Pause, Robert, pause: remember Cain!
What’s this you say, Adolphus Bain
Has struck you with his Fist?
Nay, your Resentment lay aside,
Your Playmate you should gently chide
And ask him to desist.
If he has kicked you in the Chest,
Him you should pleasantly request
His Anger to postpone
Till you have warn’d him how such Deed
May injure Health, and Sickness breed,
And shake Religion’s Throne.
The Reverend Mister Somerville
Has brought you up extremely ill
If you he has not taught
To know that they who raise the Hand
May come to bear Cain’s awful Brand:
Now Profit by the Thought.
Transcriber’s Note:
A stanza break was added after the sixth line of “Inevitable
Retribution.”