And to their incantation ftoop;
They fcorn'd to pore thro' telescope,
Or idly play at bo-peep with her,
To find out cloudy or fair weather,
Which ev'ry almanack can tell,
Perhaps as learnedly and well

As you yourfelf-Then friend, I doubt
You go the farthest way about:

605

Your modern Indian magician

Makes but a hole in th' earth to pifs in,

610

And ftraight refolves all queftions by 't,
And feldom fails to be i' th' right.

The Rofycrufian way's more fure

To bring the devil to the lure;
Each of 'em has a fev'ral gin,
To catch intelligences in.

Some by the note, with fumes, trepan 'em,
As Dunftan did the devil's grannam;
Others with characters and words
Catch 'em, as men in nets do birds;

615

620

And fome with fymbols, figns, and tricks,
Engrav'd in planetary nicks,

With their own influences will fetch 'em

Down from their orbs, arreft, and catch 'em;

Make 'em depofe and answer to

625

All queftions, ere they let them go.

Bumbaftus kept a devil's bird

Shut in the pummel of his fword,

That taught him all the cunning pranks
Of paft and future mountebanks.

Kelly did all his feats upon

The devil's looking-glass, a stone,

630

V. 618.) St. Dunstan was made Archbishop of Canterbury, anno.961. His skill in the liberal arts and sciences (qualifications much above the genius of the age he lived in) gained him first the naine of a Conjurer, and then of a Saint; he is revered as such by the Romanifts, who keep an holyday in honour of him yearly, on the 19th of May.

V. 631.] This Kelly was chief seer, or, as Lilly calls him, Speculater to Dr. Dee; was born at Worcester, and bred an apothecary, and was a good proficient in chymifiry, and pretended to have the grand elixir, or philosopher's stone, which Lilly tells us he made, or at leaft received ready made, from a Friar in Germany, on the confines of the

Where playing with him at bo-peep,
He folv'd all problems ne'er fo deep.
Agrippa kept a Stygian pug,
I' th' garb and habit of a dog,
That was his tutor, and the cur
Read to th' oocult philofopher,
And taught him fubt'ly to maintain
All other fciences are vain.

To this, quoth Sidrophello, Sir,
Agrippa was no conjurer,

Nor Paracelfus, no, nor Behmen;
Nor was the dog a cacodamon,

But a true dog, that would fhew tricks
For the Emperour, and leap o'er sticks;
Would fetch and carry, was more civil
Than other dogs, and yet no devil;

635

640

645

And whatfoe'er he 's faid to do,
He went the felf-fame way we go.

650

As for the Rolycrof's philofophers,

Whom you will have to be but forcerers,

What they pretend to is no more
Than Trifmegiftus did before,
Pythagoras, old Zoroafter,

655

And Apollonius their mafter,

To whom they do confefs they owe

All that they do, and all they know.

Quoth Hudibras, Alas! what is 't t' us

Whether 't was faid by Trifmegiftus,

660

If it be nonfenfe, false, or mystick,

Or not intelligible, or fophiftick?

'Tis not antiquity, nor author,

That makes truth Truth, altho' Time's daughter; 'Twas he that put her in the pit,

665

Before he pull'd her out of it;

Emperor's dominions. He pretended to see apparitions in a crystal or beryl looking-glass (or a round ftone like a cryftal) Alasco, Palatine of Poland, Pucel, a learned Florentine, and Prince Rosemberg of Germany, the Emperor's Viceroy in Bohemia, were long of the society with him and Dr. Dee, and often present at their apparitions, as was once the King of Poland himself: but Lilly observes, that he was sa wicked that the angels would not appear to him willingly, nor be obe

dieat to him.

Nor does it follow, 'caufe a herald

Can make a gentleman, fcarce a year old,

670

To be defcended of a race

675

Of ancient kings in a small space,
That we fhould all opinions hold
Authentick, that we can make old.
Quoth Sidrophel, It is no part
Of prudence to cry down an art,
And what it may perform deny,
Because you understand not why;
(As Averrhois play'd but a mean trick)
To damn our whole art for eccentrick)
For who knows all that knowledge contains?
Men dwell not on the tops of mountains,
But on their fides, or rifings, feat;
So 't is with knowledge's vaft height,
Do not the hift'ries of all ages
Relate miraculous prefages

680

685

Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacks,

Of ftrange turns in the world's affairs,
Forefeen b' aftrologers, foothsayers,

And fome that have writ almanacks?

690

O'erfpread his empire with its branches;
And did not footh layers expound it,

And that a vine, fprung from her haunches,

The Median Emp'rour dream'd his daughter
Had pist all Asia under water,

695

As after by th' event he found it?

V. 669, 670.1 Such gentry were Thomas Pury the elder, firft a weaver in Gloucefter, then an ignorant solicitor. John Blackfion, a poor shopkeeper of Newcatile Ichn Birch, formerly a carrier, afterwards colonel. Richard Sa way, colonel, formerly a grocer's man. Thomas Rainsborough, a skipper of Lynn, colonel and Vice-admiral of England. Colonel Thomas Scot, a brewer's clerk. Colonel Phi

pSkippon, originally a waggoner to Sir Fra. Vere. Colonel John Jones, a serving man. Col. Barkftead, a pitiful thimble and bodkin oldsmith. Colonel Pride, a foundling and drayman. Colonel Hewfon, a one eyed cobler; and Colonel Harrison, a butcher.. These, and hundreds more, affected to be thought gentlemen, and lorded it over persons of the first rank and quality.

When Cæfar in the fenate fell,
Did not the fun eclips'd foretel,
And in refentment of his flaughter,
Look'd pale for almoft a year after?
Auguftus having, b' overfight,
Put on his left thoe 'fore his right,
Had like to have been flain that day,
By foldiers mutin'ing for pay.
Are there not myriads of this fort,
Which ftories of all times report?

Is it not ominous in all countries,

When crows and ravens croak upon trees?

700

705

By pow'rful Art to understand;

Which, how we have perform'd, all ages,

725

Can fpeak th' events of our prefages.
Have we not lately, in the moon,

Found a new world, to th' old unknown?
Difcover'd fea and land Columbus,

Can find your tricks out, and defcry

735

Where you tell truth, and where you lie :

For Anaxagoras, long agon,

Saw hills, as well as you, i' th' moon,
And held the fun was but a piece

Of redhot iron as big as Greece;

740

Believ'd the heav'ns were made of stone,

Because the fun had voided one;

And, rather than he would recant
Th' opinion, fuffer'd banishment.
But what, alas! is it to us,

745

Whether i' th' moon men thus or thus

Do eat their porridge, cut their corns,

Or whether they have tails or horns?

What trade from thence can you advance,
But what we nearer have from France?
What can our travellers bring home,
That is not to be learnt at Rome?

750

Made better there than they 're in France
Or do they teach to fing and play

760

O' th' guitar there a newer way?
Can they make plays there, that shall fit
The publick humour with lefs wit?
Write wittier dances, quainter fhows,
Or fight with more ingenious blows?
Or does the man i' th' moon look big,
And wear a huger periwig?
Shew in his gait, or face, more tricks
Than our own native lunaticks?
But if w' outdo him here at home,
What good of your defign can come ?
As wind i' th' hypocondres pent,
Is but a blaft if downward fent,
But if it upward chance to fly,
Becomes new light and prophecy ;

765

770

775