A banker's soul may be "Weigh'd in the Ballance, and found Light."
— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Author
Work Title
Date
1720, 1735
Metaphor
A banker's soul may be "Weigh'd in the Ballance, and found Light."
Metaphor in Context
XIII.
A baited Banker thus desponds,
From his own Hand foresees his Fall,
They have his Soul, who have his Bonds;
'Tis like the Writing on the Wall.
XIV.
How will the Caitif Wretch be scar'd,
When first he finds himself awake
At the last Trumpet, unprepar'd,
And all his Grand Account to make?
XV.
For in that universal Call,
Few Bankers will to Heav'n be Mounters;
They'll cry, Ye Shops, upon us fall,
Conceal and cover us, Ye counters.
XVI.
When Other hands the Scales shall hold,
And they, in Men and Angels Sight
Produc'd with all their Bills and Gold,
Weigh'd in the Ballance, and found light."
(p. 113-4)
A baited Banker thus desponds,
From his own Hand foresees his Fall,
They have his Soul, who have his Bonds;
'Tis like the Writing on the Wall.
XIV.
How will the Caitif Wretch be scar'd,
When first he finds himself awake
At the last Trumpet, unprepar'd,
And all his Grand Account to make?
XV.
For in that universal Call,
Few Bankers will to Heav'n be Mounters;
They'll cry, Ye Shops, upon us fall,
Conceal and cover us, Ye counters.
XVI.
When Other hands the Scales shall hold,
And they, in Men and Angels Sight
Produc'd with all their Bills and Gold,
Weigh'd in the Ballance, and found light."
(p. 113-4)
Categories
Provenance
Searching poems at the Swift Society; found again in ECCO.
Citation
At least 19 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1720, 1735, 1741, 1745, 1749, 1751, 1755, 1761, , 1762, 1766, 1768, 1769, 1772, 1774, 1778, 1780, 1784, 1790, 1795, 1798).
See The Run Upon the Bankers ([Dublin, 1720]). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions. By J. S, D.D, D.S.P.D. (Dublin: Printed by and for George Faulkner, Printer and Bookseller, in Essex street, opposite to the Bridge, 1735). <Link to ECCO>
Text originally copied from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D. D, ed. Willim Ernst Browing. Vol. ii (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. 1910).
See The Run Upon the Bankers ([Dublin, 1720]). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems on Several Occasions. By J. S, D.D, D.S.P.D. (Dublin: Printed by and for George Faulkner, Printer and Bookseller, in Essex street, opposite to the Bridge, 1735). <Link to ECCO>
Text originally copied from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D. D, ed. Willim Ernst Browing. Vol. ii (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. 1910).
Date of Entry
06/21/2005
Date of Review
04/26/2007
