128 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



How the poet's attitude was changed in later years will be shown 

 hereafter, but as revealed at this early period it is cruelly severe. 

 Mark Akenside wrote a poem in Spencerian stanzas on the char- 

 acter of the scientist in The Virtuoso. It is satiric in tone, but 

 good-naturedly so. He regards the scientific interest as a "phan- 

 tasy" whose power fills the mind to the exclusion of judgment. 

 A man so possessed looks at the world "with vitiated sight", so 

 that he neglects his family and forgets his friends in the mad pur- 

 suit of "painted trifles and fantastic toys." Here the virtuoso 

 stands in clear outline, — 



" Book-learn 'd and quaint: a virtuoso hight. 



He many a creature did anatomize, 



Almost unpeopling water, air, and land; 



Beasts, fishes, birds, snails, caterpillars, flies, 



Were laid full low by his relentless hand, 



That oft with gory crimson was distained; 



He many a dog destroyed, and many a cat ; 



Of fleas his bed, of frogs the marshes drained, 



Could tellen if a mite were lean or fat, 



And read a lecture o'er the entrails of a gnat. "^° 

 The knowledge to which this virtuoso lays claim is practically un- 

 bounded — except by usefulness. That realm he never entered. 

 He is learned in the various manners of ancient times, and in rari- 

 ties, — "How the Greek tunic differs from the Roman gown"; he 

 is a curious medallist; he has a rich museum, containing air- 

 pumps, prisms, a Memphian mummy-king, phials of live insects, 

 a tripod of the Pythian Maid, a crocodile, and a table full of rari- 

 ties such as a Bahaman spider's carcass, "a dire serpent's golden 

 skii?.", and some Indian feathers. 



There is here no seriousness, no bitterness ; the poet declares, 

 simply, that the man is foolish who will devote himself to a pur- 

 suit of such knowledge, and yet he may be happy in his folly. As 

 for the poet, he looks on with good-natured ridicule, exploits the 

 absurdity of the "odd humor", and turns away to write a love lyric 

 to Chloe. 



In the poetry of Pope, that satiric epitome of the age, is found 

 an extended treatment of the new science. It is so closely inter- 



wibid. stanza II. 



