To make fome think him circumcis'd;
And truly fo he was, perhaps,
Not as a profelyte, but for claps.
He was in logic a great critic,
Profoundly skill'd in analytic;
He could diftinguish, and divide

A hair 'twixt fouth and fouth-west fide;.
On either which he would dispute,
Confute, change hands, and still confute:
He'd undertake to prove, by force

Of argument, a man 's no horfe;

65

70

Not as a profelyte, but for claps,

are thus changed in the editions of 1674, 1684, 1689,, 1694, 1700,

And truly fo perhaps he was,

'Tis many a pious Chriftian's cafe.

Reftored in the edition of 1704.

A calf an alderman, a goose a justice,

And rooks Committee-men and Trustees.

He'd run in debt by disputation,

And pay with ratiocination :

All this by fyllogifm, true

In mood and figure, he would do.

For rhetoric, he could not ope

His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he happen'd to break off
I' th' middle of his fpeech, or cough,
H' had hard words ready to fhew why,
And tell what rules he did it by;
Elfe when with greatest art he spoke,

You'd think he talk'd like other folk;

75

80

85

For

Ver. 75.] Such was Alderman Pennington, who fent a perfon to Newgate for finging (what he called) a malignant pfalm.

Ibid.-] Lord Clarendon obferves, "That after the "declaration of No more Addreffes to the King, they "who were not above the condition of ordinary con"stables fix or seven years before, were now the juf<tices of the peace. Dr. Bruno Ryves informs us, That the "town of Chelmsford in Effex was governed, "at the beginning of the Rebellion, by a tinker, two "coblers, two tailors, and two pedlårs."

Ver. 76.] In the feveral counties, especially the Affociated ones (Middlefex, Kent, Surrey, Suffex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire) which fided with the Parliament, Committees were erected of fuch men as were for the Good Cause, as they called it, who had authority, from the members of the two Houfes at Westminster, to fine and imprison whom they pleased.

For all a rhetorician's rules

Teach nothing but to name his tools.

But, when he pleas'd to show 't, his speech,
In loftinefs of found, was rich;

A Babylonish dialect,

Which learned pedants much affect;
It was a party-colour'd drefs

Of patch'd and py-ball'd languages;
'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin,
Like fuftian heretofore on fattin;

90

It had an old promiscuous tone,

As if h' had talk'd three parts in one;

150

Which made fome think, when he did gabble,

Th' had heard three labourers of Babel,

Or Cerberus himself pronounce
A leash of languages at once.
This he as volubly would vent,

As if his stock would ne'er ́be spent:
And truly, to fupport that charge,
He had fupplies as vast and large;
For he could coin or counterfeit
New words, with little or no wit;
Words fo debas'd and hard, no stone
Was hard enough to touch them on;

30;

110

And

Ver. 109.] The Prefbyterians coined a great number, fuch as Out-goings, Carryings-on, Nothingness, Workings-out, Gofpel-waking-times, &c. which we fhall meet with hereafter, in the fpeeches of the Knight and Squire, and others, in this Poem; for which they are bantered by Sir John Birkenhead.

And when with hafty noise he spoke 'em,

The ignorant for current took 'em ;
That had the orator, who once

Did fill his mouth with pebble-stones

When he harangued, but known his phrafe,
He would have us'd no other ways.
In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater;
For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the fize of pots of ale;
Resolve by fines and tangents ftraight
If bread or butter wanted weight;
And wifely tell what hour o' th' day
The clock does ftrike, by Algebra.
Befide, he was a fhrewd philofopher,
And had read every text and glofs over;
Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath,
He understood b' implicit faith:

115

120

125

130 Whatever

Ver. 115.] This and the three following lines not in the two first editions of 1664, but added in the edit. 1674. Demofthenes is here meant, who had a defect in his fpeech.

Ver. 120.] An eminent Danish mathematician; and William Lilly, the famous aftrologer ofthofe times. Ver. 129] This and the following line not in the two first editions of 1664, and firft inferted in that of 1674.

Whatever fceptic could enquire for,
For every Why he had a Wherefore;
Knew more than forty of them do,
As far as words and terms could go;
All which he understood by rote,
And, as occafion ferv'd, would quote;
No matter whether right or wrong;
They might be either faid or fung.

135

His notions fitted things fo well,

That which was which he could not tell;
But oftentimes miftook the one

140

For th' other, as great clerks have done.
He could reduce all things to acts,
And knew their natures by abstracts;

Where Entity and Quiddity,

145

The ghofts of defunct bodies, fly;

Where truth in perfon does appear,

Like words congeal'd in northern air.

He knew what 's what, and that's as high

As metaphyfic wit can fly:

In school-divinity as able

As he that hight Irrefragable;

150

A fecond

Ver. 131. Enquire.] Inquere, in all editions to 1689,

inclufive.

Ver. 152. Irrefragable.] Alexander Hales, fo called; he was an Englishman, born in Gloucestershire, and flourished about the year 1236, at the time when what was called School-divinity was much in vogue; in which fcience he was fo deeply read, that he was called Doctor Irrefragabilis; that is, the Invincible Doctor, whofe arguments could not be refifted.