To Cenfure, Curfe, Abfolve, and Ordain,
Can be no Synod: but Bear-garden
Has no fuch power; ergo, 'tis none,
And fo thy fophiftry 's o'erthrown.

But yet we are befide the quest'on

Which thou didst raise the first contest on;
For that was, Whether Bears are better
Than Synod-men? I fay, Negatur.
That Bears are beafts, and Synods men,
Is held by all they 're better then;
For Bears and Dogs on four legs go,
As beafts; but Synod-men on two.
'Tis true they all have teeth and nails;
But prove that Synod-men have tails;
Or that a rugged fhaggy fur
Grows o'er the hide of Prefbyter;
Or that his fnout and fpacious cars
Do hold proportion with a Bear's.
A Bear's a favage beast, of all

Whelp'd without form, until the dam

Moft ugly and unnatural;

Has lickt it into shape and frame:

But all thy light can ne'er evict,
That ever Synod-man was lickt,
Or brought to any other fashion
Than his own will and inclination.

But thou doft further yet in this
Oppugn thyfelf and fenfe; that is,
Thou wouldst have Prefbyters to go

For Bears and Dogs, and Bear-wards too:

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A ftrange

A ftrange chimæra of beafts and men,
Made up of pieces heterogene;

(Whereby 'tis plain thy Light and Gifts Are all but plagiary shifts)

And is the fame that Ranter faid,

Who, arguing with me, broke my head,

1330

Ver. 1329.] The Ranters were a vile fect that sprung up in thofe times. Alexander Rofs obferves, "That

they held that God, devil, angels, heaven, and hell, "&c. were fictions and fables: that Mofes, John Bap"tift, and Christ, were impoftors; and what Chrift and

66

the Apoftles acquainted the world with, as to matter "of religion, perished with them: that preaching and praying are ufclefs, and that preaching is but public lying: that there is an end of all miniftry and ad"miniftrations, and people are to be taught inmediately from God," &c.

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

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A trade

Ver. 1339.] Ralpho was as great an enemy to human learning as Jack Cade and his fellow rebels. Cade's words to Lord Say, before he ordered his head to be cut off: "I am the beefom that muft fweep the "Court clean of fuch filth as thou art: thou haft molt "traiterously corrupted the youth of the realm, in

erecting a grammar-fchool: and whereas before our "forefathers had no other books but the Score and the "Tally, thou haft caufed Printing to be used; and, contrary to the King, his crown and dignity, thou "haft built a Paper-mill. It will be proved to thy "face, that thou haft men about thee that ufually talk "of a noun and a verb, and fuch abominable words, "as no Christian ear can endure to hear."

It was the opinion of thofe tinkers, tailors, &c. that governed Chelmsford at the beginning of the Rebellion, "That learning had always been an enemy to "the Gospel, and that it were a happy thing if there "were no universities, and that all books were burnt 66 except the Bible.'

"I tell you (fays a writer of those times) wicked "books do as much wound us as the fwords of our "adverfaries; for this manner of learning is fuper"fluous and coftly: many tongues and languages are "only confufion; and only wit, reason, understand"ing, and fcholarship, are the main means that op. "pose us, and hinder our cause; therefore, if ever we

have the fortune to get the upper-hand, we will "down with all law and learning, and have no other "rule but the Carpenter's, nor any writing or reading "but the Score and the Tally."

A trade of knowledge, as replete mot sdt ut to
As others are with fraud and cheat;
An art t' incumber Gifts and wit,

And render both for nothing fit;

כי,

Makes Light unactive, dully and troubled,
Like little David in Saul's doublet:

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A cheat that scholars put upon
Other men's reafon and their own';
A fort of error, to enfconce>>
Abfurdity and ignorance,
That renders all the avenues
To truth impervious and abftrufe,
By making plain things, in debate,
By art perplext and intricate :

For nothing goes for Senfe 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, Heathenifh invention
Is good for nothing but contention :
For as, in fword-and-buckler fight,
All blows do on the target light;
So when men argue, the great'st part
O' th' conteft falls on terms of art,

Until the fuftian ftuff be spent,

And then they fall to th' argument.

Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast

Out-run the conftable at laft:
For thou art fallen on a new
Dispute, as fenfeless as untrue,

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But

Than this we 're in; therefore let 's stop here,

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And reft our weary'd bones a while,

Already tir'd with other toil.

HUDIBRA S.