Were they not, during all their lives,
Most of 'em pirates, whores, and thieves?
And is it like they have not still 835
In their old practices some skill?
Is there a planet that by birth
Does not derive its house from earth;
And therefore probably must know
What is, and hath been done below? 840
Who made the Balance, or whence came
The Bull, the Lion, and the Ram?
Did not we here the Argo rig,
Make Berenice's periwig?[1]
Whose liv'ry does the Coachman[2] wear? 845
Or who made Cassiopeia's chair?[3]
And therefore, as they came from hence,
With us may hold intelligence.
Plato deny'd the world can be
Govern'd without geometry,[4] 850
For money b'ing the common scale
Of things by measure, weight, and tale,
In all th' affairs of church and state,
'Tis both the balance and the weight:
Then much less can it be without 855
Divine astrology made out,
That puts the other down in worth,
As far as heaven's above earth.
These reasons, quoth the Knight, I grant
Are something more significant 860
Than any that the learned use
Upon this subject to produce;
- ↑ Meaning the constellation called Coma Berenices. Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy Evergetes, king of Egypt, made a vow when her husband undertook his expedition into Syria, that if he returned safe she would cut off and dedicate her hair to Venus, and this, on his return, she fulfilled. The offering by some accident being lost, Conon, the mathematician, to soothe her feelings, declared that her hair was carried up to heaven, where it was formed into seven stars, near the tail of the Lion. Hence the constellation of this name.
- ↑ The constellation Auriga, near that of Cassiopeia; which lies near those of Cepheus, Perseus, and Andromeda.
- ↑ A constellation in the northern hemisphere, consisting of 55 stars.
- ↑ Plato, out of fondness for geometry, employed it in all his systems. He used to say that the Deity governed the world on geometrical principles, performing everything by weight and measure.
