TABLE MONITOR
I stood amid a bounteous banquet hall.
The revelers, long surfeited, had fled.
I felt how sternly Reason's eye must fall
On rank extravagance so blindly spread,
And then resolved my grateful heart from thence
Should brook no custom that would mar life's good;
Between my conscience and my common sense
No thoughtless, wasteful fashion should intrude.
Prosperity may roll with ample flow,
Still to be prized, that it may widely bless.
The world is full enough of want and woe;
I will not mock with selfish wastefulness.
