[10]
There is a certain natural production neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral. It generally exists from two to six feet above the surface of the earth. It has neither length, breadth, nor substance. It is neither male nor female, but commonly exists between both. It is often spoken of in the Old Testament, and strongly recommended in the New; and serves equally the purposes of treachery and fidelity.
[11]
I am a word in very common use. You will find me more than once upon almost or quite every page, whether a monosyllable, or dissyllable, or a polysyllable is to be found out; but this much is told: my first and last letter is the same; and my first three and my last three spell the same word. A useful article this of personal decoration. My interior is remarkable. Viewed one way, you laugh; viewed another, you sigh. I am an etymological stumble, and a novice hardly ever knows where to find me. To a Frenchman and a German I am an abhorrence. They never learn me so as even to call my name.
[12]
In vain you struggle to regain me,
When lost, you never can obtain me;
And yet, what’s odd, you sigh and fret,
Deplore my loss, and have me yet.
And often using me quite ill,
And seeking ways your slave to kill—
Then promising in future you
Will give to me the homage due.
Thus we go on from year to year;
My name pray let the party hear.
[13]
I’m swift as a shadow; I’m slow as a snail;
I fly like the storm-cloud impelled by the gale;
I sail with the mariner o’er the wide sea,
And traverse the shore with the bird and the bee.
I travel by day, and I travel by night,
And rarely from mortals I pass out of sight.
I dwell in the palace of nobles and kings,
But scorn not the cot where the poor mother sings;
But though I abide with the lowliest poor,
I ne’er have been turned from the rich man’s door.
I’m seen in the moon, when it waxes and wanes,
In the sun, too, at times when nature complains.
I’m courted much under shady bowers,
And welcomed at midnight or noonday hours.
I fly round the world each passing day,
And yet I’m as idle as a boy at play;
Nor do I repose at the set of the sun,
But wing my way by the light of the moon.
By day and by night I enter the door
Of high and of low, of rich and of poor;
And yet with a step so noiseless I come,
I’m not an intruder abroad or at home.
All deeds of darkness I ever eschew,
Though many such deeds I am forced to view
And now, since so often my features are seen,
Unless you can guess me, you surely are green.
