Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/144

Fond man! what good or beauty can be found
In heaps of treasure buried under ground?
Which, rather than diminished e'er to see,
Thou wouldst thyself, too, buried with them be
And what's the difference? is't not quite as bad
Never to use, as never to have had?
In thy vast barns millions of quartets store,
Thy belly, for all that, will hold no more
Than mine does. Every baker makes much bread,
What then? He's with no more than others fed.
Do you within the bounds of Nature live,
And to augment your own you need not strive;
One hundred acres will no less for you
Your life's whole business than ten thousand do.
But pleasant 'tis to take from a great store;
What, man? though you're resolved to take no more
Than I do from a small one; if your will
Be but a pitcher or a pot to fill,
To some great river for it must you go,
When a clear spring just at your feet does flow?