96
But like all true religion, costly:
Whence it befel, religion’s coffers
(To the delight of Atheist scoffers)
Grew lean and empty, and were mostly
Now tenanted by shekels ghostly
Instead of those of parts more sensible
For pious needs, propagating creeds,
And filling friars quite indispensable.
This state anæmic—they would here
Denominate it Carestia—
Was partly due to Pat’s profusion
Ere the new tariff-law’s diffusion
To his finances brought confusion,
And dragged him down with empty pockets
To misery and a four-cent. lodging:
Pat, Romeward every dollar sending,
Fanned with his faith the rage for spending,
Till heaven was fairly stormed by rockets,
And cherubs spent their time in dodging
The missiles shot from earth to show
The heavenly road to clods below.
In part the crash of Rome’s finances—
Rather its general undoing—
Was due to Popish ways of viewing
Expenses and the law of chances.
“If what we spend,” ’twas urged, “enhances
The obol’s flow from rustic purses
To more than cost of stimulus
The future gain tis clear reverses
Our present loss: or put it thus,
If every squib we let off fill
The gaping peasant with a zeal
