As a man will I repeat
All this vile disparagement,
Bound to give most grave offence.

Yes, I too am man, am placed
O'er the other mammals all!
Shall I sell my birthright?--No!
Nor my interest betray.

Ever faithful unto man,
I will fight all other beasts.
I will battle for the high
Holy inborn rights of man!

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CANTO VI

Yet for man who forms the higher
Class of animals 'twere well
That betimes he should discover
What the lower thinks of him.

Verily within those drear
Strata of the world of brutes,
In those lower social layers
There is misery, pride and wrath.

Laws which Nature hath decreed,
Customs sanctioned long by Time,
And for centuries established,
They deny with pertest tongue.

Grumbling, there the old instil
Evil doctrines in the young,
Doctrines which endanger all
Human culture on the Earth.

"Children!" grunts our Atta Troll,
As he tosses to and fro
On his hard and stony couch,
"Future time we hold in fee!

"If each bear, each quadruped,
Held with me a like ideal,
With our whole united force
We the tyrant might engage.

"Compact then the boar should make
With the horse--the elephant
Curve his trunk in comradeship
Round the valiant ox's horns.

"Bear and wolf of every shade,
Goat and ape, the rabbit, too.
Let them for the common cause
Labour--and the world is ours!

"Union! union! is the need
Of our times! For singly we
Fall as slaves, but joined as one
We shall overcome our lords.

"Union! union! Victory!
We shall overthrow the reign
Of such tyranny and found
One great Kingdom of the Brutes.

"And its first great law shall be
For God's creatures one and all
Equal rights--no matter what
Be their faith, or hide or smell.

"Strict equality! Each ass
May become Prime Minister;
On the other hand the lion
Shall bear corn unto the mill.

"And the dog? Alas, 'tis true
He's a very servile cur,
Just because for ages man
Like a dog has treated him.

"Yet in our Free State shall he
Once again enjoy his rights--
Rights most unassailable--
Thus ennobled be the dog.

"Yea, the very Jews