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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow INSCRIBED TO THE GENTLEMEN OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, WHO SAILED TO THE POLAR CIRCLE AND THE EQUATOR, IN ORDER TO ASCERTAIN THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH. - The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems).

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INSCRIBED TO THE GENTLEMEN OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, WHO SAILED TO THE POLAR CIRCLE AND THE EQUATOR, IN ORDER TO ASCERTAIN THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems). [1901]

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From The Works of Voltaire, A Contemporary Version, (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901), A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming. Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems).

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols.

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INSCRIBED TO THE GENTLEMEN OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, WHO SAILED TO THE POLAR CIRCLE AND THE EQUATOR, IN ORDER TO ASCERTAIN THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH.

    • Oh truth sublime! Urania, heavenly maid!
    • Bright emanation of the eternal mind,
    • By whom all nature’s secrets are displayed,
    • Who ranges the heavens with spirit unconfined;
    • Whilst you those heroes o’er the seas attend,
    • Sages and ministers of thy sacred laws,
    • From the equator to the pole, attend
    • The words of one that’s zealous in thy cause.
    • On what great business are thy sons intent?
    • They mean to pull the veil from nature’s face;
    • On most important truths their minds are bent,
    • To find earth’s mass, its figure and its space.
    • Their voyage has even roused the silent shades,
    • I see those Grecian heroes’ ghosts arise,
    • Chiefs whom in Colchis the admiring maids
    • Beheld in times of yore with ravished eyes.
    • Ye argonauts, ye demi-gods of Greece,
    • The twins and Orpheus, thou whose sure address
    • Found means to win the much-famed golden fleece,
    • And fair Medea’s charms divine possess;
    • When our famed worthies’ labors you behold,
    • Your own exploits you view with conscious shame;
    • The brightest glories of the times of old
    • Are vanquished and eclipsed by modern fame.
    • Whene’er Greece spoke the listening world admired;
    • And ever her falsehoods could regard obtain;
    • Her writers were by vanity inspired
    • Highly to celebrate achievements vain.
    • Happy the first in glory’s great career,
    • They’re still successful in acquiring fame;
    • Whilst those who later in the lists appear,
    • By all their efforts scarce procure a name.
    • Falsehood in memory’s temple makes abode;
    • Engraves there by credulity’s weak hand,
    • Annals which must to every age be showed,
    • Which as the monuments of truth must stand.
    • Those fables, oh! Urania, heavenly maid,
    • Those names illustrious, usurped, deface;
    • By thee be to the admiring world displayed,
    • Of real heroes the illustrious race.
    • The Genoese, who the new world first found,
    • Cortés who vanquished it, with great surprise
    • Seeing our sages earth’s extent sail round,
    • In terms like these extolled the enterprise:
    • “Our great achievements were by all men praised,
    • Our glorious actions none could emulate,
    • Those to whom mortals oft have altars raised,
    • Were less entitled to the name of great.
    • “We have done much, ’tis true; you have done more;
    • Plutus was in America our guide;
    • Virtue’s your leader, whilst you earth explore,
    • Your breasts resolved in virtue still confide.”
    • Whilst thus they spoke, Newton from heaven looked down,
    • Newton upon them fixed his piercing eyes,
    • And said, “your labors shall my labors crown,
    • Like me to glory’s summit you shall rise.”
    • Whilst mortals, objects of contempt and scorn,
    • Under the yoke of prepossession bend;
    • Wretches who might as well have ne’er been born,
    • Since ere they learn to live, their lives have end;
    • To truth let your immortal spirits soar,
    • Pour on all minds bright truth’s refulgent day;
    • To you the mighty God whom you adore,
    • Has given of His divinity a ray.
    • It is His pleasure that you cultivate
    • The genius which He only can bestow;
    • He that instructs mankind is truly great,
    • The noblest object we behold below.
    • But above all, that monster, envy, fly,
    • And its cursed offspring, which with hellish ire
    • Pursues all merit. Envy sure should die,
    • In those pure souls who to the heavens aspire.
    • Let a vile Zoilus, who carps at all,
    • Revile each genius who adorns the age;
    • Let him his venal quill still dip in gall,
    • Act basely, write with rancor and with rage.
    • Copy those blessed spirits—sons of light—
    • Who in the empyrean wear a starry crown;
    • Who like the great First Mover from the height
    • Of heaven, on mortals look propitious down.