Extravagance to trenchant penury,

And all extremes of want and misery.

Some blest by wealth, some cursed by poverty;

Some in positions neutral to them both;

Some wore a gaunt and ill-conditioned look

Which told its tale of lack of nourishment;

While others showed that irritated air

Which speaks of gout and pampered appetite;

Some following vocations quite reverse

From those which nature had endowed them for;

Some passed with face self-satisfied and calm,

As if the world bore nothing else but joy;

And some there were who, from the cradle's mouth,

As they pursued their journey to the grave,

Had felt no throb save that of misery;

The man of large affairs passed by in haste,

With mind preoccupied, nor thought of else

Save undertakings which concerned himself;

The shallow son of misplaced opulence

Came strutting by with self-important air,

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