Or any science understand, 805
Beyond the reach of eye or hand;
But measuring all things by their own
Knowledge, hold nothing's to be known:
Those wholesale critics, that in coffee-
Houses cry down all philosophy, 810
And will not know upon what ground
In nature we our doctrine found,
Altho' with pregnant evidence
We can demonstrate it to sense,
As I just now have done to you, 815
Foretelling what you came to know.
Were the stars only made to light
Robbers and burglarers by night?[1]
To wait on drunkards, thieves, gold-finders,
And lovers solacing behind doors? 820
Or giving one another pledges
Of matrimony under hedges?
Or witches simpling, and on gibbets
Cutting from malefactors snippets?[2]
Or from the pill'ry tips of ears 825
Of rebel-saints and perjurers?
Only to stand by, and look on,
But not know what is said or done?
Is there a constellation there
That was not born and bred up here; 830
And therefore cannot be to learn
In any inferior concern?
- ↑ Sidrophel argues, that so many luminous bodies could never have been constructed for the sole purpose of affording a little light, in the absence of the sun; but his reasoning does not contribute much to the support of astrology.
- ↑ Collecting herbs, and other requisites, for their enchantments. See Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act iv.
the protectress of Athens. Since the owl, however, is usually considered a moping, drowsy bird, the poet intimates that the knowledge of these sceptics is obscure, confused, and undigested. The meaning of the whole passage is: that there are two sorts of men, who are great enemies to the advancement of science; the first, bigoted divines, who, upon hearing of any new discovery in nature, apprehend an attack upon religion, and proclaim loudly that the Capitol, i.e. the faith of the church, is in danger; the others, self-sufficient philosophers, who lay down arbitrary principles, and reject every truth which does not coincide with them.
