254 "THE .DULL ASS'S HOOF" 



dramatist of three centuries ago; but as it is thirty 

 or forty years since I read it I may not quote it 

 quite correctly: 



I that spend out all my days 

 And half my nights to get a wan pale face. 

 Leave me ! for something has come into my heart 

 That must be said or sung, far and aloof. 

 Safe from the wolf's black jaw and the dull ass's hoof. 



It will be a sad day for our race when we have 

 dropped the ass's hoof; the day of universal degener- 

 acy with not a kick left in us — not a Dean of St. 

 Paul's to tell us what he thinks of us. 



