All ftain'd with infamy and vice, All this we grant---why then look yonder, Farther, we are by Pliny told, By age and claps grown cold as fnow, Like Charleton cheap, or fam'd Du-Ruel, Receive Receive the filth which he ejects, Then I'll appeal to each by-stander, * THE ELEPHANT; OR, THE PARLIAMENT-MAN: E'R Written many Years fince, Taken from Coke's Inftitutes. 'RE bribes convince you whom to The precepts of lord Coke perufe: Stubborn Stubborn in honour he must be ; Yet in fome points my lord is wrong: ΑΝ ELE GY ΟΝ ΤΗΕ Suppofed Death of PARTRIG DE, the Almanack-Maker W ELL; 'tis as Bickerstaff has guess'd, Though we all took it for a jest: Partridge is dead; nay more, he dy'd; E're he could prove the good Squire ly'd. Strange, an aftrologer fhou'd die Without one wonder in the sky! Not one of all his crony stars To pay their duty at his herfe! No meteor, no eclipse appear'd! No comet with a flaming beard! The fun has rofe, and gone to bed, Juft as if Partridge were not dead ; Nor hid himself behind the moon To make a dreadful night at noon. He at fit periods walks through Aries, Howe'er our earthly motion varies ; And twice a year he'll cut th' equator, As if there had been no fuch matter. See an account of his death, which Partridge averred to be false, and Bickerstaff defended as true. Vol. III. Some Some wits have wonder'd what analogy There is 'twixt * cobling and aftrology; How Patridge made his opticks rise From a fhoe-fole to reach the fkies. A lift the cobler's temples ties, To keep the hair out of his eyes; From whence 'tis plain, the diadem That princes wear derives from them: And therefore crowns are now-a-days Adorn'd with golden ftars and rays; Which plainly fhews the near alliance "Twixt cobling and the planets fcience. Befides, that flow-pac'd fign Bootes, As 'tis mifcall'd, we know not who 'tis : But Partridge ended all disputes; He knew his trade, and call'd it † boots. The horned moon, which heretofore Upon their fhoes the Romans wore, Whose wideness kept their toes from corns, And whence we claim our fhoeing-horn, Shews how the art of cobling bears A near resemblance to the spheres. A fcrap of parchment hung by geometry (A great refinement in barometry) Can, like the ftars, foretel the weather; And what is parchment else but leather ? * Partridge was a cobler. 2 + See his almanack. Which |