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The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 by Alexander Pope
page 54 of 478 (11%)
money has been more commodious, or pernicious to mankind, ver. 21 to 77.
That riches, either to the avaricious or the prodigal, cannot afford
happiness, scarcely necessaries, ver. 89 to 160. That avarice is an
absolute frenzy, without an end or purpose, ver. 113 to 152. Conjectures
about the motives of avaricious men, ver. 121 to 153. That the conduct
of men, with respect to riches, can only be accounted for by the order
of Providence, which works the general good out of extremes, and brings
all to its great end by perpetual revolutions, ver. 161 to 178. How a
miser acts upon principles which appear to him reasonable, ver. 179. How
a prodigal does the same, ver. l99. The due medium, and true use of
riches, ver. 219. The Man of Ross, ver. 250. The fate of the profuse and
the covetous, in two examples; both miserable in life and in death, ver.
300, &c. The story of Sir Balaam, ver. 339 to the end.

_P_. Who shall decide, when doctors disagree,
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
You hold the word, from Jove to Momus given,
That man was made the standing jest of Heaven;
And gold but sent to keep the fools in play,
For some to heap, and some to throw away.

But I, who think more highly of our kind,
(And, surely, Heaven and I are of a mind)
Opine, that Nature, as in duty bound,
Deep hid the shining mischief under ground: 10
But when, by man's audacious labour won,
Flamed forth this rival to its sire, the Sun,
Then careful Heaven supplied two sorts of men,
To squander these, and those to hide again.

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