_"When the Maggot bites"_ (Vol. viii., pp. 244. 304. 353.).--Another
illustration of this phrase may be found in Swift (Introduction to _Tale of
a Tub_):
"The two principal qualifications (says he) of a fanatic preacher are,
his inward light, and his head full of _maggots_; and the two different
fates of his writings are to be burnt or worm-eaten."
The word _maggot_ is sometimes used for the whim or crotchet itself; thus
Butler:
"To reconcile our late dissenters,
Our brethren though by different venters;
Unite them and their different _maggots_,
As long and short sticks are in faggots."--_Hudibras_, part III. canto 2.
So also it is used by Samuel Wesley (father of the founder of the
Methodists) in his rare and facetious volume entitled _Maggots, or Poems on
several Subjects never before handled_, 12mo., 1685.