Part 2. Canto 3.Line 527.

1.Rop sculp.

HUDI BRAS.

CANTO III.

DOUBTLESS the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated, as to cheat;
As lookers-on feel most delight,
That least perceive a juggler's flight,
And still the less they understand,

The more th' admire his flight of hand.

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Some with a noise, and greafy light,
Are fnapt, as men catch larks by night,
Enfnar'd and hamper'd by the foul,
As nooses by the legs catch fowl.
Some, with a med'cine, and receipt,
Are drawn to nibble at the bait ;
And tho' it be a two-foot trout,
'Tis with a single hair pull'd out.

Others believe no voice t' an organ

So fweet as lawyer's in his bar-gown,
Until, with fubtle cobweb-cheats,

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They're catch'd in knotted law, like nets ;
In which, when once they are imbrangled,
The more they stir, the more they're tangled ;
And while their purses can dispute,

There's no end of th' immortal fuit.

Others still gape t' anticipate

The cabinet-designs of fate,

Apply to wizards, to foresee

What fhall, and what shall never be;
And as thofe vultures do forebode,
Believe events prove bad or good;

A flam more senseless than the roguery
Of old aurufpicy and augʼry,

That out of garbages of cattle

Prefag'd th' events of truce or battle;

From flight of birds, or chickens pecking,
Success of great'st attempts would reckon :
Tho' cheats, yet more intelligible

Than those that with the stars do fribble.
This Hudibras by proof found true,

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As in due time and place we'll fhew:

For he, with beard and face made clean,

Being mounted on his steed again,

And Ralpho got a cock-horse too,
Upon his beaft, with much ado,

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