So over violent, or over civil, That every man with him was God or Devil.

More from Absalom and Achitophel

• A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pygmy-body to decay, And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay. A daring pilot in extremity; Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms.
• A man so various, that he seem'd to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
• And all to leave what with his toil he won To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.
• And heaven had wanted one immortal song.
• Beware the fury of a patient man.
• But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune’s ice prefers to Virtue’s land.