Unde tremor terris, quâ vi maria alta tumescant
Obicibus ruptis, rursusque in se ipsa residant;
Quid tantum oceano properent se tingere soles
Hyberni,[Hyberni,] vel quæ tardis mora noctibus obstet—
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.”[[39]]
l. 475 and seq.
And, in addition to these classical writers, a modern poet (Mr. Voltaire) appears, by a letter written in the year 1738, to have participated in the regrets expressed by Virgil; and to have been desirous of directing all his faculties towards the sciences. He produced, on the philosophy of Newton, a work which has contributed to the expansion of genius; and, in his epistle to the Marchioness du Chatelet, he pays that great man a very exalted compliment, in these poetic lines:
“Confidens du Tres Haut, substances eternelles,
Qui parez de vos feux, qui couvrez de vos ailes
Le trône oú votre Maitre est assis parmi vous;