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PART II. CANTO II.
'
IS strange how some men's tempers suit,
Like bawd and brandy, with dispute,[1]
That for their own opinions stand fast.
Only to have them claw'd and canvast.
That keep their consciences in cases,[2]5
As fiddlers do their crowds and bases,[3]
Ne'er to be us'd but when they're bent
To play a fit for argument.[4]
Make true and false, unjust and just.
Of no use but to be discust; 10
Dispute and set a paradox,
Like a straight boot, upon the stocks,[5]
And stretch if more unmercifully,
Than Helmont, Montaigne, White, or Tully.[6]
- ↑ That is, some men love disputing, as a bawd loves brandy.
- ↑ A pun, or jeu de mots, on cases of conscience.
- ↑ That is, their fiddles and violoncellos.
- ↑ The old phrase was, to play a fit of mirth: the word fit often occurs in ancient ballads and metrical romances: it is generally applied to music, and signifies a division or part, for the convenience of the performers.
- ↑ That is, like a tight boot on a boot-tree.
- ↑ Van Helmont (the elder) was an eminent physician and naturalist, a warm opposer of the principles of Aristotle and Galen, and an enthusiastic student of chemistry; born at Brussels, in 1588, and died 1664. His son, born in 1618, died 1699, was likewise versed in physic and chemistry, and celebrated for his paradoxes, Michael de Montaigne was born at Perigord, of a good family, 1533, died 1592. He was carefully but fancifully educated by his father, awakened every morning by strains of soft music, taught Latin by conversation, and Greek as an amusement. His Essays, however delightful, contain abundance of paradoxes and whimsical reflections. Thomas White (or Albius) was a zealous champion of the Church of Rome and the Aristotelian philosophy, and wrote against Joseph Glanville, who printed in London, 1665, a book entitled, Scepsis Scientifica, or, Confessed Ignorance the Way to Science. He also wrote in defence of the peculiar notions of Sir Kenelm Digby, and is said to have been fond of dangerous singularities. He died in 1676. For Tully, whose character does not answer to the text,
