He was in logic a great critic, Profoundly drilled in analytic; He could distinguish, and divide A hair ’twixt south and south-west side; On either which he would dispute, Confute, change hands, and still confute; He’d undertake to prove by force Of argument a man’s no horse; He’d prove a buzzard is no fowl, And that a lord may be an owl-- A calf, an alderman--a goose, a justice-- And rooks, committee-men and trustees. He’d run in debt by disputation, And pay with ratiocination: All this by syllogism, true In mood and figure, he would do. For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth but out there flew a trope; And when he happened to break off I’ th’ middle of his speech, or cough, H’ had hard words, ready to show why. And tell what rules he did it by: Else, when with greatest art he spoke, You’d think he talked like other folk; For all a rhetorician’s rules Teach nothing but to name his tools. PROSE-WRITERS =1. John Bunyan (1628–88).= In the domain of Restoration prose Bunyan alone contests the supremacy of Dryden. And Bunyan stands in a class by himself. The main facts of his life are well known. He himself has given them an imperishable shape in his _Grace Abounding_ (1666), a kind of religious autobiography. Though the statements of this book need not be taken too literally, he seems to have misspent his youth. He draws a horrible picture of his own depravity; but as religious converts are well known to delight in depicting their original wickedness in the darkest colors, this need not be taken too seriously. He served as a soldier in the Civil War, and seems to have been no better than the ordinary soldier. Religious conversion came to him about 1656, saving him, according to his own account, from everlasting fire. In the flood of his new enlightenment he became a preacher, and, being unlicensed, was arrested. He was cast into Bedford jail, and remained there for twelve years (1660–72). He was released, and obtained a license; but this was canceled in 1675, and he was imprisoned for six months. Beginning with this latter period we have all his most famous works: _The Pilgrim’s Progress_ (1677), _The Life and Death of Mr. Badman_ (1680), and _The Holy War_ (1682). He was eventually set at liberty, and spent his last years preaching in peace.