Give, saith the preacher, be large in liberality, yield to the holy impulse, Tarry not for cold consideration, but cheerfully and freely scatter. So, for complacency of conscience, in a gush of counterfeited charity, He that hath not wherewith to be just, selfishly presumeth to be generous: The debtor, and the rich by wrong, are known among the band of the benevolent; And men extol the noble hearts, who rob that they may give. Receivers are but little prone to challenge rights of giving, Nor stop to test, for conscience-sake, the righteousness of mammon: And the zealot in a cause is a receiver, at the hand which bettereth his cause; And thus an unsuspected bribe shall blind the good man's judgment: It is easy to excuse greatness, and the rich are readily forgiven: What, if his gains were evil, sanctified by using them aright? O shallow flatterer, self-interest is thy thought, Hopeless of partaking in the like, thou too wouldst scorn the giver. Money hath its value; and the scatterer thereof his thanks: Few men, drinking at a rivulet, stop to consider its source. The hand that closeth on an alm, be it for necessities or zeal, Hath small scruple whence it came: Vespasian rejoiceth in his tribute. Therefore have colleges and hospitals risen upon orphans' wrongs, Chapels and cathedrals have thriven on the welcome wages of iniquity, And fraud, in evil compensation, hath salved his guilty conscience, Not by restoring to the cheated, but by ostentatious giving to the grateful. So, those who reap rejoice; and reaping, bless the sower: No one is eager to discover, where discovery tendeth unto loss: Yet, if knowledge of a theft make gainers thereby guilty, Can he be altogether innocent, who never asked the honesty of gain? Therefore, O preacher, zealous for charity, temper thy warm appeal,-- Warning the debtor and unjustly rich, they may not dare to give: To do good is a privilege and guerdon: how shouldst thou rejoice If ill-got gifts of presumptuous fraud be offered on the altar? The question is not of degrees; unhallowed alms are evil; Discourage and reject alike the obolus or talent of iniquity. Yet more, be careful that, unworthily, thou gain not an advantage over weakness, Unstable souls, fervent and profuse, fluttered by the feeling of the moment; For eloquence swayeth to its will the feeble and the conscious of defect: Rashly give they, and afterward are sad,--a gift that doubly erred. It was the worldliness of priestcraft that accounted alms-giving for charity; And many a father's penitence hath steeped his son in penury; Yet, considered he lightly the guilt of a death-bed selfishness That strove to take with him, for gain, the gold no longer his; So he died in a false peace, and dying robbed his kindred; The cunning friar at his side having cheated both the living and the dead.