Like feather bed betwixt a wall And heavy brunt of cannon ball. - Samuel Butler

For those that run away and fly,
Take place at least o' the enemy.

Friend Ralph, thou hast
Outrun the constable at last.

He was in LOGIC a great critic, Profoundly skill'd 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.