Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/65

CANTO III.] The learned Scaliger complain'd 'Gainst what Copernicus maintain'd, That in twelve hundred years, and odd, The sun had left his ancient road, And nearer to the Earth is come, 'Bove fifty thousand miles from home: Swore 'twas a most notorious flam, And he that had so little shame To vent such fopperies abroad, Deserv'd to have his rump well claw'd: Which Monsieur Bodin hearing, swore That he deserv'd the rod much more, That durst upon a truth give doom, He knew less than the pope of Rome. Cardan believ'd great states depend Upon the tip o' th' Bear's tail's end; That as she whisk'd it t'wards the sun, Strow'd mighty empires up and down;