Thine unbroken inanacles will hold thee,
To a servitude, not unmerited!

Nor hath Idleness escaped thine envy,
Whene'r Inheritance enabled it

To riot boldly in licentiousness:

And when reduced to starving nudity,

(The doom Heav'n stamped on its delinquency,)
Thou hast o'erlooked its culpability,

And wasted thy reproaches on its rags!
This truth is clear, whatever blockheads think:
Were not thy ranks repaired by Indolence,
They would dwindle to the merest shadow,,*
And thine would be recruits of competence!

Thou hast deemed labor ignominious,
As though it were exclusively for slaves;
And that true-freedom's definition is,

Release, from the restraints of usefulness.
* ' . > In this thou dost resemble some of us,
Who deem it, clearly, a primeval curse,
That man must be familiar with the soil,
And barter, for his bread, his daily toil;
And rather than appear so ungenteel,
Will practice ev'ry fraud, and sometimes steal:
As though the Deity had branded labor
With his most emphatic malediction,
And the soiling fingers, as a stigma,
Too foul for soap and water to remove!
These are the dogmas of Theocracy,
Inherited by aristocracy.

But, thanks to God and the Revolution;

To Liberty and our Constitution;

This twin inheritance, with worldly wealth,
Too often gained as basely, as by stealth,
Will slip, together, through the grandson's hands,
Or Heav'n has recently revised its plans!

Hebrew Theocracy assumed the right,
To despoil the heretic Canaanite,
Enslave his infants, gorge upon his blood,
In name of Justice, Piety and God.
'Tis aristocracy's calculation,
To succeed as well by legislation.
The one with bigoted temerity,
Would crucify the Christ for heresy:
The other sooner, than resign its place,
Would, doubtless, crucify the human race!
What Theocracy achieved by bravery,
Aristocracy hath wrought by knavery.
One has met deserved retribution,
In the course of civil revolution;

The other's fate, we think we know as well,
And yet, would wait for ballotings to tell,
Which, doubtless, are as unequivocal,
We, surely, have been wandering from our text,
And must have known it, had we not heen vexed.
But since we've fully cancelled thy demands,
We'll pass thee over into better hands!

Hark ye, then, to Reason's admonition,
Corroborated by the word of God,

And plainly registered, in Holy-Writ.

And thus we heard-or dreamed that Reason spoke.

"Desist from Mammon's service, and henceforth, Appreciate money, at its real worth.

And dost thou ask its value-I reply,
'That of the real happiness 'twill buy.
Render obedience to God and me,
Which constitutes genuine liberty.
Not the factitious, the licentious know,
Which works their own inevitable wo;
But one of holiness, without alloy,—
The freedom which the sons of God enjoy.
Thus shall every votary of mine,

Bask in the rays of liberty divine.

"Had'st thou but known and heeded Agur's prayer,

Of Bible specimens, the finest there,

Which shames vain man's loquacious levity,
As much in spirit as in brevity,

Thou would'st have deprecated Mammon's gifts,
No less than thou hast done thy luckless shifts.

"The prophet prays, as warmly, as for health,
To be preserved from Poverty and Wealth.
What can be gathered from a prayer like this,
But that the two are equal foes to bliss?-
And what induction can be plainer seen,
Than that the proper place is one between?
Nor can❜st thou, in this instance, fail to see,
That holy Agur and myself agree.

"Heav'n cannot, pecuniarily, dispense
A blessing so exact as competence!
He, therefore, who solicits less or more,
Invokes a curse, possession must deplore:

Tis, therefore, Competence I will protest,
Alone, can make an earthly spirit blest:-
And though attainable by common sense,
'Tis oft extinguished by improvidence!

"Saint Peter knew, that competence is good,
And who that needs, might have it if he would :
Or he would not, the pious spouse compel
To it, or rank beneath the infidel:

Who supplies not, his house, hath both denied
His faith, in Christ, and duty, to his bride.
The cost of one his penitence may pay;-
The other, doubtless, will provoke a fray.

""Tis therefore clear, that industry can find
Enough for comfort, if she's so inclined;
And with Frugality, to tend the purse,
Escape, thine own, hereditary curse.
Nor would a prudent votary of mine
Rely on either, but the two combine;
Nor venture on the opposite extreme,
Since Parsimony's curse is not a dream.
"Invoke Temperance for absolution,
From thy deepest and unholiest stain;
And the Deity for resolution,

That, henceforth, thou shalt not relapse again!-
For, of thy sources of replenishment,
Intemperance contributes two of three,
And yet affords as great a compliment,
Or greater, to the ranks of beggary.
Let Virtue, Morals and Integrity,
With Undefiled Religion, all agree,

To form thy character, which, though rare i
Among mankind, is not at all too fair!

Another source of thy peculiar>wo,
Is an unconquerable love of show;
Thine outside gilt, thou carest not a fly,
Thine inside, being filthy as a sty!

"Thou hast fed Fashion with thy humble gains,
And been despised and laugh'd at for thy pains:
For Opulence, if mean, will not confess
A fit companion, in thine apishness.
In folly's service, thou canʼst never be
An equal match for Aristocracy:
Therefore desist from acting as its tool,
Nor curse thyself, by mimicking a fool!

"The biped, man, perchance, may take the whim,
That this courtesy is designed, for him:
But with that favorite of Providence, an
Who esteems my best suggestions nonsense,
My admonitions have been withheld long since:
And though thou art more tractable than he,
My patience hath been sorely tried by thee!!

""Tis strange, that thou should'st still remain so dull, With my incessant rapping at thy skull;

Nor, can it be disputed that thy pate,

Unless 'tis human, is but second-rate !—

For, one would think that such repeated polts.
Would have awakened anything but dolts!