Un Animal dans la lune.

 

Pendant qu'un Philosophe assure,
Que toujours par leurs sens les hommes sont dupés,
Un autre Philosophe jure,
Qu'ils ne nous ont jamais trompés.
Tous les deux ont raison, et la Philosophie
Dit vrai, quand elle dit que les sens tromperont
Tant que sur leur rapport les hommes jugeront ;
Mais aussi si l'on rectifie
L'image de l'objet sur son éloignement,
Sur le milieu qui l'environne,
Sur l'organe et sur l'instrument,
Les sens ne tromperont personne.
La nature ordonna ces choses sagement :
J'en dirai quelque jour les raisons amplement.
J'aperçois le Soleil ; quelle en est la figure ?
Ici-bas ce grand corps n'a que trois pieds de tour :
Mais si je le voyais là-haut dans son séjour,
Que serait-ce à mes yeux que l'oeil de la nature ?
Sa distance me fait juger de sa grandeur ;
Sur l'angle et les côtés ma main la détermine ;
L'ignorant le croit plat, j'épaissis sa rondeur ;
Je le rends immobile, et la terre chemine.
Bref je démens mes yeux en toute sa machine.
Ce sens ne me nuit point par son illusion.
Mon âme en toute occasion
Développe le vrai caché sous l'apparence.
Je ne suis point d'intelligence
Avecque mes regards peut-être un peu trop prompts,
Ni mon oreille lente à m'apporter les sons.
Quand l'eau courbe un bâton ma raison le redresse,
La raison décide en maîtresse.
Mes yeux, moyennant ce secours,
Ne me trompent jamais, en me mentant toujours.
Si je crois leur rapport, erreur assez commune,
Une tête de femme est au corps de la Lune.
Y peut-elle être ? Non. D'où vient donc cet objet ?
Quelques lieux inégaux font de loin cet effet.
La Lune nulle part n'a sa surface unie :
Montueuse en des lieux, en d'autres aplanie,
L'ombre avec la lumière y peut tracer souvent,
Un Homme, un Boeuf, un Eléphant.
Naguère l'Angleterre y vit chose pareille,
La lunette placée, un animal nouveau
Parut dans cet astre si beau ;
Et chacun de crier merveille :
Il était arrivé là-haut un changement
Qui présageait sans doute un grand événement.
Savait-on si la guerre entre tant de puissances
N'en était point l'effet ? Le Monarque accourut :
Il favorise en Roi ces hautes connaissances.
Le Monstre dans la Lune à son tour lui parut.
C'était une Souris cachée entre les verres :
Dans la lunette était la source de ces guerres.
On en rit. Peuple heureux, quand pourront les François
Se donner, comme vous, entiers à ces emplois ?
Mars nous fait recueillir d'amples moissons de gloire :
C'est à nos ennemis de craindre les combats,
A nous de les chercher, certains que la victoire,
Amante de Louis, suivra partout ses pas.
Ses lauriers nous rendront célèbres dans l'histoire.
Même les filles de Mémoire
Ne nous ont point quittés : nous goûtons des plaisirs :
La paix fait nos souhaits et non point nos soupirs.
Charles en sait jouir : Il saurait dans la guerre
Signaler sa valeur, et mener l'Angleterre
A ces jeux qu'en repos elle voit aujourd'hui.
Cependant s'il pouvait apaiser la querelle,
Que d'encens ! Est-il rien de plus digne de lui ?
La carrière d'Auguste a-t-elle été moins belle
Que les fameux exploits du premier des Césars ?
O peuple trop heureux, quand la paix viendra-t-elle
Nous rendre comme vous tout entiers aux beaux-arts ?

 

An Animal in the Moon. (26)

 

While one philosopher[27] affirms
That by our senses we're deceived,
Another[28] swears, in plainest terms,
The senses are to be believed.
The twain are right. Philosophy
Correctly calls us dupes whene'er
Upon mere senses we rely.
But when we wisely rectify
The raw report of eye or ear,
By distance, medium, circumstance,
In real knowledge we advance.
These things hath nature wisely plann'd--
Whereof the proof shall be at hand.
I see the sun: its dazzling glow
Seems but a hand-breadth here below;
But should I see it in its home,
That azure, star-besprinkled dome,
Of all the universe the eye,
Its blaze would fill one half the sky.
The powers of trigonometry
Have set my mind from blunder free.
The ignorant believe it flat;
I make it round, instead of that.
I fasten, fix, on nothing ground it,
And send the earth to travel round it.
In short, I contradict my eyes,
And sift the truth from constant lies.
The mind, not hasty at conclusion,
Resists the onset of illusion,
Forbids the sense to get the better,
And ne'er believes it to the letter.
Between my eyes, perhaps too ready,
And ears as much or more too slow,
A judge with balance true and steady,
I come, at last, some things to know.
Thus when the water crooks a stick,[29]
My reason straightens it as quick--
Kind Mistress Reason--foe of error,
And best of shields from needless terror!
The creed is common with our race,
The moon contains a woman's face.
True? No. Whence, then, the notion,
From mountain top to ocean?
The roughness of that satellite,
Its hills and dales, of every grade,
Effect a change of light and shade
Deceptive to our feeble sight;
So that, besides the human face,
All sorts of creatures one might trace.
Indeed, a living beast, I ween,
Has lately been by England seen.
All duly placed the telescope,
And keen observers full of hope,
An animal entirely new,
In that fair planet, came to view.
Abroad and fast the wonder flew;--
Some change had taken place on high,
Presaging earthly changes nigh;
Perhaps, indeed, it might betoken
The wars[30] that had already broken
Out wildly o'er the Continent.
The king to see the wonder went:
(As patron of the sciences,
No right to go more plain than his.)
To him, in turn, distinct and clear,
This lunar monster did appear.--
A mouse, between the lenses caged,
Had caused these wars, so fiercely waged!
No doubt the happy English folks
Laugh'd at it as the best of jokes.
How soon will Mars afford the chance
For like amusements here in France!
He makes us reap broad fields of glory.
Our foes may fear the battle-ground;
For us, it is no sooner found,
Than Louis, with fresh laurels crown'd,
Bears higher up our country's story.
The daughters, too, of Memory,--
The Pleasures and the Graces,--
Still show their cheering faces:
We wish for peace, but do not sigh.
The English Charles the secret knows
To make the most of his repose.
And more than this, he'll know the way,
By valour, working sword in hand,
To bring his sea-encircled land
To share the fight it only sees to-day.
Yet, could he but this quarrel quell,
What incense-clouds would grateful swell!
What deed more worthy of his fame!
Augustus, Julius[31]--pray, which Caesar's name
Shines now on story's page with purest flame?
O people happy in your sturdy hearts!
Say, when shall Peace pack up these bloody darts,
And send us all, like you, to softer arts?

[26] This fable is founded on a fact which occurred in the experience of the astronomer Sir Paul Neal, a member of the Royal Society of London.--Translator. Sir Paul Neal, whose _lapsus_ suggested this fable, thought he had discovered an animal in the moon.
Unluckily, however, after having made his "discovery" known, it was found that the ground of it was simply the accidental presence of a mouse in the object-glass of his telescope. Samuel Butler, the author of "Hudibras," has also made fun of this otherwise rather
tragical episode in the early history of the Royal Society of London, _vide_ his "Elephant in the Moon."
[27] One philosopher._--Democritus, the so-called "laughing (or scoffing) philosopher." He lived B.C. about 400 years. Fable XXVI., Book VIII., is devoted to him and how he was treated by his contemporaries.
[28] Another.--Epicurus, founder of the Epicurean philosophy. He lived B. C. about 300 years.
[29] Water crooks a stick.--An allusion to the bent appearance which a stick has in water, consequent upon the refraction of light.
[30] The wars_.--This fable appears to have been composed about the beginning of the year 1677. The European powers then found themselves exhausted by wars, and desirous of peace. England, the only neutral, became, of course, the arbiter of the negotiations which ensued at Nimeguen. All the belligerent parties invoked her mediation. Charles II., however, felt himself exceedingly embarrassed by his secret connections with Louis XIV., which made him desire to prescribe conditions favourable to that monarch; while, on the other hand, he feared the people of England, if, treacherous to her interests, he should fail to favour the nations allied and combined against France.--Translator. Vide Hume: who also says that the English king "had actually in secret sold his neutrality to France, and he received remittances of 1,000,000 livres a year, which was afterwards increased to 2,000,000 livres; a considerable sum in the embarrassed state of his revenue." Hume's _Hist. England, Bell's edit., 1854, vol. vi., p. 242.
[31] _Augustus, Julius.--Augustus Caesar was eminent for his pacific policy, as Julius Caesar was eminent for his warlike policy.

Un Animale nella Luna.

 

Di qui viene un filosofo e proclama
che l'uom de' Sensi suoi fatto è zimbello,
di là ne viene un altro e per sé giura
che buon giudice è il Senso. Ebben, io dico
che sta nel ver Filosofia che prova
e l'una cosa e l'altra, ove s'intenda
con discrezion. Se gli uomini nel Senso
ciecamente s'affidano, è comun
fonte d'errori; ma rimosso il velo,
che al Senso fa la lontananza e l'aria
in cui nuotan le cose, e i cento screzi
che la macchina umana e gli apparati
soffron nel tempo, ancor il Senso estimo
che sia netto e fedel specchio del vero.
Saggia fu la natura il dì che queste
cose ordinò nel mondo e un giorno io spero
manifestarne l'intime ragioni.

Quel Sol che vedi di quaggiù, non largo
più di tre spanne, ove potessi in alto,
nella sua sede giudicarlo, immenso,
sterminato diresti occhio del mondo.
Il mio pensier lo immagina, se il giro
colla man ne misuro e lo distendo
per l'infinita via che lo divide
dall'umil Terra. Il contadin lo crede
schiacciato scudo, ma il pensier del saggio
l'arrotonda, lo ferma in mezzo al Cielo
e in giro a lui fa camminar la Terra.
Tutti i miei Sensi io nego e so ritrarne
contro la stessa illusïon de' Sensi
il ver che v'è nascosto, anche se l'occhio
vede color diverso, anche se il suono
tardi arriva all'orecchio che l'accoglie.
È il mio pensier, è la ragion maestra,
che drizza del baston l'angol riflesso
nell'onda chiara, e da ragion guidati,
non sgarrano gli sguardi, e più non sogni
capo di donna della Luna in grembo:
(favola assurda!) male macchie e i nèi
che Cinzia ne' sereni pleniluni
mostra, tu pensi esser montagne, dossi,
che gettan ombre e fan vedere al volgo
uomini spesso e bovi ed elefanti.

In Albïon, or non è molto, un dotto
astronomo, puntando il telescopio,
ben credette veder non so qual mostro
nel bel disco lunar. Io non vi dico
le meraviglie e il grido della gente.
Parve presagio di sicura guerra,
e qual presagio! Accorre anche il monarca
che suol da re proteggere i sublimi
studi, e col suo regal occhio scoperse
il mostro... Ebben, che vi credete, amici?
Fra due lenti rinchiuso un topolino
era sola cagion di tanta guerra.

O popolo beato, a cui null'altra
cagion turba la pace, e te beato,
o buon popol di Francia, il dì che a questi
studi soltanto sacrerai l'ingegno!
Marte ha di palme seminato i campi
e dietro al gran Luigi è la Vittoria
fedele amante. Temono i nemici,
e noi cerchiamo il bel rumor dell'armi,
onde liete saranno anche le Muse
e superba l'Istoria... Ahi! ma la pace
fia sempre a noi dolente desiderio,
non riposo giammai. Carlo, il sovrano
signor inglese, poiché molto in guerra
di valore brillò, cerca comporre
diuturne contese e coll'olivo
benedire la pace. O date incenso
al benigno sovrano! e v'è missione
di re più degna e di tal re? d'Augusto
non fu l'impresa placida più bella
che le geste di Cesare famose?
O veramente popolo beato,
quando verrà questa diletta pace
a ricondur tra noi dell'arti il regno?