ds a valued limb,
We with the mood of Stoic bear the pain;
While nagging tooth doth ever set us wild.
'Tis vain on deep philosophy to call
When stinging gnats, unseen, do us assail;
A warring instinct urges us to kill,
And we delay not, till Dame Reason speaks.
'Twas but an automatic action of the mind
When matter trivial late did rouse a phlegm
Within my soul, which irritated sore,
And on the instant I did stern resolve
That, like the surgeon when an abscess ripe
Action demands with operating knife,
To sever bonds politic which did fast
Within my family executive
Hold Seldonskip and bid him hence to speed.
But sometimes action swift doth breed regreet;
An as I on the future cogitate,
Methinks excuses which might satisfy
Uninterested minds may weakly fail
To ease paternal irritation, when
Its offspring, bearing hence a varnished tale
Of wrongs which from imagination's womb
Were born and yet with specious sound do ring.
Hence I must speedily with subtle skill
Frame a dispatch which like to plaster kind
May ease the irritation of the sore
And thus mar not a happy intercourse.
The mind of man can compass many things,
But still, to reach perfection's dizzy height,
It should be centered on some special point,
Fathered by energy, to reach the goal.
How can I soar, upheld by wings of hope,
When various projects, all demanding skill,
Before me loom, as do the clouds of night
All threat'ning storm which well may wreck the craft
Unless the captain calls unto his aid
Lieutenants by long school of action trained
To guard from danger's shoals which are unknown
Except to those who long the chart have scanned?
My predecessor who first ruled these Isles
Did loud proclaim in optimistic tones
The Philippines for Filipinos are,
And so high expectations did arouse
Which Time with all its mellowing pow'r did
Dissapoint; and so at last Approval's
Smile slowly di