Some Rhymes for my Students

BOTH LSN GOVERNMENT and WORLD HISTORY students should memorize these rhymes:



MAGNA CARTA (1215 A.D.)

In days of old,
When knights were bold,
And most trade was by barter,
The English barons forced King John
To sign the Magna Carta


ENGLISH BILL OF RIGHTS (1689 A.D.)

In 'Eighty-nine,
When things weren't fine,
When Billy and James had fights,
In England, Queen Mary and Good King Bill
Signed the Bill of Rights.

MACHIAVELLI

Niccolo said it is right
For princes to scheme, hurt, and fight.
But this sneaky slob
Could not keep his job,
Which is why he was forced to go write!


THREE FOR SOCIAL CONTRACT

Said Old Thomas Hobbes, with a snort,
"Our natural lives of the sort
Quite unfettered by kings
Are most miserable things,
Being nasty, brutish, and short."

Sam Rutherford, in cleric's frock,
Can give modern folks a great shock.
It's a very firm fact
That of social contract
He wrote well before Old John Locke.

Rousseau, the great libertarian,
Celebrated the noble barbarian.
His science abysmal
Found society dismal,
And made politics contractarian.