For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
If bread or butter wanted weight;[1]
And wisely tell what hour o' th' day 125
The clock does strike by algebra.
Beside, he was a shrewd Philosopher,
And had read ev'ry text and gloss over;
Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath,[2]
He understood b' implicit faith: 130
Whatever Sceptic could inquire for,
For ev'ry why he had a wherefore:[3]
Knew more than forty of them do,
As far as words and terms cou'd go.
All which he understood by rote, 135
And, as occasion serv'd, would quote;
No matter whether right or wrong,
They might be either said or sung.
His notions fitted things so well,
That which was which he could not tell; 140
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;[4]
Where entity and quiddity, 145
The ghosts of defunct bodies fly;[5]
- ↑ As a justice of the peace it was his duty to inspect weights and measures:
- ↑ If any copy would warrant it, I should read "author saith." Nash.
- ↑ That is, he could answer one question by asking another, or elude one difficulty by proposing another. Ray gives the phrase as a proverb. See Handbook of Proverbs, p. 142.
- ↑ A thing is in potentia, when it is possible, but does not actually exist; a thing is in act, when it is not only possible, but does exist. A thing is said to be reduced from power into act, when that which was only possible begins really to exist. How far we can know the nature of things by abstracts, has long been a dispute. See Locke, on the Understanding.
- ↑ A satire upon the abstract notions of the metaphysicians. Butler humorously calls the metaphysical essences ghosts or shadows of real substances.
