Page:Carroll - Rhyme and Reason.djvu/228

212 Be yours the pay: be theirs the praise:
 * We will not rob them of their due,

Nor vex the ghosts of other days
 * By naming them along with you.

They sought and found undying fame:
 * They toiled not for reward nor thanks:

Their cheeks are hot with honest shame
 * For you, the modern mountebanks!

Who preach of Justice–plead with tears
 * That Love and Mercy should abound–

While marking with complacent ears
 * The moaning of some tortured hound:

Who prate of Wisdom–nay, forbear,
 * Lest Wisdom turn on you in wrath,

Trampling, with heel that will not spare,
 * The vermin that beset her path!

Go, throng each other's drawing-rooms,
 * Ye idols of a petty clique:

Strut your brief hour in borrowed plumes,
 * And make your penny-trumpets squeak: