The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler, Volume 1

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Little, Brown, and Company, 1857

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Page 14 - A sect, whose chief devotion lies In odd perverse antipathies ; In falling out with that or this, And finding somewhat still amiss ; More peevish, cross, and splenetic, Than dog distract or monkey sick...
Page 13 - For he was of that stubborn crew Of errant saints, whom all men grant To be the true church militant ; Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun ; Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery ; And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks...
Page 113 - To let them see I am no starter. In all the trade of war no feat Is nobler than a brave retreat : For those that run away, and fly, Take place at least o' the
Page 14 - Free-will they one way disavow, Another, nothing else allow. All piety consists therein In them, in other men all sin.
Page xvi - While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive, No generous patron would a dinner give ; See him, when starved to death and turn'd to dust, Presented with a monumental bust. The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone.
Page 10 - But oftentimes mistook the one 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, The ghosts of defunct bodies, fly ; Where truth in person does appear, Like words congeal'd in northern air. He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly...
Page 7 - He'd undertake to prove by force Of argument, a man's no horse; He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl, And that a lord may be an owl; A calf an alderman, a goose a justice, And rooks committee-men and trustees.
Page 15 - His tawny beard was th' equal grace Both of his wisdom and his face; In cut and dye so like a tile, A sudden view it would beguile ; The upper part whereof was whey, The nether orange, mix'd with grey.
Page 4 - Though not a man of them knew wherefore; When Gospel-trumpeter, surrounded With long-eared rout, to battle sounded; And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, Was beat with fist instead of a stick : Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a-colonelling.
Page xx - In this mist of obscurity passed the life of Butler, a man whose name can only perish with his language. The mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are variously related ; and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was poor.

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