Life! what marvellous throbs and throes

The alchemy of Existence knows;

What "weals within wheels" (and woes without wohs!)

Give sophistry a handle;

Though Hare * himself could be dipp'd in the well

Where Truth's proverbial waters dwell,

It would throw no more light on the vital spell

Than a dip in the Polytechnic bell,

Or the dip—a ha'penny candle!

Alas! for the metaphysical host;