Jack Lynch Were I (who to my cost already am One of those strange, prodigious 1 creatures, man) A spirit free to choose, for my own share What case of flesh and blood I pleased to wear, I'd be a dog, a monkey, or a bear, [5] Or anything but that vain animal, Who is so proud of being rational. 2 The senses are too gross, 3 and he'll contrive A sixth, to contradict the other five, And before certain instinct, will prefer [10] Reason, which fifty times for one does err; Reason, an ignis fatuus 4 of the mind, Which, leaving light of nature, sense, behind, Pathless and dangerous wand'ring ways it takes Through error's fenny bogs and thorny brakes; [15] Whilst the misguided follower climbs with pain Mountains of whimseys, heaped in his own brain; Stumbling from thought to thought, falls headlong down Into doubt's boundless sea where, like to drown, Books bear him up awhile, and make ...