Explore "The Logicians Refuted in Imitation of Dean Swift" by Oliver Goldsmith on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
LOGICIANS have but ill defin'd / As rational, the human kind; / Reason, they say, belongs to man, / But let them prove it if they can. / Wise Aristotle and Smiglecius, / By ratiocinations specious, / Have strove to prove with great precision, / With definition and division, / _Homo est ratione praeditum,_- / But for my soul I cannot credit 'em; / And must in spite of them maintain, / That man and all his ways are vain; / And that this boasted lord of nature / Is both a weak and erring creature; / That instinct is a surer guide / Than reason-boasting mortals' pride; / And that brute beasts are far before 'em, / _Deus est anima brutorum_.
Who ever knew an honest brute / At law his neighbour prosecute, / Bring action for assault and battery, / Or friend beguile with lies and flattery? / O'er plains they ramble unconfin'd, / No politics disturb their mind; / They eat their meals, and take their sport, / Nor know who's in or out at court; / They never to the levee go / To treat as dearest friend, a foe; / They never importune his grace, / Nor ever cringe to men in place; / Nor undertake a dirty job, / Nor draw the quill to write for B -- b.