James Clarence Mangan  (1803-1849)

Quarrels have long been in vogue among sages;

Still, though in many things wranglers and rancorous,

All the philosopher-scribes of all ages

Join, una voce, on one point to anchor us.

Here is the gist of their mystified pages,

Here is the wisdom we purchase with gold –

            Children of Light, leave the world to its mulishness,

            Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness;

                        Berries were bitter in forests of old.

Hoary old Merlin, that great necromancer,

Made me, a student, a similar answer,

When I besought him for light and for lore:

            Toiler in vain! Leave the world to its mulishness

            Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness;

                        Granite was hard in the quarries of yore.

And on the ice-crested heights of Armenia,

And in the valleys of broad Abyssinia,

Still spake the Oracle just as before:

            Wouldst thou have peace, leave the world to its mulishness

            Things to their natures, and fools to their foolishness;

                        Beetles were blind in the ages of yore.