The Answer

The wise pretend to make it clear,'Tis no great loss to lose an ear.Why are we then so fond of two,When by experience one would do?'Tis true, say they, cut off the head,And there's an end; the man is dead;Because, among all human race,None e'er was known to have a brace:But confidently they maintain,That where we find the members twain,The loss of one is no such trouble,Since t'other will in strength be double.The limb surviving, you may swear,Becomes his brother's lawful heir:Thus, for a trial, let me beg ofYour reverence but to cut one leg off,And you shall find, by this device,The other will be stronger twice;For every day you shall be gainingNew vigour to the leg remaining.So, when an eye has lost its brother,You see the better with the other,Cut off your hand, and you may doWith t'other hand the work of two:Because the soul her power contracts,And on the brother limb reacts.But yet the point is not so clear inAnother case, the sense of hearing:For, though the place of either earBe distant, as one head can bear,Yet Galen most acutely shows you,(Consult his book de partium usu)That from each ear, as he observes,There creep two auditory nerves,Not to be seen without a glass,Which near the os petrosum pass;Thence to the neck; and moving thorough there,One goes to this, and one to t'other ear;Which made my grandam always stuff her earsBoth right and left, as fellow-sufferers.You see my learning; but, to shorten it,When my left ear was deaf a fortnight,To t'other ear I felt it coming on:And thus I solve this hard phenomenon.

'Tis true, a glass will bring suppliesTo weak, or old, or clouded eyes:Your arms, though both your eyes were lost,Would guard your nose against a post:Without your legs, two legs of woodAre stronger, and almost as good:And as for hands, there have been thoseWho, wanting both, have used their toes.But no contrivance yet appearsTo furnish artificial ears.