Explore "The Cart Before the Horse" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Our business system has its base / On one small thought that's out of place; / The merest trifle-nothing much, of course. / The truth is there-who says it's not? / Only-the trouble is-you've got / The cart before the horse!
You say unless a man shall work / Right earnestly, and never shirk, / He may not eat. Now look-the change is small, / And yet the truth is plain to see- / Unless man eats, and frequently, / He cannot work at all!
And which comes first! Why, that is plain, / The man comes first. And, look again- / A baby! with an appetite to fit! / You have to feed him years and years, / And train him up with toil and tears, / Before he works a bit!
So let us change our old ideas, / And learn with these advancing years / To give the oats before we ask for speed; / Not set the hungry horse to run, / And tell him when the race is done / That he shall have his feed!