Poetical Works Author:Samuel Butler Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE ELEPHANT IN THE MOON. A FRAGMENT. A LEARNED man, whom once a week -£- A hundred virtuosos seek,t And like an oracle apply to, T' ask questions, and adm... more »ire, and lie to, Who entertained them all of course, As men take wives for better or worse, And passed them all for men of parts, Though some but sceptics in their hearts; For when they're cast into a lump, Their talents equally must jump; As metals mixed, the rich and base Do both at equal values pass. With these the ordinary debate Was after news, and things of state,Which way the dreadful comet went, In this fragment, which Mr. Thyer found amongst Butler's papers, fairly and correctly transcribed, the general subject of the Elephant in the Moon is resumed. It seems to be the commencement of a projected design to treat more at large the problems and experiments of the Royal Society; and the elastic nature of the scheme laid down in the opening justifies the supposition that it would have exceeded the previous satire in magnitude and importance, had Butler lived to complete his intention. t An allusion, probably, to the meetings held at the house of Sir Kenelm Digby. Great numbers of-persons used also to frequent the house of Boyle, who, in the latter part of his life, when his health was failing, and he was desirous of finally collecting and arranging his writings, found so much inconvenience from this kind of celebrity, that he placed a board over his door with an inscription signifying when he did, and did not, receive visits. To make his wishes more generally known he published an advertisement, setting forth the reasons which compelled him to exclude the large concourse of people who were daily in the habit of calling on him. Although it may be assumed that Butler did not contemplate a direct satire upon Bo...« less