“The Pleasures of Poverty”
February 7, 2019
THIS ARTICLE from an 1869 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine is definitely dated, but it still contains some important observations on the advantages of poverty:
The longer I contemplate Poverty, the more charms does she unveil to my entranced gaze. But is it quite right to flaunt our advantages in people’s faces, and harrow up their feelings merely because they unfortunately possess money? Doubtless it is not their fault. It was their grandfather, or a lucky thing in soldiers’ overcoats. “Where ignorance,” etc. No, let us keep ourselves to ourselves, we of the Brotherhood of Lean Purses, and only when we meet to munch together the festive crust, and drain the flowing bowl of cold water, sing this, the song of proud and independent poverty:
“My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
As far exceeds all earthly bliss
That God or Nature hath assigned:
Though much I want, that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
“I kiss not where I wish to kill;
I feign not love where most I hate;
I break no sleep to win my will;
I wait not at the mighty’s gate:
I scorn no poor, I fear no rich;
I feel no want, nor have too much.
“The court nor cart I like nor loath—
Extremes are counted worst of all:
The golden mean betwixt them both
Doth surest sit, and fears no fall.
This is my choice: for why? I find
No wealth is like a quiet mind.
“My wealth is health and perfect ease;
My conscience clear my chief defence;
I never seek by bribes to please,
Nor by desert to give offence.
Thus do I live, thus will I die:
Would all did so as well as I!
P. Thorne.
[Some of the archaic spellings in this poem have been updated — TTH]
