And lastly, for Stella, just out of her prime,
I'm too much revenged already by time.
In return to her scorn, I sent her diseases,
But will now be her friend whenever she pleases:
And the gifts I bestow'd her will find her a lover,
Though she lives till she's gray as a badger all over.
THE RUN UPON THE BANKERS. 1720.
THE bold encroachers on the deep,
Gain by degrees huge tracts of land,
Till Neptune, with one general sweep,
Turns all again to barren strand.
The multitude's capricious pranks,
Are said to represent the seas;
Which, breaking bankers and the banks,
Resume their own whene'er they please.
Money, the life-blood of the nation,
Corrupts and stagnates in the veins,
Unless a proper circulation,
Its motion and its heat maintains.
Because 'tis lordly not to pay,
Quakers and aldermen in state,
Like peers, have levees every day
Of duns attending at their gate.
We want our money on the nail;
The banker's ruin'd if he pays:
They seem to act an ancient tale;
The birds are met to strip the jays.
