Attraction is a curious power,
That none can understand:
Its influence is every where—
In water, air and land;
It keeps the earth compact and tight,
As though strong bolts were through it;
And, what is more mysterious yet,
It binds us mortals to it.
You throw a stone up in the air,
And down it comes—ker-whack!
The centrifugal casts it up—
The centripetal—back.
My eyes! I can't discover how
One object 'tracts another;
Unless they love each other, like
A sister and a brother.
I know the compass always points
Directly at the pole;
Some say the north star causes this,
And some say—Symm's Hole!
Prehaps it does—prehaps it don't;
Prehaps some other cause;
Keep on prehapsing—who can solve
Attraction's hidden laws?
A fly lights on a 'lasses cup—
Attraction bids him woo it;
And, when he's in, attraction keeps
The chap from paddling through it.
Attraction lures the sot to drink,
To all his troubles drown;
But when his legs give way, he falls,
And "traction keeps him down.
Attraction is a curious power,
That none can understand;
Its influence is everywhere—
In water, air and land.
It operates on every thing—
The sea, the tides, the weather;
And sometimes draws the sexes up,
And binds them fast together.