Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/61

CANTO I.] For he, by geometric scale, Could take the size of pots of ale; Resolve, by sines and tangents straight, If bread or butter wanted weight; And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike by algebra.
 * Beside, he was a shrewd Philosopher,

And had read ev'ry text and gloss over; Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath, He understood b' implicit faith: Whatever Sceptic could inquire for, For ev'ry he had a : Knew more than forty of them do, As far as words and terms cou'd go. All which he understood by rote, And, as occasion serv'd, would quote; No matter whether right or wrong, They might be either said or sung. His notions fitted things so well, That which was which he could not tell; But oftentimes mistook the one For th' other, as great clerks have done. He could reduce all things to acts, And knew their natures by abstracts; Where entity and quiddity, The ghosts of defunct bodies fly;