To-day's conception thus I formulate:

As simple force has been replaced, just so

Must simple wit be: men have got to know

Such wit as what you boast is nowise held

The wonder once it was, but, paralleled

Too plentifully, counts not,—puts to shame

Modest possessors like yourself who claim,

By virtue of it merely, power and place

—Which means the sweets of office. Since our race

Teems with the like of you, some special gift,