Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 01.djvu/313

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On Equality of Conditions.
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Has heaven given all of bliss an equal share?A scrivener's wife to a princess who'd compare?Is it not for a priest a happier fateTo clap a scarlet hat on his bald pate,Than to go after morn or evening prayerTo expose to discipline his shoulders bare?In triple bonnet sure more blessed the judgeThan the clerk doomed in office still to drudge.God's justice, nature's laws, this rule oppose,Her gifts she with more equity bestows.Think you she'll ever be so partial foundAs to have bliss to fortune's chariot bound?A colonel oft will impudently tryIn pleasures even a marshal to outvie.Blessed as a king, the ignorant vulgar say,Yet monarchs dearly for their grandeur pay.Vain confidence a king puts in his throne,For grief and spleen to greatness' self are known.Heaven must to all the same attention pay,It formed all mankind of one common clay.Let's own that heaven is just as well as kind,It has a birthright to each child assigned;Some crop must still be reaped from earth's worst spot,He's disinherited who mourns his lot.Let's without pride possess; let's bear with grace,Since 'twas by God assigned our earthly place.God meant arranging mundane thingsTo make us happy, not to make us kings.
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