Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/149

 From towns and courts, camps of the rich and great, Tho vast Xerxean army, I retreat, And to the small Laconic forces fly
 * Which hold the straits of poverty.

Cellars and granaries in vain we fill
 * With all the bounteous summer's store:

If the mind thirst and hunger still,
 * The poor rich man's emphatically poor.
 * Slaves to the things we too much prize,

We masters grow of all that we despise.

A field of corn, a fountain, and a wood,
 * Is all the wealth by nature understood.

The monarch on whom fertile Nile bestows
 * All which that grateful earth can bear,
 * Deceives himself, if he suppose
 * That more than this falls to his share.

Whatever an estate does beyond this afford,
 * Is not a rent paid to the Lord;