Employ the means of meek and humble plea,
If ye are eager that your necks be freed,
Nor feel the rigour of the Roman knife,
And from our powerful grip escape with life.
If that brute beast, shut up within its cage,
For savage wildness and ferocious will,
Can there be tamed by dint of cunning sage,
Through lapse of time, and means of crafty skill,
The man who lets him free to vent his rage
Will show himself a madman wilder still.