THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 127 



less things while their families come to want. 85 The following lines 

 show his attitude : 



" No thing exceeds in ridicule, no doubt, 

 A fool in fashion, but a fool that 's out. 



But what in oddness can be more sublime 

 Than Sloane, the foremost toyman of his time? 

 His nice ambition lies in curious fancies, 

 His daughter's portion a rich shell inhances, 

 And Ashmole's baby-house is in his view, 

 Britannia's golden mine, a rich Peru! 

 How his eyes languish ! How his thoughts adore 

 That painted coat, which Joseph never wore! 

 He shows on holidays, a sacred pin 



That touch 'd the ruff, that touch 'd Queen Bess's chin". 86 

 ''Some nymphs", he laments, "prefer astronomy to love", 87 and 

 make appointments with Desagulier and Whiston instead of with 

 a beau. But Young has only scorn for female philosophy. 

 "Sophronia" may try numberless vain experiments with air-pumps, 

 may gaze to-night with rapture on the starry sky through the tele 

 scope, but to-morrow, 



"(0, fickle sex!) 



Lo! Pug from Jupiter her heart has got, 

 Turns out the stars, and Newton is a sot." 88 

 Here again is the attitude of comedy. The followers of science 

 are fools and knaves, all the worse, because this philosophy, which 

 was new in the seventeenth century, is now "gone out of date". 

 Antiquarianism, astronomy, and physics are follies or worse, and 

 need the lashing of satiric verse. 



"Satire! had I thy Dorset's force devine, 

 A knave or fool should perish in each line; 

 Tho' for the first all Westminster should plead, 

 And for the last, all Gresham intercede." 89 



85 Satire I. 



86 Satire IV. 



87 Satire V. 



88 Ibid. 



89 Universal Passion, Satire I. 



