No more thus brooding o'er yon heap, <br />With avarice painful vigils keep: <br />Still unenjoy'd the present store, <br />Still endless sighs are breathed for more. <br />O! quit the shadow, catch the prize, <br />Which not all India's treasure buys! <br />To purchase with heaven has gold the power? <br />Can gold remove the mortal hour? <br />In life can love be bought with gold? <br />Are friendship's pleasures to be sold? <br />No! - all that's worth a wish - a thought, <br />Fair virtue gives unbribed, unbought, <br />Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind, <br />Let noble views engage thy mind. <br />With science tread the wondrous way, <br />Or learn the Muses' moral lay; <br />In social hours indulge thy soul, <br />Where mirth and temperance mix the bowl; <br />To virtuous love resign thy breast, <br />And be, by blessing beauty, - bless'd. <br />Thus taste the feast by Nature spread, <br />Ere youth and all its joys are fled; <br />Come taste with me the balm of life, <br />Secure from pomp, and wealth, and strife. <br />I boast whate'er for man was meant, <br />In health, and Stella, and content; <br />And scorn! (oh! let that scorn be thine!) <br />Mere things of clay, that dig the mine.<br /><br />Samuel Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-vanity-of-wealth/
