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On Liberty.
293
Of spirit pure, of matter, light, and space
The elastic spring, eternity, time's race,
Strange questions, which so frequently confound
Mairant the subtle, Gravesende the profound,[1]
And which Descartes in vain strove to explore,
Whose vortices are now believed no more.
But then the spirit vanished from my sight
And sought the regions of eternal light.
He was not sent me from the ethereal sky,
To teach the secrets deep of the Most High:
My eyes by too great light had been oppressed,
He said enough, in saying, man be blessed.
The elastic spring, eternity, time's race,
Strange questions, which so frequently confound
Mairant the subtle, Gravesende the profound,[1]
And which Descartes in vain strove to explore,
Whose vortices are now believed no more.
But then the spirit vanished from my sight
And sought the regions of eternal light.
He was not sent me from the ethereal sky,
To teach the secrets deep of the Most High:
My eyes by too great light had been oppressed,
He said enough, in saying, man be blessed.
- ↑ Mr. Gravesende, professor at Leyden; the first who taught Newton's discoveries. Mr. Dortous de Mairant, a gentleman of Béziers, secretary to the Academy of Sciences at Paris.
