The Vanity of Wealth
No more thus brooding o'er yon heap,
With avarice painful vigils keep:
Still unenjoy'd the present store,
Still endless sighs are breathed for more.
O! quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India's treasure buys!
To purchase with heaven has gold the power?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?
No! - all that's worth a wish - a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbribed, unbought,
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let noble views engage thy mind. With science tread the wondrous way,
Or learn the Muses' moral lay;
In social hours indulge thy soul,
Where mirth and temperance mix the bowl;
To virtuous love resign thy breast,
And be, by blessing beauty, - bless'd. Thus taste the feast by Nature spread,
Ere youth and all its joys are fled;
Come taste with me the balm of life,
Secure from pomp, and wealth, and strife.
I boast whate'er for man was meant,
In health, and Stella, and content;
And scorn! (oh! let that scorn be thine!)Mere things of clay, that dig the mine.
Samuel Johnson
Other author posts
The Young Author
When first the peasant, long inclined to roam, Forsakes his rural sports and peaceful home, Pleas'd with the scene the smiling ocean yields, He scorns the verdant meads and flowery fields;
On Seeing a Bust of Mrs Montague
Had this fair figure, which this frame displays, Adorn'd in Roman time the brightest days, In every dome, in every sacred place, Her statue would have breathed an added grace,
From the Medea of Euripides
The rites derived from ancient days With thoughtless reverence we praise, The rites that taught us to The joys of music and of wine, And bid the feast, and song and bowlO'erfill the saturated soul:
Stella In Mourning
When lately Stella's form The beauties of the gay brocade, The nymphs, who found their power decline, Proclaim'd her not so fair as fine
