Unless by death, the singular receipt,
To root out all diseases by the great :
For universals deal in no one part

Of Nature, nor particulars of Art ;

And therefore that French quack that set up physic,
Call'd his receipt a General Specific :
For, tho' in mortal poisons every one
Is mortal universally alone,

Yet Nature never made an antidote
To cure 'em all as easy as they're got;
Much less, among so many variations
Of diff'rent maladies and complications,
Make all the contrarieties in Nature
Submit themselves t' an equal moderator.

A convert's but a fly, that turns about, After his head's pull'd off, to find it out.

All mankind is but 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-plays 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 learn'd 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 the inventions that the world contains, Were not by reason first found out, nor brains; But pass for theirs who had the luck to light Upon them by mistake or oversight.

TO HIS MISTRESS.

Do not unjustly blame
My guiltless breast,

For vent'ring to disclose a flame
It had so long supprest.

In its own ashes it design'd
For ever to have lain ;

But that my sighs, like blasts of wind,
Made it break out again.

TO THE SAME.

Do not mine affection slight,

'Cause my locks with age are white :

Your breasts have snow without, and snow within, While flames of fire in your bright eyes are seen.

TRIPLETS UPON AVARICE.

As misers their own laws enjoin

To wear no pockets in the mine,
For fear they should the ore purloin;

So he that toils and labours hard
To gain, and what he gets has spared,
Is from the use of all debarr'd.

And tho' he can produce more spankers
Than all the usurers and bankers,
Yet after more and more he hankers;

And, after all his pains are done,
Has nothing he can call his own,
But a mere livelihood alone.

EPIGRAM ON A CLUB OF SOTS.

THE jolly members of a toping club,
Like pipestaves, are but hoop'd 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 drown'd;
That dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey
Upon the goods all nations' fleets convey;
And, when their merchants are blown-up and crackt,
Whole towns are cast away in storms and wreckt;
That feed, like cannibals, on other fishes,
And serve their cousin-germans up in dishes:
A land that rides at anchor, and is moor'd,
In which they do not live, but go a-board.

VARIOUS READINGS OF AND ADDITIONS

TO HUDIBRAS.

Mr Thyer has, in his edition, in order to "trace the thoughts of a man of genius from their first dawning to their development," preserved different versions and additions of Butler's to various passages in Hudibras. These we retain.

PART I. CANTO I. LINE 115.

THAT had the greatest orator
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.

PART II. CANTO I. LINE 285.

He thought it now the fittest moment,
The lady's amorous pangs to foment,
The hopefull'st critical occasion
To pass upon her with his passion,
The likeliest planetary crisis
For stratagems and love surprises.