Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/45

CANTO III.] And 'tis on his account I come, To know from you my fatal doom. Quoth Sidrophel, If you suppose, Sir Knight, that I am one of those, I might suspect, and take the alarm, Your business is but to inform: But if it be, 'tis ne'er the near, You have a wrong sow by the ear; For I assure you, for my part, I only deal by rules of art; Such as are lawful, and judge by Conclusions of astrology; But for the Devil, know nothing by him, But only this, that I defy him. Quoth he, Whatever others deem ye, I understand your metonymy; Your words of second-hand intention, When things by wrongful names you mention; The mystic sense of all your terms, That are indeed but magic charms To raise the Devil, and mean one thing, And that is downright conjuring; And in itself more warrantable Than cheat or canting to a rabble,