Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/186

176 Devised by priests, and by none else believed, E’er since great Hobbes the world has undeceived!
 * This might have passed with the plain simple race

Of our forefathers in King Arthur's days; Ere mingling with corrupted foreign seed, We learned their vice, and spoiled our native breed; Ere yet blessed Albion, high in ancient fame, With her first innocence resigned her name. Fair dealing then, and downright honesty, And plighted faith were good security; No vast engrossments for estates were made, Nor deeds, large as the lands which they conveyed; To bind a trust there lacked no formal ties Of paper, wax, and seals, and witnesses, Nor ready coin, but sterling promises; Each took the other's word, and that would go For current then, and more than oaths do now; None had recourse to Chancery for defence, Where you forego your right with less expense; Nor traps were yet set up for perjurers, That catch men by the heads, and whip off ears. Then knave, and villain, things unheard of were, Scarce in a century did one appear, And he more gazed at that a blazing star. If a young stripling put not off his hat In high respect to every beard he met, Though a lord's son and heir, 'twas held a crime, That scarce deserved its clergy in that time; So venerable then was four years odds, And grey old heads were reverenced as gods.
 * Now if a friend once in an age prove just,

If he miraculously keep his trust, And without force of law deliver all That's due, both interest and principal,