"How happy in his low degree, How rich in humble poverty, is he, Who leads a quiet country life; Discharged of business, void of strife, And from the griping scrivener free! Thus, ere the seeds of vice were sown, Lived men in better ages born, Who plough'd, with oxen of their own, Their small paternal field of corn. Nor trumpets summon him to war, Nor drums disturb his morning sleep, Nor knows he merchants' gainful care, Nor fears the dangers of the deep. The clamours of contentious law, And court and state, he wisely shuns, Nor bribed with hopes, nor dared with awe, To servile salutations runs."