The one was fire and fickleness,[343] a child

Most mutable in wishes, but in mind

A wit as various,—gay, grave, sage, or wild,—

Historian, bard, philosopher, combined;[ks]

He multiplied himself among mankind,

The Proteus of their talents: But his own

Breathed most in ridicule,—which, as the wind,

Blew where it listed, laying all things prone,—

Now to o'erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne.[344]