Page:The Vanity of Human Wishes - Johnson (1749).djvu/26


 * Speak thou, whose Thoughts at humble Peace repine,

Shall Wolseys Wealth, with Wolseys End be thine? Or liv'st thou now, with safer Pride content, The richest Landlord on the Banks of Trent? For why did Wolsey by the Steps of Fate, On weak Foundations raise th' enormous Weight Why but to sink beneath Misfortune's Blow, With louder Ruin to the Gulphs below?


 * What gave great Villiers to th' Assassin's Knife,

And fixed Disease on Harley's closing life? What murder'd Wentworth, and what exil'd Hyde, By Kings protected and to Kings ally'd? What but their Wish indulg'd in Courts to shine, And Pow'r too great to keep or to resign? Rh