L ic>i ] 



felves upon men of fclence, and treat their fpeculations with 

 difdain. Ben Johnfon has attempted this in one of his mafques 

 with a degree of humour which is not always the portion of 

 thofe who throw ridicule on fcience. Merefool, the clown of 

 the piece, confults an adept, who promifes to inftruil him in all 

 occult fecrets, and to fhew him apparitions of all the learned 

 men of the ancients; but every man who is called for happens 

 to be bufy, from Pythagoras " who has rafhly run himfelf upon 

 " an employment of keeping affes from a field of beans," to 

 Archimedes, who is meditating the invention of 



" A rare moufe trap with owls wings, 



" And a cat's foot to catch the mice alone." 



Not only the fame tafte for ridicule, but the fame ideas 

 we find repeated, with a flight alteration, at different asras; 

 Ariflophanes and Lucian amongft the ancients*, and Butlerf, 



Swift 



* A balloon may be carried forward with certainty and celerity In any direftion 

 where there is no perceptible wind, if it is alternately lowered and elevated by al- 

 tering from time to time its fpecific gravity, which may be done by various means 

 without lofing much hydrogine gas ; and if it be furniflied with fins or fmall fails 

 and be fet to a proper angle with its line of afcent and defcent, their vertical pref- 

 fiire againft the air will impel the balloon forward. 



Swift manoeuvres his Laputa in this manner. 



I tried this invention on a fmall balloon in the houfe of the late ingenious Dr. 

 Uflier, the friend of fcience, and of thofe who wiflied to improve it. 



f See Butler's ridicule of the ingenious idea of making ufe of pendulums for a 

 univerfal meafure. Canto 3d, page 87. 



