Astronomy and “new philosophy”: a poetic comment on science sowing confusion, four hundred years ago.

And new Philosophy calls all in doubt,
The Element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th’earth, and no man’s wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.
And freely men confesse that this world’s spent,
When in the Planets, and the Firmament
They seeke so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out againe to his Atomis.
‘Tis all in peeces, all cohaerence gone….

Man hath weav’d out a net, and this net throwne
Upon the Heavens, and now they are his owne.
Lothe to go up a hill, or labour thus
To goe to heaven, we make heaven come to us.
We spur, we reine the starres, and in their race
They’re diversely content t’obey our pace.

John Donne, “The First Anniversary. An Anatomy of the World”

For another post with Donne, see here.