The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (4.1895)

Two Songs

190

II

Bear thyself with formal gait,

Be thy language all sedate ;

Thy opinions take on trust,

Take gold for thy only lust.

Shun belief devout or deep,

Ever to the safe side keep ;

Let thy hollow laugh be framed
To the joke by all acclaimed.

Never for pure charity
Level a disparity ;

Farm thy favour to a fool,

Make his gratitude thy tool.

Let thy conscience be a thing

Like a clock to go, and ring
Just that time the hour doth mark.

Let some other light the dark !

Friend and wife a bargain buy

There where state and money lie ;
Claim a goodly cenotaph,

Buy a lying epitaph !