But though in no campaign he’s been, Of medals he’s a score; And every year that he can live His honours will be more; And should he reach four score and ten Still higher he will soar; For he will be Field-Marshal then, Before his life is o’er―― This fine old English General, &c. Nor let the country mourn that she But one such General owns; She has a hundred at the least, That scarce can move their bones; A hundred gouty sons of Mars, Who, gulping down their groans, May from their beds command their troops Through patent Telephones―― These fine old English Generals, &c. From _Finis_. ―――― THE FINE OLD ATOM-MOLECULE. (_To be sung at all gatherings of advanced Sciolists and “Scientists”_). We’ll sing you a grand new song, evolved from a ’cute young pate, Of a fine old Atom-Molecule of pre-historic date, In size infinitesimal in potencies though great, And self-formed for developing at a prodigious rate―― Like a fine old Atom-Molecule, Of the young World’s proto-prime! In it slept all the forces in our cosmos that run rife, To stir Creation’s giants or its microscopic life; Harmonious in discord, and coöperant in strife, To this small cell committed, the World lived with his Wife―― In this fine old Atom-Molecule, Of the young World’s proto-prime! In this autoplastic archetype of Protean protem lay All the humans Space has room for, or for whom Time makes a day, From the Sage whose words of wisdom Prince or Parliament obey, To the Parrots who but prattle, and the asses who but bray―― So full was this Atom-Molecule, Of the young World’s proto-prime! All brute-life, from Lamb to Lion, from the Serpent to the Dove, All that pains the sense or pleases, all the heart can loathe or love, All instincts that drag downwards, all desires that upwards move, Were caged a “happy family” cheek-by-jowl and hand in glove, In this fine old Atom-Molecule, Of the young World’s proto-prime! In it Order grew from Chaos, Light out of Darkness shined, Design sprang up by Accident, Law’s rule from Hazard blind, The Soul-less Soul evolving――against, not after, kind―― As the Life-less Life developed, and the Mind-less ripened Mind, In this fine old Atom-Molecule, Of the young World’s proto-prime!