yea, even to thy seven-fold birth
Recall it in the lives to come.

Who broods above a wrong in thought
Sins much; but greater sin is his
Who, fed and clothed with kindnesses,
Shall count the holy alms as nought.

Who dares to curse the hands that bless
Shall know of sin the deadliest cost;
The patience of the heavens is lost
Beholding man's unthankfulness....

Good things, that come of course, far less do please
Than those which come by sweet contingencies.