The principle by which each thing Toward strength and shape first tended,-- The pulley whereon Zeus the ring Of earth, that loosely used to swing, With cautiousness suspended,-- he is a clever man, I vow, Who its real name can tell me now, Unless to help him I consent-- 'Tis: ten and twelve are different! Fire burns,--'tis chilly when it snows, Man always is two-footed,-- The sun across the heavens goes,-- This, he who naught of logic knows Finds to his reason suited. Yet he who metaphysics learns, Knows that naught freezes when it burns-- Knows that what's wet is never dry,-- And that what's bright attracts the eye. Old Homer sings his noble lays, The hero goes through dangers; The brave man duty's call obeys, And did so, even in the days When sages yet were strangers-- But heart and genius now have taught What Locke and what Descartes never thought; By them immediately is shown That which is possible alone. In life avails the right of force. The bold the timid worries; Who rules not, is a slave of course, Without design each thing across Earth's stage forever hurries. Yet what would happen if the plan Which guides the world now first began, Within the moral system lies Disclosed with clearness to our eyes. "When man would seek his destiny, Man's help must then be given; Save for the whole, ne'er labors he,-- Of many drops is formed the sea,-- By water mills are driven; Therefore the wolf's wild species flies,-- Knit are the state's enduring ties." Thus Puffendorf and Feder, each Is, ex cathedra, wont to teach. Yet, if what such professors say, Each brain to enter durst not, Nature exerts her mother-sway, Provides that ne'er the chain gives way, And that the ripe fruits burst not. Meanwhile, until earth's structure vast Philosophy can bind at last, 'Tis she that bids its pinion move, By means of hunger and of love! THE METAPHYSICIAN. "How far beneath me seems the earthly ball! The pigmy race below I scarce can see; How does my art, the noblest art of all, Bear me close up to heaven's bright canopy!" So cries the slater from his tower's high top, And so the little would-be mighty man, Hans Metaphysicus, from out his critic-shop. Explain, thou little would-be mighty man! The tower from which thy looks the world survey, Whereof,--whereon is it erected, pray? How didst thou mount it? Of what use to thee Its naked heights, save o'er the vale to see? PEGASUS IN HARNESS. Once to a horse-fair,--it may perhaps have been Where other things are bought and sold,--I mean At the Haymarket,--there the muses' horse A hungry poet brought--to sell, of course.