With two spurs or one, and no great matter which, <br />Boots bought, or boots borrow'd, a whip or a switch, <br />Five shillings or less for the hire of his beast, <br />Paid part into hand;--you must wait for the rest. <br />Thus equipt, Academicus climbs up his horse, <br />And out they both sally for better or worse; <br />His heart void of fear, and as light as a feather; <br />And in violent haste to go not knowing whither. <br />Through the fields and the towns; (see!) he scampers along: <br />And is look’d at and laugh'd at by old and by young. <br />Til, at length overspent, and his sides smear'd with blood, <br />Down tumbles his horse, man and all in the mud. <br />In a wagon or chaise, shall he finish his route? <br />Oh! scandalous fate! he must do it on foot. <br />Young gentlemen, hear!--I am older than you; <br />The advice that I give I have proved to be true; <br />Wherever your journey may be, never doubt it, <br />The faster you ride, you’re the longer about it.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-cantab/
