A CONVERT'S but a fly, that turns about
After his head's cut off, to find it out.

ALL mankind is a rabble,
As silly and unreasonable

As those that, crowding in the street,
To see a show or monster meet,
Of whom no one is in the right,

Yet all fall out about the sight;

And when they chance t' agree the choice is
Still in the most and worst of vices;

And all the reasons that prevail

Are measured, not by weight, but tale.

As in all great and crowded fairs
Monsters and puppet-shows are wares,
Which in the less will not go off,
Because they have not money enough:
So men in princes' courts will pass,
That will not in another place.

LOGICIANS used to clap a proposition,
As justices do criminals, in prison;

And in as learned authentic nonsense writ
The names of all their moods and figures fit;
For a logician's one that has been broke
To ride and pace his reason by the book,
And by their rules, and precepts, and examples,
To put his wits into a kind of trammels.

THOSE get the least that take the greatest pains,
But most of all i' th' drudgery of the brains,
A natural sign of weakness, as an ant
Is more laborious than an elephant,
And children are more busy at their play,

Than those that wiseliest pass their time away.

ALL th' inventions that the world contains,
Were not by reason first found out, but brains,
But pass for theirs who had the luck to light
Upon them by mistake, or oversight.

No Jesuit e'er took in hand

To plant a Church in barren land;
Nor ever thought it worth the while
A Swede or Russ to reconcile :

For where there is no store of wealth,
Souls are not worth the charge of health.
Spain, in America, had two designs,
To sell their Gospel for their mines:
For had the Mexicans been poor,

No Spaniard twice had landed on their shore.
"Twas gold the Catholic religion planted,

Which, had they wanted gold, they still had wanted.*

*This fragment was communicated to Aubrey by Butler himself. Mr. Thyer does not insert them in the Remains, because they had been printed before; but he testifies to their genuineness, having found them in the MS. volume which Butler used as a sort of poetical Thesaurus.'

VARIOUS READINGS OF, AND ADDITIONS TO,

HUDIBRAS.*

VOL. I.

PAGE 47, LINE 19.

HAT had the greatest orator

THA

Of all the Greeks, who heretofore
Did fill his mouth with pebble stones,
To learn the better to pronounce,
But known his harder rhetoric,

He would have used no other trick.

* These very curious fragments are derived from the edition of the Remains, published in 1822. In addition to the interest which would attach to such passages under ordinary circumstances, they possess a special value in reference to Butler, whose system of composition, and modes of thought they illustrate in a remarkable way; enabling the reader to trace particular ideas from the forms in which they first presented themselves to the poet's mind to the shapes in which he ultimately left them, to follow the process of reflection which enlarged, or curtailed, the original image, and to ascertain, as far as these instances extend, not only how much of the rough material he retained, but (which is hardly of less importance) how much of it he rejected. Finding,' says the Editor to whose judicious zeal we are indebted for the preservation of these relics, 'in Butler's manuscripts the original of many of his ideas, afterwards transferred into Hudibras, as well as different versions of, and additions to, several passages, and various thoughts illustrative of that poem; and considering, that to trace the thoughts of a man of genius from their first dawning to their development,-to observe the quantity of acquired power which they possess-is equally agreeable as an amusement, and instruction, as showing the working of the intellectual faculty, I have made a selection of such passages as in this view I thought most interesting.'

The above references at the head of the fragments are to the corresponding passages in the present edition.

PAGE 179, LINE 1.

He thought it now the fittest moment,
The lady's amorous pangs to foment,
The hopefullest critical occasion
To pass upon her with his passion,
The likeliest planetary crisis
For stratagems and love surprises.
Who ever was a homelier lover
Than Hercules, th' heroic drover?
Yet, when he wooed at quarterstaff,
What lady's purtenance was safe?
For sympathetic blows as well,
No doubt, may wound, as powder heal.

PAGE 202, LINE 1.

To fight for truth is but the sole dominion
Of every idiot's humour or opinion,
And what it fancies truth maintains,
By venturing t' hardest blows its brains;
And he, whose noddle is most tough,
Demonstrates with the clearest proof.

PAGE 202, LINE 5.

What sort of creature summum bonum was,
Philosophers describe so like an ass;
If virtue were an animal determine,
Or vice but insects, and imperfect vermin.

PAGE 203, LINE 15.*

For wise and cautious consciences

Are free to take what course they please,
And plenary indulgence to dispose

At pleasure of the strictest vows,

* This is the reference given in the edition of 1822, but it is clearly a mistake, the subject having reference to the discussion which begins at 1. 23. Some of the lines will be found in vol. ii. p. 166, 1. 11. The whole passage, with some slight variances, is given also amongst the • Miscellaneous Thoughts.' It is here repeated in the form intended for insertion in Hudibras.

And challenge heaven, they made 'em to,
To vouch and witness what they do;
And when they prove averse and loth,
Yet for conscience take an oath;
Not only can dispense, but make it
A greater sin to keep, than take it;
Can bind and loose all sorts of sin,
And only keeps the keys within ;
Has no superior to control,
But what itself sets o'er the soul,
And, when it is enjoined to obey,
Is but confined, and keeps the key;
Can walk invisible, and where,
And when, and how it will appear;
Can turn itself into disguises

Of all sorts, for all sorts of vices;

Can transubstantiate, metamorphose,

And charm whole herds of beasts, like Orpheus;

Make woods, and tenements, and lands

Obey and follow its commands;

And settle on a new freehold,

As Marcly Hill, removed of old;

Make mountains move, with greater force
Than faith, to new proprietors;

And perjure, to secure th' enjoyments
Of public charges and employments;
For true and faithful, good and just,
Are but preparatives to trust,

The gilt and ornament of things,

And not their movements, wheels, and springs;

For a large conscience is all one,

And signifies the same with none.

PAGE 206, LINE 17.

Fanatics hold the scripture does not bar

The bearing of false witness for

A spiritual neighbour, but against;
For only that's forbid the saints;