THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 131 



"Impale a glow-worm, or Vertii profess, 

 Shine in dignity of F. R. S."^"' 



All unite in obeying their Queen's last command, — "be proud, be 

 selfish, and be dull".^''^ 



In his attack there is no mercy in Pope's heart. Pseudo-sci- 

 ence and true science fall alike to the part of fools. The antag- 

 onism he feels is really innate; it is the artist's nature meeting with 

 the cold intellectualism of science; it is a poet finding facts un- 

 warmed by imaginative fervor. Hence, there is neither sympathy 

 for nor appreciation of ^"*^ the new ideas ; hence, is the bitter irony 

 of these lines that are the acme of Pope's satire against the whole 

 scientific attitude, — 



"0, would the Sons of Men once think their eyes 

 And reason giv'n them but to study Flies! 

 See nature in some partial narrow shape 

 And let the author of the whole escape ; 

 Leafn but to trifle ; or, who most observe, 

 To wonder at their Maker, not to serve ".^°^ 



It was thus that the new science was represented in the satire 

 of the period. In a large measure there was an exploitation 

 of the new interest as a humor, just as the comedies of the times 

 treated it. In such a process no discrimination between pretense 

 and true worth can be found, or is to be expected. As a matter of 

 fact, writing satire became for these poets as great a humor as • 

 they were ever able to find in the "follies and foibles" of other 

 men. This peculiar quality or bias of mind so possessed them that 

 it drew their atfects, spirits and powers "in their confluction, all 

 to run one way". By Ben Jonson's o-rti definition, therefore, these 

 writers were dominated by a satiric humor, which sought to render 

 absurd the interests of all men, which lived and moved and had its 

 being in laughter not always pleasant. It was born in Butler and 

 perished with Pope. 



A peculiar phase of this satiric attitude appeared in those rather 



i"*!!. 435-6. 



K*!. 584. 



1"" See infra, for Pope's use of facts. 



i<^ The Dunciad, IV, I. 454-9. 



