"What ruined numbers daily mourn Their groundless hopes and follies past, Yet see not how the tables turn, Or where their money flies at last! "Fools lost when the directors won, But now the poor directors lose; And where the S---- Sea stock will run, Old Nick, the first projector, knows." On a Picture of Change Alley: "Five hundred millions, notes and bonds, Our stocks are worth in value; But neither lie in goods, or lands, Or money, let me tell ye. Yet though our foreign trade is lost, Of mighty wealth we vapor, When all the riches that we boast Consist in scraps of paper." On a "Permit:" "You that have money and have lost your wits, If you'd be poor, buy National Permits; Their stock's in fish, the fish are still in water, And for your coin you may go fish hereafter." On a Roomful of Ladies buying Stocks of a Jew and a Gentile: "With Jews and Gentiles, undismayed, Young tender virgins mix; Of whiskers nor of beards afraid, Nor all their cozening tricks. "Bright jewels, polished once to deck The fair one's rising breast, Or sparkle round her ivory neck, Lie pawned in iron chest. "The gentle passions of the mind How avarice controls! E'en love does now no longer find A place in female souls." On a Picture of a Man laughing at an Ass browsing: "A wise man laughed to see an ass Eat thistles and neglect good grass. But had the sage beheld the folly Of late transacted in Change Alley, He might have seen worse asses there Give solid gold for empty air, And sell estates in hopes to double Their fortunes by some worthless bubble, Till of a sudden all was lost That had so many millions cost. Yet ruined fools are highly pleased To see the knaves that bit 'em squeezed, Forgetting where the money flies That cost so many tears and sighs." On the Silk Stocking Company: "Deal not in stocking shares, because, I doubt, Those that buy most will ere long go without." CHAPTER XII. HOGARTH AND HIS TIME.