Thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man, he dwelt in it. Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. The Leading Citizen BY HORACE (Latin poet, B.C. 65-8. Translation by John Milton) Whom do we count a good man? Whom but he Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate, Who judges in great suits and controversies, Whose witness and opinion wins the cause? But his own house, and the whole neighborhood, Sees his foul inside through his whited skin. Hong's Experiences in Hades BY IM BANG (Korean poet, 1640-1722) The next hell had inscribed on it, "Deceivers." I saw in it many scores of people, with ogres that cut the flesh from their bodies, and fed it to starving demons. These ate and ate, and the flesh was cut and cut till only the bones remained. When the winds of hell blew, then flesh returned to them; then metal snakes and copper dogs crowded in to bite them and suck their blood. Their screams of pain made the earth to tremble. The guides said to me, "When these offenders were on earth they held high office, and while they pretended to be true and good they received bribes in secret and were doers of all evil. As Ministers of State they ate the fat of the land and sucked the blood of the people, and yet advertised themselves as benefactors and were highly applauded. While in reality they lived as thieves, they pretended to be holy, as Confucius and Mencius were holy. They were deceivers of the world, and robbers, and so are punished thus." Monopolies BY MARTIN LUTHER (A picture of the conditions which brought on the Peasants' War in Germany, 1525) Before all, if the princes and lords wish to fulfill the duties of their office they must prohibit and banish the vicious system of monopolies, which is altogether unendurable in town or country. As for the trading companies, they are thoroughly corrupt and made up of great injustices. They have every sort of commodity in their own power and they do with them just as they please, raise or lower the prices at their own convenience and crush and ruin all the small shop people--just as the pike does with the small fish in the water--as if they were lords over God's creatures and exempt from all laws of authority and religion.... How can it be godly and just that in so short a time a man should grow so rich that he can outbid kings and emperors? They have brought things to such a pass that all the rest of the world must carry on business with risk and damage, gaining today, losing tomorrow, while they continually grow richer and richer, and make up for their losses by higher profits; so it is no wonder that they are appropriating to themselves the riches of the whole world. Intemperate Speech