Classic Poem

Here continueth to rot
The body of FRANCIS CHARTRES;
Who, with anINFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY and IMIMITABLE UNIFORMITY of life, PERSISTED,
In spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES,
In the practice of EVERY HUMAN VICE
Excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY:
His insatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first,
His matchless IMPUDENCE from the second.

Nor was he more singular in the undeviating pravity of his manners, than successful in accumulating WEALTH:

For, without TRADE or PROFESSION,
Without TRUST of PUBLICK MONEY,
And without BRIBE-WORTHY SERVICE,
He acquired, or more properly created,
A MINISTERIAL ESTATE.

He was the only person of his time
Who could CHEAT without the mask of HONESTY,
Retain his primeval MEANNESS when Possessed of TEN THOUSAND a year;
And, having daily deserved the GIBBET for what he did,
Was at last condemned to it for what he could not do.

O indignant reader!
Think not his life useless to mankind!
PROVIDENCE connived at his execrable designs,
To give to after-ages a conspicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE
Of how small estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH in the sight of GOD, by bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY of ALL MORTALS.