Whelp'd without form, until the dam
Has lickt it into shape and frame :
But all thy light can ne'er evict,
That ever fynod-man was lickt,
Or brought to any other fashion
Than his own will and inclination.

But thou doft further yet in this Oppugn thyself and sense; that is, Thou would'st have prefbyters to go

For bears and dogs, and bearwards too;

A strange chimera of beasts and men,
Made up of pieces het'rogene;

Such as in nature never met,

In eodem fubjecto yet.

Thy other arguments are all

Suppofures hypothetical,

That do but beg; and we may chuse
Either to grant them, or refuse.

1310

1315

1320

Much thou haft faid, which I know when, 1325
And where thou ftol'ft from other men ;

Whereby 'tis plain thy light and gifts
Are all but plagiary shifts;

And is the fame that Ranter faid,

Who, arguing with me, broke my head, 1330 And tore a handful of my beard;

The felf-fame cavils then I heard,

When b'ing in hot dispute about

This controverfy, we fell out;

And what thou know'ft I answer'd then, 1335

Will ferve to answer thee

agen.

Quoth Ralpho, nothing but th' abuse Of human learning you produce; Learning, that cobweb of the brain,

Profane, erroneous, and vain;

A trade of knowledge as replete,

As others are with fraud and cheat;

1340

2

An art t' incumber gifts and wit,

And render both for nothing fit;

Makes light unactive, dull and troubled, 1345 Like little David in Saul's doublet:

A cheat that scholars put upon

Other men's reafon and their own;

A fort of error to enfconce

Abfurdity and ignorance,
That renders all the avenues

To truth impervious, and abstruse,
By making plain things, in debate,
By art perplex'd, and intricate:
For nothing goes for sense or light

That will not with old rules jump right,

As if rules were not in the schools

Deriv'd from truth, but truth from rules.

1350

1355

This pagan, heathenish invention Is good for nothing but contention.

1360

For as in fword-and-buckler fight,
All blows do on the target light:

So when men argue, the great'ft part
O' th' contest falls on terms of art,
Until the fustian stuff be spent,

And then they fall to th' argument.

1365

Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast Out-run the constable at last;

For thou art fallen on a new
Dispute, as senseless as untrue,
But to the former opposite,
And contrary as black to white;
Mere difparata, that concerning
Presbytery, this human learning;

1370

Two things s' averfe, they never yet,
But in thy rambling fancy, met:

1375

But I fhall take a fit occafion

T'evince thee by ratiocination,

Some other time, in place more proper

Than this w' are in: therefore let's stop here, And rest our weary'd bones awhile,

Already tir'd with other toil,

Part 1. Canto 3. Line 963.

Res soulp.