SECTION XXXVIII.

OF FOOLISH ASTRONOMERS AND STAR
GAZERS.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

HERE'S one, that rears his thoughts on high, And makes a ledger of the sky;

That he may read the planet's motions, Deducing thence strange whims and notions; Demonstrating at once with ease,

The moon's not made of Cheshire cheese *.

Or now he shows, from certain reasons,
Th' approaching changes of the seasons;

* Fontaine's fable on the effects of star-gazing, is not inapplicable to this section; who makes his Astronomer consider a planet for such a length of time, that, totally unmindful of his situation, he steps into a well, at whose brink he had taken his station. And the Satirist Butler, no less exposes the folly of these pretended Savans, when he causes the acute Sidrophel to mistake a lanthorn at a kite's tail, for some newly discovered comet.

How weather will become precarious,
When Sol shall enter in Aquarius ;
Or genial heat produce before us *,
The budding flow'rs when he's in Taurus.

Then will he calculate, and from it

Tell ye, when next shall come a comet;
With tail more fine than coachmen's whips,
Or else will speak of Sol's eclipse;

All this he makes a common trade of,
Yet knows not what the comet's made of.

Nothing can better expose the ridiculous folly of pretending to understand by the stars, the events which are to happen to mankind, than the following inimitable lines. There's but the twinkling of a star,

Between a man of peace and war ;
A thief and justice, fool and knave,
A huffing officer and slave,
A crafty lawyer and pickpocket,
A great philosopher and a blockhead,
A formal preacher and a player,
A learn'd physician and manslayer;
As if men from the stars did suck,
Old age, diseases, and ill-luck;
Wit, folly, honour, virtue, vice,
Trade, travel, women, cl—ps and dice;
And draw with the first air they breath,
Battel and murther, sudden death.

Of wind he'll speak, yet can't disclose,
From whence it comes, or where it goes;
To regions unexplor❜d he'll guide us,
Finding at length a Georgium Sidus;
And having other worlds made known,
Dies, knowing nothing of his own *.

What though tow'rd Sol the glass you bend,
His nature you can't comprehend † ;
Or, if you did, what would accrue,
I pr'ythee, friend, to me or you;
Why, both must die, and leave behind,
What serves nor us, nor humankind.

* The great Newton, after all his researches into the regions of heaven, wrote a treatise on the Revelations; and the philosophic Boyl vhose mind soared above all vulgar prejudices, nevertheless quitted the tract he had so long pursued, in order to pen his Meditations, which were afterwards so ably satirized by Dean Swift, who inscribed his production "Meditations on a Broom Stick." But what avails, let me ask, all this boasted research? Socrates, with his intense study, affirmed, that all he knew was, that he knew nothing; while Pyrrho, the founder of scepticism, alleged that he knew nothing, not even this, that he knew nothing; so much for the subtilization of the schools, and the refinement on philosophy.

This is most assuredly what may be termed a dead hit

M

L'ENVOY OF THE POET.

Hold, hold, vain man, nor let thy simple brain, In fruitless labour human life bestow;

'Mid endless space to journey is but vain, Thy finite brain suits better things below.

THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS.

Come, trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis, Crowds flock to man my Stultifera Navis.

on the part of our poet, who hath, in the above line struck at the root of Astronomy, the research into which has never yet enabled us to comprehend the properties of that great luminary of heaven, although some learned fools have affirmed, that it consists of fire, and others have stated it to be the effect of attraction and reflection, while Anaxagoras, the Clazomenian philosopher, gravely asserts, that

-The Sun was but a piece

Of red hot iron, as big as Greece:

Believed the heavens were made of stone,

Because the Sun had voided one :

And, rather than he would recant

Th' opinion, suffer'd banishment.

Diogen. Laert. speaking of the opinions of Anaragoras,

thus expresses himself :

Anaxagoras affirmabat Solem candens ferrum esse, et Peloponesso majorem: Lunam habitacula in se habere, et colles, et valles. Fertur dixisse cœlum omne ex lapidi bus esse compositum ; damnatus et in exilium pulsus est, quod impiè solem candentem laminam esse dixisset. In Aristotle de cœlo, we find, that some Astronomers were of opinion, that the heavens were held up like a top, being kept in constant circulation. Plato believed, that the Sun and Moon were below all other planets; and the Egyptians have informed us, that the Sun has twice shifted its rising and setting; still, all is, as it was, the Sun riseth, the Sun setteth, it giveth light, and is the nourisher of vegetation; and be it what it may, it still is, and will ever be, what I denominate, the Sun. This I call stating facts which bid defiance even to scepticism.

M