And, where great Plato paced serene, Or Newton paused with wistful eye, Rush to the chace with hoofs unclean And Babel-clamour of the sty!
Be yours the pay: be theirs the praise: We will not rob them of their due, Nor vex the ghosts of other days By naming them along with you.
They sought and found undying fame: They toiled not for reward nor thanks: Their cheeks are hot with honest shame For you, the modern mountebanks!
Who preach of Justice--plead with tears That Love and Mercy should abound-- While marking with complacent ears The moaning of some tortured hound:
Who prate of Wisdom--nay, forbear, Lest Wisdom turn on you in wrath, Trampling, with heel that will not spare, The vermin that beset her path!
Go, throng each other's drawing-rooms, Ye idols of a petty clique: Strut your brief hour in borrowed plumes, And make your penny-trumpets squeak:
[Illustration: "GO, THRONG EACH OTHER'S DRAWING-ROOMS"]
Deck your dull talk with pilfered shreds Of learning from a nobler time, And oil each other's little heads With mutual Flattery's golden slime:
And when the topmost height ye gain, And stand in Glory's ether clear, And grasp the prize of all your pain-- So many hundred pounds a year--
Then let Fame's banner be unfurled! Sing Pæans for a victory won! Ye tapers, that would light the world, And cast a shadow on the Sun--
Who still shall pour His rays sublime, One crystal flood, from East to West, When ye have burned your little time And feebly flickered into rest!
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With Forty-two Illustrations by TENNIEL. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._ Seventy-first Thousand.
TRANSLATIONS OF THE SAME--into French, by HENRI BUÉ--into German, by ANTONIE ZIMMERMANN--and into Italian, by T. PIETROCÒLA ROSSETTI--with TENNIEL'S Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._ each.
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE. With Fifty Illustrations by TENNIEL. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._ Fifty-second Thousand.
RHYME? AND REASON? With Sixty-five Illustrations by ARTHUR B. FROST, and Nine by HENRY HOLIDAY. (This book is a reprint, with a few additions, of the comic portion of "Phantasmagoria and other Poems," and of "The Hunting of the Snark." Mr. Frost's pictures are new.) Crown 8vo, cloth, coloured edges, price 7_s._