Michael Smith wrote:
>
> On Tuesday 25 December 2007 16:17:20 Carrol Cox wrote:
> > Nature, and Nature's God, lay hid in night;
> > God said, Let Newton Be, and all was light.
>
> Perhaps not *quite* all. Little Alex did tend to go
> a bit overboard from time to time. Viz.:
>
> In spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
> One truth is clear: whatever *is*, is right!
What, for a satirist, isn't right? One needs material to work on. Byron had a better grip than Wordsworth had on what England at that particular time needed.
How, for example, could plagiarism & parliamentary stupidity not be right when they give rise to:
Faith it imports not much from whom it came
Whoever borrow'd, could not be to blame,
Since the whole House did afterwards the same:
Let Courtly Wits to Wits afford supply,
As Hog to Hog in Huts of _Westphaly_;
If one, thro' Nature's Bounty or his Lord's,
Has what the frugal, dirty soil affords,
>From him the next receives it, thick or thin,
As pure a Muse almost as it came in;
The blessed Benefit, not there confin'd,
Drops to the third who nuzzles close behind;
>From tail to mouth, they feed, and they carouse;
The last, full fairly gives it to the _House_.
(Dia. I, 168ff.)
Carrol