⁠Say first, of God above, or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
Of man what see we, but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Thro’ worlds unnumber’d, tho’ the God be known,
‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
He, who thro’ vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied being peoples ev’ry star,
May tell why heaven has made us as we are:
-Alexander Pope

(I always thought this passage a perfect epigraph for the Science Fiction genre)