Whilst all the other Cavaliers were forced to fly, he thus
bearded his enemies in their very homes: sometimes he talked to them
face to face, and kept the sanctimonious citizens in talk, till they
found themselves sinfully disposed to laugh. But this vagrant life had
serious evils: it broke down all the restraints which civilised society
naturally, and beneficially, imposes. The Duke of Buckingham, Butler,
the author of Hudibras, writes, 'rises, eats, goes to bed by the Julian
account, long after all others that go by the new style, and keeps the
same hours with owls and the Antipodes. He is a great observer of the
Tartar customs, and never eats till the great cham, having dined, makes
proclamation that all the world may go to dinner. He does not dwell in
his house, but haunts it like an evil spirit, that walks all night, to
disturb the family, and never appears by day. He lives perpetually
benighted, runs out of his life, and loses his time as men do their ways
in the dark: and as blind men are led by their dogs, so he is governed
by some mean servant or other that relates to his pleasures. He is as
inconstant as the moon which he lives under; and although he does
nothing but advise with his pillow all day, he is as great a stranger to
himself as he is to the rest of the world.
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