The Town: Its Memorable Characters and Events

by Leigh Hunt

To take an inventory of all

Her real estate and personal;—

To measure wind, and weigh the air,

And turn a circle to a square;

And in the braying of an ass,

Find out the treble and the bass;

If mares neigh alto, and a cow

In double diapason low."[167]

Evelyn got angry, and pretended to be calm. Cowley expressed his anger with a generous indignation. The following passage in his Ode to the Society concludes with a fine, appropriate simile. "Mischief and true dishonour," says he,