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EPIGRAM ON A CLUB OF SOTS.

THE jolly members of a toping club,

Like pipe-staves, are but hooped into a tub;
And in a close confederacy link,
For nothing else, but only to hold drink.

DESCRIPTION OF HOLLAND.

A COUNTRY that draws fifty foot of water,

In which men live, as in the hold of nature; And when the sea does in upon them break, And drown a province, does but spring a leak; That always ply the pump, and never think They can be safe, but at the rate they stink; That live as if they had been run a-ground, And, when they die, are cast away, and drowned; That dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey Upon the goods all other nations' fleets convey; And when their merchants are blown up and cracked, Whole towns are cast away in storms and wrecked; That feed, like cannibals, on other fishes, And serve their cousin-germans up in dishes; A land that rides at anchor, and is moored, In which they do not live, but go aboard.*

The close resemblance between these lines and Marvell's Character of Holland is striking. The two pieces might be easily blended into one, without doing violence to either. It might be supposed that in such passages as the following, Marvell intended to enlarge upon Butler's verses, were it not unlikely that he had ever seen them, as they were not published in his lifetime:

Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land
As but the off-scouring of the British sand,
And so much earth as was contributed

By English pilots when they heaved the lead;

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS.*

ALL men's intrigues and projects tend

By several courses to one end,

To compass by the prop'rest shows,
Whatever their designs propose;

And that which owns the fair'st pretext
Is often found the indirect'st.

Hence 'tis, that hypocrites still paint
Much fairer than the real saint,

And knaves appear more just and true
Than honest men, that make less show:
The dullest idiots in disguise

Appear more knowing than the wise;
Illiterate dunces undiscerned

Pass on the rabble for the learned;
And cowards that can damn and rant,
Pass muster for the valiant.

...

Or what by th' ocean's slow alluvion fell,
Of shipwrecked cockle, and the muscle-shell.
Glad then, as miners who have found the ore,
They, with hard labour, fished the land to shore.
Yet still his claim the injured ocean laid,
And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples played,

As if on purpose it on land had come,

To show them what's their mare liberum.

A daily deluge over them does boil;

The earth and water play at level-coil;

The fish oft-times the burgher dispossessed,

And sat, not as a meat, but as a guest.

*The title-Miscellaneous Thoughts-was given to these fragments by Mr. Thyer, who found them fairly written out by Butler in a book he kept for that purpose. They possess an interest beyond that of their intrinsic value, as illustrations of Butler's mode of composition. He evidently did not write continuously, or systematically. Thoughts were seized, and thrown into form, as they presented themselves to his mind, and were afterwards fitted into suitable places. Some of the most brilliant points in Sheridan's comedies were preserved for use in the same way. Of the scraps of wit and wisdom thus collected, these Miscellaneous Thoughts appear to be the only fragments which were not transplanted into Hudibras and the other poems.

For he, that has but impudence,
To all things has a just pretence;
And, put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim.

How various and innumerable
Are those who live upon the rabble!
'Tis they maintain the church and state,
Employ the priest and magistrate;
Bear all the charge of government,
And pay the public fines and rent;
Defray all taxes and excises,
And impositions of all prices;
Bear all th' expense of peace and war,
And pay the pulpit and the bar;
Maintain all churches and religions,
And give their pastors exhibitions,
And those who have the greatest flocks
Are primitive and orthodox;
Support all schismatics and sects,
And pay them for tormenting texts,
Take all their doctrines off their hands,
And pay them in good rents and lands;
Discharge all costly offices,

The doctor's and the lawyer's fees,
The hangman's wages, and the scores
Of caterpillar bawds and whores;
Discharge all damages and costs
Of knights and squires of the post;
All statesmen, cutpurses, and padders,
And pay for all their ropes and ladders;
All pettifoggers, and all sorts

Of mercats, churches, and of courts;
All sums of money paid or spent,
With all the charges incident,
Laid out, or thrown away, or given
To purchase this world, hell or heaven.

SHOULD once the world resolve t' abolish
All that's ridiculous, and foolish,
It would have nothing left to do,
T' apply in jest or earnest to,
No business of importance, play,
Or state, to pass its time away.

THE world would be more just, if truth and lies,
And right and wrong, did bear an equal price;
But since impostures are so highly raised,
And faith and justice equally debased,

Few men have tempers for such paltry gains,
T' undo themselves with drudgery and pains.

THE Sottish world without distinction looks
On all that passes on th' account of books;
And, when there are two scholars that within
The species only hardly are a-kin,

The world will pass for men of equal knowledge,
If equally they've loitered in a college.

CRITICS are like a kind of flies, that breed
In wild fig-trees, and, when they're grown up, feed
Upon the raw fruit of the nobler kind,
And, by their nibbling on the outward rind,
Open the pores, and make way for the sun
To ripen it sooner than he would have done.

As all fanatics preach, so all men write
Out of the strength of gifts and inward light,
In spite of art; as horses thorough paced
Were never taught, and therefore go more fast.

In all mistakes the strict and regular
Are found to be the desperat'st ways to err,
And worst to be avoided, as a wound

Is said to be the harder cured, that's round;

For error and mistake, the less they appear,
In th' end are found to be the dangerouser;
As no man minds those clocks, that use to go
Apparently too over-fast, or slow.

THE truest characters of ignorance
Are vanity, and pride, and arrogance;

As blind men use to bear their noses higher,
Than those that have their eyes and sight entire.

THE metaphysic's but a puppet motion
That goes with screws, the notion of a notion,
of a copy, and lame draught

The copy

Unnaturally taken from a thought;
That counterfeits all pantomimic tricks,
And turns the eyes like an old crucifix;
That counterchanges whatsoe'er it calls
B' another name, and makes it true or false;
Turns truth to falsehood, falsehood into truth,
By virtue of the Babylonian's tooth.

"Tis not the art of schools to understand,

But make things hard, instead of b'ing explained;
And therefore those are commonly the learn'dest;
That only study between jest and earnest;
For when the end of learning's to pursue,
And trace the subtle steps of false and true,
They ne'er consider how they're to apply,
But only listen to the noise and cry;
And are so much delighted with the chase,
They never mind the taking of their preys.

MORE proselytes and converts use t'accrue
To false persuasions, than the right and true;
For error and mistake are infinite,
But truth has but one way to be i' th' right;
As numbers may t' infinity be grown,

But never be reduced to less than one.
III. BUTLER.

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