The Porcupine

What! Would you slap the Porcupine?
Unhappy child—desist!
Alas! That any friend of mine
Should turn Tupto-philist.*

* From the "tupto"=I strike; "philo"=I love; one that loves to strike; The word is not found in classical Greek, nor does it occur among the writers of the Renaissance—nor anywhere else.

To strike the meanest and the least

Of creatures is a sin.

How much more bad to beat a beast

With prickles on its skin.

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