62
Where the parrot unprogressive,
Mocked it all with empty prate.
“What avails it, ah! that here in
All we’re just as human kind,”
Sighed he, “when to our advancement
Human eyes are ever blind,
And when he who formed the nation
Cultured Europe’s admiration
Of his merits fails to find?”
So his apes he called in conclave
And harangued them from the throne:
“Heaven permitted this exalted
Rôle to me of apes alone,
And that apes, by my endeavour
Raised to human height, should ever
Art and science love and own.
“But ’tis meet to show to people
We’re no more a savage horde,
And a dignified position
Claim at Europe’s council board.
For State reasons, too, most meet ’tis
I should fortify by treaties
What I’ve won me by the sword.
“Therefore I have firmly settled
For the glory of our race,
A stupendous expedition
Unto Europe’s shores to face;
There to show a world astounded
Apedom’s State, on Progress founded,
Stands compact from crown to base.
