Or venturing beyond the reach of wit
Has render'd them for all things elfe unfit;
But never bring the world and books together,
And therefore never rightly judge of either;
Whence multitudes of reverend men and critics
Have got a kind of intellectual rickets,
And, by th' immoderate excess of study,
Have found the fickly head t' outgrow the body.
For pedantry is but a corn or wart,
Bred in the skin of judgment, fenfe, and art,
A ftupify'd excrefcence, like a wen,
Fed by the peccant humours of learn'd men,
That never grows from natural defects
Of downright and untutor'd intellects,
But from the over-curious and vain
Diftempers of an artificial brain-

So he that once stood for the learned'ft man,
Had read out Little-Britain and Duck-Lane;
Worn out his reason, and reduc'd his body
And brain to nothing with perpetual study;
Kept tutors of all forts, and virtuofos,

To read all authors to him with their glosses,
And made his lacquies, when he walk'd, bear folios
Of dictionaries, lexicons, and fcholias,

To be read to him every way the wind

Should chance to fit, before him or behind;
Had read out all th' imaginary duels

That had been fought by consonants and vowels;
Had crackt his fcull, to find out proper places
To lay up all memoirs of things in cafes;

And

And practis'd all the tricks upon the charts,
To play with packs of sciences and arts,
That ferve t' improve a feeble gamefter's study,
That ventures at grammatic beast, or noddy ;
Had read out all the catalogues of wares,

That come in dry vats o'er from Francfort fairs,
Whose authors ufe t' articulate their furnames
With fcraps of Greek more learned than the Germans ;

Was wont to scatter books in every room,

Where they might best be seen by all that come,
And lay a train that naturally should force
What he defign'd, as if it fell of course;
And all this with a worse fuccefs than Cardan,
Who bought both books and learning at a bargain,
When, lighting on a philofophic spell,
Of which he never knew one fyllable,
Prefto, be gone, h' unriddled all he read,
As if he had to nothing else been bred.

UPON

UPON

AN HYPOCRITICAL

NONCONFORMIS T.

A PINDARIC ODE *.

I.

HERE's nothing fo abfurd, or vain,

THER

Or barbarous, or inhumane,

But, if it lay the least pretence

To piety and godliness,

Or tender-hearted confcience,
And zeal for gofpel-truths profefs,

Does facred instantly commence;

And all that dare but question it, are strait
Pronounc'd th' uncircumcis'd and reprobate :

5

As

*This and the two following compofitions are the only ones that our Author wrote in this measure; which fome readers may, perhaps, think too grave and folemn for the fubject, and the turn of Butler's wit. It must, however, be allowed, that he falls no way fhort of his ufual depth and reach of thought, keennefs of fatire, and acutenefs of expreffion.

As malefactors, that escape and fly

Into a fanctuary for defence,

Muft not be brought to juftice thence,

Although their crimes be ne'er fo great and high;
And he that dares prefume to do 't,

Is fentenc'd and deliver’d-up

To Satan, that engag'd him to 't,
For venturing wickedly to put a stop
To his immunities and free affairs,
Or meddle faucily with theirs

That are employ'd by him, while he and they
Proceed in a religious and a holy way.

II.

And, as the Pagans heretofore

Did their own handyworks adore,

10

15

20

And made their stone and timber deities,

Their temples and their altars, of one piece;

25

The fame outgoings feem t' infpire

Our modern felf-will'd Edifier,

That, out of things as far from fenfe, and more,

Contrives new light and revelation,

The creatures of th' imagination,
To worship and fall down before ;
Of which his crack'd delufions draw
As monftrous images and rude,
As ever Pagan, to believe in, hew'd,
Or madman in a vision saw;
Miftakes the feeble impotence,
And vain delufions of his mind,

30

35

For

For fpiritual gifts and offerings,

Which Heaven to present him brings;

And ftill, the further 'tis from sense,
Believes it is the more refin'd,

And ought to be receiv'd with greater reverence.

III.

But, as all tricks whofe principles

Are falfe, prove falfe in all things elfe,
The dull and heavy hypocrite

Is but in penfion with his confcience,
That pays him for maintaining it
With zealous rage and impudence;
And, as the one grows obftinate,
So does the other rich and fat;
Difposes of his gifts and difpenfations

Like fpiritual foundations

Endow'd to pious ufes, and defign'd

To entertain the weak, the lame, and blind;

But ftill diverts them to as bad, or worse,

55

Than others are by unjust governors :
For, like our modern publicans,

He ftill puts out all dues

He owes to Heaven to the devil to use,

And makes his godly intereft great gains;

60

Takes all the Brethren (to recruit

The fpirit in him) contribute,

And, to repair and edify his fpent

And broken-winded outward man, prefent

For painful holding-forth against the government. 65

IV. The