At this deep SIDROPHEL look'd wise, And staring round with owl-like eyes, He put his face into a posture Of sapience, and began to bluster: For having three times shook his head 795 To stir his wit up, thus he said Art has no mortal enemies, Next ignorance, but owls and geese; Those consecrated geese in orders, That to the Capitol were warders; 800 And being then upon patrol, With noise alone beat off the Gaul: Or those Athenian Sceptic owls, That will not credit their own souls; Or any science understand, 805 Beyond the reach of eye or hand; But meas'ring all things by their own Knowledge, hold nothing's to be known Those wholesale criticks, 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? 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? Or from the pillory 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. 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? Whose liv'ry does the Coachman wear? 845 Or who made Cassiopeia's chair? And therefore, as they came from hence, With us may hold intelligence. PLATO deny'd the world can be Govern'd without geometree, 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 Heav'n's above the earth.