Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

Samuel Butler (1612–1680)

Extracts from Hudibras: Argumentative Theology

[From Part I.]

HE could raise scruples dark and nice,

And after solve ’em in a trice;

As if Divinity had catched

The itch on purpose to be scratched;

Or, like a mountebank, did wound

And stab herself with doubts profound,

Only to show with how small pain

The sores of faith are cured again.