An extraordinary faculty

Leads to the piling up of arguments

Like a builder with his bricks

Or a net-maker with his lines.

Its possessor cunningly contrives

One's sentences and enjoys oneself

In discussing what blackness is

And what whiteness is, where views

Agree and where they differ and,

Pressing on, though extremely weary,

With short steps and with a multitude

Of useless words to make good

One's dominant opinion; nor will one stop

Till one has become a forcible speaker.

But in all this race the candidates

Of their parties, with their redundant views

And divergent methods, do not proceed

By that which is the correct path

For all under the blue sky. That

Which is the perfectly correct path

Is not to lose the real character

Of the nature with which they are

Endowed to expose themselves.

Eagerly brings out rating and restrains

Its proper nature that its possessor

May acquire a famous reputation

And cause all the trumpets and drums

Possibly available in the world

To celebrate an unattainable condition.

And one will not stop, like a bird of prey,

Till one has become the president oneself.