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 findA 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’ve offered to the world in merry guise,Unpleasant truths are swallowed with a will—For he who’d make his fellow-creatures wiseShould always gild the philosophic pill!