NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 183 



Immediately they get them gone, 



With this discovery alone, 



That those who greedily pursue 



Things wonderful, instead of true, 



That in their speculations choose 



To make discoveries strange news, 



And nat*ral history a gazette 



Of tales stupendous and far fet ; 



Hold no truth worthy to be known, 



That is not huge and overgrown, 



And explicate appearances, 



Not as they are, but as they please, 



In vain strive nature to suborn, 



And, for their pains, are paid with scorn." 



The famous Cowley, who was one of the earliest members, addressed a complimentary 

 poem to the Royal Society, in the form of a Pindaric ode, which Sprat has prefixed to his 

 History, and which appears to have mitigated his sufferings under the attacks of the 

 hostile wits. Cowley appears to have had the satire of Butler in his eye when he wrote 

 the following lines : 



" Mischief and true dishonour fall on those 



Who would to laughter or to scorn expose 



So virtuous and so noble a design, 



So human for its use, for knowledge so divine. 



The things which these proud men despise, and call 



Impertinent, and vain, and small ; 



Those smallest things of nature let me know, 



Rather than all their greatest actions doe. 



Whoever would deposed truth advance 



Into the throne usurp'd from it, 



Must feel at first the blows of ignorance, 



And the sharp points of envious wit. 



So when by various turns of the celestial dance. 



In many thousand years 



A star, so long unknown, appears, 



