Whose honesty they all durst swear for, Though not a man of them knew wherefore:

topics of science, of a reach wholly beside, and far beyond what, in these latter times, has been apprehended by any body.

Supposing the reader to have refreshed his memory by running his eye over a few of the first pages of this admirable Poem, I would beg him to examine, with attention, "the Map of the Moon as seen through a Telescope," which forms the frontispiece of this volume; and would ask him, when he has turned it upside down, or the north side downwards, whether he does not recognize a resemblance of the hero of the Poem, the Knight Hudibras himself on one side of the engraving, and his no less renowned Squire, Ralph, on the other; such as they are represented in the two figures marked 1 and 2.

When gospel-trumpeter, surrounded
With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded, 10

Fig. 2.

If at first he should have any doubt of this, I am well satisfied that a little farther attention, or the contemplation and comparison of a few others of the figures hereafter inserted, will not fail to convince him, that one of the scenes of action of this Poem is, in truth, the moon.

In order to avoid a multiplication of notes, and at the same time to assist a comparison of the various figures in the moon, with the copies therefrom hereafter given, as forming the characters of the Poem, I shall content myself, for the most part, with printing certain passages of the text in italics; but in case the reader should not, merely by a comparison of the figures with the moon, and

And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,

Was beat with fist instead of a stick :

Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
And out he rode a-colonelling.

A wight he was, whose very sight would 15 Intitle him, Mirrour of knighthood;

That never bow'd his stubborn knee
To any thing but chivalry;

Nor put up blow, but that which laid
Right worshipful on shoulder-blade :
Chief of domestic knights and errant,
Either for chartel or for warrant:

20

Great on the bench, great in the saddle,

That could as well bind o'er as swaddle:

Mighty he was at both of these,

25

And styl❜d of war, as well as peace.

(So some rats of amphibious nature, Are either for the land or water.)

But here our authors make a doubt,
Whether he were more wise or stout,

30

Some hold the one, and some the other:

by the aid of that method of printing, conceive the subject at first under the aspect intended, it may be expedient to point out, by notes, other circumstances that go to confirm the correctness of the general suggestion submitted to him; for instance, in the terms " out he rode," (line 13,) and "errant," (line 21,) besides the intimation they con

But howsoe'er they make a pother,
The difference was so small, his brain

tain of Hudibras's being mounted on horseback like a knight (as he is copied from the moon in fig. 3),

there are allusions to the wandering motions of the moon, which luminary was held by the ancients to be a planet, (as evidenced by Plin. Nat. Hist. passim). So again the

Outweigh'd his rage by half a grain;

Which made some take him for a tool

That knaves do work with, call'd a fool.

For❜t has been held by many that,

As Montaigne, playing with his cat,
Complains she thought him but an ass,
Much more she would Sir Hudibras,
(For that's the name our valiant knight
To all his challenges did write)..
But they're mistaken very much,

'Tis plain enough he was no such.

He was in logic a great critic,
Profoundly skill'd in analytic;
He could distinguish, and divide

A hair 'twixt south and south-west side;
On either which he would dispute,

35

40

65

Confute, change hands, and still confute

70

For rhetoric, he could not ope

His mouth, but out there flew a trope;

81

mention of the brain, fool, and ass, regards the infirmity of lunatics, or of those supposed to be under the influence of the moon and it is to be particularly noticed, that the term "mirrour," line 16, relates to the moon's having only a reflected or borrowed light; whilst the name of Hudibras itself (hue de brass) is referable to the brassy colour of the moon: and line 119 to her motions being the subject of mathematical calculation.