THE PHILOSOPHIC PILL.

I've wisdom from the East and from the West,

That's subject to no academic rule:

You may find it in the jeering of a jest,

Or distil it from the folly of a fool.

I can teach you with a quip, if I've a mind!

I can trick you into learning with a laugh;

Oh, winnow all my folly, and you'll find

A grain or two of truth among the chaff!

I can set a braggart quailing with a quip,

The upstart I can wither with a whim;

He may wear a merry laugh upon his lip,

But his laughter has an echo that is grim.

When they're offered to the world in merry guise,

Unpleasant truths are swallowed with a will —

For he who'd make his fellow creatures wise

Should always gild the philosophic pill!