Report Of An Adjudged Case, Not To Be Found In Any Of The Books.
By William Cowper
Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.
So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,
So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.
In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear,
And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find,
That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear,
Which amounts to possession time out of mind.
Then holding the spectacles up to the court
Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle,
As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short,
Designd to sit close to it just like saddle.
Again, would your lordship a moment suppose
(Tis a case that has happend, and may be again)
That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,
Pray, who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?
On the whole it appears, and my argument shows,
With a reasoning the court will never condemn,
That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,
And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.
Then shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how),
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes:
But what were his arguments few people know,
For the court did not think they were equally wise.
So his lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone,
Decisive and clear, without one if or but
That, whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,
By daylight or candlelightEyes should be shut!