 | Beasts at law, or zoologian jurisprudence |  |
“In crimes of this peculiar nature,
Unseen by every living creature,
Except the plaintiff, we can bring
No other witness of the thing.
But if a single brute shall dare
Her testimony to impair,
We then shall call on hundreds by
To prove she never told a lie.
But should the Dog prove innocent
Of actions showing bad intent....
Though that event, I think, is hindered,
For we've some anchors thrown to windward....aside.
My pleasure at his fair acquittal,
Will, I assure you, not be little.
You all will hear the evidence
Against and for the Dog's defence,
And will, I hope, a verdict bring
Approved by justice, beasts and king.”
Unseen by every living creature,
Except the plaintiff, we can bring
No other witness of the thing.
But if a single brute shall dare
Her testimony to impair,
We then shall call on hundreds by
To prove she never told a lie.
But should the Dog prove innocent
Of actions showing bad intent....
Though that event, I think, is hindered,
For we've some anchors thrown to windward....aside.
This is evidently an anachronism, as it is not to be supposed that these beasts I new any thing about navigation. But my learned friend Tristram Kickshins differs with me in opinion, and asserts that it is sufficiently demonstrated that they did know something about that art, in the 398th line, where it makes mention of the beasts marching on board the ship of capt. Noah. But I take this, and every thing of a similar nature in the poem, to be an expression of the author, and not of the beast to whom it is attributed. It is a figure—a poetica licentia, for which any candid reader will excuse him.
My pleasure at his fair acquittal,
Will, I assure you, not be little.
You all will hear the evidence
Against and for the Dog's defence,
And will, I hope, a verdict bring
Approved by justice, beasts and king.”
| Beasts at law, or zoologian jurisprudence | |