C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Learning and Riches

WHY should the world be apt to censure me?

Wherein have I offended that I sought

To grace my mind with jewels dearly bought,

Nor turned my heart to jeweled vanity?

From greed of riches I am fancy-free;

But deem no work of fancy fairly wrought

Till crowned with diamonds from the mine of thought,

That worth my wealth, not wealth my worth, may be.

I am not Beauty’s votary. I know

Her conquests fall a spoil to age at last;

I find no joy in money’s gaudy show;

For gold like chaff into the furnace cast

Fits but to feed Art’s flame, and keep the glow

Of golden Truth a glory unsurpassed.