Languages & literature > Athenaeum

INTELLECTUAL USURPERS.
15
Breeding disturbance and distresses
’Mong their assembled mightinesses.
The nose was subject to a fine
For smells that ’scaped her quarantine;
And taste and touch, ’case of alarms,
Hold each her organ under arms;
All from intrusions gaze to save
The business of tins high conclave.
The premises being thus made snug,
The Junto seated quite incog,
And legal forms adjusted all
To suit the ceremonial.
Enter four culprits from a door
That opens in the chamber floor.
The first was one whose look severe
Betrayed the harrowings of care,
Whose steadfast mien and fixed eye
Bespoke unflinching constancy,
And on whose brow were deeply wrought
The sad insignia of thought;
I need not add when this is know n
That he was called—Attention.
The second prisoner at the bar
Was quite opposed in face and air
To all the features of the other,
And yet, alas ! in crime his brother.
This culprit’s eye was full of light
Still opening on some new delight.
No trace it bore of earth-born care;
But “ admiration feeding ” there
Seemed still to find imagined food—
From every ill to conjure good.
At times indeed his angry glance
Surveyed, but slightly and askance,
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