Once upon a time there was a discredited politician whose nostrums no
longer took any one in. And being thrown out of office he wandered
about, seeking, like many men before him, for comfort and consolation
among his inferiors. These, however, failing him, he passed on to the
lower animals, and from them to the inanimate, until he came one day to
a clock which, the works having been removed, consisted only of a case,
a face, and two hands.
“Ha,” said the politician, as he stood before it, “at last I have found
something beyond question and argument more useless than myself. For
you, my friend, are done. I, at any rate, still have life and movement.
I can speak and act; I have a function still to perform in the world;
whereas you are a mockery and a sham.”
“Kindly,” the clock replied, “refrain from associating me with
yourself. I decline the comparison. Lifeless I may be, but not useless.
For two separate moments every day I am absolutely right, and for some
minutes approximately right; whereas you, sir, are, have been, and
will be, consistently wrong.”