Nor those that, drawn for signs, have been
To th' houses where the planets inn.[1]
It must be supernatural, 435
Unless it be that cannon-ball
That, shot i' the air, point-blank upright,
Was borne to that prodigious height,
That, learn'd philosophers maintain,
It ne'er came backwards down again,[2] 440
But in the airy regions yet
Hangs, like the body o' Mahomet,[3]
For if it be above the shade,
That by the earth's round bulk is made,
'Tis probable it may from far, 445
Appear no bullet, but a star.
This said, he to his engine flew,
Plac'd near at hand, in open view,
And rais'd it, till it levell'd right
Against the glow-worm tail of kite;[4] 450
Then peeping thro', Bless us! quoth he,
It is a planet now I see;
And if I err not, by his proper
Figure, that's like tobacco-stopper,[5]
It should be Saturn: yes, 'tis clear 455
'Tis Saturn; but what makes him there?
He's got between the Dragon's tail,
And further leg behind o' th' Whale;[6]
Pray heav'n divert the fatal omen,
For 'tis a prodigy not common, 460
- ↑ Signs, a pun on the signs for public-houses, and the signs or constellations in the heavens. The constellations are called "houses" by astrologers.
- ↑ Some foreign philosophers directed a cannon towards the zenith; and, having fired it without finding where the ball fell, conjectured that it had stuck in the moon. Des Cartes imagined that the hall remained in the air. See Tale of a Tub, p. 252.
- ↑ The story of Mahomet's body being suspended in an iron chest, between two great loadstones (which is not a Mahometan tradition), is refuted by Sandys and Prideaux.
- ↑ The luminous part of the glow-worm is the tail.
- ↑ This alludes to the symbol of Saturn in some of the old books. Astrologers use a sign not much unlike it.
- ↑ On some old globes the Whale is represented with legs.
