Watt's Songs Against Evil

<h2>THE THIEF.</h2> <div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Why should I deprive my neighbor<br/></span> <span class="i1">Of his goods against his will?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Hands were made for honest labor,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Not to plunder, or to steal.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">'Tis a foolish self-deceiving<br/></span> <span class="i1">By such tricks to hope for gain:<br/></span> <span class="i0">All that's ever got by thieving<br/></span> <span class="i1">Turns to sorrow, shame, and pain.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Have not Eve and Adam taught us<br/></span> <span class="i1">Their sad profit to compute,<br/></span> <span class="i0">To what dismal state they brought us<br/></span> <span class="i1">When they stole forbidden fruit?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Oft we see a young beginner<br/></span> <span class="i1">Practise little pilfering ways,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Till grown up a harden'd sinner,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Then the gallows ends his days.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Theft will not be always hidden,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Though we fancy none can spy:<br/></span> <span class="i0">When we take a thing forbidden,<br/></span> <span class="i1">God beholds it with his eye.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Guard my heart, O God of heaven,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Lest I covet what's not mine;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Lest I steal what is not given,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Guard my heart and hands from sin.<br/></span></div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />