The Nabob

YE makers of Nabobs who millions amass,
Eclipsing Nobility's train;
In pride of profusion your Pageantries pass,
To your Worships a word,—don't be vain.
Tho' Spoils of the East, you exultingly view,
Not a Reptile that crawls but is richer than you.

Your sideboards may bend with superfluous weight,
Your breasts the slant Ribbon may bind,
You homage receive from the Paupers of State,
Weigh these 'gainst the Wealth of the Mind.
An Instinct unerring all animals boast;
Lord-Man he has Reason, and so my Lord's lost.

Can we wanton on waves in the deep troubled storm?
Can the Board of Works, Beaver-like build?
Can ye Artists contend with a transmigrate Worm?
Or Spider-like sail through the field?
Contempt must attend on Ambition's odd grasp,
Who catches at Crowns, when he shrinks from a Wasp.

O'er Passion can Beauty a conquest atchieve?
Cou'd Sampson an Ague engage?
What Science can teach us the Art not to grieve?
What Bribe is to buy off old Age?
What Opium can lull the Alarms of the Mind?
That something so wakeful, which wakens mankind.

In pompous down beds Guilt may labour to rest;
Back, Conscience the curtain will draw,
To exhibit such speeches as harrow the Breast,
While Memory sharpens her saw:
Humanity sighs at the sufferer's pains;
But Justice proclaim'd, Thus I ballance their Gains.

Let us, as we ought, bid defiance to Knaves,
And Briton-like speak as we think.
Disgrace to the crew of Venality's slaves;
To honest men—Happiness drink.
Here's to Liberty, Lads, without Flatt'ry or Fear,
And I hope I am pledg'd from the Heart by all here.