Science is...

In modern thought, if not in fact,
nothing is which does not act.
Thus, that is counted science which
describes the scratch but not the itch.


Anonymous
...but shown me by my old friend Tony Egan. The only real trouble with this little ditty is that the ablaut sequence in the last line is the wrong way round: the stressed `a' syllable should come after the stressed `i' syllable. That way it would sound much better. Think of Morgenstern, Das Große Lalula and its line Bifzi, bafzi,.... To have the vowels in the other order would be wrong. The two words are the present tense and preterite forms of a strong verb. The quatrain should be rewritten so that the rhyme in lines 3 and 4 is `scratch'.

Go on—call me a pedant. I admit it.


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