OLD SAWS NEW SET; A GREEK FABLE TO AN ENGLISH MORAL by CHARLES KINGSLEY

I MET John Clod the other day quite out of sorts and pensive,
And grumbling at the government as idle and expensive,
"With taxing food and clothes and light, they've almost
broke our backs;
And when shall we poor chaps get back our money's worth, I ax?
I seed upon the paper what a lot we have to pay:
They promises us all reform, but they cart no dirt away.
This government does nothing, sir, I've most a mind to riot."
"So had the frogs, friend John," quoth I, "but they got little by it."
"How's that, then?" "Why, these frogs had lived for many a
hundred year,
Like jolly old republicans, without distress or fear;
When having grown more civilized, the sapient croakers found,
That all they wanted was a king, just like the nations round.

So for a king they prayed -- Jove heard -- and kindly tossed a log
Down out of heaven among them all, and flattened many a frog.
The great unsquashed croaked loyal awe, and swore on bended knees,
To carry out with fire and sword whate'er their king might please:
But his majesty pleased nothing -- no! he wouldn't even swear.
To find their dear-bought whistle dumb, was more than frogs
could bear.
'A king!' they squalled again. Jove laughed, 'They can't
let well alone;
Why, lazy rulers leave at least each man to mind his own;
Well, then, here's something practical, -- this government
shall work.'
And Iris post from Belgium fetched a patriarchal stork.

The stork surveyed his subjects with a true Malthusian air --
'Ah! over population! There's the mischief, I declare!
The bog will get quite pauperized!' he stretched two yard-long bills,
And sucked down luckless frog on frog, and as he gulped his pills,
'Your individual sufferings, my brothers, may be great,
But then, like starving artisans, your suffering feeds the State.'
In vain they shrieked to Jove; 'It's now too late, my
friends, to talk;
You've had your choice -- you cut King Log, you cannot cut
King Stork.'"

Moral

New brooms sweep clean -- but then new boots are apt to
prove too tight;
Each party tries its nostrums -- if they could but hit the right!
Things might be better, babies know -- but then things might be worse.
Reforms are God's own blessings -- Revolutions oft His curse.

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