This innovation stirred a breeze,

And some of the bonzes even thought Their barbarous country by degrees

To civilization might be brought,
Leaving Europeans, with their schools,
Looking like fools.

The Emperor was an honest man
A little stiff, and dull of pate;

Like other asses, hard and slow.

He loved his subjects and the State, And patronized all clever men

Within his ken.

His people did not like to pay

Their taxes and their other dues,They cheated the revenue, sad to say:

So their good ruler thought he'd choose As the best argument he'd seen,

This sweet machine.

The thing's achievements were so great,
They gained a pension for the man,-
The executioner of State,—

Who got a patent for his plan,
Besides becoming a Mandarin

Of great Pekin.

A courtier cried: "Good guillotine!
Let's up and christen it, I say!"
"Ah, why," cries to his counselor keen

A Nero of our present day,

"Why was not born within my State

A man so great?"

Translated for A Library of the World's Best Literature.