SATYR.
67
And raises endless Controversies
On vulgar Theorems and Hearsays:
Grows positive and confident
190 In Things so far beyond th' Extent
Of human Sense, he does not know,
Whether they be at all, or no;
And doubts as much in Things, that are
As plainly evident, and clear:
195 Disdains all usesul Sense, and plain,
T' apply to th' Intricate and Vain;
And cracks his Brains in plodding on
That, which is never to be known;
To pose himself with Subtleties,
200 And hold no other Knowledge wise;
Although, the subtler all Things are,
They're but to nothing the more near:[1]
And the less Weight they can sustain,
The more he still lays on in vain;
On vulgar Theorems and Hearsays:
Grows positive and confident
190 In Things so far beyond th' Extent
Of human Sense, he does not know,
Whether they be at all, or no;
And doubts as much in Things, that are
As plainly evident, and clear:
195 Disdains all usesul Sense, and plain,
T' apply to th' Intricate and Vain;
And cracks his Brains in plodding on
That, which is never to be known;
To pose himself with Subtleties,
200 And hold no other Knowledge wise;
Although, the subtler all Things are,
They're but to nothing the more near:[1]
And the less Weight they can sustain,
The more he still lays on in vain;
- ↑ 201, 202. Although the subtler all Things are,—Th'are but to nothing the more near:] This is a Thought of Seneca's, and quoted as such by Butler in a Note of his own upon the two following Verses in his Hudibras.He could reduce all Things to acts,
And knew their Nature by Abstracts.
See Grey's Hud. P. 1. C. 1. ver. 143.
too often verified by learned Men, who are dogmatical and confident in the most refined hypothetical Theories, and sceptical in the plainest Truths. It is not unlikely, but he had Descartes in his Eye, who boldly entered into an Explication of the whole System of the Universe, and yet came at last to frame a Doubt about his own Existence.
