If the chain is quite long a few links won't be missed;
Or, if you must join it, just give it a twist.
A bold Boston doctor, by stride superhuman,
Makes only a step from a snake to a woman;
Or, inspect your best friends by Granville's good glass,
And the difference's as small 'twixt a man and an ass.
'From the company he keeps we may learn a man's nature;'
If he will play with monkey, dog, cat, or such creature,
The schoolmen will say, as a matter of course,
'Cum hoc ergo propter hoc.' Notice its force!