Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/214

132 A trade of knowledge as replete, As others are with fraud and cheat; An art t' incumber gifts and wit, And render both for nothing fit; Makes light unactive, dull and troubled, Like little David in Saul's doublet: A cheat that scholars put upon Other men's reason and their own; A fort of error to ensconce Absurdity 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. This pagan, heathenish invention Is good for nothing but contention. For as in sword-and-buckler fight. All blows do on the target light; So when men argue, the greatest part O' th' contest falls on terms of art. Until the fustian stuff be spent, And then they fall to th' argument. 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;