You cannot wish for coaches, kitchens, cooks —"
"My lord, I've not enough to buy me books —
Or pray, suppose my wants were all supplied,
Are there no wants I should regard beside?
Whose breast is so unmann’d, as not to grieve,
Compass'd with miseries he can't relieve?
Who can be happy — who should wish to live,
And want the godlike happiness to give?
That I'm a judge of this, you must allow:
I had it once — and I'm debarr’d it now.
Ask your own heart, my lord; if this be true,
Then how unblest am I! how blest are you!"
"'Tis true — but, doctor, let us wave all that —
Say, if you had your wish, what you'd be at."
"Excuse me, good my lord — I won't be sounded,
Nor shall your favour by my wants be bounded.
My lord, I challenge nothing as my due,
Nor is it fit I should prescribe to you.
Yet this might Symmachus himself avow,
(Whose rigid rules[1] are antiquated now) —
My lord! I'd wish to pay the debts I owe —
I'd wish besides — to build, and to bestow."
- ↑ Symmachus bishop of Rome, 499, made a decree, that no man should solicit for ecclesiastical preferment, before the death of the incumbent.
