An Animal in the Moon by Jean de La Fontaine

While one philosopher[1] affirms / That by our senses we're deceived, / Another[2] 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,[3] / 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[4] 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[5] -- 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? [6]

[1]: _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.