"'Keep the young generations in hail,
And bequeath them no tumbled house.'
"To him this is at once a duty and a 'sustainment supreme,' and perhaps the bitterest words this master of Comedy has written are for the seniors of the race who—
"'On their last plank,
Pass mumbling it as nature's final page,'
"'On their last plank,
Pass mumbling it as nature's final page,'
"And cramp the young with their rules of 'wisdom,' lest, as he says scornfully:—
"'Lest dreaded change, long dammed by dull decay,
Should bring the world a vessel steered by brain,
And ancients musical at close of day.'
"'Lest dreaded change, long dammed by dull decay,
Should bring the world a vessel steered by brain,
And ancients musical at close of day.'
"'Earth loves her young,' begins his next sonnet:—
"'Her gabbling grey she eyes askant, nor treads
The ways they walk; by what they speak oppressed.'
"'Her gabbling grey she eyes askant, nor treads
The ways they walk; by what they speak oppressed.'