The tailless man exceeds me: but being tailed

I'll lash out lion fashion, and leave apes

To dock their stump and dress their haunches up.

My business is not to remake myself,

But make the absolute best of what God made.

Or—our first simile—though you prove me doomed

To a viler berth still, to the steerage-hole,

The sheep-pen or the pig-sty, I should strive

To make what use of each were possible;

And as this cabin gets upholstery,