Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Epitome
A man so various, that he seem’d to be
Not one, but all mankind’s epitome:
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was every thing by starts, and nothing long;
But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon:
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.
Dryden.—Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. Line 545.
Railing and praising were his usual themes;
And both, to shew his judgment, in extremes;
So over violent, or over civil,
That every man with him was god or devil.
Dryden.—Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. Line 555.