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Independent surely of pleasure, if not regardless,
Independent also of station, if not regardless:
Irrespective alike of station, as of enjoyment,
Do his duty in that state of life to which God, not man, shall call him.
If you were meant to plough, Lord Marquis, out with you, and do it,
If you were meant to be idle, O beggar, behold, I will feed thee;
Take my purse; you have far better right to it, friend, than the Marquis.
If you were born for a groom, and you seem, by your dress, to believe so,
Do it like a man, Sir George, for pay, in a livery stable;
Yes, you may so release that slip of a boy at the corner,
Fingering books at the window, misdoubting the eighth commandment.
What a mere Dean, with those wits, that debtor-and-creditor head-piece!
Go, my detective D. D., take the place of Burns the gauger.
Ah, fair Lady Maria, God meant you to live, and be lovely,
Be so then, and I bless you. But ye, ye spurious ware, who
Might be plain women, and can be by no possibility better!
—Ye unhappy statuettes, ye miserable trinkets,
Poor alabaster chimney-piece ornaments under glass cases,
Come, in God's name, come down! the very French clock by you
Puts you to shame with ticking; the fire-irons deride you.
Break your glasses, ye can! come down, ye are not really plaster,
Come, in God's name, come down! do anything, be but something!
You, young girl, who have had such advantages, learnt so quickly,
Can you not teach? O yes, and she likes Sunday school extremely,
Only it's soon in the morning. Away! if to teach be your calling,
It is no play, but a business: off! go teach and be paid for it.
Surely, that fussy old dowager yonder was meant for the counter;
Oh, she is notable very, and keeps her servants in order
Past admiration. Indeed, and keeps to employ her talent
How many, pray? to what use? Away, the hotel's her vocation.
Lady Sophia's so good to the sick, so firm and so gentle.
Is there a nobler sphere than of hospital nurse and matron?
Hast thou for cooking a turn, little Lady Clarissa? in with them,
In with your fingers! their beauty it spoils, but your own it enhances;
For it is beautiful only to do the thing we are meant for.
But they will marry, have husbands, and children, and guests, and households—
Are there then so many trades for a man, for women one only,
First to look out for a husband and then to preside at his table?
Learning to dance, then dancing, then breeding, and entertaining?
Breeding and rearing of children at any rate the poor do
