The Beautiful delights us less and less--
The God most warmly worshipped is Success:
The tangible and present must engross,
All else excluding, our attention close.
Cogs in the wheel of Progess are prized more
Than minds enriched by centuries of lore;
Hoops are required to keep the staves in place,
Bricks in the fabric rising from its base:
Respect is lost by failure, though we strive--
Mortals esteem the fortunate who thrive;
Some lucky windfall will a knave secure
From the rude insults that molest the poor,
Give him a passport to the World Polite,
And bleach his damaged reputation white.

Money, the lord, made up of matter hard,
Looks with contempt upon the starveling Bard--
Deems him a bubble on the wave at best,
A crazy wight fantasticaly drest.
He scouts the doctrine, by old schoolmen taught,
That wealth consists in unsubstantial thought;
The church would gladly of its plate purloin,
And change the metal into current coin.
Throned on his iron safe, aloud he cries,
'Let vagrant genius follow butterflies!
His misty mantle with the rainbow lace,
Bestride the winds, and govern empty space;
Let Jove befriend him! I have better friends--
Broad acres, houses, and fat dividends;
On heavenly manna let the poet dine,
Give me roast-beef, rich soups and rosy wine!'
Box tickets in the Theatre of Life
Belong to wealth and pride, his lawful wife;
Enough for prophets, if allowed to sit
With blackguards in the punch-room and the pit.

We have departed, hungering for gold,
From the pure faith our fathers taught of old;
On Cromwell's doctrine great and small rely--
Put trust in God, but keep your powder dry!'
Those courtesies observed of old, are scant--
Old-fashioned virtues nearly non-extant;
The frank, chivalric bearing of our sires
Has perished with their hospitable fires;
They boldly took, hand interlocked in hand,
Upon the Rock of Principle their stand,
Tha sure break-water to corruptions's tide,
Loyal to truth, though kings temptation tried,
They duly prized the worth of precious ore,
But valued spotless reputation more--
All was not lost of worldly goods bereft,
If only honor, without taint, was left.