_Cabal_ (Vol. iv., p. 443.).--The word "cabal" occurs in two different
senses in _Hudibras_; but I have only before me the Edinburgh edition of
1779, and so cannot tell whether Butler used it at a date previous to
that assigned to its coinage by Burnet. _Hudibras_ was written before
the Restoration, at all events; but I have no opportunity of consulting
the first edition, which was well known for ten years before the _Cabal_
of 1672.
"For mystic learning, wondrous able,
In magic talisman and _cabal_."
_Hudibras_, Part I. Canto I. 529.