Classic Poem

If I Coin not, of Hunger must I die;
If I do, by the Laws, as certainly;
Then, the least Evil of the two to chuse,
Coining I can't (to save my Life) refuse;
Shou'd rather venture by the Law to die,
Than starve my self, to die more guiltily;
So Coining shou'd not be my Guilt or Shame,
Who my self, (if I coin not) starve and damn;
Saving my Life and Soul so, guiltless am:
Then I sure coin, out of more Conscience, who,
So by one single Crime, shun doing two;
Which but a Crime is 'gainst Man's Laws, or Pow'r,
T'other 'gainst God and Nature, therefore more:
So since I cannot, if I coin not, live,
My Coining, (as I modestly conceive)
My Death shou'd not be, since my Life's Reprieve;
I, robbing for my Life, may truly say,
That I am much less Criminal than they,
Who let their Wants take their own Lives away;
Then he, who robs but his own Life to save
From Death and Damning, shou'd more Mercy have;
But Heav'ns just Condemnation he deserves,
Who his own Self, for fear of Damning, starves;
Because, by that, he makes it best appear,
That Man, he much more than his God, does fear,
To be condemn'd here, than be damn'd elsewhere:
Then he, who steals to save his Life, does well;
Who starves it, is so the worst Criminal;
As Man to God, less guilty will appear,
Being a Thief, than a Self-Murtherer.