"What though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestrial ball; What though no real voice nor sound Amidst their radiant orbs be found; "In reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; Forever singing, as they shine, 'The hand that made us is divine'."] A little later, Cotton Mather declared (1721) that the "Copernican hypothesis is now generally preferred," and "that there is no objection against the motion of the earth but what has had a full solution."[376] Soon the semi-popular scientific books took up the Newtonian astronomy. One such was described as "useful for all sea-faring Men, as well as Gentlemen, and Others."[377] "Newtonianisme pour les Dames" was advertised in France in the forties.[378] By 1738 when Pope wrote the _Universal Prayer_: "Yet not to earth's contracted span Thy goodness let me bound Or think thee Lord alone of man, When thousand worlds are round," the Copernican-Newtonian astronomy had become a commonplace to most well-educated people in England. To be sure, the great John Wesley (1770) considered the systems of the universe merely "ingenious conjectures," but then, he doubted whether "more than Probabilities we shall ever attain in regard to things at so great a distance from us."[379] [Footnote 376: Mather: _Christian Philosopher_, 75, 76.] [Footnote 377: Leadbetter: _Astronomy_ (1729).] [Footnote 378: In de Maupertius: _Ouvrages Divers_, (at the back).] [Footnote 379: Wesley: _Compendium of Natural Philosophy_, I, 14, 139.] The old phraseology, however, did recur occasionally, especially in poetry and in hymns. For instance, a hymnal (preface dated 1806) contains such choice selections as: "Before the pondr'ous earthly globe In fluid air was stay'd, Before the ocean's mighty springs Their liquid stores display'd"-- and: "Who led his blest unerring hand Or lent his needful aid When on its strong unshaken base The pondr'ous earth was laid?"[380] [Footnote 380: Dobell: _Hymns_, No. 5, No. 10.] But too much importance should not be attributed to such passages; though poetry and astronomy need not conflict, as Keble illustrated:[381] "Ye Stars that round the Sun of Righteousness In glorious order roll...." [Footnote 381: Keble: _Christian Year_, 279.] By the middle of the 18th century in England, one could say with Horne "that the Newtonian System had been in possession of the chair for some years;"[382] but it had not yet convinced the common people, for as Pike wrote in 1753, "Many Common Christians to this day firmly believe that the earth really stands still and that the sun moves all round the earth once a day: neither can they be easily persuaded out of this opinion, because they look upon themselves bound to believe what the Scripture asserts."[383] [Footnote 382: Horne: _Fair, Candid, Impartial Statement ..._, 4.] [Footnote 383: Pike: _Philosophia Sacra_, 43.]