ENGLISH CLASSICS

With slower pen men used to write,
Of old, when "letters" were "polite;"
In Anna's, or in George's days,

They could afford to turn a phrase,
Or trim a straggling theme aright.

They knew not steam; electric light
Not yet had dazed their calmer sight;-
They meted out both blame and praise
With slower pen.

More swiftly now the hours take flight!
What's read at morn is dead at night;

Scant space have we for Art's delays, Whose breathless thought so briefly stays, We may not work-ah! would we might, With slower pen