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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=357904" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Hoary Precedent</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mr. Pericles, M.P.,<br>In four-sixty-nine B.C.,<br>Outed Cimon at a general election;<br>Premier Cimon, thuswise ex-ed,<br>Was quite naturally vexed,<br>And he made an angry speech in this connection;<br>He remarked, in peroration, as he grabbed his coat and hat,<br>'You're a Socialist, you rotter! You'd no precedent for that!'<br>Mr. Pericles is dead <br>Thoroughly, I've heard it said <br>And his words and acts may now be safely quoted<br>By our statesmen eminent,<br>Who on mouldy precedent<br>(If it's old enough and dead enough) have doted.<br>For precedent, I'd have you note, is most peculiar stuff;<br>It's absolutely useless if it isn't dead enough.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In my youth I ever held<br>Grave respect for all the eld,<br>And I found in history a strong attraction.<br>So, whene'er a scheme I planned,<br>Eagerly the tomes I scanned<br>That I might find precedent for ev'ry action.<br>Yet, despite my zealous labour, and the piles of books I read,<br>In the things that truly mattered I seemed not to forge ahead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>As I nursed my bulging brow,<br>Said I, 'This is wrong somehow.<br>Precedent, as we all know, is something holy <br>Something we should not neglect<br>To regard with great respect,<br>And I feel I'm safe in following it solely.<br>But had we done it from the start - I grasp, at least, this much <br>We would still be munching apples that we didn't oughter touch.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Well, this problem is immense!'<br>In my experience<br>I reflected. 'How have we progressed, I wonder?'<br>Then the obvious reply<br>Hit me squarely in the eye:<br>It is by ignoring precedent, by thunder!<br>'Tis men who fix the precedents that lead the nations on<br>And not the folk who pin their faith to leaders dead and gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mr. Pericles, M.P.,<br>You're the sort of man for me<br>(Though I understand you are a Dago alien):<br>'Spite your moral character,<br>O'er the Styx I greet you, sir,<br>You're the sort we need to-day in things Australian.<br>For we're moved to ask the question of our statesmen now and then:<br>'Does this job of fixing precedents belong to ancient men?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mr. Pericles, deceased,<br>'Spite his deadness, has increased<br>My respect for all the world's originators.<br>If we must have precedents,<br>My ideal he represents,<br>For I'm done with copyists and imitators.<br>And, after this, my reference is Pericles, M.P.,<br>He acted without precedent; that's precedent for me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Clarence+Michael+James+Stanislaus+Dennis">Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=357904" data-title="The Hoary Precedent de Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis" data-description="Mr. Pericles, M.P.,
In four-sixty-nine B.C.,
Outed Cimon at a general election;
Premier Cimon, thuswise ex-ed,
Was quite naturally vexed,
And he made an angry speech in this connection;
He remarked, in peroration, as he grabbed his coat and hat,
'..."></div>
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