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 805
To 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] 810
As women long when they're with child
For things extravagant and wild;
For meats ridiculous and fulsome,
But seldom anything that's wholesome;
And, like the world, men's jobbernoles 815
Turn 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. 820
For 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 825
I' 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] 830
Trepann'd the state, and fac'd it down,
With plots and projects of our own:
And easier past upon account:
For if it be but half denied,
'Tis half as good as justified.
The world is naturally averse 805
To 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] 810
As women long when they're with child
For things extravagant and wild;
For meats ridiculous and fulsome,
But seldom anything that's wholesome;
And, like the world, men's jobbernoles 815
Turn 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. 820
For 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 825
I' 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] 830
Trepann'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.
