We were sittin' there, <br /> and smokin' of our pipes, discussin' things <br />Like taxes, votes for wimmin, <br /> an' the totterin' thrones of kings, <br />When he ups an' strokes his whiskers <br /> with his hand an' says to me: <br />'Changin' laws an' legislatures ain't <br /> as fur as I can see, <br />Goin' to make this world much better, <br /> unless somehow we can <br />Find a way to make a better an' a finer sort o' man. <br /> <br />'The trouble ain't with statutes or with systems— <br /> not at all; <br />It's with humans jus' like we air <br /> an' their petty ways an' small. <br />We could stop our writin' law-books <br /> an' our regulatin' rules <br />If a better sort of manhood <br /> was the product of our schools. <br />For the things that we air needin' <br /> isn't writing' from a pen <br />Or bigger guns to shoot with, <br /> but a bigger type of men. <br /> <br />'I reckon all these problems <br /> air jest ornery like the weeds, <br />They grow in soil that oughta nourish <br /> only decent deeds, <br />An' they waste our time an' fret us when, <br /> if we were thinkin' straight <br />An' livin' right, <br /> they wouldn't be so terrible and great. <br />A good horse needs no snaffle <br /> and a good man, I opine, <br />Doesn't need a law to check him <br /> or to force him into line. <br /> <br />'If we ever start in teachin' to our children, <br /> year by year, <br />How to live with one another, <br /> there'll be less o' trouble here. <br />If we'd teach 'em how to neighbor <br /> an' to walk in honor's ways, <br />We could settle every problem <br /> which the mind o' man can raise. <br />What we're needin' isn't systems <br /> or some regulatin' plan <br />But a bigger an' a finer an' a truer type o' man.'<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-need-11/
