10
Astronomical Dialogues.
Motion of the Heavens.But pray, said she, let me understand what you say as to the present Point a little further; Do the Heavens and the Earth all really move round about one Axis, as these two Globes do round theirs? And are the Poles thus beautifully described by Mr. Dryden, the two Ends of this Axis?
Poles.
Two Poles turn round the Globe, one seen to rise
O'er Scythian Hills, and one in Lybian Skies;
The first sublime in Heav'n, the last is whirl'd
Below the Regions of the nether World;
Around our Poles the spiry Dragon glides,
And like a wandring Stream the Bears divides,
The Less and Greater, who by Fate's Decrees
Abhor to dive beneath the Southern Seas;
There, as they say, perpetual Night is found,
In Silence brooding on th'unhappy Ground:
Or when Aurora leaves our Northern Sphere,
She lights the downward Heav'n, and rises there,
And when on us she breaths the living Light,
Red Vesper kindles there the Tapers of the Night.
Dryden's Virgil.
O'er Scythian Hills, and one in Lybian Skies;
The first sublime in Heav'n, the last is whirl'd
Below the Regions of the nether World;
Around our Poles the spiry Dragon glides,
And like a wandring Stream the Bears divides,
The Less and Greater, who by Fate's Decrees
Abhor to dive beneath the Southern Seas;
There, as they say, perpetual Night is found,
In Silence brooding on th'unhappy Ground:
Or when Aurora leaves our Northern Sphere,
She lights the downward Heav'n, and rises there,
And when on us she breaths the living Light,
Red Vesper kindles there the Tapers of the Night.
Dryden's Virgil.
Shall I ever come to know what these Poles, and Dragons, and Bears, mean?
Very