Page:The genuine remains in verse and prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (1759), volume 1.djvu/112

But all these Plagues are nothing near
170 Those far more cruel and severe,^[1]
Unhappy Man takes Pains to find,
T'inflict himself upon his Mind;
And out of his own Bowels spins
A Rack and Torture for his Sins:
175 Torments himself, in vain, to know
That most, which he can never do;
And the more strictly 'tis denied,
The more he is unsatisfied:
Is busy in finding Scruples out,
180 To languish in eternal Doubt,
Sees Spectres in the Dark, and Ghosts,
And starts, as Horses do at Posts;
And, when his Eyes assist him least,
Discerns such subtle Objects best:
185 On hypothetic Dreams and Visions
Grounds everlasting Disquisitions,

193, 194. And doubts as much in Things, that are—As plainly evident and clear:] Strange and bold as this Assertion seems, we see it

1. 169, 170. But all these Plagues are nothing near—These far more cruel, &c.] Our Satirist, after enumerating the various Infelicities of Man arising from the outward Circumstances of Human Nature, descends to that which takes its Rise within his own distempered Mind, the insatiable Thirst of knowing those Things, which he has neither Ability to investigate, nor Necessity to enquire into. He was a profest Enemy to all chimerical, precarious, uncertain Speculations, either in Philosophy or Divinity, as every attentive Reader of his Hudibras must have observed, and with a View to this he drew the Characters of Hudibras, and the virtuoso Philosopher Sidrephel. This is a favorite Topic of our Poets; and the Reader will accordingly find the Verses glow with a peculiar Warmth and Spirit.

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