To pose as PROCRUSTES may seem rather fun;

When it comes to the pinch of experiment, then

You may find that some millions of labouring men

Of all sorts and sizes, all callings and crafts,

The toilers by furnaces, factories, shafts,

The thrall of the mine, and the swart stithy slave,

The boys of the bench, and the sons of the wave,

Are not quite so easy to "size up" all round

To that comfortless bed where you'd have them all bound,

As the travellers luckless who fell in the way