360
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
And that's as good as if we 'd done 't,And easier past upon account:For if it be but half denied,'Tis half as good as justified.The world is naturally averse 805To all the truth it sees or hears,But swallows nonsense and a lie,With greediness and gluttony;And tho' it have the pique, and long,'Tis still for something in the wrong:[1] 810As women long when they're with childFor things extravagant and wild;For meats ridiculous and fulsome,But seldom anything that's wholesome;And, like the world, men's jobbernoles 815Turn round upon their ears, the poles;[2]And what they 're confidently told,By no sense else can be controll'd.And this, perhaps, may be the means Once more to hedge-in Providence. 820For as relapses make diseases More desp'rate than their first accesses; If we but get again in pow'r. Our work is easier than before;And we more ready and expert 825I' th' mystery, to do our part: We, who did rather undertake The first war to create, than make;[3]And when of nothing 'twas begun, Rais'd funds as strange, to carry 't on:[4] 830Trepann'd the state, and fac'd it down, With plots and projects of our own:
- ↑ Pique, or pica, is a depraved appetite, or desire of improper food, to which sickly females arc more especially subject. For an amusing account of these longings, see Spectator, No. 326.
- ↑ Men's heads are turned with the lies and nonsense poured into their ears. See v. 1008.
- ↑ By creating war, he means, finding pretences for it, stirring up and fomenting it. By making war, he means, waging and carrying it on.
- ↑ The taxes levied by Parliament in four years are said to have been £17,512,400.
