THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 143 



reader.^°° The Ptolemaic conception of the ten spheres circling 

 the earth as their centre gave to English poetry imagery that has 

 not yet entirely disappeared. It found expression through this 

 period with surprising frequency.'^" The milky way, like comets 

 and meteors, was a stock image. Gradually the power of the tele- 

 scope added a new meaning to it; rarely did a later poet fail to 

 emphasize the fact that it is made up of a multitude of stars. 

 ' ' Thus unseen the Stars i ' th ' Element, 

 United, make the milky way".'^^ 



' ' One glittering thought no sooner strikes the eye. 

 With silent wonder, but new wonders rise; 

 As in the milky way a shining white 

 'erflows the heav 'ns with one continued light ; 

 That not a single star can shew his rays, 

 "Whilst jointly all promote the common blaze ".^^^ 



As the poets began to strike out new figures from the new science 

 the imager}'" was caught up by various writers, even the phrasing 

 being repeated to the point of monotony. The "rolling spheres", 

 the "rolling orbs", and "the dancing maze" are found in practic- 

 ally every description of the sky, just as the "artillery of heaven" 

 resounded for some years after Milton set it off.^^^ Unexpected 

 theories find unexpected repetition. The Royal Society had lis- 

 tened to an explanation of the color of Damson plums as due to 

 a small animal that lived on them. Shadwell ridiculed the idea 

 in The Vhiuoso. Sixty years later Thomson wrote, — 

 * ' The shining plum, 



With a fine bluish mist of animals 



Clouded. "16° 

 And Henry Brooke, ten years afterward, gave expression to the 

 same idea. 



"^Cf. Blackmore, Prince Arthur; Crowne, Pref. to Ambitious Statesman; Con- 

 greve, A Ilymn to Harmony; Winchelsea, The Hymn. 



"« Cf. Otway, Yenice Preserved, Act V, sc. 2 ; Congreve, Of Pleasing, The Birth 

 of the Muse; Rowe, The Fair Penitent, Prologue; Arbuthnot, Enow Thyself; Tickell, 

 On the Prospect of Peace; Pope, Rape of the Lock, Canto II. 



1S7 Wycherley, To a Lady. 



issAddison, An Account of the Qreatest English Poets. 



*^ See Dryden, Burnet. 



^'^ Autumn, pp. 126-7, Crowell. 



