Fables in Song | ||
4.
Now a metal is iron as hard as nails,Practical, patient, not easily bored:
But ideas it hates, and against them prevails,
As we often have seen, at the point of the sword.
118
And by nature responsive to every vibration,
Hovers vague in a realm insubstantial and high
Which seems made for the purpose of pure speculation.
So that when “sixteen ounces of snuff are a poundweight,”
The Weights cried below to the Balance above,
Tho' he knew not, as we do, that this was unsound weight,
He replied, with a shrug, “Well, and what does that prove?”
Then, convinced that he had by this interrogation
Their materialist insolence sternly put down,
He return'd with a tremor of self-admiration
To the point out of which the discussion had grown.
Fables in Song | ||