Quoth HUDIBRAS, Alas! what is't t' us, Whether 'twas said by TRISMEGISTUS, 660 If it be nonsense, false, or mystick, Or not intelligible, or sophistick? 'Tis not antiquity, nor author, That makes Truth Truth, altho' Times daughter; 'Twas he that put her in the pit 665 Before he pull'd her out of it; And as he eats his sons, just so He feeds upon his daughters too. Nor does it follow, 'cause a herald, Can make a gentleman, scarce a year old, 670 To be descended of a race Of ancient kings in a small space, That we should all opinions hold Authentic that we can make old. Quoth SIDROPHEL, It is no part 675 Of prudence to cry down an art, And what it may perform deny, Because you understand not why (As <k> AVERHOIS play'd but a mean trick To damn our whole art for eccentrick:) 680 For Who knows all that knowledge contains Men dwell not on the tops of mountains, But on their sides, or rising's seat So 'tis with knowledge's vast height. Do not the hist'ries of all ages 685 Relate miraculous presages, Of strange turns in the world's affairs, Foreseen b' Astrologers, Soothsayers, Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacks, And some that have writ almanacks? 690 <l> The MEDIA N emp'ror dreamt his daughter Had pist all ASIA under water, And that a vine, sprung from her haunches, O'erspread his empire with its branches: And did not soothsayers expound it, 695 As after by th' event he found it? <m> When CAESAR in the senate fell, Did not the sun eclips'd foretel, And, in resentment of his slaughter, Look'd pale for almost a year after? 700 <n> AUGUSTUS having, b' oversight, Put on his left shoe 'fore his right, Had like to have been slain that day By soldiers mutin'ing for pay. Are there not myriads of this sort, 705 Which stories of all times report? Is it not ominous in all countries When crows and ravens croak upon trees? <o> The Roman senate, when within The city walls an owl was seen 710 Did cause their clergy, with lustrations, (Our Synod calls humiliations), The round-fac'd prodigy t'avert From doing town or country hurt And if an owl have so much pow'r, 715 Why should not planets have much more, That in a region far above Inferior fowls of the air move, And should see further, and foreknow More than their augury below? 720 Though that once serv'd the polity Of mighty states to govern by And this is what we take in hand By pow'rful art to understand Which, how we have perform'd, all ages 725 Can speak th' events of our presages Have we not lately, in the Moon, Found a New World, to the Old unknown? Discover'd sea and land, COLUMBUS