Samuel Butler

For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Tan tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense read more

For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Tan tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense has been found
By some to be the most profound.

For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
read more

For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
To smatter French is meritorious.
- Samuel Butler (1),

But still his tongue ran on, the less
Of weight it bore, with greater ease.

But still his tongue ran on, the less
Of weight it bore, with greater ease.

As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon't.

As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon't.

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good read more

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is
underground.