# The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler/Volume 1/Satyr upon the weakness and misery of Man

SATYR.
* ↑ In this Composition the Reader will have the Pleasure of viewing Butler in a Light, in which he has not hitherto appeared. Every Thing almost, that he has wrote, is indeed satirical, but in an arch and drole Manner; and he may be said rather to have laught at the Vices and Follies of Mankind, than to have rail'd at them. In this he is serious and severe, exchanges the Ridiculum for the Acri, and writes with the spirited Indignation of a Juvenal or a Persius. Good-natured Readers may perhaps think the Invective too bitter; but the same Good-nature will excuse the Poet, when 'tis considered, what an Edge must be given to his satirical Wit by the Age in which he liv'd, distinguished by the two Extremes of Hypocrisy and Enthusiasm on the one Part, and Irreligion and Immorality on the other.
* ↑ 21, 22. And make that Meaning do more harm—Than our worst Deeds, that are less warm.] This was but too plainly exemplified in the preceding Times of civil Combustion, when the mistaken Zeal of a Set of mad Enthusiasts did more Mischief in these Kingdoms, than the Vices of all our Kings put together.
* ↑ 27, 28. Religious Houses made Compounders—For the horrid Actions the Founders]. It is almost too obvious to observe, that it was very usual, especially in the Times of Popery, for the greatest Debauchees to flatter themselves, that they attoned for the Dissoluteness of their past Lives by pious Donations at their Death; as if they were to be excus'd for not serving God themselves, by furnishing others with an Opportunity of doing it.
* ↑ 63. As barbarous, and mean, and low] The Terms barbarous and barbarousness, in this, and the Lines following, are to be understood in their old Sense, as opposed to rude and uncultivated.
* ↑ 89. Our Bravery's but a mean Disguise.] In the Times in which our Author wrote, what we now call Finery in Dress was generally express'd by the Word Bravery. This Observation upon the Vanity and Folly of being proud of Dress, which is only a Consequence of our Fall, is not peculiar to Butler; but he has made it his own by the Manner of expressing it.
* ↑ 131. Enrich Bawds, Whores, &c.] The Reign of Charles the Second, which is the Scene of this Satyr, does but too much justify this severe Censure.
* ↑ 132, 133, 134.————silenc't Ministers—That get Estates by being undone—For tender Conscience, and have none.] A Passage in his Hudibras, will best explain the Poet's Meaning here. Be sure to keep up Congregations, In spight of Laws and Proclamations For Chiarlatans can do no good, Until they're mounted in a Crowd; And when they're punished, all the Hurt Is but to fare the better for't; As long as Confessors are sure Of double Pay for all th' endure, And what they earn in Persecution, Are paid t' a Groat in Contribution. Whence some Tub-Holders-forth have made In Powd'ring-Tubs their richest Trade: And while they kept their Shops in Prison, Have found their Prices strangely risen. Hudib. P. III. C, 2. ver. 969.  One cannot but admire the Satyrist's Impartiality, in sparing neither the wanton and licentious Excesses of Charles's Court, nor the Cant and Roguery of those who hypocritically rail'd at him.
* ↑ 139. Rais'd for their double-guil'd Deserts—Before Integrity and Parts.] Alluding, I suppose, to that narrow-spirited Policy so commonly imputed to Charles II. of courting his Enemies, instead of rewarding his Friends. And perhaps the Poet might think himself included in the Injustice, which he censures. The Pun upon double guil'd for double-gilt is rather low, but is one of those Excrescencies, which naturally grow out of Genius's of Butler's Cast.
* ↑ 151, 152. And make Fanatics, in despight—Of all their Madness, reason right.] The Writings and Preachments of the Enthusiasts and Fanatics of this, and indeed of all Ages, are full of Denunciations of particular Judgments, which the Poet wittily observes, though vented at Random, might be seriously verified, without a Reformation of Manners.
* ↑ 168. An easy troubled life, and short.] Though this Satyr seems fairly transcribed for the Press; yet on a Vacancy in the Sheet opposite to this Line, I find the following Verses, which probably were intended to be added, but as they are not regularly inserted, I chuse rather to give them by way of Note. For Men n'er digg'd so deep into The Bowels of the Earth below, For Mettals that are found to dwell Near Neighbour to the Pit of Hell, And have a magic Pow'r to sway The greedy Souls of Men that Way; But with their Bodies have been fain To fill those Trenches up again; When bloody Battles have been fought For sharing that, which they took out. For Wealth is all Things, that conduce To Man's Destruction, or his Use; A Standard both to buy and sell All Things from Heaven down to Hell.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ 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 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.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ 207, 208. As one of that vast Multitude:—That on a Needle's Point have stood:] This alludes to the whimsical Notions of the Rosicrucians about their aerial Spirits.