And fierce encounters at the bar

130

Undo as fast as thofe in war;
Enrich bawds, whores, and ufurers,
Pimps, fcriveners, filenc'd ministers,
That get eftates by being undone
For tender conscience, and have none.
Like thofe that with their credit drive
A trade, without a stock, and thrive;
Advance men in the church and state
For being of the meanest rate,
Rais'd for their double-guil'd deferts,
Before integrity and parts;
Produce more grievious complaints
For plenty, than before for wants,
And make a rich and fruitful year:
A greater grievance than a dear;
Make jefts of greater dangers far,
Than those they trembled at in war;
Till, unawares, they 've laid a train
To blow the public up again;
Rally with horror, and, in sport,
Rebellion and deftruction court,
And make Fanatics, in defpight
Of all their madness, reafon right,
And vouch to all they have foreshown,
As other monfters oft have done,
Although from truth and fenfe as far
As all their other maggots are:
For things faid falfe, and never meant,
Do oft prove true by accident.

VOL. II.

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140

145

350

155

That

That wealth that bounteous Fortune fends As presents to her dearest friends,

Is oft laid out upon a purchase

Of two yards long in parish-churches,
And thofe too-happy men that bought it
Had liv'd, and happier too, without it :
For what does vast wealth bring but cheat,
Law, luxury, difeafe, and debt;
Pain, pleasure, difcontent, and sport,
An easy-troubled life, and short?
But all these plagues are nothing near
Thofe, far more cruel and fevere,

160

16.5

170

Unhappy

Ver. 168.] Though this fatire feems fairly tranfcribed for the prefs, yet, on a vacancy in the sheet oppofite to this line, I find the following verfes, which probably were intended to be added; but as they are not regularly inferted, I chufe rather to give them by way of note.

For men ne'er digg'd fo deep into
The bowels of the earth below,
For metals, that are found to dwell
Near neighbour to the pit of hell,
And have a magic power to fway
The greedy fouls of men that way,
But with their bodies have been fain
To fill thofe trenches up again;
When bloody battles have been fought
For fharing that which they took out:
For wealth is all things that conduce
To man's deftruction or his ufe;
A ftandard both to buy and fell
All things from heaven down to hell.

Unhappy man takes pains to find,

T' inflict himself upon his mind :
And out of his own bowels spins
A rack and torture for his fins ;
Torments himself, in vain, to know
That most which he can never do
And, the more strictly 'tis deny'd,
The more he is unfatisfy'd;
Is bufy in finding fcruples out,
To languish in eternal doubt;
Sees fpectres in the dark, and ghofts,
And starts, as horses do at pofts,
And, when his eyes affift him least,
Difcerns fuch fubtle objects beft.
On hypothetic dreams and visions
Grounds everlasting difquifitions,
And raises endless controverfies
On vulgar theorems and hearfays;
Grows pofitive and confident,
In things fo far beyond th' extent
Of human fenfe, he does not know
Whether they be at all or no,

And doubts as much in things that are

As plainly evident and clear;
Difdains all useful fenfe, and plain,

T'apply to th' intricate and vain ;
And cracks his brains in plodding on
That which is never to be known;
To pofe himself with subtleties,
And hold no other knowledge wife;

175

180

185

195

200

Although,

Although, the subtler all things are,
They're but to nothing the more near;
And, the lefs weight they can sustain,
The more he still lays on in vain,

And hangs his foul upon as nice
And fubtle curiofities,

As one of that vaft multitude

205

That on a needle's point have ftood;

Weighs right and wrong, and true and false,
Upon as nice and fubtle scales,

As those that turn upon a plane

With th' hundredth part of half a grain,
And ftill the fubtler they move,

The fooner falfe and ufelefs prove.

So man, that thinks to force and strain,
Beyond its natural sphere, his brain,
In vain torments it on the rack,
And, for improving, fets it back;
Is ignorant of his own extent,

And that to which his aims are bent;
Is loft in both, and breaks his blade
Upon the anvil where 'twas made:
For, as abortions coft more pain
Than vigorous births, fo all the vain
And weak productions of man's wit,
That aim at purposes unfit,
Require more drudgery, and worse,
Than those of strong and lively force.

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215

220

225

SATIRE

UPON THE

LICENTIOUS AGE OF CHARLES II.

IS a ftrange age we 've liv'd in, and a lewd,

"T!

As e'er the fun in all his travels view'd;
An age as vile as ever Justice urg'd,

Like a fantastic letcher, to be fcourg'd;
Nor has it fcap'd, and yet has only learn'd,
The more 'tis plagued, to be the lefs concern'd.
Twice have we seen two dreadful judgments rage,
Enough to fright the stubborn'ft-hearted age;
The one to mow vaft crowds of people down,
The other (as then needless) half the Town;
And two as mighty miracles reftore

What both had ruin'd and destroy'd before ;
In all as unconcern'd as if they 'ad been
But paftimes for diversion to be seen,

Q3

10

Or,

As the preceding fatire was upon mankind in general, with fome allufion to that age in which it was wrote, this is particularly leveled at the licentious and debauched times of Charles II. humorously contrafted with the Puritanical ones which went before; and is a fresh proof of the Author's impartiality, and that he was not, as is generally, but falfely, imagined, a bigot to the Cavalier party.