LXXXIX. That is your present theme for popularity: To show the people the best way to break, Reserve it) will be very sure to take. Meantime, read all the national debt-sinkers, And tell me what you think of our great thinkers. 75 DON JUAN. CANTO THE THIRTEENTH. I. I NOW mean to be serious;-it is time, Since laughter now-a-days is deem'd too serious. A jest at Vice by Virtue's call'd a crime, And critically held as deleterious: Besides, the sad's a source of the sublime, Although when long a little apt to weary us; And therefore shall my lay soar high and solemn, As an old temple dwindled to a column. II. The Lady Adeline Amundeville ('Tis an old Norman name, and to be found In pedigrees by those who wander still Along the last fields of that Gothic ground) Was high-born, wealthy by her father's will, And beauteous, even where beauties most abound, In Britain-which of course true patriots find The goodliest soil of body and of mind. III. I'll not gainsay them; it is not my cue; I'll leave them to their taste, no doubt the best: An eye's an eye, and whether black or blue, Is no great matter, so 't is in request, 'Tis nonsense to dispute about a hue The kindest may be taken as a test. The fair sex should be always fair; and no man, Till thirty, should perceive there's a plain woman. IV. And after that serene and somewhat dull Epoch, that awkward corner turn'd for days More quiet, when our moon's no more at full, We may presume to criticise or praise; Because indifference begins to lull Our passions, and we walk in wisdom's ways; Also because the figure and the face Hint, that 'tis time to give the younger place. V. I know that some would fain postpone this era, Their post; but theirs is merely a chimera, For they have pass'd life's equinoctial line : |