Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/176

 170 REDEMPTION.

Though high, and oft thy belly pinch'd for food.

To hearts, it may be, more thy thoughts incline,

Who rather would rule peoples, than possess

Their treasured hoards ; though I the latter show,

As that, which most the people sway, since who

Earth's garner' d wealth secure, find easy hold

On all the rest, and purchase what they will;

As witness Sylla, Crassus, Lepidus,

Who by their gold, and largess well dispensed,

Drew all the Roman world beneath their sway j

And thou wilt need, believe me, no small sum,

Ere thou attain thy father David's throne.

Or, if 't be true, as said, thou aim'st to rule

The world, a world of wealth would scarce suffice

To buy such power, which none but I can give.

But thou, so be, prefer to win, not buy,

To sway by bonds of love, and wisdom's lore,

(So seems the tenor of thy life begun,

Who wisdom vaunted from thy earliest years,)

Rather than bind thy subjects e'en with chains

Of gold, or glaze their vassalage with gems,

Luxurious feasts, and wealth's seductive goods.

What thou dost wish, is here preferr'd to hand,

A world of peoples, all earth's tribes and tongues,

My willing slaves, whom I acquit, ready

To be transferr'd to thee, willing to serve,

Thine every wish obey, if thou but grant

The sole condition, soon to be made known.

Let us expatiate whence last we view'd

Wealthy Europa's coasts ; from Rome's high tow'rs

Look down on all that worthy is the name

Of grand ; thence easy glean the subject world,

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