both man and master are merely compact of vileness and of folly. Butler had the court at his back, and the crowd as well; he gave them of the stuff they liked; and it was his function for some twenty years to pelt and belabour and defile the brace of pitiful scarecrows he had contrived, and so make sport for a winning side that could not forget it once had been in other circumstances. It is the steady and persistent exercise of this function that has procured him much of the neglect with which he is visited. Fashions change; the bogies of one epoch become the heroes of the next, and what yesterday was apt and humorous is balderdash and out of date to-morrow. That which we praise in Butler now is that for which two centuries ago no man regarded him. He is tedious, trivial, spiteful, ignoble, where he once was sprightly, exact, magnanimous, heroic. But he had an abundance of wit of the best and truest sort; he was an indefatigable observer; he knew opinions well, and books even better; he had considered life acutely and severely as a rhythmist he proceeded from none and has had no successor; his vocabulary is of its kind incomparable; his work is a very hoard of sentences and saws, of vigorous locutions and picturesque colloquialisms, of strong sound sense and robust English. And when all against him has been said that can be, there remains enough of good in his verse to prove that, great as it is, his reputation was well earned and justly bestowed. W. E. HENLEY. [From Hudibras, Part I.] ARGUMENTATIVE THEOLOGY. He could raise scruples dark and nice, The itch on purpose to be scratched; THE PRESBYTERIANS. That stubborn crew Of errant saints whom all men grant And prove their doctrine orthodox Compound for sins they are inclined to As if they worshipped God for spite, That which they love most tenderly; And blaspheme custard through the nose. 'NEW LIGHT.' 'Tis a dark lantern of the spirit, Which none see by but those that bear it; An ignis fatuus that bewitches And leads men into pools and ditches, To make them dip themselves, and sound To dive like wildfowl for salvation, VOL. II. THE MUSE OF DOGGEREL. Thou that with ale or viler liquors Didst inspire Withers, Prynne, and Vickars, Of nature and their stars, to write; Who (as we find in sullen writs And cross-grained works of modern wits) D d With vanity, opinion, want, MARTIAL MUSIC. Instead of trumpet and of drum That makes the warrior's stomach come, Whose noise whets valour sharp, like beer By thunder turned to vinegar ; For if a trumpet sound or drum beat Who has not a month's mind to combat? HONOUR. He that is valiant and dares fight, Though drubbed, can lose no honour by 't. And cannot be extended from So valour in a low estate Is most admired and wondered at. [From Part II.] NIGHT. The sun grew low and left the skies, MORNING. The sun had long since in the lap And, like a lobster boiled, the morn SPIRITUAL TRIMMERS. Some say the soul's secure Against distress and forfeiture; Is free from action, and exempt From execution and contempt; And to be summoned to appear In the other world's illegal here; And therefore few make any account Into what encumbrances they run 't. For most men carry things so even Between this world and hell and heaven, |