Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacs,
And fome that have writ almanacks?
The Median Emperor dreamt his daughter
Had pift all Afia under water,
And that a vine, sprung from her haunches,
O'erfpread his empire with its branches;
And did not foothfayers expound it,
As after by th' event he found it?
When Cæfar in the fenate fell,
Did not the fun eclips'd foretell,
And, in refentment of his flaughter,
Look'd pale for almost a year after ?
Auguftus having, by' overfight,
Put on his left fhoe 'fore his right,
Had like to have been flain that day,
By foldiers mutinying for pay.
Are there not myriads of this fort,
Which stories of all times report?
And should fee further, and foreknow
More than their augury below?
Though that once ferv'd the polity
Of mighty states to govern by ;
And this is what we take in hand
By powerful Art to understand;
Which, how we have perform'd, all ages
Can speak th' events of our presages.
Have we not lately, in the moon,
Found a new world, to th' old unknown?
Discover'd fea and land, Columbus
Can find your tricks out, and defcry
Where tell truth, and where you lye:
For Anaxagoras, long agone,
Saw hills, as well as you,
And held the fun was but a piece
Of red-hot iron as big as Greece;
Believ'd the heavens were made of ftone,
Because the fun had voided one ;
And, rather than he would recant
Th' opinion, fuffer'd banishment.
But what, alas! is it to us,
Whether i' 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 ftrange opinions,
That are not in our own dominions?
What science can be brought from thence,
In which we do not here commence ?
What revelations, or religions,
That are not in our native regions?
Are fweating lanterns, or fcreen-fans,
Made better there than they 're in France?
Or do they teach to fing and play
O' th' guitar there a newer way?
Can they make plays there, that shall fit
The public humour with less wit?
Write wittier dances, quainter shows,
Or fight with more ingenious blows?
Or does the man i' th' moon look big,
And wear a huger periwig?
Shew in his gait, or face, more tricks
Than our own native lunaticks ?
But if we' outdo him here at home,
What good of your defign can come ?
As wind i' th' hypocondres pent,
Is but a blaft if downward fent i
But if it upward chance to fly,
Becomes new-light and prophecy ;
So when your speculations tend
Above their just and useful end,
Although they promise strange and great
Discoveries of things far fet,
They are but idle dreams and fancies,
And favour strongly of the ganzas.
Tell me but what 's the natural caufe
Why on a fign no painter draws
The full-moon ever, but the half?
Refolve that with your Jacob's staff;
Or why wolves raise a hubbub at her,
And dogs howl when the fhines in water?
And I fhall freely give my vote,
You may know fomething more remote.
At this deep Sidrophel look'd wife,
And, staring round with owl-like eyes,
He put his face into a posture
Of fapience, and began to blufter;
For, having three times fhook his head
To ftir his wit up, thus he faid:
Art has no mortal enemies
Next ignorance, but owls and geese;
Those confecrated geefe, in orders,
That to the Capitol were warders,
And being then upon patrol,
With noise alone beat off the Gaul;
Or thofe Athenian fceptic owls,
That will not credit their own fouls,
Or any science understand,
Beyond the reach of eye or hand;
But, measuring all things by their own
Knowledge, hold nothing 's to be known:
Those wholesale critics, that in coffee-
Houses cry down all philofophy,
And will not know upon what ground
In Nature we our doctrine found,
Although with pregnant evidence
We can demonftrate it to fenfe,
As I just now have done to you,
Foretelling what you came to know.
Were the ftars only made to light
Robbers and burglarers by night ?
To wait on drunkards, thieves, gold-finders,
And lovers folacing behind doors,
Or giving one another pledges
Of matrimony under hedges?
Or witches fimpling, and on gibbets
Cutting from malefactors fnippets ?
Or from the pillory tips of cars
Of rebel-faints and perjurers?
Only to stand by, and look on,
But not know what is faid or done?
Most of them pirates, whores, and thieves?
And is it like they have not ftill
In their old practices fome skill ?
Is there a planet that by birth
Does not derive its houfe from earth;
|