PART II. CANTO II.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Knight and Squire in hot dispute,
Within an ace of falling out,

Are parted with a sudden fright
Of strange alarm, and stranger sight;
With which adventuring to stickle,
They're sent away in nasty pickle.

HUDIBRAS.

CANTO II.

'Tis strange how some men's tempers suit,
Like bawd and brandy, with dispute,1
That for their own opinions stand fast,
Only to have them claw'd and canvast.
That keep their consciences in cases,2
As fiddlers do their crowds and bases,"
Ne'er to be us'd but when they're bent
To play a fit for argument.*

1 'Tis strange how some men's tempers suit,

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Like bawd and brandy, with dispute,] That is, how some men love disputing, as a bawd loves brandy.

2 That keep their consciences in cases,] A pun, or jeu de mots, on cases of conscience.

• As fiddlers do their crowds and bases,] That is, their fiddles and violoncellos.

4 To play a fit for argument.] The old phrase was, to play a fit of mirth the word fit often occurs in ancient ballads, and metrical romances: it is generally applied to music, and signifies a division or part, for the convenience of the performers; thus, in the old poem of John the Reeve, the first part ends with this line,

The first fitt here find we;

afterwards it signified the whole part or division: thus Chaucer concludes the rhyme of sir Thopas:

Lo! lordes min, here is a fit;

If ye will any more of it,

To tell it woll I fond.

The learned and ingenious Bishop of Dromore, (Dr. Percy) thinks the word fit, originally signified a poetic strain, verse, or poem.

Make true and false, unjust and just,

Of no use but to be discust;
Dispute and set a paradox,

Like a straight boot, upon the stocks,
And stretch it more unmercifully,

Than Helmont, Montaigne, White or Tully."

• And stretch it more unmercifully,

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Than Helmont, Montaigne, White or Tully.] Men are too apt to subtilize when they labour in defence of a favourite sect or system. Van Helmont was an eminent physician and naturalist, a warm opposer of the principles of Aristotle and Galen, and unreasonably attached to chymistry. He was born at Brussels, in 1588, and died 1664. Michael de Montaigne was born at Perigord, of a good family, 1533, died 1592. He was fancifully educated by his father, waked every morning with instruments of music, taught Latin by conversation, and Greek as an amusement. His paradoxes related only to common life; for he had little depth of learning. His essays contain abundance of whimsical reflections on matters of ordinary occurrence, especially upon his own temper and qualities. He was counsellor in the parliament of Bourdeaux, and mayor of the same place. Thomas White was second son of Richard White, of Essex, esquire, by Mary his wife, daughter of Edmund Plowden, the great lawyer, in the reign of Elizabeth. He was a zealous champion for the church of Rome, and the Aristotelian philosophy. He wrote against Joseph Glanville, who printed at London, 1665, a book entitled, Scepsis Scientifica, or Confessed Ignorance the Way to Science. Mr. White's answer, which defended Aristotle and his disciples, was entitled, Scire, sive Sceptices et Scepticorum a jure Disputationis exclusio. This produced a reply from Glanville, under the title of, Scire tuum nihil est. White published several books with the signatures of Thomas Albius, or Thomas Anglus ex Albiis. His Dialogues de Mundo, bear date 1642, and are signed, autore Thoma Anglo e generosâ Albiorum in oriente Trinobantum prosapiâ oriundo. He embraced the opinions of sir Kenelm Digby. For Tully some editions read Lully. Raymond Lully was a Majorcan, born in the thirteenth century. He is said to have been extremely dissolute in his youth; to have turned sober at forty; in his old age to have