Footnote 37: It delights me to soar among the lofty stars; it delights me to leave the earth and this dull habitation, to be wafted upon a cloud, and to stand upon the shoulders of the mighty Atlas. Mr. Dryden has thus translated the original into English verse:— “Pleas’d, as I am, to walk along the sphere Of shining stars, and travel with the year; To leave the heavy earth, and scale the height Of Atlas, who supports the heavenly weight.” ----- And Horace acquaints us with the objects of curiosity and research, in the contemplation of which he envied his friend Iccius, who was occupied in that way, on his farm:— “Quæ mare compescant causæ, quid temperet annum; Stellæ sponte suâ, jussæne, vagentur et errant, Quid premat obscurum Lunæ, quid proferat orbem.”[38] Lib. i. epist. 12, ad _Iccium_. ----- Footnote 38: Dr. Francis thus versifies this passage, in our language:— ————“What bounds old ocean’s tides; What, through the various year, the seasons guides: Whether the stars, by their own proper force, Or foreign pow’r, pursue their wand’ring course: Why shadows darken the pale Queen of Night; Whence she renews her orb, and spreads her light.” ----- Virgil seemed willing to renounce every other study, in order that he might devote himself to the wonders of astronomy. In the second book of his Georgics, he says: “Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musæ, Quarum sacra fero, ingenti perculsus amore, Accipiant; cælique vias et sidera monstrent, Defectus Solis varius, Lunæque labores; Unde tremor terris, quâ vi maria alta tumescant Obicibus ruptis, rursusque in se ipsa residant; Quid tantum oceano properent se tingere soles Hyberni, vel quæ tardis mora noctibus obstet— Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.”[39] l. 475 and seq. And, in addition to these classical writers, a modern poet (Mr. Voltaire) appears, by a letter written in the year 1738, to have participated in the regrets expressed by Virgil; and to have been desirous of directing all his faculties towards the sciences. He produced, on the philosophy of Newton, a work which has contributed to the expansion of genius; and, in his epistle to the Marchioness du Chatelet, he pays that great man a very exalted compliment, in these poetic lines: “Confidens du Tres Haut, substances eternelles, Qui parez de vos feux, qui couvrez de vos ailes Le trône oú votre Maitre est assis parmi vous; Parlez: Du grand Newton n’étiez-vous point jaloux?”[40] ----- Footnote 39: Thus rendered, in English verse, by Mr. Dryden:—