"The Gods of the Copybook Headings" by Rudyard Kipling (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

Copybooks were used for teaching. They contained incontrovertible truths, often from the Bible, that pupils copied out in their own handwriting. Their purpose was to instill wisdom and improve penmanship. The sort of old-fashioned trite cliches quoted in the poem are copybook headings e.g. "Stick to the devil you know" and "All is not gold that glitters". I wonder if Aldous Huxley's inspiration for the title "Brave New World" came indirectly from this poem and not directly from The Tempest. It seems more relevant to that book than when Miranda says "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!" - even though Huxley does quote the original. I've discovered that Glenn Beck read the poem on his radio show. He reads it well in his own inimitable way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKEwHUq0qDk&NR=1 I got the first picture from this website http://www.yoism.org/?q=node/127 Apocalypse was painted by Gabor Urban, born in 1946 http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gabor-urban.html