126 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



fool".^^ The same attitude, merely hinted at, is common to all. 

 These men are scoffers, without faith in the new science and without 

 any appreciation of the men and achievements. These lines pre- 

 sent the very essence of their opinions, — 



' ' Wliat can these idle Gimcracks mean ; 

 Ye World-]\Iakers of Gresham-Hall, 

 Dog Rover shall confute you all".®^ 



William Shenstone addressed a poem of considerable length To 

 the Virtuosi. There is in it a vein of contemptuous, satiric 

 raillery, but it seems to have been intended for good-natured bur- 

 lesque. The important thing in it is the characterization of the 

 scientist at this late period in the eighteenth century, — "those 

 curious "Wights ! to whom so fair the form of mortal flies is ! " 

 Men of science "sigh for nature's vermin", "and deem those 

 grubs beyond compare which common sense despises". The same 

 contempt appears in The Progress of Taste, where Damon has fal- 

 len into the grasp of this scientific humor, — 

 "Till passion, misdirected, sighs 

 For weeds, or shells, or grubs, or flies!" 

 Such an interest, says Shenstone, might be admired in boys and 

 girls ' ' of fifteen years and more ' ', but in adults it becomes a folly. 

 A far "nobler passion is to love", — 



" 'Tis time more social joys to prove; 

 'Twere your nobler tasks to love".®* 

 Shenstone 's contempt for physicians and apothecaries is given in 

 The Charms of Precedence. 



This poet failed to understand the scientific passion. It was 

 much better in his judgment to spend one's time in social pleasure 

 than in prying into the secrets of nature, i. e., in studying the forms 

 and habits of insects. For insects to him were only "nature's ver- 

 min", and the man who wasted his life in a contemplation of 

 them was as much to be despised as they. 



Edward Young wrote some cutting satire on the new science in 

 The Universal Passion. He decried that passion in men for an- 

 tiques which leads them to spend all their money for these use- 



«2 To Mr. Pope. 



8* Somerville, The Officious Messenger. 



** The Progress of Taste. 



