False Greatness - A Poem by Isaac Watts

This poem was of interest to me as he references Croesus, the presumptuous leader of Sardis who lost all when he trusted in the false security of his impregnable fortress. See Revelation 3:1-6 for a possible allusion to him. 

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FALSE GREATNESS 

Isaac Watts

Mylo, forbear to call him bless’d

That only boasts a large estate,

Should all the treasures of the west 

Meet, and conspire to make him great:

I know thy better thoughts, I know 

Thy reason can’t descend so low: 

Let a broad stream, with golden sands,

Through all his meadows roll,

He's but a wretch with all his lands 

That wears a narrow soul.

He swells amidst his wealthy store,

And proudly poising what he weighs,

In his own scale he fondly lays 

Huge heaps of shining ore:

He spreads the balance wide, to hold 

His manors and his farms, 

And cheats the beam with loads of gold 

He hugs between his arms.

So might the ploughboy climb a tree, 

When Croesus mounts his throne, 

And both stand up and smile to see 

How long their shadow's grown:

Alas! how vain their fancies be, 

To think that shape their own!

Thus mingled still with wealth and state,

Croesus himself can never know:

His true dimensions and his weight

Are far inferior to their show.

Were I so tall to reach the pole,

Or grasp the ocean with my span,

I must be measured by my soul:

The mind's the standard of the man.