Have we not lately in the moon

Found a new world, to th' old unknown ;›
Discover'd sea and land Columbus

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

730

Quoth Hudibras, You lie so ope

And cattle grazing on 'em there ?

That I, without a telescope,

Can find your tricks out, and descry

Where you tell truth and where

For Anaxagoras, long agon,

735

you

lie:

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

And held the sun was but a piece

Of red-hot ir'n as big as Greece ;

740

Believ'd the heav'ns were made of stone,

Because the sun had voided one;

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?

745

750

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?

What science can be brought from thence

755

In which we do not here commence ?

What revelations or religions

That are not in our native regions?

Are sweating-lanterns or screen-fans

Made better there than th' are in France? 760

Or do they teach to sing 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,

765

Or fight with more ingenious blows?

Or does th' man i' th' moon look big,
And wear a huger periwig?

Shew in his gate or face more tricks
Than our own native lunatics?
But if w' outdo him here at home,
What good of your design can come ?
As wind i' th' hypocondres pent

Is but a blast if downward sent,

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 set,

They are but idle dreams and fancies,

And savour strongly of the ganzas.

775

780

(ganzas. qrese

Tell me but what's the natural cause
Why on a sign no painter draws
The full-moon ever, but the half?

Resolve that with your Jacob's staff;

Or why wolves raise a hubbub at her,
And dogs howl when she shines in water?
And I shall freely give my vote

You may know something more remote.
At this deep Sidrophel look'd wise,
And, staring round with owl-like eyes,
He put his face into a posture

Of sapience, and began to bluster;

785

790

For having three times shook his head,

795

To stir his wit up, thus he said:

Art has no mortal enemies

Next ignorance, but owls and geese;

Those consecrated geese in orders
That to the capitol were warders,

And, being then upon patrol,

With noise alone beat off the Gaul ;

Or those Athenian sceptic owls

That will not credit their own souls,

Or

any science understand

Beyond the reach of eye or hand,

But, meas'ring all things by their own
Knowledge, hold nothing's to be known;/
Those wholesale critics, that in coffee-
Houses cry done all philosophy,

And will not know upon what ground

In Nature we our doctrine found,
Although with pregnant evidence
We can demonstrate it to sense,
As I just now have done to you,
Foretelling what you came to know.
Were the stars only made to light

Robbers and burglarers by night?

800

805

810

815

To wait on drunkards, thieves, gold-finders,

And lovers solacing behind doors,

820

Or giving one another pledges
Of matrimony under hedges?

Some hold the heavens, like a top,

Are kept by circulation up,

And, were 't not for their wheeling round,

They'd instantly fall to the ground;

Deserv'd to have his rump well claw'd;
Which Monsieur Bodin hearing, swore
That he deserv'd the rod much more
That durst upon a truth give doom
He knew less than the Pope of Rome.

890