1. We are but lost in error and absurdity
If you possess the truth then show it forth to me

2. And for love of the right, the soul preferred
A child's lineage to the mother attributed be

3. They knew not from the father but surmises
While the wild beasts to the mothers cling and flee

4. A niggard love may stint the water supply
Yet deserve not that its course run free

5. And many a man belittled, if justly weighed
Is in his bulk a giant by some deemed to be

6. By guile men rise; few loose the bonds
Of the smooth generations yielding to their pleas