312
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Quoth he, I am resolv'd to be
Thy scholar in this mystery; 1260
And therefore first desire to know
Some principles on which you go.
What makes a knave a child of God,[1]
And one of us?[2]—A livelihood.
What renders beating out of brains 1265
And murder, godliness?—Great gains.
What's tender conscience?—'Tis a botch
That will not bear the gentlest touch;
But, breaking out, dispatches more
Than th' epidemical'st plague-sore.[3] 1270
What makes y' encroach upon our trade,
And damn all others?—To be paid.
What's orthodox and true believing
Against a conscience?—A good living.[4]
What makes rebelling against kings 1275
A Good Old Cause?—Administ'rings.[5]
What makes all doctrines plain and clear?—
About two hundred pounds a year.
And that which was prov'd true before,
Prove false again?—Two hundred more. 1280
Thy scholar in this mystery; 1260
And therefore first desire to know
Some principles on which you go.
What makes a knave a child of God,[1]
And one of us?[2]—A livelihood.
What renders beating out of brains 1265
And murder, godliness?—Great gains.
What's tender conscience?—'Tis a botch
That will not bear the gentlest touch;
But, breaking out, dispatches more
Than th' epidemical'st plague-sore.[3] 1270
What makes y' encroach upon our trade,
And damn all others?—To be paid.
What's orthodox and true believing
Against a conscience?—A good living.[4]
What makes rebelling against kings 1275
A Good Old Cause?—Administ'rings.[5]
What makes all doctrines plain and clear?—
About two hundred pounds a year.
And that which was prov'd true before,
Prove false again?—Two hundred more. 1280
- ↑ A banter on the pamphlets in those days, under the name and form of Catechisms: Heylin's Rebel's Catechism, Watson's Cavalier's Catechism, Ram's Soldier's Catechism, Parker's Political Catechism, &c. &c.
- ↑ Both Presbyterians and Independents were fond of saying one of us; that is, one of the holy brethren, the elect number, the godly party.
- ↑ Alluding to the Great Plague of London, in 1665, which destroyed 68,586 people. Defoe gives a very graphic and painfully interesting account of it.
- ↑ A committee was appointed November 11, 1646, to inquire into the value of all church-livings, in order to plant an able ministry, as was pretended; but, in truth, to discover the best and fattest benefices, that the champions of the cause might choose for themselves. Whereof some had three or four a-piece; a lack being pretended of competent pastors. When a living was small, the church doors were shut up. "I could name an assembly-man," says Sir William Dugdale, in his Short View, "who being told by an eminent person that a certain church had no incumbent, inquired the value of it; and receiving for answer that it was about £50 a-year, he said, if it be no better worth, no godly man will accept it."
- ↑ —Administerings. See P. iii. c. ii. v. 55.
he had been reckoned a very great rascal, and believed he was so, for he had done many roguish and infamous things in his profession: "but," adds he, "by what I can observe of the rising generation, the time may come, and you may live to see it, when I shall be accounted a very honest man, in comparison with those attorneys who are to succeed me."Nash.
