With the Butterflies’ party so vainly to vie;
For what with the heat, the fatigue, and the fright,
I never before passed so trying a night;
I would not again undergo the vexation
Of such a soirée, for the wealth of a nation.”
“With you I agree,” the sage Emperor replied,
Who deemed it a lesson to cure them of pride;
[p38]
“And I trust that the thread of our lives will spin out,
Ere we ever again attempt such a rout.
Alas! we must own we were never designed