Moral Alphabet - Hilaire Belloc




P For Pig

P stands for pig,

as I remarked before,

A second cousin to the Huge Wild Boar.

[Illustration] from A Moral Alphabet by Hilaire Belloc

But Pigs are civilized, while Huge Wild Boars

Live savagely, at random, out of doors,

And, in their coarse contempt for dainty foods,

Subsist on Truffles, which they find in woods.

Not so the cultivated Pig, who feels

The need of several courses at his meals,

But wrongly thinks it does not matter whether

He takes them one by one or all together.

[Illustration] from A Moral Alphabet by Hilaire Belloc

Hence, Pigs devour, from lack of self-respect,

What Epicures would certainly reject.

[Illustration] from A Moral Alphabet by Hilaire Belloc

Moral


Learn from the Pig to take whatever Fate

Or Elder Persons heap upon your plate.