To comprehend them.—Cans’t thou boast, like earth, 
 A Kepler, skilful pioneer and wise?— 
 A sage to write his name among the stars 
 Like glorious Herschel?—or a dynasty 
 Like great Cassini’s, which from sire to son 
 Transmitted science as a birthright seal’d? 
 —Rose there some lunar Horrox,—to whose glance 
 Resplendent Venus her adventurous course 
 Reveal’d, even in his boyhood?—some La Place 
 Luminous as the skies he sought to read?— 
 Thou deign’st no answer,—or I fain would ask 
 If since thy bright creation, thou hast seen 
 Ought like a Newton, whose admitted eye 
 The arcana of the universe explored? 
 Light’s subtle ray its mechanism disclosed,