Will pafs for learneder than he that 's known
To speak the ftrongeft reafon in his own.
These are the modern arts of education,
With all the learned of mankind in fashion,
But practis'd only with the rod and whip,
As riding-fchools inculcate horsemanship;
Or Romish penitents let out their skins,
To bear the penalties of others' fins :
When letters, at the first, were meant for play,
And only us'd to pafs the time away;
When th' ancient Greeks and Romans had no name
To express a school and playhouse, but the fame,
And in their languages, fo long agone,
To study or be idle was all one;
For nothing more preferves men in their wits,
Than giving of them leave to play by fits,
In dreams to sport, and ramble with all fancies,
And waking, little lefs extravagances,
When 'tis run down with care and overwrought,
Of which whoever does not freely take
His conftant share, is never broad awake,
And, when he wants an equal competence
Of both recruits, abates as much of fenfe.
Nor is their education worfe defign'd
Than Nature (in her province) proves unkind:
The greatest inclinations with the leaft
Capacities are fatally poffeft,
Condemn'd to drudge, and labour, and take pains, 95 Without an equal competence of brains;
While thofe fhe has indulg'd in foul and body,
Are moft averfe to induftry and study,
And th' activ't fancies fhare as loose alloys,
For want of equal weight to counterpoife.
But when thofe great conveniencies meet,
Of equal judgment, induftry, and wit,
The one but strives the other to divert,
While Fate and Custom in the feud take part,
And scholars, by prepofterous over-doing,
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 bravest foldiers fcorn, until they 're got
Clofe to the enemy, to make a fhot;
Yet great philofophers delight to stretch
Their talents moft at things beyond their reach,
And proudly think t' unriddle every cause
That Nature ufes, by their own bye-laws;
When 'tis not only' impertinent, but rude,
Where the denies admiffion, to intrude;
And all their industry is but to err,
Unless 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 Paradife
Bought knowledge at too defperate a price,
And ever fince that miferable fate
Learning did never coft an eafier rate;
For, though the moft divine and fovereign good
That Nature has upon mankind bestow'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 shallow;
Had academies, fchools, and colleges,
Endow'd for its improvement and increase ;
With pomp and fhew was introduc'd with maces, 135
More than a Roman magiftrate had fafces;
Impower'd with ftatute, privilege, and mandate,
T'assume an art, and after understand it ;
Like bills of store for taking a degree,
With all the learning to it cuftom-free ;
And own profeffions 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
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 show:
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
The bounds of knowledge, but some vainer end;
T' appear and pass for learned, though his claim
Will hardly reach beyond the empty name :
For most of those that drudge and labour hard,
Furnish their understandings by the yard,
As a French library by the whole is,.
So much an ell for quarto's and for folios;
To which they are but indexes themselves,
And understand no further than the firelves;
But fmatter with their titles and editions,
And place them in their Claffical partitions;
When all a ftudent knows of what he reads
Is not in 's own, but under general heads
Of common-places, not in his own power,
But, like a Dutchman's money, i' th' cantore,
Where all he can make of it at the best,
Is hardly three per cent. for interest;
And whether he will ever get it out,
Into his own poffeffion, is a doubt:
Affects all books of paft and modern ages,
But reads no further than the title-pages,
Only to con the authors' names by rote,
Or, at the best, thofe of the books they quote,
Enough to challenge intimate acquaintance
With all the learned Moderns and the Ancients. 180
As Roman noblemen were wont 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 small improvement to their own,
And he 's esteem'd the learned'ft of all others,
That has the largest catalogue of authors.
MEN'S talents grow more bold and confident,
The further they 're beyond their just extent,
Thefe Fragments were fairly written out, and several times, with fome little variations, tranfcribed by Butler, but never connected, or reduced into any regular form. They may be confidered as the principal parts of a curious edifice, each feparately finished, but not united into one general design.
From these the reader may form a notion and tolerable idea of our Author's intended fcheme; and will, I doubt not, regret, with me, that he did not apply himself to the finishing of a fatire fo well fuited to his judgment and particular turn of wit.
It may be thought, perhaps, that fome parts of it ought to have been illuftrated with notes; but as the printing an imperfect work may be judged, by fome readers of great delicacy, a fort of intrufion upon the public, I did not care to enhance the objection by clog ging it with additional obfervations of my own..
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