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: Spiritual Trimmers

[From Part II.]

SOME say the soul ’s secure

Against distress and forfeiture;

Is free from action, and exempt

From execution and contempt;

And to be summoned to appear

In the other world ’s illegal here;

And therefore few make any account

Into what encumbrances they run ’t.

For most men carry things so even

Between this world and hell and heaven,

Without the least offence to either

They freely deal in all together,

And equally abhor to quit

This world for both, or both for it;

And when they pawn and damn their souls

They are but prisoners on paroles.