And force you t' own 'em, though begotten
By French valets, or Irish footmen.
Nor can the rigorousest course
Prevail, unless to make us worse;
Who still, the harsher we are used,
Are farther off from being reduced;
And scorn t' abate, for any ills,
The least punctilios of our wills.
Force does but whet our wits t' apply
Arts, born with us, for remedy;
Which all your politics, as yet,
Have ne'er been able to defeat:

For, when y' have try'd all sorts of ways,
What fools d' we make of you in plays!
While all the favours we afford,
Are but to girt you with a sword,

To fight our battles in our steads,

And have your brains beat out o' your heads;
Encounter, in despite of Nature,

And fight at once, with fire and water,
With pirates, rocks, and storms, and seas,
Our pride and vanity t' appease;

Kill one another, and cut throats,
For our good graces and best thoughts ; ·
To do your exercise for honour,

And have your brains beat out the sooner;
Or crack'd, as learnedly, upon

Things that are never to be known;
And still appear the more industrious,
The more your projects are prepost'rous :
To square the circle of the arts,

And run stark mad to show your parts;
Expound the oracle of laws,

And turn them which way we see cause;

1479

1490

1500

1510

Be our solicitors and agents,
And stand for us in all engagements.

And these are all the mighty powers
You vainly boast, to cry down ours;
And what in real value 's wanting
Supply with vapouring and ranting;
Because yourselves are terrify'd,
And stoop to one another's pride;
Believe we have as little wit
To be out-hector'd and submit ;
By your example, lose that right
In treaties, which we gain'd in fight ;
And, terrify'd into an awe,
Pass on ourselves a Salic 1 law:
Or, as some nations use, give place,
And truckle to your mighty race;
Let men usurp th' unjust dominion,
As if they were the better women.

2

1517

1520

1580

1 'Salic:' the law among the French, derived from the Salic Franks, excluding women from inheritances and the throne.

Truckle to your

mighty race' the Spanish ladies do so.

GENUINE REMAINS.

GENUINE REMAINS.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE MOON.2

A LEARN'D Society of late,

The glory of a foreign state,

Agreed, upon a summer's night,

To search the Moon by her own light;

To take an invent❜ry of all

Her real estate, and personal,

And make an accurate survey
Of all her lands, and how they lay;
As true as that of Ireland, where
The sly surveyors 3 stole a shire;

T'observe her country, how 'twas planted;
With what sh' abounded most, or wanted;
And make the proper'st observations,

For settle-ing of new plantations,
If the Society should incline

T' attempt so glorious a design.

10

1 These remains are undoubtedly genuine, although fragmentary. Butler left them with his friend, W. Longueville of the Temple, who had saved him from starving, and buried him. His son, Charles Longueville, bequeathed them to one John Clarke, Esq.; and by him they were handed to Mr Thyer. (See 'Life.')2 6 Elephant in the Moon:' a satire on the Royal Society and Sir Paul Neal. (See 'Life.')—Surveyors:' Sir W. Petty and others in Cromwell's time.