And make the proper'it obfervations
For fettling of new plantations,

If the Society fhould incline

Tattempt fo glorious a defign.

This was the purpose of their meeting, For which they chofe a time as fitting, When, at the full, her radiant light And influence too were at their height. And now the lofty tube, the scale With which they heaven itfelf affail, Was mounted full against the Moon, And all stood ready to fall on,

Impatient who fhould have the honour, To plant an enfign firft upon her.

When one, who for his deep belief,

Was virtuofo then in chief,

Approv'd the most profound and wife, To folve impotlibilities,

By which both fenies being united,

The battle's defperately fought; The gallant Subvolvani rally,

Advancing gravely, to apply

To th' optic glafs his judging eye,

Cry'd, Strange!-then reinforc'd his fight

Against the Moon with all his might,

And bent his penetrating brow,

As if he meant to gaze her through;
When all the rest began t' admire,
And, like a train, from him took fire,
Spriz'd with wonder, beforehand,
At what they did not understand,
Cry'd out, impatient to know what
The matter was they wonder'd at.

Quoth he, Th' inhabitants o' th' Moon, Who, when the fun thines hot at noon,

And then return in triumph home,

And spend the rest o' th' year in lies, And vapouring of their victories.

35

From th' old Arcadians they 're believ'd
To be, before the Moon, deriv'd,
And when her orb was new created,

Do live in cellars under ground,

Of eight miles deep, and eighty round,

Things of the greatest weight they do.

(In which at once they fortify Against the fun and th' enemy)

While thus the learn'd man entertains

Th' affembly with the Privolvans,

Which they count towns and cities there, Because their people 's civiller

Than those rude peasants that are found

That understood her various foils,

To live upon the upper ground,

And which produc'd beft genet-moyles,

Call'd Privolvans, with whom they are

And in the register of fame

Perpetually in open war;

Had enter'd his long-living name,

And now both armies, highly' enrag'd,

55

Are in a bloody fight engag'd,
And many fall on both fides flain,
As by the glafs 'tis clear and plain,
Look quickly then, that every one
May fee the night before 'tis done.

With that a great philofopher,
Admir'd, and famous far and near,
As one of fingular invention,
But univerfal comprehenfion,
Apply'd one eye, and half a nofe,
Unto the optic engine clofe

I

t is a large one, far more great Than e'er was bred in Afric yet, From which we boldly may infer, The Moon is much the fruitfuller. And fince the mighty Pyrrhus brought Thofe living caftles firft, 'tis thought, Against the Romans, in the field, It may an argument be held (Arcadia being but a piece,

As his dominions were, of Greece)

To prove what this illuftrious perfon
Has made fo noble a difcourfe on,
And amply fatisfy'd us all
Of the Privolvans' original.
That Elephants are in the Moon,
Though we had now difcover'd none,
Is eafily made manifest,

Since, from the greatest to the leaft,
All other stars and conftellations
Have cattle of all forts of nations,

'Tis confequent she should bring forth
Far greater beasts, too, than the earth
(As by the best accounts appears
Of all our great'it difcoverers);
And that thofe monftrous creatures there
Are not fuch rarities as here.

Meanwhile the reft had had a fight
Of all particulars o' th' fight,
And every man, with equal care,
Perus'd of th' Elephant his share,
Proud of his intereft in the glory
Of fo miraculous a story;
When one, who for his excellence

In heightening words and shadowing fenfe,

And magnifying all he writ

With curious microfcopic wit,

Was magnify'd himself no lefs

In home and foreign colleges,

Began, transported with the twang
Of his own trillo, thus t' harangue.
Moft excellent and virtuous Friends,
This great difcovery makes amends
For all our unfuccefsful pains,
And loft expence of time and brains:
For, by this fole phænomenon,
We've gotten ground upon the Moon,
And gain'd a país, to hold difpute
With all the planets that stand out;
To carry this moft virtuous war
Home to the door of every star,
And plant th' artillery of our tubes
Against their proudest magnitudes;
To ftretch our victories bevond
Th' extent of planetary ground,
And fix our engines, and our enfigns,
Upon the fix'd ftars' vaft dimenfions,
(Which Archimede, fo long ago,

Durit not prefume to with to do)

And prove if they are other funs,

As fome have held opinions,

135

140

150

Or windows in the empyreum,
From whence those bright emuvias come
Like flames of fire (as others gueís)
That thine i' th' mouths of furnaces.
Nor is this all we have atchiev'd,
But more, henceforth to be believ'd,
And have no more our beft defigns,
Because they're ours, believ'd ill figns.
T'out-throw, and ftretch, and to enlarge,
Shall now no more be laid t' our charge;
Nor fhall our ableft virtuofos
Prove arguments for coffec-houfes;
Nor thofe devices, that are laid
Too truly on us, nor those made

145 Hereafter, gain belief among
Our strictest judges, right or wrong:
Nor fhall our paft misfortunes more
Ee charg'd upon the ancient fcore;
No more our making old dogs young
Make men fulpect us ft ! i' th' wrong;
Nor new-invented chariots draw
The boys to courfe us without law;
Nor putting pigs t'a bitch to nurse,
To turn them into mungrel-curs,
Make them fufpect our fculis are brittle,
And hold too much wit, or too little;
Nor fhall our fpeculations, whether
An elder-stick will fave the leather
Of fchoolboys' breeches from the rod,
160 Make all we do appear as odd.
This one difcovery 's enough
To take all former fcandals off→
But fince the world's incredulous
Of all our fcrutinies, and us,

155

165 And with a prejudice prevents Our best and worst experiments, (As if they' were deftin'd to miscarry, In confort try'd, or folitary) And fince it is uncertain when Such wonders will occur again, Let us as cautiously contrive

170

175

180

185

190

To draw an exact Narrative

Of what we every one can fwear

Our eyes themselves have feen appear, That, when we publish the Account, We all may take our oaths upon 't.

This faid, they all with one confent Agreed to draw up th' Inftrument, And, for the general fatisfaction, To print it in th' next Tranfaction. But whilft the chiefs were drawing up This ftrange Memoir o' th' telescope, One, peeping in the tube by chance, Beheld the Elephant advance, And from the weft fide of the Moon To th' eaft was in a moment gone. This being related, gave a stop To what the reft were drawing up; And every man, amaz'd anew How it could poffibly be true, That any beaft thould run a race So monstrous, in fo fhort a space, Refolv'd, howe'er, to make it good At least as poflible as he could,

As no great act was ever done,
Nor ever can, with truth alone,
If nothing elfe but truth w' allow,
'Tis no great matter what we do:
For truth is too referv'd, and nice,
T' appear in mix'd focieties;
Delights in folitary abodes,
And never fhews herself in crowds;
A fullen little thing, below

All matters of pretence and show;
That deal in novelty and change,
Not of things true, but rare and strange,
To treat the world with what is fit
And proper to its natural wit;
The world, that never fets esteem

For partners have been always known To cheat their public interest prone; 385 And if we do not look to ours, 'Tis fure to run the felf-fame courfe,

390

395

400

405

415

This fid, the whole affembly' allow'd The doctrine to be right and good, And, from the truth of what they 'ad heard, Refolv'd to give Truth no regard, But what was for their turn to vouch, And either find, or make it fuch: That 'twas more noble to create Things like Truth, out of ftrong conceit, Than with vexatious pains and doubt To find, or think t' have found, her out. This being refolv'd, they, one by one, Review'd the tube, the Moufe, and Moon; But ftill the narrower they pry'd, The more they were unfatisfy'd; In no one thing they faw agreeing, As if they 'ad feveral faiths of feeing. Some fwore, upon a fecond view, That all they 'ad feen before was true, And that they never would recant One fyllable of th' Elephant; Avow'd his fnout could be no Moufe's, But a true Elephant's probofcis. Others began to doubt and waver, 410 Uncertain which o' th' two to favour, And knew not whether to efpouie The caufe of th' Elephant or Moufe. Some held no way fo orthodox To try it, as the ballot-box, And, like the nation's patriots, To find, or make, the truth by votes: Others conceiv'd it much more fit T'unmount the tube, and open it, And, for their private fatisfaction, To re-examine the Tranfaction, And after explicate the reft, As they thould find caufe for the best. To this, as th' only expedient, The whole affembly gave confent; But, ere the tube was half let down, It clear'd the first phænomenon: For, at the end, prodigious fwarms Of flies and gnats, like men in arms, Had all paft mutter, by mifchance, Both for the Sub. and Privolvans. This being difcover'd, put them all Into a fieth and fiercer brawl, Afham'd that men fo grave and wife Should be chaldes'd by gnats and flies, And take the feeble infects' fwarms For mighty troops of men at arms; As vain as thefe who, when the Moon Bright in a crystal river thone, Threw cafting-nefts as fubtly at her, 440 To catch and pull her out o' th' water. But when they had unfcrew'd the gaís, To find out where th' impoftor was, And faw the Moufe, that, by nithap, Had made the telescope a trap, Amaz'd, confounded, and afflicted, To be so openly convicted,

On what things are, but what they feem,

And, if they be not ftrange and new, They 're ne'er the better for being true. For what has mankind gain'd by knowing

His little truth, but his undoing,

420

425

430

435

445

455