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From Barnum to free petticoats;
Where perfect freedom naught permits
To pantaloons and hats with votes
But blindly to adore the cow
As moonbeams slant from brow to brow;
For from that happy land of Cocaigne
Where lords and land-leaguers go flocking,
One strand of that intricate cable
Cause and effect we call, when able
To trace them, and mistake for links
Ina long chain that has no ending;
Though, to a mind that sees and thinks,
A boundless net, through all things wending,
Were amore apt similitude;
Our narrow, lancet minds perceiving
One file of meshes, and believing
That to be all, as eyes conclude,
Because so moulded by our sight,
In rays and pencils springs the light
That rolls through all things infinite,—
One strand, I say, of causes and
Effects was twisted in the land
Of Yankee, which I place my trust on
To save Sir Blasius from combustion.
If other strands contributed,
Forth in due order shall be set.
First, then, a President, profound
In states-craft, and but newly chosen,
Had placed protection dues all round,
Machinery, victuals, crockery, clothes, on:
Whereby, you’ll see without much trouble,
The price of all things rose to double;
