DESIRE AND POSSESSION 1727

‘ Tis strange what different thoughts inspire

In men, Possession and Desire!

Think what they wish so great a blessing;

So disappointed when possessing!

A moralist profoundly sage

( I know not in what book or page,

Or whether o'er a pot of ale )

Related thus the following tale.

Possession, and Desire, his brother,

But still at variance with each other,

Were seen contending in a race;

And kept at first an equal pace;

‘ Tis said, their course continued long,

For this was active, that was strong:

Till Envy, Slander, Sloth, and Doubt,

Misled them many a league about;

Seduced by some deceiving light,

They take the wrong way for the right;

Through slippery by-roads, dark and deep,

They often climb, and often creep.

Desire, the swifter of the two,

Along the plain like lightning flew:

Till, entering on a broad highway,

Where power and titles scatter'd lay,

He strove to pick up all he found,

And by excursions lost his ground:

No sooner got, than with disdain

He threw them on the ground again;

And hasted forward to pursue

Fresh objects, fairer to his view,

In hope to spring some nobler game;

But all he took was just the same:

Too scornful now to stop his pace,

He spurn'd them in his rival's face.

Possession kept the beaten road,

And gather'd all his brother strew'd;

But overcharged, and out of wind,

Though strong in limbs, he lagg'd behind.

Desire had now the goal in sight;

It was a tower of monstrous height;

Where on the summit Fortune stands,

A crown and sceptre in her hands;

Beneath, a chasm as deep as Hell,

Where many a bold adventurer fell.

Desire, in rapture, gazed awhile,

And saw the treacherous goddess smile;

But as he climb'd to grasp the crown,

She knock'd him with the sceptre down!

He tumbled in the gulf profound;

There doom'd to whirl an endless round.

Possession's load was grown so great,

He sunk beneath the cumbrous weight;

And, as he now expiring lay,

Flocks every ominous bird of prey;

The raven, vulture, owl, and kite,

At once upon his carcass light,

And strip his hide, and pick his bones,

Regardless of his dying groans.