They are but idle dreams and fancies,
And savour strongly of the ganzas.[1]
Tell me but what's the natural cause,
Why on a sign no painter draws
The full moon ever, but the half;— 785
Resolve that with your Jacob's staff;[2]
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. 790
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;
For having three times shook his head 795
To stir his wit up, thus he said:
Art has no mortal enemies,[3]
Next ignorance, but owls and geese:
Those consecrated geese, in orders,
That to the Capitol were warders,[4] 800
And being then upon patrol,
With noise alone beat off the Gaul;
Or those Athenian sceptic owls,
That will not credit their own souls,[5]
- ↑ Godwin, afterwards bishop of Hereford, wrote in his youth, a kind of astronomical romance, under the feigned name of Domingo Gonzales, and entitled it The Man in the Moon, or a Discourse on a Voyage thither (published London, 1638). It gives an account of his being drawn up to the moon in a light vehicle, by certain birds called ganzas, a Spanish word for geese. The Knight here censures the pretensions of Sidrophel by comparing them with this wild expedition. The poet likewise might intend to banter some of the aërial projects of the learned Bishop Wilkins.
- ↑ A mathematical instrument for taking the heights and distances of stars.
- ↑ "Et quod vulgo aiunt, artem non habere inimicum nisi ignorantem." Sprat thought it necessary to write many pages to show that natural philosophy was not likely to subvert our government, or our religion; and that experimental knowledge had no tendency to make men either bad subjects or bad Christians. See Sprat's History of the Royal Society.
- ↑ The garrison of a castle were called warders. The tale of the defeat of the night attack on the Capitol through the cackling of the sacred geese of Juno, is well known. See Livy's Roman Hist. Book v. c.77.
- ↑ Incredulous persons. He calls them owls because that bird was the emblem of wisdom; and Athenian, because that bird was sacred to Minerva,
