And out o'th' Top o'th' Chimney

He vanifh'd, feen of none;

For they did wink,

Yet by the Stink

Knew, which way he was gone.

The Country round about there
Became like to a Wildern-

-nefs; for the Sight

Of him did fright

Away Men, Women, and Children.

Long did he there continue;

And all thofe Parts much harmed;
"Till a Wife-woman, which
Some call a White-witch,
Him into a Hogfty charmed,

The Dogs did bowl,-The hollow Tree in th' Owl.] This whimfical Liberty our Author takes, of tranfpofing the Words for the fake of a Rhime, though at the Expence of the Senfe, is a new kind of poetic Licence; and 'tis merry enough to obferve, that he literally does, what he jokingly charges upon other Poets in another Place.

But thofe, that write in Rhime, fill make
The one Verfe for the other's fake;
For one for Senfe, and one for Rhime,
I think's fufficient at one time.

HUD. P. 2. C. 1. V. 29:

There, when she had him shut fast,
With Brimstone, and with Nitre
She fing❜d the Claws

Of his Left Paws,

With tip of his Tail, and his Right Ear,

And with her Charms and Ointments
She made him tame as a Spaniel;
For fhe us'd to ride

On his Back aftride,

Nor did he do her any ill.

But, to the Admiration

Of all both far and near,

He hath been shown
In every Town,

And eke in every Shire.

And now, at length, he's brought

Unto fair London City,

Where, in Fleet-fireet,

All thofe may fee't,

That will not believe my Ditty,

Where in Fleet-street.] If fome curious Enquirer into the Minutie of Biography can discover, whether Cromwell lodg'd in Fleetfreet, he may do me the Pleasure of confirming, or himself that of confuting my Conjectures about the Hero of this Ballad,

God fave the King, and Parliament,
And eke the Prince's Highness;
And quickly fend

The Wars an End,

As here my Song has-Finis.

Ged fave the King and Parliament.] From this Circumstance it appears, that this Ballad was wrote before the Murder of the King; and that it is the earlieft Performance of Butler's, that has yet been made public; and I think, one may, without Prejudice, affirm, that ★ does no Discredit to his younger Years.

SAT
A TYR.

IT is the nobleft Act of human Reafon
To free itself from flavish Prepoffeffion;
Affume the legal Right to difengage
From all, it had contracted under Age,
5 And not its Ingenuity and Wit

To all, it was imbu'd with first, submit ;
Take true, or false for better, or for worse,
To have, or t'hold indifferently of course.

In the large General Dictionary, or Bayle's enlarg'd by Mr. Bernard, Birch, and Lockman, we are told by the learned Editors, under the Article Hudibras, that they were perfonally inform'd by the late Mr. Longueville-That amongst the genuine Remains of Butler, which were in his Hands, there was a Poem intitled, The Hiftory of Learning-To the fame Purpofe is the following Pallage cited from the Poetical Register, Vol. II. p. 21" In Juftice to the Public it "is thought proper to declare, that all the Manufcripts, Mr. But"ler left behind him, are now in the Cuftody of Mr. Longueville (among which is one intitled, The Hiftory of Learning, written after the manner of Hudibras) and that not one Line of those "Poems lately publish'd under his Name is genuine."

As thefe Authorities must have given the World reafon to expect in this Work a Poem of this fort, it becomes neceffary for me to inform the Public-that Butler did meditate a pretty long Satyr upon the Imperfection and Abuse of human Learning, but that he only finished this first Part of it, though he has left very considerable and aterefting Fragments of the Remainder, fome of which I fhall fub

The

For Cuftom, though but Ufher of the

School,

10 Where Nature breeds the Body and the

Soul,

Ufurps a greater Pow'r and Interest

O'er Man, the Heir of Reason, than Brute
Beast;

That by two different Instincts is led,
Born to the one, and to the other bred

;

15 And trains him up with Rudiments more falfe,

Than Nature does her ftupid Animals :

And that's one Reafon, why more Care's beftow'd

Upon the Body, than the Soul's allow'd;

The Poet's Plan feems to have confifted of two Parts; the first, which he has executed, is to expofe the Defects of human Learning, from the wrong Methods of Education, from the natural Imperfection of the human Mind, and from that Over-eagerness of Men to know things above the Reach of human Capacity-The fecond, as far as one can judge by the Remains, and intended Parts of it, was to have exemplified what he has afferted in the first, and ridiculed and fatyriz'd the different Branches of human Learning, in characterizing the Philofopher, Critic, Orator, &c.

Mr. Longueville might be led by this, into the Miftak of calling this Work a Hiftory of Learning; or perhaps it might arife from Butler's having in one Plan, which he afterwards alter'd, begun with these two Lines,

The Hiftory of Learning is fo lame,

That few can tell, from whence at firf it came.

What has been faid will, I flatter myself, be a fufficient Apology for the printing an imperfect Work, if the many good Things to be met with in it, does not make one unneceffary. However, for this Reafon I did not think fit to place it among ft his other Satyrs, which are perfect in their different ways.