380
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Who, 'twixt your inward sense and outward,
Are worse, than if ye 'd none, accoutred.
I grant all courses are in vain,
Unless we can get in again;[1]
The only way that's left us now: 1325
But all the difficulty's, how?
'Tis true we 've money, th' only power
That all mankind falls down before;
Money that, like the swords of kings,
Is the last reason of all things;[2] 1330
And therefore need not doubt our play
Has all advantages that way;
As long as men have faith to sell,
And meet with those that can pay well;
Whose half-starv'd pride and avarice, 1335
One church and state will not suffice
T' expose to sale;[3] besides the wages[4]
Of storing plagues to after-ages.
Nor is our money less our own,
Than 'twas before we laid it down; 1340
For 'twill return, and turn t' account,
If we are brought in play upon 't,
Or but by casting knaves, get in,
What pow'r can hinder us to win?
We know the arts we us'd before, 1345
In peace and war, and something more.
Are worse, than if ye 'd none, accoutred.
I grant all courses are in vain,
Unless we can get in again;[1]
The only way that's left us now: 1325
But all the difficulty's, how?
'Tis true we 've money, th' only power
That all mankind falls down before;
Money that, like the swords of kings,
Is the last reason of all things;[2] 1330
And therefore need not doubt our play
Has all advantages that way;
As long as men have faith to sell,
And meet with those that can pay well;
Whose half-starv'd pride and avarice, 1335
One church and state will not suffice
T' expose to sale;[3] besides the wages[4]
Of storing plagues to after-ages.
Nor is our money less our own,
Than 'twas before we laid it down; 1340
For 'twill return, and turn t' account,
If we are brought in play upon 't,
Or but by casting knaves, get in,
What pow'r can hinder us to win?
We know the arts we us'd before, 1345
In peace and war, and something more.
- ↑ When General Monk restored the excluded members, the Rump, perceiving they could not carry things their own way, and rule as they had done, quitted the House.
- ↑ Diodorus Siculus relates, that when the height of the walls of Amphipolis was pointed out to Philip, as rendering the town impregnable, he observed, they were not so high but that money could be thrown over them. Addison (in Spectator 239) says: "ready money is a way of reasoning which seldom fails."
- ↑ There is a list of above a hundred of the principal actors in this rebellion, among whom the plunder of the church, crown, and kingdom was divided; to some five, ten, and even twenty thousand pounds; to others, lands and offices of hundreds or thousands a year. At the end of the list, the author says, it was computed that they had shared among themselves near twenty millions.
- ↑ They allowed, by their own order, four pounds a week to each member of Parliament; members of the assembly of divines were each allowed four shillings a day.
