Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/137

In which all churches are concern'd, 1225
And is the easiest to be learn'd:
For no degrees, unless th' employ it,
Can ever gain much, or enjoy it.
A gift that is not only able
To domineer among the rabble, 1230
But by the laws empower'd to rout,
And awe the greatest that stand out;
Which few hold forth against, for fear
Their hands should slip, and come too near;
For no sin else, among the saints, 1235
Is taught so tenderly against.
 What made thee break thy plighted vows?—
That which makes others break a house,
And hang, and scorn ye all, before
Endure the plague of being poor. 1240
 Quoth he, I see you have more tricks
Than all our doating politics,
That are grown old and out of fashion,
Compar'd with your new Reformation;
That we must come to school to you, 1245
To learn your more refin'd and new.
 Quoth he, If you will give me leave
To tell you what I now perceive,
You'll find yourself an arrant chouse,
If y' were but at a Meeting-house. 1250
 'Tis true, quoth he, we ne'er come there,
Because w' have let 'em out by th' year.^[1]
 Truly, quoth he, you can't imagine
What wond'rous things they will engage in;
That as your fellow-fiends in hell 1255
Were angels all before they fell,
So are you like to be agen,
Compar'd with th' angels of us men.^[2]

church service, is called the saints' bell; and when the clerk has rung it he says, "he has rung all in."

1. The devils are here looked upon as landlords of the meeting-houses, since the tenants of them were known to be so diabolical, and to hold them by no good title; but as it was uncertain how long these lawless times would last, the poet makes the devils let them only by the year: now when anything is actually let, landlords never come there, that is, have excluded themselves from all right to the use of the premises.
2. I remember an old attorney, who told me, a little before his death, that