And as he eats his sons, just so
He feeds upon his daughters too.[1]
Nor does it follow, 'cause a herald
Can make a gentleman, scarce a year old,[2] 670
To be descended of a race
Of ancient kings in a small space,
That we should all opinions hold
Authentic, that we can make old.
Quoth Sidrophel, It is no part 675
Of prudence to cry down an art,
And what it may perform, deny,
Because you understand not why;
As Averrhoes play'd but a mean trick.
To damn our whole art for eccentrick,[3] 680
For who knows all that knowledge contains?
Men dwell not on the tops of mountains,
But on their sides, or rising's seat;
So 'tis with knowledge's vast height.
Do not the hist'ries of all ages 685
Relate miraculous presages
Of strange turns in the world's affairs,
Foreseen b' astrologers, soothsayers,
Chaldeans, learn'd Grenethliacks,[4]
And some that have writ almanacks? 690
- ↑ If Truth is "Time's daughter," yet Saturn, or Time, may be none the kinder to her on that account. For, as poets feign that Saturn eats his sons, so he may also be supposed to feed upon his daughters.
- ↑ In all civil wars the order of things is subverted; the poor become rich, and the rich poor. And they who suddenly gain riches seek, in the next place, to be furnished with an honourable pedigree, however fictitious. Many instances of this kind are preserved in Walker's History of Independency, Bate's Lives of the Regicides, &c. But the satire applies to heraldic pedigrees generally.
- ↑ Averrhoes flourished in the twelfth century. He was a great critic, lawyer, and physician; and one of the most subtle philosophers that ever appeared among the Arabians. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, from whence he obtained the surname of commentator. He much disliked the epicycles and eccentrics which Ptolemy had introduced into his system; they seemed so absurd to him, that they gave him a disgust to the science of astronomy in general. He does not seem to have formed a more favourable opinion of astrology, which he condemned as eccentric and fallacious, having no foundation in truth or certainty.
- ↑ Genethliaci, or Chaldeans, were soothsayers, who undertook to foretell
