CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
347
And obstinacy's ne'er so stiff,
As when 'tis in a wrong belief.[1]
These two, with others, being met,[2] 485
And close in consultation set,
After a discontented pause,
And not without sufficient cause,
The orator we mention'd late,
Less troubled with the pangs of state, 490
Than with his own impatience,
To give himself first audience,
After he had awhile look'd wise.
At last broke silence, and the ice.
Quoth he, There's nothing makes me doubt 495
Our last Outgoings[3] brought about,
More than to see the characters
Of real Jealousies and Fears
Not feign'd, as once, but sadly horrid,[4]
Scor'd upon ev'ry member's forehead; 500
Who, 'cause the clouds are drawn together,
And threaten sudden change of weather,
Feels pangs and aches of state-turns,
And revolutions in their corns;
As when 'tis in a wrong belief.[1]
These two, with others, being met,[2] 485
And close in consultation set,
After a discontented pause,
And not without sufficient cause,
The orator we mention'd late,
Less troubled with the pangs of state, 490
Than with his own impatience,
To give himself first audience,
After he had awhile look'd wise.
At last broke silence, and the ice.
Quoth he, There's nothing makes me doubt 495
Our last Outgoings[3] brought about,
More than to see the characters
Of real Jealousies and Fears
Not feign'd, as once, but sadly horrid,[4]
Scor'd upon ev'ry member's forehead; 500
Who, 'cause the clouds are drawn together,
And threaten sudden change of weather,
Feels pangs and aches of state-turns,
And revolutions in their corns;
- ↑ The same sentiment is differently expressed in the Remains, vol. i. page 181:For as implicit faith is far more stiff,
Than that which understands its own belief;
So those that think, and do but think they know,
Are far more obstinate than those that do:
And more averse, than if they'd ne'er been taught
A wrong way, to a right one to be brought. - ↑ A cabal met at Whitehall, at the same time that General Monk dined with the city of London.
- ↑ Outgoings and workings-out are among the cant terms used by Sectaries, referred to in a note at page 3. "The Nonconformist" (says Butler, in his Remains) "does not care to have anything founded on right, but left at large to the dispensation and outgoings of Providence."
- ↑ Not feigned and pretended as formerly, in the beginning of the Parliament, when they stirred up the people against the king, by forging letters, suborning witnesses, and making an outcry of strange plots being carried on, and horrible dangers being at hand. For instance, the people were incensed by reports that the Papists were about to fire their houses, and cut their throats while they were at church; that troops of soldiers were kept under-ground to do execution upon them; and even that the Thames was to be blown up with gunpowder. Bates's Elench. Motuum.
