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53
Bad sophistries up, in tales well told,
Which, counting for rather more than half,
If not the argument—gets the laugh;
The preacher the truth of heaven oft brings,
Done up in tales of secular things;
In What Has Been, we can always see
A half-formed image of What May Be.
This simple story the Captain told,
Ere yet it was half a minute old,
And unassuming in verbal style,
But hitting the point of the case meanwhile,
Tranquillity brought and order saved;
All now were quiet and well behaved,
And matters went on, through gleam and gloam,
As if in some well-conducted home.
And like the head of a family,
The Captain roamed through each narrow hall,
And smilingly praised, with tempered glee,
The spirit of peace pervading all.
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