THE ORATOR AND THE CASK
A FABLE.
INTRODUCING A CHARACTER FROM LIFE.
A speaker of the suasive school,
Who more resembled knave than fool,
His prospects gauged once on a time,
And sought how he might upward climb.
The scheme Political had failed;
The star of Piety had paled;
The Convert Drunkard would not tell—
His friends the cheat had learnt to smell.
All things our changeful friend had tried—
Had spouted far and shouted wide.
When all at once—ah! happy thought:
The Temp'rance cause in tow was brought.
And with it, up and down the land,
Our hero roamed with lofty hand,
Consigning to a dreadful place,
Whose name this fable must not grace,
All men—the one who touched a drop,
With him who knew not when to stop.
Arriving in a town one day,
He on his string began to play;
And mounted on a brandy cask
With noisy speech went through his task.
The barrel on whose head he stood
At length gave vent in warmth of blood:
"Ungracious varlet—stay thy hand:
"What! run down those on whom you stand?"
Then, utterance-choked, he tumbled o'er,
Casting the speaker on the floor.
And as he rolled along the street—
"Let me consistent teachers meet!"
He said—"or give me none at all
To teach me how to stand or fall!"
Thus seekers after Truth declaim
'Gainst teachers—teachers but in name—
Who live by what they deprecate,
And love the thing they seem to hate—
Who like the speaker raised on high
On barrel-top, 'gainst barrels cry:
Who, though of others Temp'rance ask,
Are slaves themselves to th' brandy flask.