The Muses’ haunts, ye sons of War and Trade!

Nor you, ye legion fiends of Church and Law,

Pollute these pages with unhallow’d paw!

Debased, corrupted, grovelling, and confined,

5

No Definitions[[198]] touch your senseless mind;

To you no Postulates[[199]] prefer their claim,

No ardent Axioms[[200]] your dull souls inflame;

For you no Tangents[[201]] touch, no Angles meet,

No Circles[[202]] join in osculation[[203]] sweet!