264 The March of Intellect. [MARCH, 



Who in learned committees dabble, 

 Stewing science for the rabble ; 

 Teaching coalheavers the art, 

 (Dear to Jack Macculloch's heart), 

 Worthy of such men of weight, 

 How to carry on the State ; 

 Pouring on the barber's soul 

 Light that spreads from pole to pole; 

 Cutting from the tailor's mind 

 Pattern morals for mankind ; 

 Where the brawny butcher dozes 

 In the hum of kindred noses, 

 Stirring in his stagnant blood 

 Passion for poetic food, 

 Till he slices bone and chine, 

 To the tale of Troy divine ; 

 Pouring on the nightman's eye 

 Secrets of humanity ; 

 Whispering deep to travelling tinkers 

 (Souls confined too long in winkers) 

 Theories sublimely penned, 

 All the nation's flaws to mend. 



Hail ! thou March of Intellect ! 

 In thy summer-badges deckt, 

 May Apostates, out and in, 

 Ropes of sand eternal spin ! 

 May the scoundrels be rewarded, 

 Still unpensioned, still unlorded ! 

 May eternal itch of place 

 Sink them deeper in disgrace ; 

 Cheat them more, the more they stoop ; 

 To the lowest dupes, the dupe ; 

 Hourly more a laughing-stock; 

 Blockheads of the thickest block ; 

 Dragging up the self-same stone ; 

 Calling not their souls their own ; 

 Gulping down their hourly bile ; 

 Living on a great man's smile ; 

 Writhing on the tenter-hooks ; 

 Agonized by hints and looks ; 



Still the tantalizing prize 



Ever dancing in their eyes, 



Forcing them to bear the chain, 



Though it wring them heart and brain ; 



Though the beggar in his lair 



Well might shrink their feast to share ; 



Though the liver of their life 



Well might pray the speedy knife ; 



Still, condemned the pang to feel, 



Rolling round the fiery wheel ; 



Stretching forth the eager grasp, 



Still the cheating prize to clasp ; 



Gnawed in soul by hourly care, 



Denied the mercy of despair ! 



Till, when Scorn has done its worst, 



The wretches see the bubble burst, 



To poison or the pistol fly, 



And vindicate the earth and sky ! 



