And heaven, like a northern Tartar's hord,
With numerous and mighty droves is ftor'd; 160
And, if the Moon can but produce by Nature
A people of fo large and vaft a ftature,
'Tis more than probable the thould bring forth
A greater breed of beaits, too, than the earth;
As, by the beft accounts we have, appears 165
Of all our credible:t difcoverers;

And that thofe vaft and monftrous creatures there
Are not fuch far-fet rarities as here.

170

Meanwhile th' affeably now had had a fight Of all diftinct particulars o' th' fight, And every man, with diligence and care, Perus'd and view'd of th' Elephant his thare, Froud of his equal intereft in the glory Of to flupendous and renown'd a story; When one, who for his fame and excellence 175 In heightening of words and fhadowing fenfe, And magnifying all he ever writ With delicate and microfcopic wit, Had long been magnify'd himfolf no lefs In foreign and domeftic colleges, Began, at laft (tranfported with the twang Of his own elocution) thus t' harangue.

180

185

190

195

Most virtuous and incomparable Friends, This great difcovery fully makes amends For all our former unfucccistul pains, And loft expences of our time and brains: For, by this admirable phænomenon, We now have gotten ground upon the Moon, And gain'd a país, t' engage and hold difpute With all the other planets that stand out; And carry on this brave and virtuous war Home to the door of th' obftinateft ftar, Ant plant th' artillery of our optic tubes Again the proudeft of their magnitudes; To ftretch our future victories beyond The uttermost of planetary ground, And plant our warlike engines, and our enfigns, Upon the fix'd ftars' fpacious dimenfions, To prove if they are other funs or not, As fome philofophers have wifely thought; 200 Or only windows in the empyreum, Through which thofe bright efiluvies ufe to come; Which Archimede, fo many years ago, Durft never venture but to wish to know. Nor is this all that we have now atchiev'd, 205 But greater things henceforth to be believ'd, And have no more our best or worst defigns, Because they're ours, fufpeded for ill figns. T'out-throw, and magnify, and to enlarge, Shall, henceforth, be no more laid to our charge; Nor tha'l our best and ableft virtuofos Prove arguments again for coffee-houses; "Nor little ftories gain belief among "Our criticalleft judges, right or wrong:" Nor thall our new-invented chariots draw The boys to courie us in them without law;

211

215

Ver. 203, 201.] Thefe two lines are here inferted in a different and better place than they were in the fhorter verfe, where they made a fort VOL. II.

"Make chips of elms produce the largest trees "Or fowing faw-duft furnish nurferies:

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220

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230

No more our heading darts (a fwinging one!) "With butter only barden'd in the fun : "Or men that ufe to whittle loud enough "To be heard by others plainly five miles off, "'Caufe all the reft, we own and have avow'd, 66 To be believ'd as defperately loud." Nor fhall our future fpeculations, whether An elder-tick will render all the leather Of fchoolboys' breeches proof against the rod, Make all we undertake appear as odd. This one difcovery will prove enough To take all paft and future scandals off: But fince the world is fo incredulous Of all our ufual ferutinies, and us, And with a conftant prejudice prevents Our beft as well as worft experiments, As if they were all deftin'd to mifcarry, As well in confort try'd as folitary; And that th' affembly is uncertain when Such great difcoveries will occur again; 'Tis reafonable we should, at least, contrive To draw up as exact a Narrative Of that which every man of us can fwear Our eyes themselves have plainly feen appear, That, when 'tis fit to publish the Account, We all may take our feveral oaths upon 't.

238

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246

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255

This faid, the whole affembly gave confent To draw up th' authentic Inftrument, And, for the nation's general fatisfaction, To print and own it in their next Tranfaction: But while their ablest men were drawing up The wonderful Memoir o' th' telescope, A member peeping in the tube by chance, Beheld the Elephant begin t' advance, That from the weft-by-north fide of the Moon To th' caft-by-fouth was in a moment gone. This being related, gave a fudden ftop To all their grandees had been drawing up; And every perfon was amaz'd anew, How fuch a strange farprizal fhould be true, Or any beaft perform fo great a race, So fwift and rapid, in fo fhort a space, Refolv'd, as fuddenly, to make it good, Or render all as fairly as they could, And rather chofe their own eyes to condemn, Than queftion what they had beheld with them. While every one was thus refolv'd, a man Of great efteem and credit thus began

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of parenthesis; and the two following lines are alfo omitted:

Like flames of fire, as others guefs. That fine i' th' mouths of furnaces Ver. 213] in this latter part of the speech, Butler makes a confiderable variation, by adding, omitting, and altering; which it would be both tedious and unnecellary minutely to point out, as the reader may fo eafily compare the two Poems.

3 [R]

At laft prevail'd-Quoth he, This difquifition
Is, the one half of it, in my difcithion;
For though 'tis true the Elephant, as beaft,
Belongs, of natural right, to all the reft,
The Moufe, that 's but a paltry vermin, none 395
Can claim a title to but i alone;
And therefore humbly hope I may be heard,
In my own province, freely, with regard.

495

410

It is no wonder that we are cry'd down, And made the table-talk of all the Town, 400 That rants and vapours ftill, for all our great Defigns and projects, we 've done nothing yet, If every one have liberty to doubt, When fome great fecret's more than half made out, Becaufe, perhaps, it will not hold out true, And put a stop to all w' attempt to do. As no great action ever has been done, Nor ever's like to be, by Truth alone, If nothing else but only truth w' allow, 'Tis no great matter what w' intend to do: "For truth is always too referv'd and chafte, "T' endure to be, by all the Town embrac'd; "A folitary anchorite, that dwells, "Retir'd from all the world, in obfcure cells," Difdains all great affemblies, and defies The prefs and crowd of mix'd focieties, That ufe to deal in novelty and change, Not of things true, but grent, and rare, and strange, To entertain the world with what is fit And proper for its genius and its wit; The world, that 's never found to fet esteem On what things are, but what they appear and seen!;

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420

And, if they are not wonderful and new, They 're ne'er the better for their being true;

46

For what is truth, or knowledge, but a kind "Of wantonnefs and luxury o' th' mind, 426 "A greedinefs and gluttony o' th' brain, "That longs to eat forbidden fruit again, "And grows more defperate, like the worft difcafes

"Upon the nobler part (the mind) it feizes?"
And what has mankind ever gain'd by knowing
His little truth, unless his own undoing,
That prudently by nature had been hidden,
And, only for his greater good, forbidden?
And therefore with as great diciction does
The world endeavour full to keep it clofe;
For if the fecrets of all truths were known,
Who wou'd not, once more, be as much undone?
For truth is never without danger in 't,
As here it has depriv'd us of a hint

The whole affembly had agreed upon,

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456

That all thofe that have purchas'd of the college A half, or but a quarter fhare, of knowledge, And brought none in therafelves, but spent repute, Should never be admitted to difpute, Nor any member undertake to know More than his equal dividend comes to? For partners have perpetually been known Timpote upon their public intereft prone; 460 And, if we have not greater care of ours, It will be fure to run the felf-fame courfe. This faid, the whole Society allow'd The dociae to be orthodox and good, And, from the apparent truth of what they 'ad heard, 465 Refolv'd, henceforth, to give Truth no regard, But what was for their interefts to vouch, And either find it our, or make it fuch: That 'twas more admirable to create Inventions, like truth, out of ftrong conceit, 470 Than with vexatious ftudy, pins and doubt To find, or but fuppofe t' have found, it out.

This being refolv'd, th' affembly, one by one, Review'd the tube, the Elephant, and Moon; But ftill the more and curioufer they pry'd, 475 They but became the more unfatisfy'd; In no one thing they gaz'd upon agreeing, As if they 'ad different principles of feeing. Some boldly fwore, upon a second view, That all they 'ad beheld before was true, And damn'd themselves they never would recant One fyllable they 'ad feen of th' Elephant; Avow'd his thape and faout could be no Moufe's, But a true natural Elephant's probofcis, Others began to doubt as much and waver, 485 Uncertain which to difallow or favour; "Unt I they had as many cross refolves.

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490

As Irishmen that have been turn'd to wolves," And grew diftracted, whether to efpoufe The party of the Elephant or Moufe. Some held there was no way fo orthodox, As to refer it to the ballot-box, And, like fome other nation's patriots, To find it out, or make the truth, by votes: Others were of opinion 'twas more fit T'unmount the telescope, and open it, And, for their own and all men's fatisfaction, To fearch and re-examine the Tranfaction. And afterward to explicate the reft, As they fhould fee occafion, for the best.

425

500

440

To this, at length, as th' only expedient, The whole alicmbly freely gave confent; But, ere the optic tube was half let down, Their own eyes clear'd the firft phænomenon: For at the upper end, prodigicus (warms Of bufy flies and gnats, like men in arms Had a pat mufter in the glafs by chance, For both the Peri- and the Subvolvans.

505

And utterly defeated all we 'ad done.

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443

By giving footboys leave to interpofe, "And disappoint whatever we propote :" For nothing but to cut out work for Stubs, And all the bufy academic clubs, "For which they have defery'd to run the risks "Of elder-sticks, and penitential friiks.” How much, then, ought we have a special care That none pretune to know above his faare, 450 Nor take upon him t' understand, henceforth, More than his weekly contribution 's worth;

510

This being difcover'd, once more put them all Into a worfe and defperater brawl; Supriz'd with thame, that men fo grave and wite Should be trepann'd by paltry gnats and flies. And to mistake the feeble infects' fwarms For fquadrons and referves of men in arins:

3 [R] &

As comets do, when they appear;
Which other planets cannot do,
Because they do not burn, but glow?
Whether the Moon be fea or land,

Or charcoal, or a quench'd firebrand;
Or if the dark holes that appear,
Are only pores, not cities there?
Whether the atmosphere turn round,
And keep a juft pace with the ground,
Or loiter lazily behind,

And clog the air with gufts of wind?
Or whether crefcents in the wane
(For fo an author has it plain)
Do burn quite out, or wear away
Their fuufts upon the edge of day?
Whether the fea increase, or wafte,
And, if it do, how long 'twill laft?
Or, if the fun approaches near
The earth, how foon it will be there?

Thefe were their learned fpeculations,

And all their conftant occupations,
To measure wind, and weigh the air,
And turn a circle to a fquare;
To make a powder of the fun,

By which all doctors fhould b' undone;
To find the north-weft paffage out,
Although the far theft way about;
If chemifts from a rofe's athes
Can raife the rofe itself in glaffes?
Whether the line of incidence
Rife from the object or the fenfe!
To stew th' elixir in a bath
Of hope, credulity, and faith;
To explicate, by fubtle hints,
The grain of diamonds and flints,
And in the braying of an afs
Find out the treble and the base;
If mares neigh alto, and a cow
A double diapafon lowe-

*

| And Sleep, Death's brother, yet a friend to life, Gave weary'd Nature a restorative; When Puis, wrapt warm in his own native furs, 60 Dreamt foundly of as foft and warm amours; 6 Of making gallantry in gutter-tiles, And fporting on delightful faggot piles; Of bolting out of bushes in the dark, As ladies ufe at midnight in the Park; Or feeking in tall garrets an alcove, For affignations in th' affairs of love.

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ΤΟ

At once his paffion was both falfe and true, And the more falfe, the more in earnest grew. He fancy'd that he heard thofe amorous charms 15 70 That us'd to fummon him to foft alarms, To which he always brought an equal flame, To fight a rival, or to court a dame; And, as in dreams love's raptures are more taking Than all their actual enjoyments waking, His amorous paffion grew to that extreme, His dream itfelf awak'd him from his dream. Thought he, What place is this! or whither art Thou vanifh'd from me, Miftrefs of my heart? Bet now I had her in this very place

75

20

25

80 Here, faft imprifon'd in my glad embrace, And, while my joys beyond themselves were rapt, I know not how, nor whither, thou 'rt efcap'd; Stay, and I'll follow thee-With that he leapt Up from the lazy couch on which he flept, 30 And, wing'd with paffion, through his known purlieu,

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100

Swift as an arrow from a bow, he flew,
Nor ftopp'd, until his fire had him convey'd
Where many an allignation he 'ad enjoy'd; 34
Where finding, what he fought, a mutual flame,
That long had stay'd and call'd before he came,
Impatient of delay, without one word,

To lofe no further time, he fell aboard,
But grip'd fo hard, he wounded what he lov'd,
While the, in
thus his heat reprov'd.
anger,
40
C. Forbear, foul ravifher, this rude addrefs;
Canft thou, at once, both injure and carefs?
P. Thou haft bewitch'd me with thy powerful

You blame th' effect, of which you are the cause.

AT A CATERWAULING.

In the modern Heroic way.

T was about the middle age of night,

I

Had it not first been by your own betray'd? Hence 'tis my greatest crime has only been (Not in mine eyes, but yours) in being feen.