Disc. Most dext’rously.
He dipp’d the insect’s feet in melted wax,
Which hard’ning into slippers as it cool’d,
By these computed he the question’d space.
Streps. O Jupiter, what subtilty of thought![1044]
The witty Butler has also commemorated the same circumstance in his justly celebrated poem of Hudibras:
How many scores a Flea will jump
Of his own length, from head to rump;
Which Socrates and Chærophon
In vain assay’d so long agon.