A Moral Alphabet Part 4

I doubt it....

V for

[Ill.u.s.tration]

the un.o.btrusive Volunteer, Who fills the Armies of the World with fear.

MORAL.

Seek with the Volunteer to put aside The empty Pomp of Military Pride.

W

My little victim, let me trouble you To fix your active mind on W.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The WATERBEETLE here shall teach A sermon far beyond your reach: He flabbergasts the Human Race By gliding on the water's face With ease, celerity, and grace; _But if he ever stopped to think Of how he did it, he would sink._

MORAL.

Don't ask Questions!

X

[Ill.u.s.tration]

No reasonable little Child expects A Grown-up Man to make a rhyme on X.

MORAL.

These verses teach a clever child to find Excuse for doing all that he's inclined.

Y

[Ill.u.s.tration]

stands for Youth (it would have stood for Yak, But that I wrote about him two years back).

Youth is the pleasant springtime of our days, As Dante so mellifluously says (Who always speaks of Youth with proper praise).

You have not got to Youth, but when you do You'll find what He and I have said is true.

MORAL.

Youth's excellence should teach the Modern Wit First to be Young, and then to boast of it.

Z

[Ill.u.s.tration]

for this Zebu, who (like all Zebus)[C]

Is held divine by scrupulous Hindoos.

[C]

Von Kettner writes it "_Ze_bu"; Wurst "Ze_bu_": I split the difference and use the two.

MORAL.

Idolatry, as you are well aware, Is highly reprehensible. But there, We needn't bother,--when we get to Z Our interest in the Alphabet is dead.