Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/102

 From Barnum to free petticoats;

Where perfect freedom naught permits

To pantaloons and hats with votes

But blindly to adore the cow

As moonbeams slant from brow to brow;

For from that happy land of Cocaigne

Where lords and land-leaguers go flocking,

One strand of that intricate cable

Cause and effect we call, when able

To trace them, and mistake for links

Ina long chain that has no ending;

Though, to a mind that sees and thinks,

A boundless net, through all things wending,

Were amore apt similitude;

Our narrow, lancet minds perceiving

One file of meshes, and believing

That to be all, as eyes conclude,

Because so moulded by our sight,

In rays and pencils springs the light

That rolls through all things infinite,—

One strand, I say, of causes and

Effects was twisted in the land

Of Yankee, which I place my trust on

To save Sir Blasius from combustion.

If other strands contributed,

Forth in due order shall be set.

First, then, a President, profound

In states-craft, and but newly chosen,

Had placed protection dues all round,

Machinery, victuals, crockery, clothes, on:

Whereby, you’ll see without much trouble,

The price of all things rose to double;