Читать книгу The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe - Various - Страница 65

Table of Contents

Economy's a very useful broom;

Yet should not ceaseless hunt about the room

To catch each straggling pin to make a plumb:

Too oft Economy's an iron vice,

That squeezes even the little guts of mice,

That peep with fearful eyes, and ask a crumb.

Proper Economy's a comely thing—

Good in a subject—better in a king;

Yet pushed too far, it dulls each finer feeling—

Most easily inclined to make folks mean;

Inclines them too, to villainy to lean,

To over-reaching, perjury, and stealing.

Even when the heart should only think of grief

It creeps into the bosom like a thief,

And swallows up th' affections all so mild—Witness the Jewess, and her

only child:—