Читать книгу Terrible Tractoration, and Other Poems онлайн

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These, among many, are but few

Of mighty things that I could do;

All which I’ll state, if ’tis your pleasure,

Much more at large when more at leisure.

Now, it appears, from what I state here,

My plans for mending human nature

Entitle me to take the chair

From Rousseau, Godwin, or Voltaire.

They are of most immense utility;

All tend to man’s perfectibility;

And if pursued, I dare to venture ye,

He’ll be an angel in a century.

Although St Pierre, a knowing chap,

Deserves a feather in his cap

For having boldly set his foot on

The foolish trash of Isaac Newton;[43]

Contrived a scheme, which very nice is,

For making tides of polar ices;

And fed old Ocean’s tub with fountains,

From arctic and antarctic mountains.

Though Mister Godwin told us how

To make a clever sort of plough,[44]

Which would e’en set itself to work,

And plough an acre in a jerk.

Though Price’s projects are so clever,

They show us how to live for ever[45]

Unless we blunder, to our cost,

And break our heads against a post!

Though Darwin, thinking to dismay us,