For, by this sole phenomenon,
We 'ave gotten ground upon the Moon,
And gain'd a pass, to hold dispute
With all the planets that stand out;
To carry this most vertuous war
Home to the door of every star,
And plant the' artillery of our tubes
Against their proudest magnitudes;
To stretch our victories beyond
The' extent of planetary ground,
And fix our engines, and our ensigns,
Upon the fix'd stars' vast dimensions,
(Which Archimede, so long ago,
Durst not presume to wish to do)
And prove, if they are other suns,
(As some have held opinions,)
Or windows in the' empyreum,

From whence those bright effluvias come
Like flames of fire (as others guess)
That shine i' the mouths of furnaces.
Nor is this all we have achieved,
But more, henceforth to be believed,
And have no more our best designs,
Because they're ours, believed ill signs.
To' out-throw, and stretch, and to enlarge,
Shall now no more be laid to' our charge;
Nor shall our ablest vertuosis
Prove arguments for coffee-houses;
Nor those devices, that are laid
Too truly on us, nor those made
Hereafter, gain belief among
Our strictest judges, right or wrong;
Nor shall our past misfortunes more
Be charged upon the ancient score;

No more our making old dogs young
Make men suspect us still i'the' wrong;
Nor new-invented chariots draw

The boys to course us, without law;
Nor putting pigs to' a bitch to nurse,
To turn them into mongrel-curs,

Make them suspect our skulls are brittle,
And hold too much wit, or too little;
Nor shall our speculations, whether
An elder-stick will save the leather
Of schoolboys' breeches from the rod,
Make all we do appear as odd.
This one discovery's enough
To take all former scandals off-
But since the world's incredulous
Of all our scrutinies, and us;
And with a prejudice prevents
Our best and worst experiments,
(As if they' were destined to miscarry,
In concert tried, or solitary,)
And since it is uncertain when
Such wonders will occur again;
Let us as cautiously contrive
To draw an exact Narrative
Of what we every one can swear
Our
eyes themselves have seen appear;
That when we publish the account,
We all may take our oaths upon 't.'
This said, they all with one consent
Agreed to draw up the' instrument;
And, for the general satisfaction,
To print it in the next Transaction.
But whilst the chiefs were drawing up
This strange Memoir o' the' telescope,