Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/280

182 The head and founder of their order, That stirring hats held worse than murder; These thinking they're oblig'd to troth In swearing, will not take an oath; Like mules, who if they've not the will To keep their own pace, stand stock still; But they are weak, and little know What free-born consciences may do. 'Tis the temptation of the devil That makes all human actions evil: For saints may do the same thing by The spirit, in sincerity, Which other men are tempted to, And at the devil's instance do; And yet the actions be contrary, Just as the saints and wicked vary. For as on land there is no beast But in some fish at sea's exprest; So in the wicked there's no vice, Of which the saints have not a spice; And yet that thing that's pious in The one, in th' other is a sin.