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If I condemn a spendthrift’s ways,

It follows not I therefore praise

And recommend the converse vice

Of hard and grasping avarice.

I never spake so foolishly.”

“Nay, but you did.”

“’Fore God, ye lie!

Think’st thou to baffle me, I pray?

’Tis not to flatter thee I say

That of old lore thou know’st but little,

And of sound logic not a tittle.

It is not thus that I have read

Of love; but ne’er my mouth hath said

That hate should thrive.

Another sort

Of love is that which I exhort

Thee to embrace, the which I find

To bring both grace and peace of mind.

Another love Dame Nature gives

To every bird and beast that lives

On earth, through which to birth they bring

Their young and give them nourishing.

If thou perchance shouldst wish to know

What is this love, and whence doth flow

Its force, I answer that ’tis given

To all God’s creatures under heaven,