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What's all the noisy jargon of the schools But idle nonsense of laborious fools,

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Who fetter reason with perplexing rules?
What in Aquinas' bulky works are found
Does not enlighten Reason, but confound.
Who travels Scotus' swelling tomes shall find
A cloud of darkness rising on the mind.
In controverted points can reason sway,
When passion or conceit still hurries us away? 65
Thus his new notions Sherlock would instill,
And clear the greatest mysteries at will;
But by unlucky wit perplex'd them more,
And made them darker than they were before.
South soon oppos'd him, out of Christian zeal, 70
Shewing how well he could dispute and rail.
How shall we e'er discover which is right,
When both so eagerly maintain the fight?
Each does the other's arguments deride;
Each has the Church and Scripture on his side: 75
The sharp ill-natur'd combat's but a jest:
Both may be wrong; one, perhaps, érrs the least.
How shall we know which Articles are true,
The Old ones of the church, or Burnet's New?
In paths uncertain and unsafe he treads,
Who blindly follows others' fertile heads.

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What sure, what certain mark have we to know The right or wrong 'twixt Burgess, Wake, and Howe?

Should untun'd Nature crave the medic art,

What health can that contentious tribe impart ? 85

Ev'ry physician writes a diff'rent bill,
And gives no other reason, but his will.
No longer boast your art, ye impious race!
Let wars 'twixt alcalies and acids cease,
And proud G-ll with Colbatch be at peace.
Gibbons and Radcliffe do but rarely guess;
To-day they've good, to-morrow no success.
Ev'n Garth and Maurus sometimes shall prevail,
When Gibson, learned Hannes, and Tyson, fail.
And, more than once, we've seen that blund'ring
S-ne,

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Missing the gout, by chance has hit the stone;
The patient does the lucky error find;
A cure he works, tho' not the cure design'd.
Custom, the world's great idol, we adore,
And knowing this, we seek to know no more. 100
What education did at first receive,

Our ripen'd age confirms us to believe:

The careful nurse and priest are all we need,
To learn opinions and our country's creed:

The parents' precepts early are instill'd,

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And spoil the man, while they instruct the child.
To what hard fate is human-kind betray'd,
When thus implicit faith's a virtue made,
When education more than truth prevails,

And nought is current but what custom seals? 110
Thus from thetime we first began to kno
We live and learn, but not the wiser grow.w,

*Sir Richard Blackmore.

We seldom use our liberty aright,

Nor judge of things by universal light;

Our prepossessions and affections bind

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The soul in chains, and lord it o'er the mind;
And if self-int'rest be but in the case,

Our unexamin'd principles may pass.

[ceive,

Good Heav'ns! that man should thus himself de

To learn on credit, and on trust believe!

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Better the mind no notions had retain'd,
But still a fair unwritten blank remain'd:

For now, who truth from falsehood would discern,
Must first disrobe the mind, and all unlearn.
Errors contracted in unmindful youth,

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When once remov'd, will smooth the way to truth.

To dispossess the child the mortal lives,

But death approaches ere the man arrives.

[find,

Those who would learning's glorious kingdom

The dear bought purchase of the trading mind, 130
From many dangers must themselves acquit,
And more than Scylla and Charybdis meet.
Oh! what an ocean must be voyag'd o'er
To gain, a prospect of the shining shore?
Resisting rocks oppose th' inquiring soul,
And adverse waves retard it as they roll.

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Does not that foolish deference we pay To men that liv'd long since our passage stay? What odd prepost'rous paths at first we tread, And learn to walk by stumbling on the dead? 140 First we a blessing from the grave implore, Worship old urns, and monuments adore;

The rev'rend sage, with vast esteem, we prize;
He liv'd long since, and must be wondrous wise.
Thus are we debtors to the famous dead
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For all those errors which their fancies bred :
Errors indeed! for real knowledge stay'd
With those first times, nor farther was convey'd,
While light opinions are much lower brought,
For on the waves of ignorance they float;
But solid truth scarce ever gains the shore,
So soon it sinks, and ne'er emerges more.

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Suppose those many dreadful dangers past, Will knowledge dawn, and bless the mind at last? Ah! no; 'tis now environ'd from our eyes, 155 Hides all its charms, and undiscover'd lies. Truth, like a single point, escapes the sight, And claims attention to perceive it right: But what resembles truth is soon descry'd, Spread like a surface and expanded wide. The first man rarely, very rarely, finds The tedious search of long inquiring minds: But yet what's worse, we know not when we err; What mark does truth, what bright distinction, bear? How do we know that what we know is true? 165 How shall we falsehood fly, and truth pursue? Let none then here his certain knowledge boast, 'Tis all but probability at most:

This is the easy purchase of the mind,

The vulgar's treasure, which we soon may find: 170 But truth lies hid, and ere we can explore

The glitt'ring gem, our fleeting life is o'er.

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SINCE we can die but once, and after death
Our state no alteration knows,

But when we have resign'd our breath
Th' immortal spirit goes

To endless joys or everlasting woes,
Wise is the man who labours to secure
That mighty and important stake,
And by all methods strives to make
His passage safe and his reception sure.
Merely to die no man of reason fears,
For certainly we must,

As we are born, return to dust;

"Tis the last point of many ling'ring years : But whither then we go,

Whither we fain would know;

But hunan understanding cannot show :

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