Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/23

CANTO III.] Then let us straight advance in quest Of this profound gymnosophist, And as the fates and he advise, Pursue, or waive this enterprise. This said, he turn'd about his steed, And eftsoons on th' adventure rid; Where leave we him and Ralph awhile. And to the Conj'rer turn our stile, To let our reader understand What's useful of him beforehand. He had been long t'wards mathematics, Optics, philosophy, and statics, Magic, horoscopy, astrology, And was old dog at physiology: But as a dog, that turns the spit, Bestirs himself, and plies his feet To climb the wheel, but all in vain. His own weight brings him down again; And still he's in the self-same place Where at his setting out he was; So in the circle of the arts Did he advance his nat'ral parts. Till falling back still, for retreat, He fell to juggle, cant, and cheat: For as those fowls that live in water Are never wet, he did but smatter;