Freedom

Freedom

, n. Exemption from the stress of authority in a beggarly half dozen

of restraint's infinite multitude of methods. A political condition that every

nation supposes itself to enjoy in virtual monopoly.

Liberty.

The distinction

between freedom and liberty is not accurately known; naturalists have never been

able to find a living specimen of either.

Freedom, as every schoolboy knows,

Once shrieked as Kosciusko

fell;

On every wind, indeed, that blows

I hear her yell.

She screams whenever monarchs meet,

And parliaments as well,

To bind the chains about her feet

And toll her knell.

And when the sovereign people cast

The votes they cannot spell,

Upon the pestilential blast

Her clamors swell.

For all to whom the power's given

To sway or to compel,

Among themselves apportion heaven

And give her hell.