That we should all opinions hold
Authentic, that we can make old.

675

Quoth Sidrophel, it is no part Of prudence to cry down an art, And what it may perform, deny, Because you understand not why; As Averrhois play'd but a mean trick, To damn our whole art for eccentrick, For who knows all that knowlege contains? Men dwell not on the tops of mountains, But on their fides, or rifings feat ;

So 'tis with knowledge's vaft height.

Do not the hist'ries of all ages

Relate miraculous presages

Of strange turns, in the world's affairs,
Foreseen b' astrologers, footh-fayers,
Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacks,

680

685

And fome that have writ almanacks?

690

The Median emp'ror dream'd his daughter
Had pist all Asia under water,

695

And that a vine, sprung from her haunches,
O'erfpread his empire with its branches;
And did not soothsayers expound it,
As after by th' event he found it?
When Cæfar in the fenate fell,
Did not the fun eclips'd foretel,
And in resentment of his slaughter,
Look'd pale for almost a year after?
Augustus having, b' oversight,
Put on his left shoe 'fore his right,
Had like to have been flain that day;
By foldiers mutin'ing for pay.

Are there not myriads of this fort,
Which stories of all times report?
Is it not ominous in all countries,

When crows and ravens croak upon trees?

700

705

VOL. I.

The Roman fenate, when within

The city walls an owl was feen,

Did cause their clergy, with lustrations,

Our fynod calls humiliations,

The round-fac'd prodigy t'avert

From doing town or country hurt.

And if an owl have so much pow'r,

Why should not planets have much more,
That in a region far above

Inferior fowls of the air move,

And should see further, and foreknow

More than their augury below?

Tho' that once ferv'd the polity

Of mighty states to govern by;

And this is what we take in hand,

By pow'rful art, to understand;

710

715

720

Which, how we have perform'd, all ages
Can speak th' events of our prefages.

725

3 A

Have we not lately in the moon,

Found a new world, to th' old unknown?
Discover'd fea and land Columbus

And Magellan could never compass?

730

Made mountains with our tubes appear,

And cattle grazing on them there?

Quoth Hudibras, you lie fo ope,

That I, without a telescope,

Can find your tricks out, and defcry

Where you tell truth, and where you lie :

For Anaxagoras long agone,

Saw hills, as well as you, i̇' th' moon,

And held the fun was but a piece

Of red hot iron as big as Greece;

Believ'd the heav'ns were made of stone,

Because the fun had voided one;

And, rather than he would recant
Th' opinion, fuffer'd banishment.

735

740

But what, alas! is it to us,

Whether i̇' th' moon, men thus or thus
Do eat their porridge, cut their corns,
Or whether they have tails or horns?
What trade from thence can you advance,
But what we nearer have from France ?
What can our travellers bring home,
That is not to be learnt at Rome?
What politics, or strange opinions,

That are not in our own dominions?

745

750

What science can be brought from thence, 755 In which we do not here commence?

What revelations, or religions,

That are not in our native regions?

Are fweating-lanterns, or screen-fans,

Made better there than they 're in France? 760 Or do they teach to fing and play

O'th' guitar there a newer way?