'Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures;
And all are to be sold, if you consider
Their passions, and are dext'rous; some by features
Are brought up, others by a warlike leader;
Some by a place--as tend their years or natures;
The most by ready cash--but all have prices,
From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.
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Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats,
And ask no questions but the price of votes.
Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats,
And ask no questions but the price of votes.
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
There is gold for you. Sell me your good report.
There is gold for you. Sell me your good report.
There is thy gold--worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murder in this loathsome world,
Than these read more
There is thy gold--worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murder in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none
Farewell. Buy food and get thyself in flesh.
What, shall one of us,
That struck for the foremost man of all this world
But for read more
What, shall one of us,
That struck for the foremost man of all this world
But for supporting robbers--shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,
And sell the mighty space of our large honors
For so much trash as may be grasped thus?
Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune.
Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune.
Alas! the small discredit of a bribe
Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.
Alas! the small discredit of a bribe
Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.
By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are
abused; the law itself is influenced read more
By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are
abused; the law itself is influenced by gold, and soon there will
be an end of every modest restraint.
[Lat., Auro pulsa fides. auro venalia jura,
Aurum lex sequitur, mox sine lege pudor.]
No mortal thing can bear so high a price,
But that with mortal thing it may be bought.
No mortal thing can bear so high a price,
But that with mortal thing it may be bought.
