Chapter I

All modern themes of poesy are spun so very fine,
That now the most amusing muse, _e gratia_, such as mine,
Is often forced to cut the thread that strings our recent rhymes,
And try the stronger staple of the good old classic times.

II

There lived and flourished long ago, in famous Athens town,
One _Dædalus_, a carpenter of genius and renown;
('Twas he who with an _auger_ taught mechanics how to _bore_,--
An art which the philosophers monopolized before.)