And what it may perform, deny,

680

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 knowledge contains?
Men dwell not on the tops of mountains,

But on their sides, or risings seat;

So 'tis with knowledge's vast height.
Do not the hist'ries of all ages

685

Relate miraculous presages

Of strange turns, in the world's affairs,
Foreseen b'astrologers, sooth-sayers,
Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacs,*

And some that have writ almanacs?

The Median emp'ror dream'd his daughter
Had pist all Asia under water,5

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kind are preserved in Walker's History of Independency, Bate's Lives of the Regicides, &c.

3 As Averrhois play'd but a mean trick,

To damn our whole art for eccentrick,] Averroes flourished in the twelfth century. He was a great critic, lawyer, and physician; and one of the most subtle philosophers that ever appeared among the Arabians. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, from whence he obtained the surname of commentator. He much disliked the epicycles and eccentrics which Ptolemy had introduced into his system; they seemed so absurd to him, that they gave him a disgust to the science of astronomy in general. He does not seem to have formed a more favourable opinion of astrology. Here likewise was too much eccentricity: and he condemned the art as useless and fallacious, having no foundation of truth or certainty.

• Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacs,] Genethliaci, termed also Chaldæi, were soothsayers, who undertook to foretel the fortunes of men from circumstances attending their births. Casters of nativity. 5 The Median emp'ror dream'd his daughter

Had pist all Asia under water,] Astyages king of Media had this

And that a vine, sprung from her haunches,
O'erspread his empire with its branches;

And did not soothsayers expound it,
As after by th' event he found it?
When Cæsar in the senate fell,
Did not the sun eclips'd foretell,
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 slain that day,
By soldiers mutin'ing for pay.

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700

dream of his daughter Mandane; and being alarmed at the interpretation of it which was given by the magi, he married her to Cambyses, a Persian of mean quality. Her son was Cyrus, who fulfilled the dream by the conquest of Asia. See Herodotus, i. 107. and Justin.

• When Cæsar in the senate fell,

Did not the sun eclips'd foretell,] The prodigies which are said to have been noticed before the death of Cæsar, are mentioned by several of the classics, Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, &c. But the poet alludes to what is related by Pliny in his Natural History, ii. 30. "fiunt prodigiosi, et longiores solis defectus, qualis occiso Cæsare "dictatore, et Antoniano bello, totius paene anni pallore continuo." 7 Augustus having, b' oversight,

Put on his left shoe 'fore his right,] An excellent banter upon omens and prodigies. Pliny gives this account in his second book: “Divus Augustus lævum prodidit sibi calceum præpostere inductum, quo die seditione militari prope adflictus est." And Suetonius, in "Augusti Vitâ, sect 92. says: "(Augustus) auspicia quædam et "omina pro certissimis observabat, si mane sibi calceus perperam, ac sinister pro dextro induceretur, ut dirum." Charles the first is said to have been much affected by some omens of this kind, such as the sortes Virgilianæ, observations on his bust made by Bernini, and on his picture.

Are there not myriads of this sort,
Which stories of all times report?

705

Is it not ominous in all countries,
When crows and ravens croak upon trees?
The Roman senate, when within

Of mighty states to govern by;"
And this is what we take in hand,
By pow'rful art, to understand;

The Roman senate, when within

The city walls an owl was seen,] Anno ante Christum 97, bubone in urbe viso, urbs lustrata. Bubone in capitolio supra deorum simulacra viso, cum piaretur, taurus victima exanimis concidit. Julius Obsequens, No. 44-45, et Lycosthenes, p. 194-195.

9 Tho' that once serv'd the polity

Of mighty states to govern by ;] It appears from many passages of Cicero, and other authors, that the determinations of the augurs, aruspices, and the sibylline books, were commonly contrived to promote the ends of government, or to serve the purposes of the chief managers in the commonwealth.

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 sea and land Columbus

725

And Magellan could never compass?
Made mountains with our tubes appear,

730

And cattle grazing on them there?

Quoth Hudibras, You lie so ope,

That I, without a telescope,

Can find your tricks out, and descry

Where you tell truth, and where you lie :
For Anaxagoras long agone,

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

And held the sun was but a piece

Of red hot iron as big as Greece;2

1 For Anaxagoras long agone,

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740

Saw hills, as well as you, i' th' moon ;] See Burnet's Archæolog. cap. x. p. 144. Anaxagoras of Clazomene was the first of the Ionic philosophers who maintained that the several parts of the universe were the works of a supreme intelligent being, and consequently did not allow the sun and moon to be gods. On this account he was accused of impiety, and thrown into prison; but released by Pericles. Plutarch in Nicia: "Are they not dreams of human vanity," says Montaigne," to make the moon a celestial earth, there to fancy "mountains and vales as Anaxagoras did." And see Plutarch de Placitis philosophorum, Diog. Laert. and Plato de legibus. poet might probably have bishop Wilkins in view, who maintained that the moon was an habitable world, and proposed schemes for flying there.

2 And held the sun was but a piece

The

Of red hot iron as big as Greece;] Speaking of Anaxagoras, Monsieur Chevreau says: “We may easily excuse the ill humour of one who was seldom of the opinion of others: who maintained

3

Believ'd the heav'ns were made of stone,
Because the sun had voided one ;3
And, rather than he would recant
Th' opinion, suffer'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 strange opinions,

That are not in our own dominions?

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750

"that snow was black, because it was made of water, which is black; "who took the heavens to be an arch of stone, which rolled about

66

continually; and the moon a piece of inflamed earth; and the sun (which is about 434 times bigger than the earth) for a plate of "red-hot steel, of the bigness of Peloponnesus." In Mr. Butler's Remains we read:

For th' ancients only took it for a piece

Of red hot iron, as big as Peloponese.

Rudis antiquitas, Homerum secuta, cœlum credidit esse ferreum. Sed Homerus a coloris similitudine ferreum dixit, non a pondere. Believ'd the heav'ns were made of stone,

Because the sun had voided one ;] Anaxagoras had foretold that a large stone would fall from heaven, and it was supposed afterward to have been found near the river Ægos. Laert. ii. 10. and Plutarch in Lysandro, who discusses the matter at length. Mr. Costard explains this prediction to mean the approach of a comet; and we learn from the testimony of Aristotle, and others, that a comet appeared at that juncture, olymp. lxxviii. 2. See Aristot. Meteor. The fall of the stone is recorded in the Arundel marbles.