Page:In Bohemia (1886).djvu/86

Her new code read: "The earth is for the able;"
(And able meant the selfish, strong, and shrewd;)
"Equality and freedom are a fable;
To take and keep the largest share is good."
Her teachers taught the justice of oppression,
That taxed the poor on all but air and sun;
Her preachers preached the gospel of possession,
That hoards had rights while human souls had none.

Then all things changed their object and relation;
Commerce instead of Nature—Progress instead of Men;
The world became a monstrous corporation.
Where ninety serfs ground luxury for ten.
The masters blessed, the toilers cursed the system
That classified and kept mankind apart;
But passing ages rained the dust of custom
Where broken Nature showed the weld of art.

But there were some who scorned to make alliance,
Who owned the true Queen even in the dust;
And these, through generations, flung defiance
From gaol and gibbet for their sacred trust.