THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 125 



considers man vain and presumptuous who tries "witli random 

 guesses ' ', — 



"To sound Thy searehless providence, 

 From which he sprang. "^^ 

 The best answer to all scientific inquiries, he repeats, is that God 

 so ordained. Otherwise men will reach such absurd conclusions 

 as the "sage Cartesians" hold, who declare that souls stand tip- 

 toe on the pineal gland.'* Here is his attitude summed up in four 

 lines, — 



"That knowledge, which from reason flows. 

 Unless Religion guide its course. 

 And Faith her steady mounds oppose, 

 Is ignorance at best, and often worse ".''^ 

 The same kind of piety inspired Isaac Watts and determined 

 his attitude toward the new ideas. Man has a "silly wandering 

 mind" that resents the close confinement of the flesh, and unless 

 curbed will "coast round the narrow shores of flesh and sense", — 

 "Picking shells and pebbles thence. "^^ "Watts' contempt for human 

 learning finds expression in these rather vigorous lines, — 

 "Touch, heavenly Word, touch these curious souls; 

 Since I have heard but one soft hint from thee 

 From all the vain opinions of the schools 

 (That pageantry of knowing fools) 

 I feel my powers releas'd, and stand divinely free"." 

 Such casual thrusts may be passed by with bare mention, as 

 Gilbert West's "supercilious pedant train ",^^ Somerville's "pre- 

 carious science vain", in which all creation is "nature's puppet- 

 show",^^ and his declaration that "the best elixir is a friend",®" 

 Richard Duke's classification, "Mountebanks, Quakers, Chemists, 

 Trading varlets",^^ and Parnell's "grave frenzy of the chymic 



"^An Ode. 



''* The Fair Nun. 



"^An Ode. 



""> True Riches. 



■" True Learning. 



'* Education. 



'• The Officious Messenger. 



•o To WiUiam Colmore. 



^ The Review. 



