For bears and dogs on four legs go, A bear's a savage beast, of all Whelp'd without form, until the dam Has lickt it into shape and frame :9 But thou dost further yet in this 1300 1305 1310 1315 For bears and dogs, and bearwards too; • Whelp'd without form, until the dam Has licht it into shape and frame ;] We must not expect our poet's philosophy to be strictly true: it is sufficient that it agree with the notions commonly handed down. Thus Ovid: Nec catulus partu, quem reddidit ursa recenti, Pliny, in his Natural History, lib. viii. ch. 36. says: "Hi sunt "candida informisque caro, paulo muribus major, sine oculis, sine pilo: ungues tantum prominent: hanc lambendo paulatim figu"rant." But this silly opinion is refuted by Brown in his Vulgar Errors, book iii. ch. 6. A strange chimæra of beasts and men, Made up of pieces het'rogene; Such as in nature never met, In eodem subjecto yet. Thy other arguments are all Supposures hypothetical, That do but beg; and we may chuse Much thou hast said, which I know when, 1320 1325 And where thou stol'st from other men ; Whereby 'tis plain thy light and gifts And is the same that Ranter said, 1330 1 A strange chimæra-] Chimæra was a fabulous monster, thus described by Homer: ἡ δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ἔην θεῖον γένος, οὐδ ̓ ἀνθρώπων, Πρόσθε λέων, ἔπιθεν δὲ δράκων, μέσση δὲ χίμαιρα. Iliad. vi. 180. Eustathius, on the passage, has abundance of Greek learning. Hesiod has given the chimæra three heads. Theog. 319. 2 And is the same that Ranter said, Who, arguing with me, broke my head,] The ranters were a wild sect, that denied all the doctrines of religion, natural and revealed. With one of these the knight had entered into a dispute, and at last came to blows. See a ranter's character in Butler's Posthumous Works. Whitelocke says the soldiers in the parliament army were frequently punished for being ranters. Nero clothed christians in the skins of wild beasts; but these wrapt wild beasts in the skins of christians. And what thou know'st I answer'd then Quoth Ralpho, Nothing but th' abuse Learning, that cobweb of the brain, 3 1335 1340 Profane, erroneous, and vain ;] Dr. South, in his sermon preached in Westminster Abbey, 1692, says, speaking of the times about 50 years before, Latin unto them was a mortal crime, and Greek looked upon as a sin against the Holy Ghost; that all learning was then cried down, so that with them the best preachers were such as could not read, and the ablest divines such as could not write in all their preachments they so highly pretended to the spirit, that they hardly could spell the letter. To be blind, was with them the proper qualification of a spiritual guide, and to be booklearned (as they called it) and to be irreligious, were almost terms convertible. None were thought fit for the ministry but tradesmen and mechanics, because none else were allowed to have the spirit. Those only were accounted like St. Paul who could work with their hands, and, in a literal sense, drive the nail home, and be able to make a pulpit before they preached in it. The independents and anabaptists were great enemies to all human learning they thought that preaching, and every thing else, was to come by inspiration. : When Jack Cade ordered lord Say's head to be struck off, he said to him: "I am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such "filth as thou art. Thou hast most traiterously corrupted the youth "of the realm, in erecting a grammar school; and whereas, before, "our fore-fathers had no other books, but the score and the tally, "thou hast caused printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his "6 crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved "to thy face, that thou hast men about thee, that usually talk of a "noun and a verb; and such abominable words as no christian ear "can endure to hear." Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. sc. 7. In Mr. Butler's MS. I find the following reflections on this subject: "The modern doctrine of the court, that men's natural parts are A trade of knowledge as replete, As others are with fraud and cheat; rather impaired than improved by study and learning, is ridiculously false; and the design of it as plain as its ignorant nonsense-no more than what the levellers and quakers found out before them: that is, to bring down all other men, whom they have no possibility of coming near any other way, to an equality with themselves; that no man may be thought to receive any advantage by that, which they, with all their confidence, dare not pretend to.” "It is true that some learned men, by their want of judgment and discretion, will sometimes do and say things that appear ridiculous to those who are entirely ignorant: but he, who from hence takes measure of all others, is most indiscreet. For no one can make another man's want of reason a just cause for not improving his own, but he who would have been as little the better for it, if he had taken the same pains." "He is a fool that has nothing of philosophy in him; but not so much so as he who has nothing else but philosophy." "He that has less learning than his capacity is able to manage, shall have more use of it than he that has more than he can master; for no man can possibly have a ready and active command of that which is too heavy for him, Qui ultra facultates sapit, desipit. Sense and reason are too chargeable for the ordinary occasions of scholars, and what they are not able to go to the expense of: therefore metaphysics are better for their purposes, as being cheap, which any dunce may bear the expense of, and which make a better noise in the ears of the ignorant than that which is true and right. Non qui plurima, sed qui utilia legerunt, eruditi habendi." “A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be but by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as well as the best; and scorns a guide." "Men glory in that which is their infelicity.-Learning Greek and Latin, to understand the sciences contained in them, which commonly proves no better bargain than he makes, who breaks his teeth to crack a nut, which has nothing but a maggot in it. He that hath many languages to express his thoughts, but no thoughts worth expressing, is like one who can write a good hand, but never the better An art t' incumber gifts and wit, sense; or one who can cast up any sums of money, but has none to reckon." 66 They who study mathematics only to fix their minds, and render them steadier to apply to other things, as there are many who profess to do, are as wise as those who think, by rowing in boats, to learn to swim." "He that has made an hasty march through most arts and sciences, is like an ill captain, who leaves garrisons and strong holds behind him." "The arts and sciences are only tools, Which students do their business with in schools: So what was meant t' improve the world, quite cross, "The greatest part of learning's only meant For curiosity and ornament. And therefore most pretending virtuosos, Like Indians, bore their lips and flat their noses. When 'tis their artificial want of wit, That spoils their work, instead of mending it. To prove by syllogism is but to spell, A proposition like a syllable." "Critics esteem no sciences so noble, As worn out languages, to vamp and cobble. And overdo what th' author never meant. |