Ipsa domus puerum quem videt ipsa senem.
Qui baculo nitens in quâ reptavit arenâ,
Unius numeral sæcula longa casæ.
Non ilium vario traxit fortuna tumultu
Nec bibit ignotas mobilis hospes aquas.
The Copernican system of the universe, which was first published to the world about the year 1540, appears not at this time, after the revolution of about 100 years, nor for some time after, to have obtained an absolute undisputed footing in England. In that admirable lesson of sublime morality, which the Archangel Raphael delivers to our first parent, (P. L. B. viii.) after much information on the motion of the heavenly bodies, the exhortation thus concludes:—
Whether the sun predominant in heaven,
Rise on the earth, or earth rise on the sun;
He from the east his flaming road begin,
Or she from west her silent course advance
With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle; while she paces even,
And bears thee soft with the smooth air along—
Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid,
Leave them to God alone, him serve and fear.
P. 13. This poem evidently alludes to some threatened invasion of Christendom by the Turks, but I am unable to point out the particular period.
L. 5. Now every rustick hind and every boore, &c.
Virgil has described, in a very lively manner, the agitation of a people preparing to resist an invasion:
