University of Virginia Library

It is the Noblest Act of Human Reason,
To Free it selfe, from Slavish Prepossession,
Assume the Legall Right to Disingage,
From all, it had Contracted under Age:
And not its Ingenuity, and wit,
To all it was Imbu'd with first, submit,
Take Tru, or False, For Better, or for worse:
To Have, or t' Hold, indifferently, of Course.

For Custom, though but Usher of the Schoole
Where Nature breede's the Body up, and Soul,
Usurpe's a Greater Pow'r, and Interest,
O're Man, the Heir of Reason, then Brute Beast;
That by two Different Instincts is Led,
Born to the one and by the other Bred.
And Traine's him up, with Rudiments more False
Then Nature do's, her Stupid Animals.
And that's one Reason, why more Care's bestowd
Upon the body, then the Soule's allow'd:
That is not found to understand, and know,
So Subtly as the Body's found to Grow.

Though Children, without Study, Paines, or thought,
Are Languages, and vulgar Notions taught:
Improve their Nat'ral Talents without Care,
And Apprehend, before they are aware:
Yet as all Strangers never leave the Tones,
They have been usd of children to Pronounce,
So most Mens Reason never can outgrow
The Discipline, it first Receiv'd to know
But render words, they first began to con,
The End of all that's after to be known;
And set the Helps of Education back,
Worse then (without it) Man could ever lack.
Who therefor, finde's, The Artificialst Fooles
Have not been changd i' th' Cradle but the Schooles:
Where Error, Pædantry, and Affectation
Run them, behind Hand, with their Education.
And all alike are taught Poetique Rage
When Hardly one's fit for it, in an Age.

No sooner are the Organs of the Braine
Quick to Receive, and stedfast to Retaine
Best knowledges; But All's layd out upon
Retriving of the Curse of Babilon,
To make Confounded Languages Restore
A Greater Drudgery, then it Bard before.
And therefor those Imported from the East,
Where first the[y] were Incurd, are held the Best,
Although conveyd in worse Arabian Pothookes
Then Gifted Tradsmen Scratch in Sermon Notebooks;
Are Really but Paines, and Labour lost
And not worth half the Drudgery they cost,
Unles, like Raritys, as th' have been brought
From foraine Climats, and as Dearly bought;
When those who had no other but their own
Have all Succeeding Eloquence outdon;
As Men that wink with one eie see more tru
And take their Aime much better then with two.
For the more Languages a man can speake,
His Talent has but sprung the Greater Leak:
And for the Industry, H' has spent upon't,
Must ful as much some other way Discount.
The Hebrew, Chalde, and the Syriac
Do (like their Letters) set mens Reason back:
And turn's their wits, that strive to understand it,
(Like those that write the Character[s],) Left-Handed.
Yet He that is but able to express
No Sense at all, in Severall Languages,
Will Pass for Learneder, then Hee that's known
To Speake the Strongest Reason, in but one.

These are the modern Arts of Education
With all the Learned of Mankind in Fashion,
But Practicd only with the Rod and whip,
As Riding Schools inculcate Horsmanship
Or Romish Penitents let out their Skins
To beare the Penaltys of others Sins.
When Letters at the first were meant for Play
And only usd to Passe the time away:
When th' Ancient Greeks, and Romans had no name
T' express a Schoole, and Play-hous, but the same;
And in their Languages so long agone,
To study or be Idle, was all one.
For nothing more Preserv's men in their wits,
Then giving of them, leave to Play by fits,
In Dreames to sport, and Ramble with all Fancies,
And waking, little less Extravagancies:
The Rest, and Recreation of tyr'd Thought,
When 'tis Run down with Care, and overwrought:
Of which, who ever do's not freely take
His Constant Share, is never Broad awake,
And when he wants an equal Competence
Of both Recruits, Abates as much of Sense.

Nor is their Education worse design'd,
Then Nature (in her Province) Prove's unkind.
The Greatest Inclinations, with the least
Capacitys, are Fatally Possest,
Condemnd to Drudge, and Labour, and take Paines,
Without an equal Competence of Braines:
While those she has Indulgd in Soul, and Body,
Are most averse to Industry, and Study.
And th' Activst Fancies share as loose Alloys,
For want of Equal weight to Counterpoyse:
But when those Great conveniences meet,
Of equal Judgment, Industry, and wit;
The one but strives the other to Divert:
While Fate, and Custom, in the Feud take Part
And Schollers by Prepostrous over doing,
And under-Judging, All their Projects Ruine:
Who, though the understanding of Mankind
Within so streit a Cumpasse is confin'd,
Disdain the Limits Nature set's to Bound
The wit of Man, and vainly Rove beyond.
When Bravest Souldiers scorn, until th' are got
Close to the Enemy, to mak[e] a Shot,
Yet Great Philosophers delight to stretch
Their Talents most, at things beyond their Reach:
And Proudly think t' unriddle ev'ry Cause
That Nature use's, by their own By-laws
When 'tis not only Impertinent, but Rude,
When she deny's Admission, to intrude:
And, all their Industry is but to Erre
Unless they have free Quarentine from her:
Whence 'tis, the World the less has understood
By striving to know more, then 'tis allow'd.

For Adam with the Loss of Paradise
Bought knowledg at too Desperate a Price;
And ever since that Miserable Fate
Learning did never Cost an Easier Rate:
For though the most Divine, and Sovraine Good
That Nature has upon Mankind bestowd,
Yet it has Prov'd a Greater Hinderance
To th' Interests of Truth then Ignorance,
And therefore never Bore so high a valew
As when it was Contemptible and shallow,
Had Academy[s], Schooles, and Colledges,
Endowd for its Improvment, and Increase:
With Pomp, and Shew, was introduced with Maces,
More than a Roman Magistrate, had Fasces;
Impowrd with Statute, 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, Custome-free,
And own Professions, which they never took
So much Delight in, as to Read one Book:
Like Princes had Prerogative to Give
Convicted Malefactors, a Reprive.
And having but a little Paultry wit
More then the world, Reduct, and Govern'd it:
But Scornd, as soon as 'twas but understood,
As Better is a Spightful fo to Good.
And now has nothing left for its Support,
But what the Darkest times Provided for't.

Man has a natural Desire to know,
But th' one Half, is for Intrest, Th' other show,
As Scrivners take more Paines to learn the Slight
Of making knots, then all the Hands they write.
So all his Study is not to Extend
The Bounds of Knowledg, but some vainer End;
T' appeare and Pass for Learned, though his Clame
Will Hardly Reach beyond the Empty Name.
For most of those that Drudg, and Labour Hard
Furnish their understandings by the yard
As a French Library by th' whole is,
So much an Ell, for Quartos, and for Folios,
To which they are but Indexes themselvs,
And understand no further then the shelvs,
But smatter with their Titles, and Editions
And Place them, in their Classical Partitions:
When all a Student know's of what he Read's
Is not in 's own, but under Gen'rall Heads
Of Common Places, not in his own Powr,
But like a Dutchmans Money, i' th' Cantore,
Where all he can make of it, at the Best,
Is hardly three Per Cent, for Interest:
And whether he wil ever get it out,
Into his own Possession, is a Doubt.
Affect's all Books of Past, and modern Ages,
But Read's no further then the Title Pages,
Only to con the Authors Names by Rote,
Or at the Best, those of the Books they wrot.
Enough to challenge Intimate Acquaintance,
With all the Learned Moderns, and the Antients.
As Roman Noble men were wont to Greet
And complement the Rabble in the Street:
Had Nomenclators in their Traines to clame
Acquaintance, with the Meanest, by his Name;
And by so cheap, contemptible, a Bribe
Trepand the Suffrages, of every Tribe.
So learned Men, by Authors Names unknown,
Have Gaind no smal Improvement to their own.
For He's esteemd the Learnedst of all others,
That has the Largest Catalogue of Authors.