Like flames of fire (as others guefs)
That fhine i' th' mouths of furnaces.
Nor is this all we have atchiev'd,
But more, henceforth to be believ'd,
And have no more our beft defigns,
Because they 're ours, believ'd ill signs.
T'out-throw, and stretch, and to enlarge,
Shall now no more be laid t' our charge;
Nor fhall our ableft virtuofos
Prove arguments for coffee-houses;
Nor those devices, that are laid
Too truly on us, nor thofe made
Hereafter, gain belief among
Our ftri&teft judges, right or wrong;
Nor fhall our paft misfortunes more
Be charg'd upon the ancient score ;
No more our making old dogs young
Make men fufpect us ftill i' th' wrong ;
Nor new-invented chariots draw.
The boys to courfe us without law
Nor putting pigs t' a bitch to nurse,
To turn them into mongrel-curs,
Make them fufpect our fculls are brittle,
And hold too much wit, or too little;
Nor fhall our fpeculations, whether
An elder-ftick will fave the leather
Of fchoolboys' breeches from the rod,
Make all we do appear as odd.
This one difcovery 's enough
To take all former fcandals off
But fince the world 's incredulous
Of all our scrutinies, and us,
And with a prejudice prevents
Our beft and worst experiments,
(As if they' were-destin'd to miscarry,
In confort try'd, or folitary)
And fince it is uncertain when
Such wonders will occur again,
Let us as cautiously contrive
To draw an exact Narrative
Of what we every one can fwear
Our eyes themselves have seen appear,
That, when we publish the Account,
We all may take our oaths upon 't.
This faid, they all with one confent
Agreed to draw up th' Inftrument,
And, for the general fatisfaction,
To print it in the next Transaction.
But whilft the chiefs were drawing up
This strange Memoir o' th' telescope,
One, peeping in the tube by chance,
Beheld the Elephant advance,
And from the weft fide of the Moon
To th' eaft was in a monent gone.
This being related, gave a stop
To what the reft were drawing up;
And every man, amaz'd anew
How it could poffibly be true,
That any beast should run a race
So monftrous, in so short a space,
Refolv'd, howe'er, to make it good,
At least as poffible as he could,
And rather his own eyes condemn,
Than question what he 'ad feen with them.
While all were thus refoly'd, a man
Of great renown there thus began-
'Tis ftrange, I grant ! but who can say
What cannot be, what can, and may ?
Efpecially' at fo hugely vaft
Variety in all she does.
Hence may b' inferr'd that, though I grant
We 'ave feen i' th' Moon an Elephant,
That Elephant may differ fo
From those upon the earth below,
Both in his bulk, and force, and speed,
As being of a different breed,
That though our own are but flow-pac'd,
Theirs there may fly, or run as fast,
And yet be Elephants, no less
Than thofe of Indian pedigrees.
This faid, another of great worth,
Fam'd for his learned works put forth,
Look'd wife, then faid-All this is true,
That vaster spaces may be past
In less time than the beaft has gone,
Though he 'ad no motion of his own,
Which we can take no measure of,
As you have clear'd by learned proof.
This granted, we may boldly thence
Lay claim t' a nobler inference,
And make this great phænomenon
(Were there no other) ferve alone
To clear the grand hypothefis
Of th' motion of the earth from this.
With this they all were fatisfy'd,
As men are wont o' th' bias'd fide,
Applauded the profound difpute,
And grew more gay and refolute,
By having overcome all doubt,.
Than if it never had fall'n out;
And, to complete their Narrative,
Agreed t' insert this strange retrieve,
But while they were diverted all
With wording the Memorial,
The footboys, for diverfion too,
As having nothing else to do,
Seeing the telescope at leifure,
Turn'd virtuofos for their pleafure;
Began to gaze upon the Moon,
As thofe they waited on had done.
That love to practife what they fee;
When one, whofe turn it was to peep,
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