3

And what thou know'st I answer'd then
Will serve to answer thee agen.

Quoth Ralpho, Nothing but th' abuse
Of human learning you produce;
Learning, that cobweb of the brain,
Profane, erroneous, and vain ;3

Learning, that cobweb of the brain,

:

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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 "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,
And render both for nothing fit;

sense; or one who can cast up any sums of money, but has none to reckon."

"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:
Although great men have said, 'tis more abstruse,
And hard to understand them, than their use.
And though they were intended but in order
To better things, few ever venture further.
But as all good designs are so accurst,
The best intended often prove the worst ;

So what was meant t' improve the world, quite cross,
Has turn'd to its calamity and loss."

"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 when they had corrected all old copies,
To cut themselves out work, made new and foppish,
Assum'd an arbitrary power t' invent

And overdo what th' author never meant.
Could find a deeper subtler meaning out,
Than th' innocentest writer ever thought."

Makes light unactive, dull and troubled, 1345
Like little David in Saul's doublet:"

A cheat that scholars put upon
Other men's reason and their own;

A sort of error to ensconce
Absurdity and ignorance,
That renders all the avenues

To truth impervious, and abstruse,
By making plain things, in debate,
By art perplex'd, and intricate:

"Good scholars are but journeymen to nature,
That shews them all their tricks to imitate her:
Though some mistake the reason she proposes,
And make them imitate their virtuosos.
And arts and sciences are but a kind
Of trade and occupation of the mind:
An exercise by which mankind is taught
The discipline and management of thought
To best advantages; and takes its lesson
From nature, or her secretary reason.—
Is both the best or worst way of instructing,
As men mistake or understand her doctrine :
That as it happens proves the legerdemain,
Or practical dexterity of the brain:

And renders all that have to do with books,
The fairest gamesters, or the falsest rooks.
For there's a wide and a vast difference,
Between a man's own, and another's sense;
As is of those that drive a trade upon
Other men's reputation and their own.
And as more cheats are used in public stocks,
So those that trade upon account of books,
Are greater rooks than he who singly deals
Upon his own account and nothing steals."

Like little David in Saul's doublet :] See 1 Samuel xvii. 38.

VOL. I.

1350

For nothing goes for sense or light
That will not with old rules jump right,
As if rules were not in the schools
Deriv'd from truth, but truth from rules.

This pagan, heathenish invention
Is good for nothing but contention.
For as in sword-and-buckler fight,
All blows do on the target light;
So when men argue, the great'st part
O' th' contest falls on terms of art,
Until the fustian stuff be spent,

And then they fall to th' argument.

Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast

Out-run the constable at last;

For thou art fallen on a new

Dispute, as senseless as untrue,
But to the former opposite,

6

And contrary as black to white;
Mere disparata, that concerning
Presbytery, this human learning;
Two things s'averse, they never yet,
But in thy rambling fancy, met.

As if rules were not in the schools

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Deriv'd from truth, but truth from rules.] Bishop Warburton, in a note on these lines, says: "This observation is just, the logi"cians have run into strange absurdities of this kind: Peter Ramus, "the best of them, in his Logic, rejects a very just argument of "Cicero's as sophistical, because it did not jump right with his "rules."

• Mere disparata,-] Things totally different from each other.