CANTO II.

AND NOW THE GODDESS with attention sweet

Turns to the GNOMES, that circle round her feet;

Orb within orb approach the marshal'd trains,

And pigmy legions darken all the plains;

5 Thrice shout with silver tones the applauding bands,

Bow, ere She speaks, and clap their fairy hands.

So the tall grass, when noon-tide zephyr blows,

Bends it's green blades in undulating rows;

Wide o'er the fields the billowy tumult spreads,

10 And rustling harvests bow their golden heads.

I. "GNOMES! YOUR bright forms, presiding at her birth,

Clung in fond squadrons round the new-born EARTH;

When high in ether, with explosion dire,

From the deep craters of his realms of fire,

15 The whirling Sun this ponderous planet hurl'd,

And gave the astonish'd void another world.

When from it's vaporous air, condensed by cold,

Descending torrents into oceans roll'd;

And fierce attraction with relentless force

20 Bent the reluctant wanderer to it's course.

[_From the deep craters_. l. 14. The existence of solar volcanos is

countenanced by their analogy to terrestrial, and lunar volcanos; and by

the spots on the sun's disk, which have been shewn by Dr. Wilson to be

excavations through its luminous surface, and may be supposed to be the

cavities from whence the planets and comets were ejected by explosions.

See additional notes, No. XV. on solar volcanos.]

[_When from its vaporous air_. l. 17. If the nucleus of the earth was

thrown out from the sun by an explosion along with as large a quantity

of surrounding hot vapour as its attraction would occasion to accompany

it, the ponderous semi-fluid nucleus would take a spherical form from

the attraction of its own parts, which would become an oblate spheroid

from its diurnal revolution. As the vapour cooled the water would be

precipitated, and an ocean would surround the spherical nucleus with a

superincumbent atmosphere. The nucleus of solar lava would likewise

become harder as it became cooler. To understand how the strata of the

earth were afterwards formed from the sediments of this circumfluent

ocean the reader is referred to an ingenious Treatise on the Theory of

the Earth by Mr. Whitehurst, who was many years a watch-maker and

engineer at Derby, but whose ingenuity, integrity, and humanity, were

rarely equalled in any station of life.]

"Where yet the Bull with diamond-eye adorns

The Spring's fair forehead, and with golden horns;

Where yet the Lion climbs the ethereal plain,

And shakes the Summer from his radiant mane;

25 Where Libra lifts her airy arm, and weighs,

Poised in her silver ballance, nights and days;

With paler lustres where Aquarius burns,

And showers the still snow from his hoary urns;

YOUR ardent troops pursued the flying sphere,

30 Circling the starry girdle of the year;

While sweet vicissitudes of day and clime

Mark'd the new annals of enascent Time.

II. "You trod with printless step Earth's tender globe,

While Ocean wrap'd it in his azure robe;

35 Beneath his waves her hardening strata spread,

Raised her PRIMEVAL ISLANDS from his bed,

Stretch'd her wide lawns, and sunk her winding dells,

And deck'd her shores with corals, pearls, and shells.

[_While ocean wrap'd_. l. 34. See additional notes, No. XVI. on the

production of calcareous earth.]

[_Her hardening srata spread_. l. 35. The granite, or moor-stone, or

porphory, constitute the oldest part of the globe, since the limestone,

shells, coralloids, and other sea-productions rest upon them; and upon

these sea-productions are found clay, iron, coal, salt, and siliceous

sand or grit-stone. Thus there seem to be three divisions of the globe

distinctly marked; the first I suppose to have been the original nucleus

of the earth, or lava projected from the sun; 2. over this lie the

recrements of animal and vegetable matter produced in the ocean; and, 3.

over these the recrements of animal and vegetable matter produced upon

the land. Besides these there are bodies which owe their origin to a

combination of those already mentioned, as siliceous sand, fluor,

alabaster; which seem to have derived their acids originally from the

vegetable kingdom, and their earthy bases from sea-productions. See

additional notes, No. XVI. on calcareous earth.]

[_Raised her primeval islands_. l. 36. The nucleus of the earth, still

covered with water, received perpetual increase by the immense

quantities of shells and coralloids either annually produced and

relinquishied, or left after the death of the animals. These would

gradually by their different degrees of cohesion be some of them more

and others less removable by the influence of solar tides, and gentle

tropical breezes, which then must have probably extended from one pole

to the other; for it is supposed the moon was not yet produced, and that

no storms or unequal winds had yet existence.

Hence then the primeval islands had their gradual origin, were raised

but a few feet above the level of the sea, and were not exposed to the

great or sudden variations of heat and cold, as is so well explained in

Mr. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, chap. xvi. Whence the paradise of

the sacred writers, and the golden age of the profane ones, seems to

have had a real existence. As there can be no rainbow, when the heavens

are covered with clouds, because the sun-beams are then precluded from

falling upon the rain-drops opposite to the eye of the spectator, the

rainbow is a mark of gentle or partial showers. Mr. Whitehurst has

endeavoured to show that the primitive islands were only moistened by

nocturnal dews and not by showers, as occurs at this day to the Delta of

Egypt; and is thence of opinion, that the rainbow had no existence till

after the production of mountains and continents. As the salt of the sea

has been gradually accumulating, being washed down into it from the

recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, the sea must originally have

been as fresh as river water; and as it is not yet saturated with salt,

must become annually more saline. See note on l. 119 of this Canto.]

"O'er those blest isles no ice-crown'd mountains tower'd,

40 No lightnings darted, and no tempests lower'd;

Soft fell the vesper-drops, condensed below,

Or bent in air the rain-refracted bow;

Sweet breathed the zephyrs, just perceiv'd and lost;

And brineless billows only kiss'd the coast;

45 Round the bright zodiac danced the vernal hours,

And Peace, the Cherub, dwelt in mortal bowers!

"So young DIONE, nursed beneath the waves,

And rock'd by Nereids in their coral caves,

Charm'd the blue sisterhood with playful wiles,

50 Lisp'd her sweet tones, and tried her tender smiles.

Then, on her beryl throne by Triton's borne,

Bright rose the Goddess like the Star of morn;

When with soft fires the milky dawn He leads,

And wakes to life and love the laughing meads;--

55 With rosy fingers, as uncurl'd they hung

Round her fair brow, her golden locks she wrung;

O'er the smooth surge on silver sandals flood,

And look'd enchantment on the dazzled flood.--

The bright drops, rolling from her lifted arms,

60 In slow meanders wander o'er her charms,

Seek round her snowy neck their lucid track,

Pearl her white shoulders, gem her ivory back,

Round her fine waist and swelling bosom swim,

And star with glittering brine each crystal limb.--

65 --The immortal form enamour'd Nature hail'd,

And Beauty blazed to heaven and earth, unvail'd.

[_So young Dione_. l. 47. There is an antient gem representing Venus

rising out of the ocean supported by two Tritons. From the formality of

the design it would appear to be of great antiquity before the

introduction of fine taste into the world. It is probable that this

beautiful allegory was originally an hieroglyphic picture (before the

invention of letters) descriptive of the formation of the earth from the

ocean, which seems to have been an opinion of many of the most antient

philosophers.]

III. "You! who then, kindling after many an age,

Saw with new fires the first VOLCANO rage,

O'er smouldering heaps of livid sulphur swell

70 At Earth's firm centre, and distend her shell,

Saw at each opening cleft the furnace glow,

And seas rush headlong on the gulphs below.--

GNOMES! how you shriek'd! when through the troubled air

Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war;

75 When rose the continents, and sunk the main,

And Earth's huge sphere exploding burst in twain.--

GNOMES! how you gazed! when from her wounded side

Where now the South-Sea heaves its waste of tide,

Rose on swift wheels the MOON'S refulgent car,

80 Circling the solar orb; a sister-star,

Dimpled with vales, with shining hills emboss'd,

And roll'd round Earth her airless realms of frost.

[_The first volcano_. l. 68. As the earth before the existence of

earthquakes was nearly level, and the greatest part of it covered with

sea; when the first great fires began deep in the internal parts of it,

those parts would become much expanded; this expansion would be

gradually extended, as the heat increased, through the whole terraqueous

globe of 7000 miles diameter; the crust would thence in many places open

into fissures, which by admitting the sea to flow in upon the fire,

would produce not only a quantity of steam beyond calculation by its

expansion, but would also by its decomposition produce inflammable air

and vital air in quantities beyond conception, sufficient to effect

those violent explosions, the vestiges of which all over the world

excite our admiration and our study; the difficulty of understanding how

subterraneous fires could exist without the presence of air has

disappeared since Dr. Priestley's discoveries of such great quantities

of pure air which constitute all the acids, and consequently exist in

all saline bodies, as sea-salt, nitre, lime-stone, and in all calciform

ores, as manganese, calamy, ochre, and other mineral substances. See an

ingenious treatise by Mr. Michel on earthquakes in the Philos. Trans.

In these first tremendous ignitions of the globe, as the continents were

heaved up, the vallies, which now hold the sea, were formed by the earth

subsiding into the cavities made by the rising mountains; as the steam,

which raised them condensed; which would thence not have any caverns of

great extent remain beneath them, as some philosophers have imagined.

The earthquakes of modern days are of very small extent indeed compared

to those of antient times, and are ingeniously compared by M. De Luc to

the operations of a mole-hill, where from a small cavity are raised from

time to time small quantities of lava or pumice stone. Monthly Review,

June, 1790.]

[_The moon's refulgent car_. l. 79. See additional notes, No. XV. on

solar volcanos.]

[_Her airless realms of frost_. l. 82. If the moon had no atmosphere at

the time of its elevation from the earth; or if its atmosphere was

afterwards stolen from it by the earth's attraction; the water on the

moon would rise quickly into vapour; and the cold produced by a certain

quantity of this evaporation would congeal the remainder of it. Hence it

is not probable that the moon is at present inhabited, but as it seems

to have suffered and to continue to suffer much by volcanos, a

sufficient quantity of air may in process of time be generated to

produce an atmosphere; which may prevent its heat from so easily

escaping, and its water from so easily evaporating, and thence become

fit for the production of vegetables and animals.

That the moon possesses little or no atmosphere is deduced from the

undiminished lustre of the stars, at the instant when they emerge from

behind her disk. That the ocean of the moon is frozen, is confirmed from

there being no appearance of lunar tides; which, if they existed, would

cover the part of her disk nearest the earth. See note on Canto III. l.

61.]

"GNOMES! how you trembled! with the dreadful force

When Earth recoiling stagger'd from her course;

85 When, as her Line in slower circles spun,

And her shock'd axis nodded from the sun,

With dreadful march the accumulated main

Swept her vast wrecks of mountain, vale, and plain;

And, while new tides their shouting floods unite,

90 And hail their Queen, fair Regent of the night;

Chain'd to one centre whirl'd the kindred spheres,

And mark'd with lunar cycles solar years.

[_When earth recoiling_. l. 84. On supposition that the moon was thrown

from the earth by the explosion of water or the generation of other

vapours of greater power, the remaining part of the globe would recede

from its orbit in one direction as the moon receded in another, and that

in proportion to the respective momentum of each, and would afterwards

revolve round their common centre of gravity.

If the moon rose from any part of the earth except exactly at the line

or poles, the shock would tend to turn the axis of the earth out of its

previous direction. And as a mass of matter rising from deep parts of

the globe would have previously acquired less diurnal velocity than the

earth's surface from whence it rose, it would receive during the time of

its rising additional velocity from the earth's surface, and would

consequently so much retard the motion of the earth round its axis.

When the earth thus receded the shock would overturn all its buildings

and forests, and the water would rush with inconceivable violence over

its surface towards the new satellite, from two causes, both by its not

at first acquiring the velocity with which the earth receded, and by the

attraction of the new moon, as it leaves the earth; on these accounts at

first there would be but one tide till the moon receded to a greater

distance, and the earth moving round a common centre of gravity between

them, the water on the side furthest from the moon would acquire a

centrifugal force in respect to this common centre between itself and

the moon.]

IV. "GNOMES! you then bade dissolving SHELLS distil

From the loose summits of each shatter'd hill,

95 To each fine pore and dark interstice flow,

And fill with liquid chalk the mass below.

Whence sparry forms in dusky caverns gleam

With borrow'd light, and twice refract the beam;

While in white beds congealing rocks beneath

100 Court the nice chissel, and desire to breathe.--

[Footnote: _Dissolving shells distil_. l. 93. The lime-stone rocks have

had their origin from shells formed beneath the sea, the softer strata

gradually dissolving and filling up the interstices of the harder ones,

afterwards when these accumulations of shells were elevated above the

waters the upper strata became dissolved by the actions of the air and

dews, and filled up the interstices beneath, producing solid rocks of

different kinds from the coarse lime-stones to the finest marbles. When

those lime-stones have been in such a situation that they could form

perfect crystals they are called spars, some of which possess a double

refraction, as observed by Sir Isaac Newton. When these crystals are

jumbled together or mixed with some colouring impurities it is termed

marble, if its texture be equable and firm; if its texture be coarse and

porous yet hard, it is called lime-stone; if its texture be very loose

and porous it is termed chalk. In some rocks the shells remain almost

unchanged and only covered, or bedded with lime-stone, which seems to

have been dissolved and sunk down amongst them. In others the softer

shells and bones are dissolved, and only sharks teeth or harder echini

have preserved their form inveloped in the chalk or lime-stone; in some

marbles the solution has been compleat and no vestiges of shell appear,

as in the white kind called statuary by the workmen. See addit. notes,

No. XVI.]

"Hence wearied HERCULES in marble rears

His languid limbs, and rests a thousand years;

Still, as he leans, shall young ANTINOUS please

With careless grace, and unaffected ease;

105 Onward with loftier step APOLLO spring,

And launch the unerring arrow from the string;

In Beauty's bashful form, the veil unfurl'd,

Ideal VENUS win the gazing world.

Hence on ROUBILIAC'S tomb shall Fame sublime

110 Wave her triumphant wings, and conquer Time;

Long with soft touch shall DAMER'S chissel charm,

With grace delight us, and with beauty warm;

FOSTER'S fine form shall hearts unborn engage,

And MELBOURN's smile enchant another age.

[_Hence wearied Hercules_. l. 101. Alluding to the celebrated Hercules

of Glyco resting after his labours; and to the easy attitude of

Antinous; the lofty step of the Apollo of Belvidere; and the retreating

modesty of the Venus de Medici. Many of the designs by Roubiliac in

Westminster Abbey are uncommonly poetical; the allegory of Time and Fame

contending for the trophy of General Wade, which is here alluded to, is

beautifully told; the wings of Fame are still expanded, and her hair

still floating in the air; which not only shews that she has that moment

arrived, but also that her force is not yet expended; at the same time,

that the old figure of Time with his disordered wings is rather leaning

backwards and yielding to her impulse, and must apparently in another

instant be driven from his attack upon the trophy.]

[_Foster's fine form_. l. 113. Alluding to the beautiful statues of Lady

Elizabeth Foster and of Lady Melbourn executed by the ingenious Mrs.

Damer.]

115 V. GNOMES! you then taught transuding dews to pass

Through time-fall'n woods, and root-inwove morass

Age after age; and with filtration fine

Dispart, from earths and sulphurs, the saline.

[_Root-inwove morass_. l. 116. The great mass of matter which rests upon

the lime-stone strata of the earth, or upon the granite where the lime-

stone stratum has been removed by earthquakes or covered by lava, has

had its origin from the recrements of vegetables and of air-breathing

animals, as the lime-stone had its origin from sea animals. The whole

habitable world was originally covered with woods, till mankind formed

themselves into societies, and subdued them by fire and by steel. Hence

woods in uncultivated countries have grown and fallen through many ages,

whence morasses of immense extent; and from these as the more soluble

parts were washed away first, were produced sea-salt, nitre, iron, and

variety of acids, which combining with calcareous matter were productive

of many fossil bodies, as flint, sea-sand, selenite, with the precious

stones, and perhaps the diamond. See additional notes, No. XVII.]

1. "HENCE with diffusive SALT old Ocean steeps

120 His emerald shallows, and his sapphire deeps.

Oft in wide lakes, around their warmer brim

In hollow pyramids the crystals swim;

Or, fused by earth-born fires, in cubic blocks

Shoot their white forms, and harden into rocks.

[_Hence with diffusive salt_. l. 119. Salts of various kinds are

produced from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, such as

phosphoric, ammoniacal, marine salt, and others; these are washed from

the earth by rains, and carried down our rivers into the sea; they seem

all here to decompose each other except the marine salt, which has

therefore from the beginning of the habitable world been perpetually

accumulating.

There is a town in the immense salt-mines of Cracow in Poland, with a

market-place, a river, a church, and a famous statue, (here supposed to

be of Lot's wife) by the moist or dry appearance of which the

subterranean inhabitants are said to know when the weather is fair above

ground. The galleries in these mines are so numerous and so intricate,

that workmen have frequently lost their way, their lights having been

burnt out, and have perished before they could be found. Essais, &c. par

M. Macquart. And though the arches of these different stories of

galleries are boldly executed, yet they are not dangerous; as they are

held together or supported by large masses of timber of a foot square;

and these vast timbers remain perfectly sound for many centuries, while

all other pillars whether of brick, cement, or salt soon dissolve or

moulder away. Ibid. Could the timbers over water-mill wheels or cellars,

be thus preserved by occasionally soaking them with brine? These immense

masses of rock-salt seem to have been produced by the evaporation of

sea-water in the early periods of the world by subterranean fires. Dr.

Hutton's Theory of the Earth. See also Theorie des Sources Salees, par

Mr. Struve. Histoire de Sciences de Lausanne. Tom. II. This idea of Dr.

Hutton's is confirmed by a fact mentioned in M. Macquart's Essais sur

Minerologie, who found a great quantity of fossil shells, principally

bi-valves and madre-pores, in the salt-mines of Wialiczka near Cracow.

During the evaporation of the lakes of salt-water, as in artificial

salt-works, the salt begins to crystallize near the edges where the

water is shallowest, forming hollow inverted pyramids; which, when they

become of a certain size, subside by their gravity; if urged by a

stronger fire the salt fuses or forms large cubes; whence the salt

shaped in hollow pyramids, called flake-salt, is better tasted and

preserves flesh better, than the basket or powder salt; because it is

made by less heat and thence contains more of the marine acid. The sea-

water about our island contains from about one twenty-eighth to one

thirtieth part of sea-salt, and about one eightieth of magnesian salt.

See Brownrigg on Salt. See note on Ocymum, Vol. II. of this work.]

125 "Thus, cavern'd round in CRACOW'S mighty mines,

With crystal walls a gorgeous city shines;

Scoop'd in the briny rock long streets extend

Their hoary course, and glittering domes ascend;

Down the bright steeps, emerging into day,

130 Impetuous fountains burst their headlong way,

O'er milk-white vales in ivory channels spread,

And wondering seek their subterraneous bed.

Form'd in pellucid salt with chissel nice,

The pale lamp glimmering through the sculptured ice,

135 With wild reverted eyes fair LOTTA stands,

And spreads to Heaven, in vain, her glassy hands;

Cold dews condense upon her pearly breast,

And the big tear rolls lucid down her vest.

Far gleaming o'er the town transparent fanes

140 Rear their white towers, and wave their golden vanes;

Long lines of lustres pour their trembling rays,

And the bright vault returns the mingled blaze.

2. "HENCE orient NITRE owes it's sparkling birth,

And with prismatic crystals gems the earth,

145 O'er tottering domes in filmy foliage crawls,

Or frosts with branching plumes the mouldering walls.

As woos Azotic Gas the virgin Air,

And veils in crimson clouds the yielding Fair,

Indignant Fire the treacherous courtship flies,

150 Waves his light wing, and mingles with the skies.

[_Hence orient Nitre_. l. 143. Nitre is found in Bengal naturally

crystallized, and is swept by brooms from earths and stones, and thence

called sweepings of nitre. It has lately been found in large quantities

in a natural bason of calcareous earth at Molfetta in Italy, both in

thin strata between the calcareous beds, and in efflorescences of

various beautiful leafy and hairy forms. An account of this nitre-bed is

given by Mr. Zimmerman and abridged in Rozier's Journal de Physique

Fevrier. 1790. This acid appears to be produced in all situations where

animal and vegetable matters are compleatly decomposed, and which are

exposed to the action of the air as on the walls of stables, and

slaughter-houses; the crystals are prisms furrowed by longitudinal

groves.

Dr. Priestley discovered that nitrous air or gas which he obtained by

dissolving metals in nitrous acid, would combine rapidly with vital air,

and produce with it a true nitrous acid; forming red clouds during the

combination; the two airs occupy only the space before occupied by one

of them, and at the same time heat is given out from the new

combination. This dimunition of the bulk of a mixture of nitrous gas and

vital air, Dr. Priestley ingeniously used as a test of the purity of the

latter; a discovery of the greatest importance in the analysis of airs.

Mr. Cavendish has since demonstrated that two parts of vital air or

oxygene, and one part of phlogistic air or azote, being long exposed to

electric shocks, unite, and produce nitrous acid. Philos. Trans. Vols.

LXXV. and LXXVIII.

Azote is one of the most abundant elements in nature, and combined with

calorique or heat, it forms azotic gas or phlogistic air, and composes

two thirds of the atmosphere; and is one of the principal component

parts of animal bodies, and when united to vital air or oxygene produces

the nitrous acid. Mr. Lavoisier found that 211/2 parts by weight of

azote, and 431/2 parts of oxygene produced 64 parts of nitrous gas, and

by the further addition of 36 parts of oxygene nitrous acid was

produced. Traité de Chimie. When two airs become united so as to produce

an unelastic liquid much calorique or heat is of necessity expelled from

the new combination, though perhaps nitrous acid and oxygenated marine

acid admit more heat into their combinations than other acids.]

"So Beauty's GODDESS, warm with new desire,

Left, on her silver wheels, the GOD of Fire;

Her faithless charms to fiercer MARS resign'd,

Met with fond lips, with wanton arms intwin'd.

155 --Indignant VULCAN eyed the parting Fair,

And watch'd with jealous step the guilty pair;

O'er his broad neck a wiry net he flung,

Quick as he strode, the tinkling meshes rung;

Fine as the spider's flimsy thread He wove

160 The immortal toil to lime illicit love;

Steel were the knots, and steel the twisted thong,

Ring link'd in ring, indissolubly strong;

On viewless hooks along the fretted roof

He hung, unseen, the inextricable woof.--

165 --Quick start the springs, the webs pellucid spread,

And lock the embracing Lovers on their bed;

Fierce with loud taunts vindictive VULCAN springs,

Tries all the bolts, and tightens all the strings,

Shakes with incessant shouts the bright abodes,

170 Claps his rude hands, and calls the festive Gods.--

--With spreading palms the alarmed Goddess tries

To veil her beauties from celestial eyes,

Writhes her fair limbs, the slender ringlets strains,

And bids her Loves untie the obdurate chains;

175 Soft swells her panting bosom, as she turns,

And her flush'd cheek with brighter blushes burns.

Majestic grief the Queen of Heaven avows,

And chaste Minerva hides her helmed brows;

Attendant Nymphs with bashful eyes askance

180 Steal of intangled MARS a transient glance;

Surrounding Gods the circling nectar quaff,

Gaze on the Fair, and envy as they laugh.

3. "HENCE dusky IRON sleeps in dark abodes,

And ferny foliage nestles in the nodes;

185 Till with wide lungs the panting bellows blow,

And waked by fire the glittering torrents flow;

--Quick whirls the wheel, the ponderous hammer falls,

Loud anvils ring amid the trembling walls,

Strokes follow strokes, the sparkling ingot shines,

190 Flows the red slag, the lengthening bar refines;

Cold waves, immersed, the glowing mass congeal,

And turn to adamant the hissing Steel.

[_Hence dusky Iron_. l. 183. The production of iron from the

decomposition of vegetable bodies is perpetually presented to our view;

the waters oozing from all morasses are chalybeate, and deposit their

ochre on being exposed to the air, the iron acquiring a calciform state

from its union with oxygene or vital air. Where thin morasses lie on

beds of gravel the latter are generally stained by the filtration of

some of the chalybeate water through them. This formation of iron from

vegetable recrements is further evinced by the fern leaves and other

parts of vegetables, so frequently found in the centre of the knobs or

nodules of some iron-ores.

In some of these nodules there is a nucleus of whiter iron-earth

surrounded by many concentric strata of darker and lighter iron-earth

alternately. In one, which now lies before me, the nucleus is a prism of

a triangular form with blunted angles, and about half an inch high, and

an inch and half broad; on every side of this are concentric strata of

similar iron-earth alternately browner and less brown; each stratum is

about a tenth of an inch in thickness and there are ten of them in

number. To what known cause can this exactly regular distribution of so

many earthy strata of different colours surrounding the nucleus be

ascribed? I don't know that any mineralogists have attempted an

explanation of this wonderful phenomenon. I suspect it is owing to the

polarity of the central nucleus. If iron-filings be regularly laid on

paper by means of a small sieve, and a magnet be placed underneath, the

filings will dispose themselves in concentric curves with vacant

intervals between them. Now if these iron-filings are conceived to be

suspended in a fluid, whose specific gravity is similar to their own,

and a magnetic bar was introduced as an axis into this fluid, it is easy

to foresee that the iron filings would dispose themselves into

concentric spheres, with intervals of the circumnatant fluid between

them, exactly as is seen in these nodules of iron-earth. As all the

lavas consist of one fourth of iron, (Kirvan's Mineral) and almost all

other known bodies, whether of animal or vegetable origin, possess more

or less of this property, may not the distribution of a great portion of

the globe of the earth into strata of greater or less regularity be

owing to the polarity of the whole?]

[_And turn to adamant_. l. 192. The circumstances which render iron more

valuable to mankind than any other metal are, 1. its property of being

rendered hard to so great a degree and thus constituting such excellent

tools. It was the discovery of this property of iron, Mr. Locke thinks,

that gave such pre-eminence to the European world over the American one.

2. Its power of being welded; that is, when two pieces are made very hot

and applied together by hammering, they unite compleatly, unless any

scale of iron intervenes; and to prevent this it is usual for smiths to

dip the very hot bar in sand, a little of which fuses into fluid glass

with the scale and is squeezed out from between the uniting parts by the

force of hammering. 3. Its power of acquiring magnetism.

It is however to be wished that gold or silver were discovered in as

great quantity as iron, since these metals being indestructible by

exposure to air, water, fire or any common acids would supply wholesome

vessels for cookery, so much to be desired, and so difficult to obtain,

and would form the most light and durable coverings for houses, as well

as indestructible fire-grates, ovens, and boiling vessels. See

additional notes, No. XVIII. on Steel.]

"Last MICHELL'S hands with touch of potent charm

The polish'd rods with powers magnetic arm;

195 With points directed to the polar stars

In one long line extend the temper'd bars;

Then thrice and thrice with steady eye he guides,

And o'er the adhesive train the magnet slides;

The obedient Steel with living instinct moves,

200 And veers for ever to the pole it loves.

[_Last Michell's hands_. l. 193. The discovery of the magnet seems to

have been in very early times; it is mentioned by Plato, Lucretius,

Pliny, and Galen, and is said to have taken its name of magnes from

Magnesia, a sea-port of antient Lybia.

As every piece of iron which was made magnetical by the touch of a

magnet became itself a magnet, many attempts were made to improve these

artificial magnets, but without much success till Servingdon Savary,

Esq. made them of hardened steel bars, which were so powerful that one

of them weighing three pounds averdupois would lift another of the same

weight. Philos. Trans.

After this Dr. Knight made very successful experiments on this subject,

which, though he kept his method secret, seems to have excited others to

turn their attention to magnetism. At this time the Rev. Mr. Michell

invented an equally efficacious and more expeditious way of making

strong artificial magnets, which he published in the end of the year

1750, in which he explained his method of what he called "the double

touch", and which, since Mr. Knight's method has been known, appears to

be somewhat different from it.

This method of rendering bars of hardened steel magnetical consists in

holding vertically two or more magnetic bars nearly parallel to each

other with their opposite poles very near each other (but nevertheless

separated to a small distance), these are to be slided over a line of

bars laid horizontally a few times backward and forward. See Michell on

Magnetism, also a detailed account in Chamber's Dictionary.

What Mr. Michell proposed by this method was to include a very small

portion of the horizontal bars, intended to be made magnetical, between

the joint forces of two or more bars already magnetical, and by sliding

them from end to end every part of the line of bars became successively

included, and thus bars possessed of a very small degree of magnetism to

begin with, would in a few times sliding backwards and forwards make the

other ones much more magnetical than themselves, which are then to be

taken up and used to touch the former, which are in succession to be

laid down horizontally in a line.

There is still a great field remains for future discoveries in magnetism

both in respect to experiment and theory; the latter consists of vague

conjectures the more probable of which are perhaps those of Elpinus, as

they assimulate it to electricity.

One conjecture I shall add, viz. that the polarity of magnetism may be

owing to the earth's rotatory motion. If heat, electricity, and

magnetism are supposed to be fluids of different gravities, heat being

the heaviest of them, electricity the next heavy, and magnetism the

lightest, it is evident that by the quick revolution of the earth the

heat will be accumulated most over the line, electricity next beneath

this, and that the magnetism will be detruded to the poles and axis of

the earth, like the atmospheres of common air and of inflammable gas, as

explained in the note on Canto I. l. 123.

Electricity and heat will both of them displace magnetism, and this

shows that they may gravitate on each other; and hence when too great a

quantity of the electric fluid becomes accumulated at the poles by

descending snows, or other unknown causes, it may have a tendency to

rise towards the tropics by its centrifugal force, and produce the

northern lights. See additional notes, No. I.]

"Hail, adamantine STEEL! magnetic Lord!

King of the prow, the plowshare, and the sword!

True to the pole, by thee the pilot guides

His steady helm amid the struggling tides,

205 Braves with broad sail the immeasurable sea,

Cleaves the dark air, and asks no star but Thee.--

By thee the plowshare rends the matted plain,

Inhumes in level rows the living grain;

Intrusive forests quit the cultured ground,

210 And Ceres laughs with golden fillets crown'd.--

O'er restless realms when scowling Discord flings

Her snakes, and loud the din of battle rings;

Expiring Strength, and vanquish'd Courage feel

Thy arm resistless, adamantine STEEL!

215 4. "HENCE in fine streams diffusive ACIDS flow,

Or wing'd with fire o'er Earth's fair bosom blow;

Transmute to glittering Flints her chalky lands,

Or sink on Ocean's bed in countless Sands.

Hence silvery Selenite her chrystal moulds,

220 And soft Asbestus smooths his silky folds;

His cubic forms phosphoric Fluor prints,

Or rays in spheres his amethystine tints.

Soft cobweb clouds transparent Onyx spreads,

And playful Agates weave their colour'd threads;

225 Gay pictured Mochoes glow with landscape-dyes,

And changeful Opals roll their lucid eyes;

Blue lambent light around the Sapphire plays,

Bright Rubies blush, and living Diamonds blaze.

[_Diffusive Acids flow_. l. 215. The production of marine acid from

decomposing vegetable and animal matters with vital air, and of nitrous

acid from azote and vital air, the former of which is united to its

basis by means of the exhalations from vegetable and animal matters,

constitute an analogy which induces us to believe that many other acids

have either their bases or are united to vital air by means of some part

of decomposing vegetable and animal matters.

The great quantities of flint sand whether formed in mountains or in the

sea would appear to derive its acid from the new world, as it is found

above the strata of lime-stone and granite which constitute the old

world, and as the earthy basis of flint is probably calcareous, a great

part of it seems to be produced by a conjunction of the new and old

world; the recrements of air-breathing animals and vegetables probably

afford the acid, and the shells of marine animals the earthy basis,

while another part may have derived its calcareous part also from the

decomposition of vegetable and animal bodies.

The same mode of reasoning seems applicable to the siliceous stones

under various names, as amethyst, onyx, agate, mochoe, opal, &c. which

do not seem to have undergone any process from volcanic fires, and as

these stones only differ from flint by a greater or less admixture of

argillaceous and calcareous earths. The different proportions of which

in each kind of stone may be seen in Mr. Kirwan's valuable Elements of

Mineralogy. See additional notes, No. XIX.]

[_Living diamonds blaze_. l. 228. Sir Isaac Newton having observed the

great power of refracting light, which the diamond possesses above all

other crystallized or vitreous matter, conjectured that it was an

inflammable body in some manner congealed. Insomuch that all the light

is reflected which falls on any of its interior surfaces at a greater

angle of incidence than 241/2 degrees; whereas an artificial gem of

glass does not reflect any light from its hinder surface, unless that

surface is inclined in an angle of 41 degrees. Hence the diamond

reflects half as much more light as a factitious gem in similar

circumstances; to which must be added its great transparency, and the

excellent polish it is capable of. The diamond had nevertheless been

placed at the head of crystals or precious stones by the mineralogists,

till Bergman ranged it of late in the combustible class of bodies,

because by the focus of Villette's burning mirror it was evaporated by a

heat not much greater than will melt silver, and gave out light. Mr.

Hoepfner however thinks the dispersion of the diamond by this great heat

should be called a phosphorescent evaporation of it, rather than a

combustion; and from its other analogies of crystallization, hardness,

transparency, and place of its nativity, wishes again to replace it

amongst the precious stones. Observ. sur la Physique, par Rozier, Tom.

XXXV. p. 448. See new edition of the Translation of Cronsted, by De

Costa.]

"Thus, for attractive earth, inconstant JOVE

230 Mask'd in new shapes forsook his realms above.--

First her sweet eyes his Eagle-form beguiles,

And HEBE feeds him with ambrosial smiles;

Next the chang'd God a Cygnet's down assumes,

And playful LEDA smooths his glossy plumes;

235 Then glides a silver Serpent, treacherous guest!

And fair OLYMPIA folds him in her breast;

Now lows a milk-white Bull on Afric's strand,

And crops with dancing head the daisy'd land.--

With rosy wreathes EUROPA'S hand adorns

240 His fringed forehead, and his pearly horns;

Light on his back the sportive Damsel bounds,

And pleased he moves along the flowery grounds;

Bears with slow step his beauteous prize aloof,

Dips in the lucid flood his ivory hoof;

245 Then wets his velvet knees, and wading laves

His silky sides amid the dimpling waves.

While her fond train with beckoning hands deplore,

Strain their blue eyes, and shriek along the shore;

Beneath her robe she draws her snowy feet,

250 And, half-reclining on her ermine seat,

Round his raised neck her radiant arms she throws,

And rests her fair cheek on his curled brows;

Her yellow tresses wave on wanton gales,

And high in air her azure mantle sails.

255 --Onward He moves, applauding Cupids guide,

And skim on shooting wing the shining tide;

Emerging Triton's leave their coral caves,

Sound their loud conchs, and smooth the circling waves,

Surround the timorous Beauty, as she swims,

260 And gaze enamour'd on her silver limbs.

--Now Europe's shadowy shores with loud acclaim

Hail the fair fugitive, and shout her name;

Soft echoes warble, whispering forests nod,

And conscious Nature owns the present God.

265 --Changed from the Bull, the rapturous God assumes

Immortal youth, with glow celestial blooms,

With lenient words her virgin fears disarms,

And clasps the yielding Beauty in his arms;

Whence Kings and Heroes own illustrious birth,

270 Guards of mankind, and demigods on earth.

[_Inconstant Jove_. l. 229. The purer air or ether in the antient

mythology was represented by Jupiter, and the inferior air by Juno; and

the conjunction of these deities was said to produce the vernal showers,

and procreate all things, as is further spoken of in Canto III. l. 204.

It is now discovered that pure air, or oxygene, uniting with variety of

bases forms the various kinds of acids; as the vitriolic acid from pure

air and sulphur; the nitrous acid from pure air and phlogistic air, or

azote; and carbonic acid, (or fixed air,) from pure air and charcoal.

Some of these affinities were perhaps portrayed by the Magi of Egypt,

who were probably learned in chemistry, in their hieroglyphic pictures

before the invention of letters, by the loves of Jupiter with

terrestrial ladies. And thus physically as well as metaphysically might

be said "Jovis omnia plena."]

VI. "GNOMES! as you pass'd beneath the labouring soil,

The guards and guides of Nature's chemic toil,

YOU saw, deep-sepulchred in dusky realms,

Which Earth's rock-ribbed ponderous vault o'erwhelms,

275 With self-born fires the mass fermenting glow,

And flame-wing'd sulphurs quit the earths below.

[_With self-born fires_. l. 275. After the accumulation of plains and

mountains on the calcareous rocks or granite which had been previously

raised by volcanic fires, a second set of volcanic fires were produced

by the fermentation of this new mass, by which after the salts or acids

and iron had been washed away in part by elutriation, dissipated the

sulphurous parts which were insoluble in water; whence argillaceous and

siliceous earths were left in some places; in others, bitumen became

sublimed to the upper part of the stratum, producing coals of various

degrees of purity.]

1. "HENCE ductile CLAYS in wide expansion spread,

Soft as the Cygnet's down, their snow-white bed;

With yielding flakes successive forms reveal,

280 And change obedient to the whirling wheel.

--First CHINA'S sons, with early art elate,

Form'd the gay tea-pot, and the pictured plate;

Saw with illumin'd brow and dazzled eyes

In the red stove vitrescent colours rise;

285 Speck'd her tall beakers with enamel'd stars,

Her monster-josses, and gigantic jars;

Smear'd her huge dragons with metallic hues,

With golden purples, and cobaltic blues;

Bade on wide hills her porcelain castles glare,

290 And glazed Pagodas tremble in the air.

[_Hence ductile clays_ l. 277. See additional notes, No. XX.]

[_Saw with illumin'd brow_. l. 283. No colour is distinguishable in the

red-hot kiln but the red itself, till the workman introduces a small

piece of dry wood, which by producing a white flame renders all the

other colours visible in a moment.]

[_With golden purples_. l. 288. See additional notes, No. XXI.]

"ETRURIA! next beneath thy magic hands

Glides the quick wheel, the plaistic clay expands,

Nerved with fine touch, thy fingers (as it turns)

Mark the nice bounds of vases, ewers, and urns;

295 Round each fair form in lines immortal trace

Uncopied Beauty, and ideal Grace.

[_Etruria! next_. l. 291. Etruria may perhaps vie with China itself in

the antiquity of its arts. The times of its greatest splendour were

prior to the foundations of Rome, and the reign of one of its best

princes, Janus, was the oldest epoch the Romans knew. The earliest

historians speak of the Etruscans as being then of high antiquity, most

probably a colony from Phoenicia, to which a Pelasgian colony acceded,

and was united soon after Deucalion's flood. The peculiar character of

their earthern vases consists in the admirable beauty, simplicity, and

diversity of forms, which continue the best models of taste to the

artists of the present times; and in a species of non-vitreous encaustic

painting, which was reckoned, even in the time of Pliny, among the lost

arts of antiquity, but which has lately been recovered by the ingenuity

and industry of Mr. Wedgwood. It is supposed that the principal

manufactories were about Nola, at the foot of Vesuvius; for it is in

that neighbourhood that the greatest quantities of antique vases have

been found; and it is said that the general taste of the inhabitants is

apparently influenced by them; insomuch that strangers coming to Naples,

are commonly struck with the diversity and elegance even of the most

ordinary vases for common uses. See D'Hancarville's preliminary

discourses to the magnificent collection of Etruscan vases, published by

Sir William Hamilton.]

"GNOMES! as you now dissect with hammers fine

The granite-rock, the nodul'd flint calcine;

Grind with strong arm, the circling chertz betwixt,

300 Your pure Ka-o-lins and Pe-tun-tses mixt;

O'er each red saggars burning cave preside,

The keen-eyed Fire-Nymphs blazing by your side;

And pleased on WEDGWOOD ray your partial smile,

A new Etruria decks Britannia's isle.--

305 Charm'd by your touch, the flint liquescent pours

Through finer sieves, and falls in whiter showers;

Charm'd by your touch, the kneaded clay refines,

The biscuit hardens, the enamel shines;

Each nicer mould a softer feature drinks,

310 The bold Cameo speaks, the soft Intaglio thinks.

[Illustration: _H. Webber init J. Holloway sculpt Copied from Capt.

Phillip's Voyage to Botany Bay, by permission of the Proprietor_]

[Transcriber's note: names of painter and engraver are only guesswork.]

[Illustration: AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER]

"To call the pearly drops from Pity's eye,

Or stay Despair's disanimating sigh,

Whether, O Friend of art! the gem you mould

Rich with new taste, with antient virtue bold;

315 Form the poor fetter'd SLAVE on bended knee

From Britain's sons imploring to be free;

Or with fair HOPE the brightening scenes improve,

And cheer the dreary wastes at Sydney-cove;

Or bid Mortality rejoice and mourn

320 O'er the fine forms on PORTLAND'S mystic urn.--

[_Form the poor fetter'd Slave_. l. 315. Alluding to two cameos of Mr.

Wedgwood's manufacture; one of a Slave in chains, of which he

distributed many hundreds, to excite the humane to attend to and to

assist in the abolition of the detestable traffic in human creatures;

and the other a cameo of Hope attended by Peace, and Art, and Labour;

which was made of clay from Botany Bay; to which place he sent many of

them to shew the inhabitants what their materials would do, and to

encourage their industry. A print of this latter medallion is prefixed

to Mr. Stockdale's edition of Philip's Expedition to Botany Bay.]

[_Portland's mystic urn_. l. 320. See additional notes, No. XXII.]

"_Here_ by fall'n columns and disjoin'd arcades,

On mouldering stones, beneath deciduous shades,

Sits HUMANKIND in hieroglyphic state,

Serious, and pondering on their changeful state;

325 While with inverted torch, and swimming eyes,

Sinks the fair shade of MORTAL LIFE, and dies.

_There_ the pale GHOST through Death's wide portal bends

His timid feet, the dusky steep descends;

With smiles assuasive LOVE DIVINE invites,

330 Guides on broad wing, with torch uplifted lights;

IMMORTAL LIFE, her hand extending, courts

The lingering form, his tottering step supports;

Leads on to Pluto's realms the dreary way,

And gives him trembling to Elysian day.

335 _Beneath_ in sacred robes the PRIESTESS dress'd,

The coif close-hooded, and the fluttering vest,

With pointing finger guides the initiate youth,

Unweaves the many-colour'd veil of Truth,

Drives the profane from Mystery's bolted door,

340 And Silence guards the Eleusinian lore.--

[Illustration: _The Portland Vase_]

[Illustration: _The first Compartment_, London Published Dec'r 1st 1791

by J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard.]

[Transcriber's note: 2nd line with date very small and nearly illegible]

[Illustration: _The second Compartment_]

[Illustration: _The Handles & Bottom of the Vase._ London Published

Dec'r 1st 1791 by J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard.]

"Whether, O Friend of Art! your gems derive

Fine forms from Greece, and fabled Gods revive;

Or bid from modern life the Portrait breathe,

And bind round Honour's brow the laurel wreath;

345 Buoyant shall sail, with Fame's historic page,

Each fair medallion o'er the wrecks of age;

Nor Time shall mar; nor steel, nor fire, nor rust

Touch the hard polish of the immortal bust.

[_Fine forms from Greece_. l. 342. In real stones, or in paste or soft

coloured glass, many pieces of exquisite workmanship were produced by

the antients. Basso-relievos of various sizes were made in coarse brown

earth of one colour; but of the improved kind of two or more colours,

and of a true porcelain texture, none were made by the antients, nor

attempted I believe by the moderns, before those of Mr. Wedgwood's

manufactory.]

2. "HENCE sable COAL his massy couch extends,

350 And stars of gold the sparkling Pyrite blends;

Hence dull-eyed Naphtha pours his pitchy streams,

And Jet uncolour'd drinks the solar beams,

Bright Amber shines on his electric throne,

And adds ethereal lustres to his own.

355 --Led by the phosphor-light, with daring tread

Immortal FRANKLIN sought the fiery bed;

Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds

The seeds of Thunder in circumfluent clouds,

Besieged with iron points his airy cell,

360 And pierced the monster slumbering in the shell.

[_Hence sable Coal_. l. 349. See additional notes, No. XXIII. on coal.]

[_Bright Amber shines_. l. 353. Coal has probably all been sublimed more

or less from the clay, with which it was at first formed in decomposing

morasses; the petroleum seems to have been separated and condensed again

in superior strata, and a still finer kind of oil, as naphtha, has

probably had the same origin. Some of these liquid oils have again lost

their more volatile parts, and become cannel-coal, asphaltum, jet, and

amber, according to the purity of the original fossil oil. Dr. Priestley

has shewn, that essential oils long exposed to the atmosphere absorb

both the vital and phlogistic part of it; whence it is probable their

becoming solid may in great measure depend, as well as by the exhalation

of their more volatile parts. On distillation with volatile alcaly all

these fossil oils are shewn to contain the acid of amber, which evinces

the identity of their origin. If a piece of amber be rubbed it attracts

straws and hairs, whence the discovery of electricity, and whence its

name, from electron the Greek word for amber.]

[_Immortal Franklin_. l. 356. See note on Canto I. l. 383.]

"So, born on sounding pinions to the WEST,

When Tyrant-Power had built his eagle nest;

While from his eyry shriek'd the famish'd brood,

Clenched their sharp claws, and champ'd their beaks for blood,

365 Immortal FRANKLIN watch'd the callow crew,

And stabb'd the struggling Vampires, ere they flew.

--The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran,

Hill lighted hill, and man electrised man;

Her heroes slain awhile COLUMBIA mourn'd,

370 And crown'd with laurels LIBERTY return'd.

"The Warrior, LIBERTY, with bending sails

Helm'd his bold course to fair HIBERNIA'S vales;--

Firm as he steps, along the shouting lands,

Lo! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands;

375 Sad Superstition wails her empire torn,

Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn.

"Long had the Giant-form on GALLIA'S plains

Inglorious slept, unconscious of his chains;

Round his large limbs were wound a thousand strings

380 By the weak hands of Confessors and Kings;

O'er his closed eyes a triple veil was bound,

And steely rivets lock'd him to the ground;

While stern Bastile with iron cage inthralls

His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls.

385 --Touch'd by the patriot-flame, he rent amazed

The flimsy bonds, and round and round him gazed;

Starts up from earth, above the admiring throng

Lifts his Colossal form, and towers along;

High o'er his foes his hundred arms He rears,

390 Plowshares his swords, and pruning hooks his spears;

Calls to the Good and Brave with voice, that rolls

Like Heaven's own thunder round the echoing poles;

Gives to the winds his banner broad unfurl'd,

And gathers in its shade the living world!

[_While stern Bastile_. l. 383. "We descended with great difficulty into

the dungeons, which were made too low for our standing upright; and were

so dark, that we were obliged at noon-day to visit them by the light of

a candle. We saw the hooks of those chains, by which the prisoners were

fastened by their necks to the walls of their cells; many of which being

below the level of the water were in a constant state of humidity; from

which issued a noxious vapour, which more than once extinguished the

candles. Since the destruction of the building many subterraneous cells

have been discovered under a piece of ground, which seemed only a bank

of solid earth before the horrid secrets of this prison-house were

disclosed. Some skeletons were found in these recesses with irons still

fastened to their decayed bones." Letters from France, by H.M. Williams,

p. 24.]

395 VII. "GNOMES! YOU then taught volcanic airs to force

Through bubbling Lavas their resistless course,

O'er the broad walls of rifted Granite climb,

And pierce the rent roof of incumbent Lime,

Round sparry caves metallic lustres fling,

400 And bear phlogiston on their tepid wing.

[_And pierce the rent roof_. l. 398. The granite rocks and the limestone

rocks have been cracked to very great depths at the time they were

raised up by subterranean fires; in these cracks are found most of the

metallic ores, except iron and perhaps manganese, the former of which is

generally found in horizontal strata, and the latter generally near the

surface of the earth.

Philosophers possessing so convenient a test for the discovery of iron

by the magnet, have long since found it in all vegetable and animal

matters; and of late Mr. Scheele has discovered the existence of

manganese in vegetable ashes. Scheele, 56 mem. Stock. 1774. Kirwan. Min.

353. Which accounts for the production of it near the surface of earth,

and thence for its calciform appearance, or union with vital air.

Bergman has likewise shewn, that the limestones which become bluish or

dark coloured when calcined, possess a mixture of manganese, and are

thence preferable as a cement to other kinds of lime. 2. Bergman, 229.

Which impregnation with manganese has probably been received from the

decomposition of superincumbent vegetable matters.

These cracks or perpendicular caverns in the granite or limestone pass

to unknown depths; and it is up these channels that I have endeavoured

to shew that the steam rises which becomes afterwards condensed and

produces the warm springs of this island, and other parts of the world.

(See note on Fucus, Vol. II.) And up these cracks I suppose certain

vapours arise, which either alone, or by meeting with something

descending into them from above, have produced most of the metals; and

several of the materials in which they are bedded. Thus the ponderous

earth, Barytes, of Derbyshire, is found in these cracks, and is

stratified frequently with lead-ore, and frequently surrounds it. This

ponderous earth has been found by Dr. Hoepfner in a granite in

Switzerland, and may have thus been sublimed from immense depths by

great heat, and have obtained its carbonic or vitriolic acid from above.

Annales de Chimie. There is also reason to conclude that something from

above is necessary to the formation of many of the metals: at Hawkstone

in Shropshire, the seat of Sir Richard Hill, there is an elevated rock

of siliceous sand which is coloured green with copper in many places

high in the air; and I have in my possession a specimen of lead formed

in the cavity of an iron nodule, and another of lead amid spar from a

crack of a coal-stratum; all which countenance the modern production of

those metals from descending materials. To which should be added, that

the highest mountains of granite, which have therefore probably never

been covered with marine productions on account of their early

elevation, nor with vegetable or animal matters on account of their

great coldness, contain no metallic ores, whilst the lower ones contain

copper and tin in their cracks or veins, both in Saxony, Silesia, and

Cornwall. Kirwan's Mineral. p. 374.

The transmutation of one metal into another, though hitherto

undiscovered by the alchymists, does not appear impossible; such

transmutations have been supposed to exist in nature, thus lapis

calaminaris may have been produced from the destruction of lead-ore, as

it is generally found on the top of the veins of lead, where it has been

calcined or united with air, and because masses of lead-ore are often

found intirely inclosed in it. So silver is found mixed in almost all

lead-ores, and sometimes in seperate filaments within the cavities of

lead-ore, as I am informed by Mr. Michell, and is thence probably a

partial transmutation of the lead to silver, the rapid progress of

modern chemistry having shewn the analogy between metallic calces and

acids, may lead to the power of transmuting their bases: a discovery

much to be wished.]

"HENCE glows, refulgent Tin! thy chrystal grains,

And tawny Copper shoots her azure veins;

Zinc lines his fretted vault with sable ore,

And dull Galena tessellates the floor;

405 On vermil beds in Idria's mighty caves

The living Silver rolls its ponderous waves;

With gay refractions bright Platina shines,

And studs with squander'd stars his dusky mines;

Long threads of netted gold, and silvery darts,

410 Inlay the Lazuli, and pierce the Quartz;--

--Whence roof'd with silver beam'd PERU, of old,

And hapless MEXICO was paved with gold.

"Heavens! on my sight what sanguine colours blaze!

Spain's deathless shame! the crimes of modern days!

415 When Avarice, shrouded in Religion's robe,

Sail'd to the West, and slaughter'd half the globe;

While Superstition, stalking by his side,

Mock'd the loud groans, and lap'd the bloody tide;

For sacred truths announced her frenzied dreams,

420 And turn'd to night the sun's meridian beams.--

Hear, oh, BRITANNIA! potent Queen of isles,

On whom fair Art, and meek Religion smiles,

Now AFRIC'S coasts thy craftier sons invade

With murder, rapine, theft,--and call it Trade!

425 --The SLAVE, in chains, on supplicating knee,

Spreads his wide arms, and lifts his eyes to Thee;

With hunger pale, with wounds and toil oppress'd,

"ARE WE NOT BRETHREN?" sorrow choaks the rest;--

--AIR! bear to heaven upon thy azure flood

430 Their innocent cries!--EARTH! cover not their blood!

VIII. "When Heaven's dread justice smites in crimes o'ergrown

The blood-nursed Tyrant on his purple throne,

GNOMES! YOUR bold forms unnumber'd arms outstretch,

And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch.--

435 Thus when CAMBYSES led his barbarous hosts

From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts,

Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood,

And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood;

Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states,

440 And pour'd destruction through her hundred gates;

In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands,

And swarming armies blacken'd all the lands,

By Memphis these to ETHIOP'S sultry plains,

And those to HAMMON'S sand-incircled fanes.--

445 Slow as they pass'd, the indignant temples frown'd,

Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground;

Long ailes of Cypress waved their deepen'd glooms,

And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs;

Prophetic whispers breathed from S

450 And MEMNON'S lyre with hollow murmurs rung;

Burst from each pyramid expiring groans,

And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones.--

Day after day their deathful rout They steer,

Lust in the van, and rapine in the rear.

[_Thus when Cambyses_. l. 435. Cambyses marched one army from Thebes,

after having overturned the temples, ravaged the country, and deluged it

with blood, to subdue Ethiopia; this army almost perished by famine,

insomuch, that they repeatedly slew every tenth man to supply the

remainder with food. He sent another army to plunder the temple of

Jupiter Ammon, which perished overwhelm'd with sand.]

[_Expiring groans_. l. 451. Mr. Savery or Mr. Volney in their Travels

through Egypt has given a curious description of one of the pyramids,

with the operose method of closing them, and immuring the body, (as they

supposed) for six thousand years. And has endeavoured from thence to

shew, that, when a monarch died, several of his favourite courtiers were

inclosed alive with the mummy in these great masses of stone-work; and

had food and water conveyed to them, as long as they lived, proper

apertures being left for this purpose, and for the admission of air, and

for the exclusion of any thing offensive.]

455 "GNOMES! as they march'd, You hid the gathered fruits,

The bladed grass, sweet grains, and mealy roots;

Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads,

Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds;

Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil,

460 Stay'd with vindictive hands the scanty rill.--

Loud o'er the camp the Fiend of Famine shrieks,

Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks;

O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand,

And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand;

465 Perch'd on her crest the Griffin Discord clings,

And Giant Murder rides between her wings;

Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill,

And showers of tears in blended streams distil;

High-poised in air her spiry neck she bends,

470 Rolls her keen eye, her Dragon-claws extends,

Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop

With iron fangs the decimated troop.

"Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe,

And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath;

475 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise

Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies,

In red arcades the billowy plain surround,

And stalking turrets dance upon the ground.

--Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend,

480 To Demon-Gods their knees unhallow'd bend,

Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square,

And now they front, and now they fly the war,

Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries,

Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot eyes.

485 --GNOMES! o'er the waste YOU led your myriad powers,

Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers!--

Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,

Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;

Wave over wave the driving desert swims,

490 Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs;

Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,

Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush,--

Wheeling in air the winged islands fall,

And one great earthy Ocean covers all!--

495 Then ceased the storm,--NIGHT bow'd his Ethiop brow

To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,--

Grim HORROR shook,--awhile the living hill

Heaved with convulsive throes,--and all was still!

[_And stalking turrets_. l. 478. "At one o'clock we alighted among some

acacia trees at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were

here at once surprised and terrified by a sight surely one of the most

magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. to

N.W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different

distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on

with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a

very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of sand did

actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be

almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the

tops often separated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined,

dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were

broken in the middle, as if struck with large cannon-shot. About noon

they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind

being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged along side of us about

the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest

appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They

retired from us with a wind at S.E. leaving an impression upon my mind

to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was

fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in

vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship,

could be of no use to carry us out of this danger; and the full

persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood.

"The same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented themselves to

us this day in form and disposition like those we had seen at Waadi

Halboub, only they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They

came several times in a direction close upon us, that is, I believe,

within less than two miles. They began immediately after sun rise like a

thick wood and almost darkened the sun. His rays shining through them

for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people

now became desperate, the Greeks shrieked out and said it was the day of

judgment; Ismael pronounced it to be hell; and the Turcorories, that the

world was on fire." Bruce's Travels, Vol. IV. p. 553,-555.

From this account it would appear, that the eddies of wind were owing to

the long range of broken rocks, which bounded one side of the sandy

desert, and bent the currents of air, which struck against their sides;

and were thus like the eddies in a stream of water, which falls against

oblique obstacles. This explanation is probably the true one, as these

whirl-winds were not attended with rain or lightening like the tornadoes

of the West-Indies.]

IX. "GNOMES! whose fine forms, impassive as the air,

500 Shrink with soft sympathy for human care;

Who glide unseen, on printless slippers borne,

Beneath the waving grass, and nodding corn;

Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms,

Where shadowy cowslips stretch their golden arms,--

505 So mark'd on orreries in lucid signs,

Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac shines;

Borne on fine wires amid the pictured skies

With ivory orbs the planets set and rise;

Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd,

510 And the sun twinkling whirls his rays of gold.--

Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hosts,

With spears and helmets glittering round the coasts;

Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane,

Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train;

515 Watch, where proud Surges break their treacherous mounds,

And sweep resistless o'er the cultured grounds;

Such as erewhile, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain,

Roll'd her rich ruins to the insatiate main;

With piles and piers the ruffian waves engage,

520 And bid indignant Ocean stay his rage.

[_So mark'd on orreries_. l. 505. The first orrery was constructed by a

Mr. Rowley, a mathematician born at Lichfield; and so named from his

patron the Earl of Orrery. Johnson's Dictionary.]

"Where, girt with clouds, the rifted mountain yawns,

And chills with length of shade the gelid lawns,

Climb the rude steeps, the granite-cliffs surround,

Pierce with steel points, with wooden wedges wound;

525 Break into clays the soft volcanic slaggs,

Or melt with acid airs the marble craggs;

Crown the green summits with adventurous flocks,

And charm with novel flowers the wondering rocks.

--So when proud Rome the Afric Warrior braved,

530 And high on Alps his crimson banner waved;

While rocks on rocks their beetling brows oppose

With piny forests, and unfathomed snows;

Onward he march'd, to Latium's velvet ground

With fires and acids burst the obdurate bound,

535 Wide o'er her weeping vales destruction hurl'd,

And shook the rising empire of the world.

[_The granite-cliffs._ l. 523. On long exposure to air the granites or

porphories of this country exhibit a ferrugenous crust, the iron being

calcined by the air first becomes visible, and is then washed away from

the external surface, which becomes white or grey, and thus in time

seems to decompose. The marbles seem to decompose by loosing their

carbonic acid, as the outside, which has been long exposed to the air,

does not seem to effervesce so hastily with acids as the parts more

recently broken. The immense quantity of carbonic acid, which exists in

the many provinces of lime-stone, if it was extricated and decomposed

would afford charcoal enough for fuel for ages, or for the production of

new vegetable or animal bodies. The volcanic slaggs on Mount Vesuvius

are said by M. Ferber to be changed into clay by means of the sulphur-

acid, and even pots made of clay and burnt or vitrified are said by him

to be again reducible to ductile clay by the volcanic steams. Ferber's

Travels through Italy, p. 166.]

[_Wooden wedges wound_. l. 524. It is usual in seperating large mill-

stones from the siliceous sand-rocks in some parts of Derbyshire to bore

horizontal holes under them in a circle, and fill these with pegs made

of dry wood, which gradually swell by the moisture of the earth, and in

a day or two lift up the mill-stone without breaking it.]

[_With fires and acids_. l. 534. Hannibal was said to erode his way over

the Alps by fire and vinegar. The latter is supposed to allude to the

vinegar and water which was the beverage of his army. In respect to the

former it is not improbable, but where wood was to be had in great

abundance, that fires made round limestone precipices would calcine them

to a considerable depth, the night-dews or mountain-mists would

penetrate these calcined parts and pulverize them by the force of the

steam which the generated heat would produce, the winds would disperse

this lime-powder, and thus by repeated fires a precipice of lime-stone

might be destroyed and a passage opened. It should be added, that

according to Ferber's observations, these Alps consist of lime-stone.

Letters from Italy.]

X. "Go, gentle GNOMES! resume your vernal toil,

Seek my chill tribes, which sleep beneath the soil;

On grey-moss banks, green meads, or furrow'd lands

540 Spread the dark mould, white lime, and crumbling sands;

Each bursting bud with healthier juices feed,

Emerging scion, or awaken'd seed.

So, in descending streams, the silver Chyle

Streaks with white clouds the golden floods of bile;

545 Through each nice valve the mingling currents glide,

Join their fine rills, and swell the sanguine tide;

Each countless cell, and viewless fibre seek,

Nerve the strong arm, and tinge the blushing cheek.

"Oh, watch, where bosom'd in the teeming earth,

550 Green swells the germ, impatient for its birth;

Guard from rapacious worms its tender shoots,

And drive the mining beetle from its roots;

With ceaseless efforts rend the obdurate clay,

And give my vegetable babes to day!

555 --Thus when an Angel-form, in light array'd,

Like HOWARD pierced the prison's noisome shade;

Where chain'd to earth, with eyes to heaven upturn'd,

The kneeling Saint in holy anguish mourn'd;--

Ray'd from his lucid vest, and halo'd brow

560 O'er the dark roof celestial lustres glow,

"PETER, arise!" with cheering voice He calls,

And sounds seraphic echo round the walls;

Locks, bolts, and chains his potent touch obey,

And pleased he leads the dazzled Sage to day.

565 XI. "YOU! whose fine fingers fill the organic cells,

With virgin earth, of woods and bones and shells;

Mould with retractile glue their spongy beds,

And stretch and strengthen all their fibre-threads.--

Late when the mass obeys its changeful doom,

570 And sinks to earth, its cradle and its tomb,

GNOMES! with nice eye the slow solution watch,

With fostering hand the parting atoms catch,

Join in new forms, combine with life and sense,

And guide and guard the transmigrating Ens.

[_Mould with retractile glue_. l. 567. The constituent parts of animal

fibres are believed to be earth and gluten. These do not seperate except

by long putrefaction or by fire. The earth then effervesces with acids,

and can only be converted into glass by the greatest force of fire. The

gluten has continued united with the earth of the bones above 2000 years

in Egyptian mummies; but by long exposure to air or moisture it

diffolves and leaves only the earth. Hence bones long buried, when

exposed to the air, absorb moisture and crumble into powder. Phil.

Trans. No. 475. The retractibility or elasticity of the animal fibre

depends on the gluten; and of these fibres are composed the membranes

muscles and bones. Haller. Physiol. Tom. I, p. 2.

For the chemical decomposition of animal and vegetable bodies see the

ingenious work of Lavoisier, Traité de Chimie, Tom. I. p. 132. who

resolves all their component parts into oxygene, hydrogene, carbone, and

azote, the three former of which belong principally to vegetable and the

last to animal matter.]

[_The transmigrating Ens_. l. 574, The perpetual circulation of matter

in the growth and dissolution of vegetable and animal bodies seems to

have given Pythagoras his idea of the metempsycosis or transmigration of

spirit; which was afterwards dressed out or ridiculed in variety of

amusing fables. Other philosophers have supposed, that there are two

different materials or essences, which fill the universe. One of these,

which has the power of commencing or producing motion, is called spirit;

the other, which has the power of receiving and of communicating motion,

but not of beginning it, is called matter. The former of these is

supposed to be diffused through all space, filling up the interstices of

the suns and planets, and constituting the gravitations of the sidereal

bodies, the attractions of chemistry, with the spirit of vegetation, and

of animation. The latter occupies comparatively but small space,

constituting the solid parts of the suns and planets, and their

atmospheres. Hence these philosophers have supposed, that both matter

and spirit are equally immortal and unperishable; and that on the

dissolution of vegetable or animal organization, the matter returns to

the general mass of matter; and the spirit to the general mass of

spirit, to enter again into new combinations, according to the original

idea of Pythagoras.

The small apparent quantity of matter that exists in the universe

compared to that of spirit, and the short time in which the recrements

of animal or vegetable bodies become again vivified in the forms of

vegetable mucor or microscopic insects, seems to have given rise to

another curious fable of antiquity. That Jupiter threw down a large

handful of souls upon the earth, and left them to scramble for the few

bodies which were to be had.]

575 "So when on Lebanon's sequester'd hight

The fair ADONIS left the realms of light,

Bow'd his bright locks, and, fated from his birth

To change eternal, mingled with the earth;--

With darker horror shook the conscious wood,

580 Groan'd the sad gales, and rivers blush'd with blood;

On cypress-boughs the Loves their quivers hung,

Their arrows scatter'd, and their bows unstrung;

And BEAUTY'S GODDESS, bending o'er his bier,

Breathed the soft sigh, and pour'd the tender tear.--

585 Admiring PROSERPINE through dusky glades

Led the fair phantom to Elysian shades,

Clad with new form, with finer sense combined,

And lit with purer flame the ethereal mind.

--Erewhile, emerging from infernal night,

590 The bright Assurgent rises into light,

Leaves the drear chambers of the insatiate tomb,

And shines and charms with renovated bloom.--

While wondering Loves the bursting grave surround,

And edge with meeting wings the yawning ground,

595 Stretch their fair necks, and leaning o'er the brink

View the pale regions of the dead, and shrink;

Long with broad eyes ecstatic BEAUTY stands,

Heaves her white bosom, spreads her waxen hands;

Then with loud shriek the panting Youth alarms,

600 "My Life! my Love!" and springs into his arms."

[_Adonis_. l. 576. The very antient story of the beautiful Adonis

passing one half of the year with Venus, and the other with Proserpine

alternately, has had variety of interpretations. Some have supposed that

it allegorized the summer and winter solstice; but this seems too

obvious a fact to have needed an hieroglyphic emblem. Others have

believed it to represent the corn, which was supposed to sleep in the

earth during the winter months, and to rise out of it in summer. This

does not accord with the climate of Egypt, where the harvest soon

follows the seed-time.

It seems more probably to have been a story explaining some hieroglyphic

figures representing the decomposition and resuscitation of animal

matter; a sublime and interesting subject, and which seems to have given

origin to the doctrine of the transmigration, which had probably its

birth also from the hieroglyphic treasures of Egypt. It is remarkable

that the cypress groves in the ancient greek writers, as in Theocritus,

were dedicated to Venus; and afterwards became funereal emblems. Which

was probably occasioned by the Cypress being an accompaniment of Venus

in the annual processions, in which she was supposed to lament over the

funeral of Adonis; a ceremony which obtained over all the eastern world

from great antiquity, and is supposed to be referred to by Ezekiel, who

accuses the idolatrous woman of weeping for Thammus.]

The GODDESS ceased,--the delegated throng

O'er the wide plains delighted rush along;

In dusky squadrons, and in shining groups,

Hosts follow hosts, and troops succeed to troops;

605 Scarce bears the bending grass the moving freight,

And nodding florets bow beneath their weight.

So when light clouds on airy pinions sail,

Flit the soft shadows o'er the waving vale;

Shade follows shade, as laughing Zephyrs drive,

610 And all the chequer'd landscape seems alive.

[_Zephyrs drive_. l. 609. These lines were originally written thus,

Shade follows shade by laughing Zephyrs drove,

And all the chequer'd landscape seems to move.

but were altered on account of the supposed false grammar in using the

word drove for driven, according to the opinion of Dr. Lowth: at the

same time it may be observed, 1. that this is in many cases only an

ellipsis of the letter _n_ at the end of the word; as froze, for frozen;

wove, for woven; spoke, for spoken; and that then the participle

accidentally becomes similar to the past tense: 2. that the language

seems gradually tending to omit the letter _n_ in other kind of words

for the sake of euphony; as housen is become houses; eyne, eyes; thine,

thy, &c. and in common conversation, the words forgot, spoke, froze,

rode, are frequently used for forgotten, spoken, frozen, ridden. 3. It

does not appear that any confusion would follow the indiscriminate use

of the same word for the past tense and the participle passive, since

the auxiliary verb _have_, or the preceding noun or pronoun always

clearly distinguishes them: and lastly, rhime-poetry must lose the use

of many elegant words without this license.]

_Argument of the Third Canto._

Address to the Nymphs. I. Steam rises from the ocean, floats in clouds,

descends in rain and dew, or is condensed on hills, produces springs,

and rivers, and returns to the sea. So the blood circulates through the

body and returns to the heart. 11. II. 1. Tides, 57. 2. Echinus,

nautilus, pinna, cancer. Grotto of a mermaid. 65. 3. Oil stills the

waves. Coral rocks. Ship-worm, or Teredo. Maelstrome, a whirlpool on the

coast of Norway. 85. III. Rivers from beneath the snows on the Alps. The

Tiber. 103. IV. Overflowing of the Nile from African Monsoons, 129. V.

1. Giesar, a boiling fountain in Iceland, destroyed by inundation, and

consequent earthquake, 145. 2. Warm medicinal springs. Buxton. Duke and

Dutchess of Devonshire. 157. VI. Combination of vital air and

inflammable gas produces water. Which is another source of springs and

rivers. Allegorical loves of Jupiter and Juno productive of vernal

showers. 201. VII. Aquatic Taste. Distant murmur of the sea by night.

Sea-horse. Nereid singing. 261. VIII. The Nymphs of the river Derwent

lament the death of Mrs. French, 297. IX. Inland navigation. Monument

for Mr. Brindley, 341. X. Pumps explained. Child sucking. Mothers

exhorted to nurse their children. Cherub sleeping. 365. XI. Engines for

extinguishing fire. Story of two lovers perishing in the flames. 397.

XII. Charities of Miss Jones, 447. XIII. Marshes drained. Hercules

conquers Achilous. The horn of Plenty. 483. XIV. Showers. Dews. Floating

lands with water. Lacteal system in animals. Caravan drinking. 529.

Departure of the Nymphs like water spiders; like northern nations

skaiting on the ice. 569.

THE

ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.