he sententious force of his maxims on all human
affairs could only have been composed by one who had lived in a
constant intercourse with mankind.[324]

A delightful invention in this poem is "the House of Astragon," a
philosophical residence. Every great poet is affected by the
revolutions of his age. The new experimental philosophy had revived
the project of Lord Bacon's learned retirement, in his philosophical
romance of the _Atalantis_; and subsequently in a time of civil repose
after civil war, Milton, Cowley, and Evelyn attempted to devote an
abode to science itself. These tumults of the imagination subsided in
the establishment of the Royal Society. D'Avenant anticipated this
institution. On an estate consecrated to philosophy stands a retired
building on which is inscribed, "Great Nature's Office," inhabited by
sages, who are styled "Nature's Registers," busily recording whatever
is brought to them by "a throng of Intelligencers," who make "patient
observations" in the field, the garden, the river, on every plant, and
"every fish, and fowl, and beast." Near at hand is "Nature's Nursery,"
a botanical garden. We have also "a Cabinet of Death," "the Monument
of Bodies," an anatomical collection, which leads to "the Monument of
vanished Minds," as the poet finely describes the library. Is it not
striking to find, says Dr. Aikin, so exact a model of _the school of
Linnaeus_?

This was a poem to delight a philosopher; and Hobbes, in a curious
epistle prefixed to the work, has strongly marked its distinct
beauties. "Gondibert" not only came forth with the elaborate panegyric
of Hobbes, but was also accompanied by the high commendatory poems of
Waller and Cowley; a cause which will sufficiently account for the
provocations it inflamed among the poetical crew; and besides these
accompaniments, there is a preface of great length, stamped with all
the force and originality of the poet's own mind; and a postscript, as
sublime from the feelings which dictated it as from the time and place
of its composition.

In these, this great genius pours himself out with all that "glory of
which his large soul appears to have been full," as Hurd has nobly
expressed it.[325] Such a conscious dignity of character struck the
petulant wits with a provoking sense of their own littleness.

A club of wits caballed and produced a collection of short poems
sarcastically entitled "Certain Verses written by several of the
Author's Friends, to