Fables in Song :: :: University of Virginia Library

Who laid that egg? Man's Genius. And mankind
Around the path of Genius form and scatter
Opinions just as petulant and blind
As, when she cross'd the yet untraversed water,
The fishes form'd about that lonely bark.

2.

In either case, 'tis something floating high
O'er those who, from beneath, its course remark,
And, finding it unlike themselves, decry
Or fear it, as their humour urges. These
Affirm “It is a fish that cannot dive,”
And those “It is a bird that cannot fly.”
The truth each fool in his own judgment sees.
Mimics and mockers with its movement vie.
Opinions round it, and opponents strive.
Some swear 'tis dangerous. And others say
'Tis useless. Monstrous all agree to make it.
Philosophers explain it in their way,
And ignoramuses, in theirs, mistake it,
Which comes to the same thing.

3.

At last one day,
It founders upon sunken rocks that break it,

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Or in a whirlwind disappears. Then they
“All's safe at last! The portent is no more.
'Twas but a dream, and nothing rests of it.”
Such is Opinion.

4.

But there floats to shore
Perchance a fragment of it. Some poor bit
Of scribbled paper; which arrives at last
(Thanks to the rubbish it finds grace to wrap)
At the world's future notice. Of the past
'Tis all the future cares to keep, mayhap.
And then some souls, too restless for their own,
Swear by it there must be a world unknown.

5.

What next? To seek that unknown world: be lost,
And recommence the old story o'er again.
They who first 'light upon the sudden coast
Of that strange land, across the stormy main
Cry out Eureka! Then the rest arrive,
And with the new-world treasures nimbly pile
Their decks; sail home; and in the old world drive
A profitable trade a little while.
Till those who buy their brave new merchandise
Begin to find it tediously the same.
When plumage pluckt from birds of paradise,
Grown cheap as common feathers, gets no fame;
And, clove or pepper coarse, 'tis all as one;
Pure ivory fares no better than mere bone.