An elephant, they say has human feeling,

And full as well as we he knows

The difference between words and blows,

Between horse-play and civil dealing.

Use him but well, he’ll do his best,

And serve you faithfully and truly;

But insults unprovoked he can’t digest,

He studies o’er them, and repays them duly.

“To make my head an anvil, (thought the creature,)

Was never, certainly, the will of Nature;