No cause, nor client fat, will Cheveril leese,
But as they come, on both sides he takes fees,
And pleaseth both; for while he melts his grease
For this; that wins, for whom he holds his peace.
EPIGRAMATIC VERSES BY SAMUEL BUTLER.
OPINION.
Opinion governs all mankind,
Like the blind's leading of the blind;
For he that has no eyes in 's head,
Must be by a dog glad to be led;
And no beasts have so little in 'em
As that inhuman brute, Opinion.
"Tis an infectious pestilence,
The tokens upon wit and sense,
That with a venomous contagion
Invades the sick imagination:
And, when it seizes any part,
It strikes the poison to the heart."
This men of one another catch,
By contact, as the humors match.
And nothing's so perverse in nature
As a profound opiniator.
CRITICS.
Critics are like a kind of flies, that breed
In wild fig-trees, and when they're grown up, feed
Upon the raw fruit of the nobler kind,
And, by their nibbling on the outward rind,
Open the pores, and make way for the sun
To ripen it sooner than he would have done.
HYPOCRISY.
Hypocrisy will serve as well
To propagate a church, as zeal;
As persecution and promotion
Do equally advance devotion:
So round white stones will serve, they pay,
As well as eggs to make hens lay.
POLISH.
All wit and fancy, like a diamond,
The more exact and curious 'tis ground,
Is forced for every carat to abate,
As much in value as it wants in weight.