100

110

115

120

While those the has indulg'd in foul and body,
Are moft averfe to induftry and study,
And th' activ'ft fancies fhare as loofe alloys,
For want of equal weight to counterpoife.
But when thole great conveniencies meet,
Of equal judgment, industry, and wit,
The one but itrives the other to divert,
While Fate and Cuftom in the feud take part,
And fcholars, by prepofterous over-doing, 105
And under-judging, all their projects ruin ;
Who, though the understanding of mankind
Within fo ftrait a compafs is confin'd,
Difdain the limits Nature fets to bound
The wit of man, and vainly rove beyond.
The braveft foldiers fcorn, until they 're got
Close to the enemy, to make a fhot;
Yet great philofophers delight to stretch
Their talents moit at things beyond their reach,
And proudly think t' unriddle every caufe
That Nature ufes, by their own bye-laws;
When 'tis not only' impertinent, but rude,
Where the denies admihion, to intrude;
And all their induftry is but to crr,
Unlels they have free quarantine from her;
Whence 'tis the world the lefs has understood,
By ftriving to know more than 'tis allow'd.
For Adam, with the lofs of P: radife
Bought know ledge at too defperate a price,
And ever fince that miferable fate
Learning dia never coft an eafier rate;
For, though the most divine and fovereign good
That Nature has upon mankind bettow'd,
Yet it has prov'd a greater hinderance
To th' intereft of truth than ignorance,
And therefore never bore fo high a value
As when 'twas low, contemptible, and thallow;
Had academies, fchools, and colleges,
Endow'd for its improvement and increase;
With pomp and thew was introduc'd with maces,
More than a Roman magiftrate had fafces;
Impower'd with itatute, privilege, and mandate,
Taffume an art, and after understand it;
Like bills of store for taking a degree,
With all the learning to it cuftom-free;
And own profeflions which they never took
So much delight in as to read one book:
Like princes, had prerogative to give
Convicted malefactors a reprieve;
And, having but a little paltry wit

145

130

140

145

150

More than the world, reduc'd and govern'd it,
But fcorn'd, as foon as 'twas but understood,
As better is a fpiteful foe to good,
And now has nothing left for its fupport,
But what the darkest times provided for 't.
Man has a natural defire to know,
But th' one half is for intereft, th' other fhow:
As fcriveners take more pains to learn the fleight
Of making knots, than all the hands they write:
So all his study is not to extend
155
The bounds of knowledge, but fome vainer end;
T'appear and pafs for learned, though his claim
Will hardly reach beyond the empty name:
For most of thofe that drudge and labour hard,
Furnish their understandings by the yard, 160

As a French library by the whole is,
So much an ell for quartos' an i fer folics;
To which they are bat indexes themselves,
And anderftan no further than the shelves;
But fmatter with the true ad editions, 165
And place them in their Claica' partitions;
When all a ftudent knows of ant he reads
Is not in 's own, but under general heads
Of common-places, not in his own power,
But, like Datch man's money, i' th' cantore,
Where all he can make of it at the beft, 171
Is hardly three per cent. for intere;
And whether he will ever get it out,
Into his own poffeffion, is a coubt:
Affects all books of paft and modern ages, 175
But reads no further than the title-pages,
Only to con the authors' names by rote,
Or, at the beft, thofe of the books they quote,
Enough to challenge intimate acquaintance
With all the learned Moderns and the Ancients.
As Roman noblemen were want to greet,
And compliment the rabble in the street.
Had nomenclators in their trains, to claim
Acquaintance with the meanest by his name,
And, by fo mean contemptible a bribe,
Trepann'd the fuffrages of every tribe;
So learned men, by authors' names unknown,
Have gain'd no fmall improvement to their own,
And he's cíteem'd the learned'it of all others,
That has the largest catalogue of authors.

18;

190

Thefe Fragments were fairly written out, 3 feveral times, with fome little variations, s fcribed by Butler, but never connected or reduced into any regular form. They may be co fidered as the principal parts of a curious estats each feparately finished, but not united in general defign.

From there the reader may form a notion are tolerable idea of our Author's intended in and will, I doubt not, regret, with me, that be did not apply himself to the finishing of a for fo well fuited to his judgment and particular

A: fmatterers prove more arrogant and pert, The lefs they truly understand an art; And, where they 've left capacity to doubt, Are wont t' appear moit peremptory and ftout; While thofe that know the mathematic lines Where Nature all the wit ef man confines; And when it keeps within its bounds, and where It acts beyond the limits of its iphere; Enjoy an absoluter free command O'er all they have a right to understand, Than those that falfely venture to encroach Where Nature has deny'd them all approach, And ftill, the more they ftrive to understand, Like great eftates, run furtheft behind-hand; Will undertake the univerfe to fathom, From infinite down to a single atom; Without a geometric inftrument, To take their own capacity's extent; Can tell as eafy how the world was made, As if they 'ad been bred up to the trade, And whether Chance, Neceflity, or Matter, Contriv'd the whole eftablishment of Nature; When all their wits to underftand the world Can never tell why a pig's tail is curl'd, Or give a rational account why fith, That always ufe to drink, do never pifs.

WHAT mad fantastic gambols have been play'd
By th' ancient Greek forefathers of the trade,
That were not much inferior to the freaks
Of all our lunatic fanatic fects!

The first and best philofopher of Athens
Was crackt, and ran ftark-ftaring mad with pa

tience,

And had no other way to fhew his wit,
But when his wife was in her fcolding-fit;
Was after in the Pagan Inquifition,
And fuffer'd martyrdom for no religion.
Next him, his fcholar, ftriving to expel
All poets his poetic commonweal,
Ex'd himself, and all his fellowers,
Notorious poets, only bating verfe.
The Stagvrite, unable to expound
The Euripus, leapt into 't, and was drown'd:
So he that put his eyes out, to confider
And contemplate on natural things the stealer,
Did but hinfelf for idiot convince,
Though reverenc'd by the learned ever fince:
Empedocles, to be efteem'd a god,

eapt into Etna, with his fandals food:
That being blown out, difcover'd what an afs
Che
great philofopher and juggler was,
That to his own new deity facrific'd,
And was him felf the victim and the priest.
The Cynic coin'd falfe money, and, for fear
Of being hang'd for 't, turn'd philofopher;

Yet with his lantern went, by day, to find
One honeft man i' th' heap of all mankind;
An idle freak he needed not have done,
If he had known himself to be but one.
With fwarms of maggots of the felf-fanie rate,
The learned of all ages celebrate

Things that are properer for Knightsbridge col lege,

Than th' authors and originals of knowledge;
More fottith than the two fanatics, trying
To mend the world by laughing, or by crying;
Or he that laugh'd until he chok'd his whistle,
To rally on an afs that ate a thistle;
That th' antique fage, that was gallantt' a goofe,
A fitter miftrefs could not pick and chufe,
Whote tempers, inclinations, fenfe, and wit,
Like two indentures, did agree fo fit.

THE antient fceptics conftantly deny'd
What they maintain'd, and thought they justify'd;
For when they aflirm'd that nothing 's to be
known,

They did but what they faid before difown;
And, like Polemics of the Post, pronounce
The fame thing to be true and falfe at once.

Thefe folies had fuch influence on the rabble,
As to engage them in perpetual fquabble;
Divided Rome and Athens into clans
Of ignorant mechanic partifans;
That, to maintain their own hypothefes.
Broke one another's blockheads, and the peace;
Were often fet by officers i' th' stocks
For quarreling about a paradox:
When pudding-wives were launcht in cock-quean
ftools,

For falling foul on oy fter-women's fchools,
No herb-women fold cabbages or onions,
But to their goffips of their own opinions.
A Peripatetic cobler fcorn'd to foal
A pair of thoes of any other school;
And porters of the judgment of the Stoics,
To go an errand of the Cyrenpics:
That ufed t' encounter in athletis,
With beard to beard, and teeth and na's to fifts,
Like modern kicks and cuffs among the youth
Of academics, to maintain the truth.
But in the boldett feats of arms he Stoic
And Epicureans were the most heroic,
That foutly venter'd breaking of their necks,
To vindicate the interefts of their fects,
And ftill behav'd themfelves as of inte
In waging cuffs and bruife, as dispute,
Until with wounds and bruifes winch they' had
got,

Some hundreds were kill'd dead upon the fpot;
When all their quarrels, rightly under food,
Were but to prove difputes the tovereign good.

DISTINCTIONS, that had been at firft defign'd

To regulate the errors of the mind,

By being too nicely overtrain' and vext, Have made the comment harder than the text, 3 [U]

Maft not be brought to justice thence,

And he that dares prefume to do 't,

To Satan, that engag'd him to 't.

To his immunities and free affairs, Or meddle faucily with theirs

And, to repair and edify his fpent

And broken-winded outward man, prefent For painful holding-forth against the government,

IV.

The fubtle fpider never fpins,

But on dark days, his flimy gins;

Nor does our engineer much. care to plant His fpiritual machines

Unless among the weak and ignorant,

Is fentenc'd and deliver'd-up

For venturing wickedly to put a stop

15

The vain, the factious, and the flight,
That in their zeal are most extravagant;
For trouts are tickled beft in muddy water:
And ftill, the muddier he finds their brains, *
The more he's fought and follow'd after,
And greater miniftrations gains:

For talking idly is admir'd,

And fpeaking nonienfe held inspir'd;
And still, the flatter and more dull
His gifts appear, is held more powerful;
For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Than tools of fharp and fubtle edges;
And dulleft nonfenfe has been found,
By tome, to be the folid'ft and the most profes

V.

A great Apoftle once was faid
With too much learning to be mad;
But our great Saint becomes diftra&t,

And only with too little crackt:

Cries moral truths and human learning down, g And will endure no reafon but his own:

For 'tis a drudgery and task

As monftrous images and rude,

As ever Pagan, to believe in, hew'd, Or madman in a vifion faw;

Miftakes the feeble impotence, And vain delufions of his mind,

To answer all men can object or ask;

For fpiritual gifts and offerings.

But to be found impregnable,

And with a sturdy forehead to hold cut,
In spite of thame or reafon refolute,
Is braver than to argue and confute:
As he that can draw blood, they fay,
From witches, takes their magic power awar, 10
So he that draws blood int' a Brother's face.
Takes all his gifts away, and light, and grace
For, while he holds that nothing is fo damn'.
And fhameful as to be asham'd,

He never can b'attack'd,

But will come off; for Confidence, well back Among the weak and prepoffefs'd,

Has often Tru.h, with all her kingly power, a prefs'd.