Chapter I

Lessons we learn from what we daily see
Of good or evil, if philosophy,
Based on those great _First Truths_, will hold the mind
Within its limits--happiness to find.
Those great _First Truths_ will teach the human soul
That the equator lies not at the pole,
That man before his own nose cannot walk,
That man without his palate cannot talk;
That gravitation tends not to the sky,
But to Earth’s center, should he try to fly.