Or all the barbarous middle ages, that II. Too old for youth,-too young, at thirty-five, BIAN 1 2 To herd with boys, or hoard with good threescore, I wonder people should be left alive; But, since they are, that epoch is a bore; Love lingers still, although 'twere late to wive: And money, that most pure imagination, Gleams only through the dawn of its creation. III. O Gold! Why call we misers miserable? Theirs is the pleasure that can never pall; Theirs is the best bower-anchor, the chain-cable 3 Which holds fast other pleasures great and small. And scorn his temperate board, as none at all, Ye who but see the saving man at table, And wonder how the wealthy can be sparing, Know not what visions spring from each cheese-paring. IV. Love or lust makes man sick, and wine much sicker; V. Who hold the balance of the world? Who reign 5 [all.) (That makes old Europe's journals squeak and gibber Who keep the world, both old and new, in pain Or pleasure? Who make politics run glibber all? VI. Those, and the truly liberal Lafitte, Is not a merely speculative hit, Every loan But seats a nation, or upsets a throne. Republics also get involv'd a bit; Columbia's stock hath holders not unknown On 'Change; and even thy silver soil, Peru, Must get itself discounted by a Jew. VII. Why call the miser miserable? as The theme of praise: a hermit would not miss And wherefore blame gaunt wealth's austerities ? Because, you'll say, nought calls for such a trial;Then there's more merit in his self-denial. VIII. He is your only poet ;-passion, pure, And sparkling on from heap to heap displays, IX. : The lands on either side are his the ship His very cellars might be kings' abodes; X. Perhaps he hath great projects in his mind, Some dome surmounted by his meagre face. Even with the very ore which makes them base; XI. But whether all, or each, or none of these The fool will call such mania a disease : What is his own? Go-look at each transaction, Wars, revels, loves-do these bring men more ease 10 11 Than the mere plodding through each "vulgar fraction ?" Or do they benefit mankind? Lean miser! Let spendthrifts' heirs inquire of yours-who's wiser? XII. How beauteous are rouleaus! how charming chests (Not of old victors, all whose heads and crests Weigh not the thin ore where their visage shines, But) of fine unclipt gold, where dully rests Some likeness, which the glittering cirque confines, Of modern, reigning, sterling, stupid, stamp: Yes! ready money is Aladdin's lamp. XIII. 12 "Love rules the camp, the court, the grove,-for love 13 Is heaven, and heaven is love:"-so sings the bard; Which it were rather difficult to prove, (A thing with poetry in general hard). XIV. But if Love don't, Cash does, and Cash alone: So Cash rules Love the ruler, on his own High ground, as virgin Cynthia sways the tides: And as for "Heaven being Love," why not say honey Is wax? Heaven is not Love, 'tis Matrimony. 14 XV. Is not all love prohibited whatever, Excepting marriage? which is love, no doubt, After a sort; but somehow people never 15 With the same thought the two words have help'd out: Love may exist with marriage, and should ever; And marriage also may exist without: But love sans banns is both a sin and shame; And ought to go by quite another name. XVI. Now if the court," " and camp," and "grove," be not Who never coveted their neighbour's lot, Well, if I don't succeed, I have succeeded, And that's enough: succeeded in my youth, But have not learn'd to wish it any less. XVIII. That suit in Chancery,-which some persons plead Baptize posterity, or future clay,- ΧΙΧ. Why, I'm posterity-and so are you: 16 17 18 19 And whom do we remember? Not a hundred. Were every memory written down all true, The tenth or twentieth name would be but blunder'd; Even Plutarch's Lives have but pick'd out a few, And 'gainst those few your annalists have thunder'd; And Mitford, in the nineteenth century, Gives, with Greek truth, the good old Greek the lie. XX. 20 Good people all, of every degree, Ye gentle readers and ungentle writers, In this twelfth Canto 'tis my wish to be As serious as if I had for inditers Malthus and Wilberforce :-the last set free XXI. I'm serious-so are all men upon paper: And why should not form my speculation, Mankind just now seem wrapt in meditation XXII. That's noble! That's romantic! For my part, But I'm resolv'd to say nought that's amiss)- XXIII. And now to business.-O my gentle Juan! Thou art no novice in the headlong chase XXIV. What with a small diversity of climate, I could send forth my mandate, like a primate, But thou art the most difficult to rhyme at, 21 22 23 24 |