The Secret of the Machines

                              We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,  

                                 We were melted in the furnace and the pit—  

 We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,  

                         We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit. 

                                       Some water and oil is all we ask,

                               And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:   

                                       
                                   And now, if you will set us to our task,

                            We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!

                              But remember, please, the Law by which we live,  

                                     We are not built to comprehend a lie,

                                   We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.

                                   If you make a slip in handling us you die!   

                                   

                               We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings—

                                 Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!-

                                     Our touch can alter all created things,

                             We are everything on earth—except The Gods!

  BY RUDYARD KIPLING