Page:The genuine remains in verse and prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (1759), volume 1.djvu/73

And make a geometrical Survey,
Of all her Lands, and how her Country lay,
As accurate, as that of Ireland, where
10 The sly Surveyor's said t' have sunk a Shire:
T'observe her Country's Climate, how 'twas planted,
And what she most abounded with, or wanted;
And draw Maps of her prop'rest Situations
For settling, and erecting new Plantations;
15 If ever the Society should incline
T'attempt so great, and glorious a Design:
A Task in vain, unless the German Kepler^[1]
Had found out a Discovery to people her,
And stock her Country with Inhabitants
20 Of military Men, and Elephants.
For th' Ancients only took her for a Piece
Of red-hot Iron, as big as Peloponese,^[2]
Till he appear'd; for which, some write, she sent
Upon his Tribe as strange a Punishment.^[3]

1. A Task in vain, unless the German Kepler] This and the following Verses to the End of the Paragraph, are not in the foregoing Composition; and are distinguished, as well as the rest of the same Kind, by being printed in the Italic Character.
2. For th' Ancients only took her for a Piece—Of red-hot Iron as big as Peloponese.] Similar to these are those in Hudibras,
   And held the Sun was but a Piece
   Of red-hot Iron, as big as Greece.
   Hudib. P. II. C. 3. ver 739.
   
   
3. Till he appear'd, for which some write, she sent———Upon his Tribe as strange a Punishment.] No doubt by the Punish-

ment