Temperance: A Tract for the Times

THE MORALIST. For AUGUSTUS “Il faut être toujours sâoul” Charles Baudelaire. Delaying to do the thing that’s right Is as bad as having a funk on; Then why should we wait till Saturday night To get all kinds of a drunk on? With brandy a century old in sight, Why should we wait till Saturday night? If I haven’t a house on the Grand Parade, I’ll build me a hut of wattle. The corkscrew seems to have got mislaid? Then smash the neck of the bottle! Courage and will and a whack will aid, Though the corkscrew seem to have got mislaid. Anatomists say that a single wing Isn’t much for a bird to fly on. There’s not much ginger about the spring Of the fiercest one-legged lion. Another bottle’s the obvious thing To get the ginger into our spring. Beloved brethren, listen to me! If there’s one truth of divinity Clear, it’s the virtue there is in Three, And I myself was at Trinity. The least we can do is to seek and see The virtues hid in the Number Three. If much be good, then better is more, As any logician will prove you; It’s only a step from Three to Four; May the argument’s lever move you! It’s simply illogical not to explore The little bit on from Three to Four.