In vain may heroes fight and patriots rave, If secret gold sap on from knave to knave. Once, we confess, beneath the patriot’s cloak, From the crack’d bag the dropping guinea spoke, And jingling down the back-stairs, told the crew ‘Old Cato is as great a rogue as you.’ Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly! Gold imp’d by thee, can compass hardest things, Can pocket states, can fetch or carry kings; A single leaf shall waft an army o’er, Or ship off senates to some distant shore; A leaf, like Sibyl’s, scatter to and fro Our fates and fortunes as the winds shall blow; Pregnant with thousands flits the scrap unseen, And silent sells a King or buys a Queen.
invite response
If secret gold sap on from knave to knave.
Once, we confess, beneath the patriot’s cloak,
From the crack’d bag the dropping guinea spoke,
And jingling down the back-stairs, told the crew
‘Old Cato is as great a rogue as you.’
Blest paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly!
Gold imp’d by thee, can compass hardest things,
Can pocket states, can fetch or carry kings;
A single leaf shall waft an army o’er,
Or ship off senates to some distant shore;
A leaf, like Sibyl’s, scatter to and fro
Our fates and fortunes as the winds shall blow;
Pregnant with thousands flits the scrap unseen,
And silent sells a King or buys a Queen.
- Alexander Pope, early 1700s.