144 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



"Or azure tribes that o'er the damson bloom, 

 And plant the regions of the ripening plum".^"^ 

 In like manner, Dry den coined a new figure in Annus Mirabilis,^^^ 

 comparing the trade of a nation to the circulation of the blood. 

 This was repeated in Jane Barker's A Farewell to Poetry, and 

 much later in Edward Young's Reflections on the Public Situation. 

 The scientific apparatus appeared on a few occasions. One of 

 the "last sajdngs of a mouse "^^^ was to rejoice that there was "no 

 Gresham engine my lean Corps to squeeze". Shenstone has 

 "empty as the air-pumps drained of air".^^* Congreve called 

 vanity, — 



"That Telescope of fools, through which they spy 

 Merit remote, and think the object nigh."^^'' 

 And Pope wrote, — 



"As the gay Prism but mocks the flatter 'd eye, 

 And gives to ev'ry object ev'ry dye."^^" 

 One of the most elaborate figures is by Andrew Marvell, To the 

 King, on the use of the telescope in observing the spots on the sun. 

 The "sooty chemist" never attained to respectability in the 

 poetry of this period. There are two ways in which he was pre- 

 sented; first, he was "feeding perpetual fires" in the vain hope of 

 transmuting the baser metals into gold, secondly, he was a quack 

 in concocting medicines. As an alchemist the following lines from 

 Parnell's poem. To Mr. Pope, characterize him fairly, — 

 "The new machines in names of ridicule. 

 The grave frenzy of the Chymic fool." 

 The contempt for the chemist's medical skill is voiced by Lady 

 Mary "Wortley Montague in Town Eclogues (Saturday), — 

 ' ' Ye cruel Chemists, what withheld your aid ! 

 Could no pomatum save a trembling maid? 

 How false and trifling is that art ye boast !"^®^ 



"1 Universal Beauty, Bk. I, 243-4. 



"M. 5. 



**• Anonymous. 



i«* The Progress of Taste. 



«» Of Pleasing. 



''■^Essay on Satire. 



107 Town Eclogues, Saturday. 



