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Home  »  Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse  »  From “The Church Porch”: Wealth

Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By George Herbert (1593–1633)

From “The Church Porch”: Wealth

 
BE thrifty, but not covetous: therefore give
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due.
Never was scraper brave man. Get to live;
Then live and use it: else it is not true
  That thou hast gotten. Surely use alone        5
  Makes money not a contemptible stone.
 
What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold
About thy neck do drown thee? raise thy head.
Take stars for money: stars not to be told
By any art, yet to be purchased.        10
  None is so wasteful as the scraping dame.
  She loseth three for one; her soul, rest, fame.