[94] [This stanza appears to have been suggested by the following passage in the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1818, vol. xix. p. 203: "[It was] the opinion of the Egyptians, that the soul never deserted the body while the latter continued in a perfect state. To secure this union, King Cheops is said, by Herodotus, to have employed three hundred and sixty thousand of his subjects for twenty years in raising over the 'angusta domus' destined to hold his remains, a pile of stone equal in weight to six millions of tons, which is just three times that of the vast Breakwater thrown across Plymouth Sound; and, to render this precious dust still more secure, the narrow chamber was made accessible only by small, intricate passages, obstructed by stones of an enormous weight, and so carefully closed externally as not to be perceptible.--Yet, how vain are all the precautions of man! Not a bone was left of Cheops, either in the stone coffin, or in the vault, when Shaw entered the gloomy chamber.] {80}[ax] _Must bid you both farewell in accents bland_.--[MS.] [95] [Lines 1-4 are taken from the last stanza of the _Epilogue to the Lay of the Laureate_, entitled "L'Envoy." (See _Poetical Works_ of Robert Southey, 1838, x. 174.)] CANTO THE SECOND.[96] I. OH ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain, I pray ye flog them upon all occasions-- It mends their morals, never mind the pain: The best of mothers and of educations In Juan's case were but employed in vain, Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he Became divested of his native modesty.[ay] II. Had he but been placed at a public school, In the third form, or even in the fourth, His daily task had kept his fancy cool, At least, had he been nurtured in the North; Spain may prove an exception to the rule, But then exceptions always prove its worth-- A lad of sixteen causing a divorce Puzzled his tutors very much, of course. III. I can't say that it puzzles me at all, If all things be considered: first, there was His lady-mother, mathematical, A----never mind;--his tutor, an old ass; A pretty woman--(that's quite natural, Or else the thing had hardly come to pass) A husband rather old, not much in unity With his young wife--a time, and opportunity. IV. Well--well; the World must turn upon its axis, And all Mankind turn with it, heads or tails, And live and die, make love and pay our taxes, And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails; The King commands us, and the Doctor quacks us, The Priest instructs, and so our life exhales, A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame, Fighting, devotion, dust,--perhaps a name. V.