incessant speed they seek, then fraud Is called to aid, until the bubble bursts, Because the pressure is beyond the means; And they are cast, in anguish and despair, Unto the depths of ruin, there to lie With jeers of many pouring on to them. Unto the speech these times give slippery words, And to the tongue alike a flattering robe; That falsehood seems like unto sacred truth, And enmities the bonds of friendship seem. O rife Perfidity! O Vanity! O Pride! Great are thy ravages among p. 11This simple race, who for a lucre strive, And pomp, and gain, with an unquenchèd thirst; Whose hand is avaricious, and who hold No check upon it; but, to swell their store In overflowing barns, do from the poor Extort unjust and utmost usury, Nor scruple have to snatch the morsel from The widow’s mouth, or leave the orphan bare. When kings and rulers do for glory pant, Till thousands of their fellow mortals fall, In dead or wounded, at a single blow Laid prostrate, thus to feed their evil lust, Their satiate thirst which can no limit know. Or it may be for one’s offended pride, Or some imagined insult to avenge With the outpouring of a people’s blood. Oh! it doth seem an awful thing indeed That the wild demon should so rage in man, And that the learning of the present age Should not advance his wisdom more than now; But that, with vengeance rising from his path, He should in heedless haste go driving on To the dark pits of torture calléd “Hell.”  Arise, ye slothful people! ye who live In the soft ways of luxury and ease; Awake and sit in mooted ease no more, p. 12But count the stern realities of life. Ye who in drowsy slumber have destroyed, Have slept all these fair golden hours away, Whose footprints are inscribed upon thy brow, Think of the marks of sin against thy name, And say if no reproach doth sting thy soul. For why was man created? I may deem It were for nobler purpose than to waste— To sin and loll in idleness away— The only life which he shall ever live, Save in the long and last eternity. Cast idle sloth and sinfulness away, All ye who are the people; and, methinks, When that is done, I see a nobler race Begin to crown the land with joy and love, And tranquil, sweet, and fair prosperity. Power is supreme, and power in unity Is thine, renown to give or keep, if ye Are of the few who walk in ways upright, (For it is joy to think there yet are some Who to their ways do give an earnest heed), Or with the crowd, who heed not how they go, But walk in blindness and in corrupt ways Unto a death which they will long to shun. Though foolish ye may deem me thus to come, And reason say this were a doubtful way p. 13To seek abroad for favor, yet it is Thy goodly favor which I come to ask; And I am but a novice, yet will hope Ye will not that withhold which seemeth 

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