There in full opulence a banker-dwelt, Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt : His fide-board glitter'd with imagin'd plate; And his proud fancy held a vaft eftate. As on a time he pafs'd the vacant hours Inraifing piles of ftraw and twifted bow'rs, A poet enter'd of the neighbouring cell, And with fix'd eye obferv'd the ftructure well: A fharpen'd fkew'r'crofs his bare fhoulders bound A tatter'd rug, which dragg'd upon the ground. The banker cry'd, "Behold my castlewalls, "My ftatues, gardens, fountains, and canals, "With land of more than twenty acres "round! "All these I fell thee for ten thousand pound. The bard with wonder the cheap purchase faw, So fign'd the contract (as ordains the law.) The banker's brain was cool'd; the mift grew clear; The vifionary scene was loft in air. He now the vanifh'd profpect understood, And fear'd the fancy'd bargain was not good: Yet Yet loth the fum intire should be destroy'd, "Give me a penny, and thy contract's " void.' The startled bard with eye indignant frown'd: "Shall I, ye Gods, (he cries) my debts compound!" So faying, from his rug the fkew'r he takes, And on the stick ten equal notches makes; With juft refentment flings it on the ground; "There, take my * tally of ten thousand pound." The SOUTH-SEA. YE wife philofophers! explain 1721. What magick makes our money rife, Put in your money fairly told; Charles II, having borrowed a confiderable fum, gave tallies as a fecurity for the repayment; but foon after, fhut ting up the Exchequer, there tallies were as much reduced from their original value, as the South-Sea had exceeded it. Thus Thus in a bason drop a fhilling, Then fill the veffel to the brim; In stock three hundred thousand pound; Thus the deluded bankrupt raves, So, by a calenture misled, The mariner with rapture fees With eager hafte he longs to rove |