As when at noon in Hybla's fragrant bowers
CACALIA opens all her honey'd flowers;
Contending swarms on bending branches cling,
And nations hover on aurelian wing;
5 So round the GODDESS, ere she speaks, on high
Impatient SYLPHS in gawdy circlets fly;
Quivering in air their painted plumes expand,
And coloured shadows dance upon the land.
[_Cacalia opens_. l. 2. The importance of the nectarium or honey-gland
in the vegetable economy is seen from the very complicated apparatus,
which nature has formed in some flowers for the preservation of their
honey from insects, as in the aconites or monkshoods; in other plants
instead of a great apparatus for its protection a greater secretion of
it is produced that thence a part may be spared to the depredation of
insects. The cacalia suaveolens produces so much honey that on some days
it may be smelt at a great distance from the plant. I remember once
counting on one of these plants besides bees of various kinds without
number, above two hundred painted butterflies, which gave it the
beautiful appearance of being covered with additional flowers.]
I. "SYLPHS! YOUR light troops the tropic Winds confine,
10 And guide their streaming arrows to the Line;
While in warm floods ecliptic breezes rise,
And sink with wings benumb'd in colder skies.
You bid Monsoons on Indian seas reside,
And veer, as moves the sun, their airy tide;
15 While southern gales o'er western oceans roll,
And Eurus steals his ice-winds from the Pole.
Your playful trains, on sultry islands born,
Turn on fantastic toe at eve and morn;
With soft susurrant voice alternate sweep
20 Earth's green pavilions and encircling deep.
OR in itinerant cohorts, borne sublime
On tides of ether, float from clime to clime;
O'er waving Autumn bend your airy ring,
Or waft the fragrant bosom of the Spring.
[_The tropic winds_. l. 9. See additional notes, No. XXXIII.]
25 II. "When Morn, escorted by the dancing Hours,
O'er the bright plains her dewy lustre showers;
Till from her sable chariot Eve serene
Drops the dark curtain o'er the brilliant scene;
You form with chemic hands the airy surge,
30 Mix with broad vans, with shadowy tridents urge.
SYLPHS! from each sun-bright leaf, that twinkling shakes
O'er Earth's green lap, or shoots amid her lakes,
Your playful bands with simpering lips invite,
And wed the enamour'd OXYGENE to LIGHT.--
35 Round their white necks with fingers interwove,
Cling the fond Pair with unabating love;
Hand link'd in hand on buoyant step they rise,
And soar and glisten in unclouded skies.
Whence in bright floods the VITAL AIR expands,
40 And with concentric spheres involves the lands;
Pervades the swarming seas, and heaving earths,
Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births;
Fills the fine lungs of all that _breathe_ or _bud_,
Warms the new heart, and dyes the gushing blood;
45 With Life's first spark inspires the organic frame,
And, as it wastes, renews the subtile flame.
[_The enamour'd oxygene_. l. 34. The common air of the atmosphere
appears by the analysis of Dr. Priestley and other philosophers to
consist of about three parts of an elastic fluid unfit for respiration
or combustion, called azote by the French school, and about one fourth
of pure vital air fit for the support of animal life and of combustion,
called oxygene. The principal source of the azote is probably from the
decomposition of all vegetable and animal matters by putrefaction and
combustion; the principal source of vital air or oxygene is perhaps from
the decomposition of water in the organs of vegetables by means of the
sun's light. The difficulty of injecting vegetable vessels seems to shew
that their perspirative pores are much less than those of animals, and
that the water which constitutes their perspiration is so divided at the
time of its exclusion that by means of the sun's light it becomes
decomposed, the inflammable air or hydrogene, which is one of its
constituent parts, being retained to form the oil, resin, wax, honey,
&c. of the vegetable economy; and the other part, which united with
light or heat becomes vital air or oxygene gas, rises into the
atmosphere and replenishes it with the food of life.
Dr. Priestley has evinced by very ingenious experiments that the blood
gives out phlogiston, and receives vital air, or oxygene-gas by the
lungs. And Dr. Crawford has shewn that the blood acquires heat from this
vital air in respiration. There is however still a something more subtil
than heat, which must be obtained in respiration from the vital air, a
something which life can not exist a few minutes without, which seems
necessary to the vegetable as well as to the animal world, and which as
no organized vessels can confine it, requires perpetually to be renewed.
See note on Canto I. l. 401.]
"So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone
Fair PSYCHE, kneeling at the ethereal throne;
Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove,
50 And warm'd the bosom of unconquer'd LOVE.--
Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers
Onward they march to HYMEN'S sacred bowers;
With lifted torch he lights the festive train,
Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain;
55 Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows,
And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows.
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,
Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing.--
--Hence plastic Nature, as Oblivion whelms
60 Her fading forms, repeoples all her realms;
Soft Joys disport on purple plumes unfurl'd,
And Love and Beauty rule the willing world.
[_Fair Psyche_. l. 48. Described from an antient gem on a fine onyx in
possession of the Duke of Marlborough, of which there is a beautiful
print in Bryant's Mythol. Vol II. p. 392. And from another antient gem
of Cupid and Psyche embracing, of which there is a print in Spence's
Polymetis. p. 82.]
[_Repeoples all her realms_. l. 60.
Quae mare navigerum et terras frugiferentes
Concelebras; per te quoniam genus omne animantum
Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina folis. Lucret.]
III. 1. "SYLPHS! Your bold myriads on the withering heath
Stay the fell SYROC'S suffocative breath;
65 Arrest SIMOOM in his realms of sand,
The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand;--
Fierce on blue streams he rides the tainted air,
Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair;
While, as he turns, the undulating soil
70 Rolls in red waves, and billowy deserts boil.
[_Arrest Simoom_. l. 65. "At eleven o'clock while we were with great
pleasure contemplating the rugged tops of Chiggre, where we expected to
solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out with a loud
voice, "fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom!" I saw from the
S.E. a haze come in colour like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so
compressed or thick; it did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was
about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of a blush upon
the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon
the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its
current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if
dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze,
which I saw was indeed passed; but the light air that still blew was of
heat to threaten suffocation. For my part I found distinctly in my
breast, that I had imbibed a part of it; nor was I free of an asthmatic
sensation till I had been some months in Italy." Bruce's Travels. Vol.
IV. p. 557.
It is difficult to account for the narrow track of this pestilential
wind, which is said not to exceed twenty yards, and for its small
elevation of twelve feet. A whirlwind will pass forwards, and throw down
an avenue of trees by its quick revolution as it passes, but nothing
like a whirling is described as happening in these narrow streams of
air, and whirlwinds ascend to greater heights. There seems but one known
manner in which this channel of air could be effected, and that is by
electricity.
The volcanic origin of these winds is mentioned in the note on Chunda in
Vol. II. of this work; it must here be added, that Professor Vairo at
Naples found, that during the eruption of Vesuvius perpendicular iron
bars were electric; and others have observed suffocating damps to attend
these eruptions. Ferber's Travels in Italy, p. 133. And lastly, that a
current of air attends the passage of electric matter, as is seen in
presenting an electrized point to the flame of a candle. In Mr. Bruce's
account of this simoom, it was in its course over a quite dry desert of
sand, (and which was in consequence unable to conduct an electric stream
into the earth beneath it,) to some moist rocks at but a few miles
distance; and thence would appear to be a stream of electricity from a
volcano attended with noxious air; and as the bodies of Mr. Bruce and
his attendants were insulated on the sand, they would not be sensible of
their increased electricity, as it passed over them; to which it may be
added, that a sulphurous or suffocating sensation is said to accompany
flames of lightning, and even strong sparks of artificial electricity.
In the above account of the simoom, a great redness in the air is said
to be a certain sign of its approach, which may be occasioned by the
eruption of flame from a distant volcano in these extensive and
impenetrable deserts of sand. See Note on l. 294 of this Canto.]
You seize TORNADO by his locks of mist,
Burst his dense clouds, his wheeling spires untwist;
Wide o'er the West when borne on headlong gales,
Dark as meridian night, the Monster sails,
75 Howls high in air, and shakes his curled brow,
Lashing with serpent-train the waves below,
Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings,
And showers a deluge from his demon-wings.
[_Tornado's_. l. 71. See additional notes, No. XXXIII.]
2. "SYLPHS! with light shafts YOU pierce the drowsy FOG,
80 That lingering slumbers on the sedge-wove bog,
With webbed feet o'er midnight meadows creeps,
Or flings his hairy limbs on stagnant deeps.
YOU meet CONTAGION issuing from afar,
And dash the baleful conqueror from his car;
85 When, Guest of DEATH! from charnel vaults he steals,
And bathes in human gore his armed wheels.
[_On stagnant deeps_. l. 82. All contagious miasmata originate either
from animal bodies, as those of the small pox, or from putrid morasses;
these latter produce agues in the colder climates, and malignant fevers
in the warmer ones. The volcanic vapours which cause epidemic coughs,
are to be ranked amongst poisons, rather than amongst the miasmata,
which produce contagious diseases.]
"Thus when the PLAGUE, upborne on Belgian air,
Look'd through the mist and shook his clotted hair,
O'er shrinking nations steer'd malignant clouds,
90 And rain'd destruction on the gasping crouds.
The beauteous AEGLE felt the venom'd dart,
Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart;
Each fervid sigh seem'd shorter than the last,
And starting Friendship shunn'd her, as she pass'd.
95 --With weak unsteady step the fainting Maid
Seeks the cold garden's solitary shade,
Sinks on the pillowy moss her drooping head,
And prints with lifeless limbs her leafy bed.
--On wings of Love her plighted Swain pursues,
100 Shades her from winds, and shelters her from dews,
Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof,
Spreads o'er the straw-wove matt the flaxen woof,
Sweet buds and blossoms on her bolster strows,
And binds his kerchief round her aching brows;
105 Sooths with soft kiss, with tender accents charms,
And clasps the bright Infection in his arms.--
With pale and languid smiles the grateful Fair
Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care;
Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled
110 On timorous step, or number'd with the dead;
Calls to its bosom all its scatter'd rays,
And pours on THYRSIS the collected blaze;
Braves the chill night, caressing and caress'd,
And folds her Hero-lover to her breast.--
115 Less bold, LEANDER at the dusky hour
Eyed, as he swam, the far love-lighted tower;
Breasted with struggling arms the tossing wave,
And sunk benighted in the watery grave.
Less bold, TOBIAS claim'd the nuptial bed,
120 Where seven fond Lovers by a Fiend had bled;
And drove, instructed by his Angel-Guide,
The enamour'd Demon from the fatal bride.--
--SYLPHS! while your winnowing pinions fan'd the air,
And shed gay visions o'er the sleeping pair;
125 LOVE round their couch effused his rosy breath,
And with his keener arrows conquer'd DEATH.
[_The beauteous Aegle_. l. 91. When the plague raged in Holland in 1636,
a young girl was seized with it, had three carbuncles, and was removed
to a garden, where her lover, who was betrothed to her, attended her as
a nurse, and slept with her as his wife. He remained uninfected, and she
recovered, and was married to him. The story is related by Vinc.
Fabricius in the Misc. Cur. Ann. II. Obs. 188.]
IV. 1. "You charm'd, indulgent SYLPHS! their learned toil,
And crown'd with fame your TORRICELL, and BOYLE;
Taught with sweet smiles, responsive to their prayer,
130 The spring and pressure of the viewless air.
--How up exhausted tubes bright currents flow
Of liquid silver from the lake below,
Weigh the long column of the incumbent skies,
And with the changeful moment fall and rise.
135 --How, as in brazen pumps the pistons move,
The membrane-valve sustains the weight above;
Stroke follows stroke, the gelid vapour falls,
And misty dew-drops dim the crystal walls;
Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin,
140 And Silence dwells with Vacancy within.--
So in the mighty Void with grim delight
Primeval Silence reign'd with ancient Night.
[_Torricell and Boyle_. l. 128. The pressure of the atmosphere was
discovered by Torricelli, a disciple of Galileo, who had previously
found that the air had weight. Dr. Hook and M. Du Hamel ascribe the
invention of the air-pump to Mr. Boyle, who however confesses he had
some hints concerning its construction from De Guerick. The vacancy at
the summit of the barometer is termed the Torricellian vacuum, and the
exhausted receiver of an air pump the Boylean vacuum, in honour of these
two philosophers.
The mist and descending dew which appear at first exhausting the
receiver of an air-pump, are explained in the Phil. Trans. Vol. LXXVIII.
from the cold produced by the expansion of air. For a thermometer placed
in the receiver sinks some degrees, and in a very little time, as soon
as a sufficient quantity of heat can be acquired from the surrounding
bodies, the dew becomes again taken up. See additional notes, No. VII.
Mr. Saussure observed on placing his hygrometer in a receiver of an air-
pump, that though on beginning to exhaust it the air became misty, and
parted with its moisture, yet the hair of his hygrometer contracted, and
the instrument pointed to greater dryness. This unexpected occurrence is
explained by M. Monge (Annales de Chymie, Tom. V.) to depend on the want
of the usual pressure of the atmosphere to force the aqueous particles
into the pores of the hair; and M. Saussure supposes, that his vesicular
vapour requires more time to be redissolved, than is necessary to dry
the hair of his thermometer. Essais sur l'Hygrom. p. 226. but I suspect
there is a less hypothetical way of understanding it; when a colder body
is brought into warm and moist air, (as a bottle of spring-water for
instance,) a steam is quickly collected on its surface; the contrary
occurs when a warmer body is brought into cold and damp air, it
continues free from dew so long as it continues warm; for it warms the
atmosphere around it, and renders it capable of receiving instead of
parting with moisture. The moment the air becomes rarefied in the
receiver of the air-pump it becomes colder, as appears by the
thermometer, and deposits its vapour; but the hair of Mr. Saussure's
hygrometer is now warmer than the air in which it is immersed, and in
consequence becomes dryer than before, by warming the air which
immediately surrounds it, a part of its moisture evaporating along with
its heat.]
2. "SYLPHS! your soft voices, whispering from the skies,
Bade from low earth the bold MONGULFIER rise;
145 Outstretch'd his buoyant ball with airy spring,
And bore the Sage on levity of wing;--
Where were ye, SYLPHS! when on the ethereal main
Young ROSIERE launch'd, and call'd your aid in vain?
Fair mounts the light balloon, by Zephyr driven,
150 Parts the thin clouds, and sails along the heaven;
Higher and yet higher the expanding bubble flies,
Lights with quick flash, and bursts amid the skies.--
Headlong He rushes through the affrighted air
With limbs distorted, and dishevel'd hair,
155 Whirls round and round, the flying croud alarms,
And DEATH receives him in his sable arms!--
So erst with melting wax and loosen'd strings
Sunk hapless ICARUS on unfaithful wings;
His scatter'd plumage danced upon the wave,
160 And sorrowing Mermaids deck'd his watery grave;
O'er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,
And strew'd with crimson moss his marble bed;
Struck in their coral towers the pausing bell,
And wide in ocean toll'd his echoing knell.
[_Young Rosiere launch'd_. l. 148. M. Pilatre du Rosiere with a M.
Romain rose in a balloon from Boulogne in June 1785, and after having
been about a mile high for about half an hour the balloon took fire, and
the two adventurers were dashed to pieces on their fall to the ground.
Mr. Rosiere was a philosopher of great talents and activity, joined with
such urbanity and elegance of manners, as conciliated the affections of
his acquaintance and rendered his misfortune universally lamented.
Annual Register for 1784 and 1785, p. 329.]
[_And wide in ocean_. l. 164. Denser bodies propagate vibration or sound
better than rarer ones; if two stones be struck together under the
water, they may be heard a mile or two by any one whose head is immersed
at that distance, according to an experiment of Dr. Franklin. If the ear
be applied to one end of a long beam of timber, the stroke of a pin at
the other end becomes sensible; if a poker be suspended in the middle of
a garter, each end of which is pressed against the ear, the least
percussions on the poker give great sounds. And I am informed by laying
the ear on the ground the tread of a horse may be discerned at a great
distance in the night. The organs of hearing belonging to fish are for
this reason much less complicated than of quadrupeds, as the fluid they
are immersed in so much better conveys its vibrations. And it is
probable that some shell-fish which have twisted shells like the cochlea
and semicircular canals of the ears of men and quadrupeds may have no
appropriated organ for perceiving the vibrations of the element they
live in, but may by their spiral form be in a manner all ear.]
165 V. "SYLPHS! YOU, retiring to sequester'd bowers,
Where oft your PRIESTLEY woos your airy powers,
On noiseless step or quivering pinion glide,
As sits the Sage with Science by his side;
To his charm'd eye in gay undress appear,
170 Or pour your secrets on his raptured ear.
How nitrous Gas from iron ingots driven
Drinks with red lips the purest breath of heaven;
How, while Conferva from its tender hair
Gives in bright bubbles empyrean air;
175 The crystal floods phlogistic ores calcine,
And the pure ETHER marries with the MINE.
[_Where oft your Priestley_. l. 166. The fame of Dr. Priestley is known
in every part of the earth where science has penetrated. His various
discoveries respecting the analysis of the atmosphere, and the
production of variety of new airs or gasses, can only be clearly
understood by reading his Experiments on Airs, (3 vols. octavo, Johnson,
London.) the following are amongst his many discoveries. 1. The
discovery of nitrous and dephlogisticated airs. 2. The exhibition of the
acids and alkalies in the form of air. 3. Ascertaining the purity of
respirable air by nitrous air. 4. The restoration of vitiated air by
vegetation. 5. The influence of light to enable vegetables to yield pure
air. 6. The conversion by means of light of animal and vegetable
substances, that would otherwise become putrid and offensive, into
nourishment of vegetables. 7. The use of respiration by the blood
parting with phlogiston, and imbibing dephlogisticated air.
The experiments here alluded to are, 1. Concerning the production of
nitrous gas from dissolving iron and many other metals in nitrous acid,
which though first discovered by Dr. Hales (Static. Ess. Vol. I. p. 224)
was fully investigated, and applied to the important purpose of
distinguishing the purity of atmospheric air by Dr. Priestley. When
about two measures of common air and one of nitrous gas are mixed
together a red effervescence takes place, and the two airs occupy about
one fourth less space than was previously occupied by the common air
alone.
2. Concerning the green substance which grows at the bottom of
reservoirs of water, which Dr. Priestley discovered to yield much pure
air when the sun shone on it. His method of collecting this air is by
placing over the green substance, which he believes to be a vegetable of
the genus conferva, an inverted bell-glass previously filled with water,
which subsides as the air arises; it has since been found that all
vegetables give up pure air from their leaves, when the sun shines upon
them, but not in the night, which may be owing to the sleep of the
plant.
3. The third refers to the great quantity of pure air contained in the
calces of metals. The calces were long known to weigh much more than the
metallic bodies before calcination, insomuch that 100 pounds of lead
will produce 112 pounds of minium; the ore of manganese, which is always
found near the surface of the earth, is replete with pure air, which is
now used for the purpose of bleaching. Other metals when exposed to the
atmosphere attract the pure air from it, and become calces by its
combination, as zinc, lead, iron; and increase in weight in proportion
to the air, which they imbibe.]
"So in Sicilia's ever-blooming shade
When playful PROSERPINE from CERES stray'd,
Led with unwary step her virgin trains
180 O'er Etna's steeps, and Enna's golden plains;
Pluck'd with fair hand the silver-blossom'd bower,
And purpled mead,--herself a fairer flower;
Sudden, unseen amid the twilight glade,
Rush'd gloomy DIS, and seized the trembling maid.--
185 Her starting damsels sprung from mossy seats,
Dropp'd from their gauzy laps the gather'd sweets,
Clung round the struggling Nymph, with piercing cries,
Pursued the chariot, and invoked the skies;--
Pleased as he grasps her in his iron arms,
190 Frights with soft sighs, with tender words alarms,
The wheels descending roll'd in smoky rings,
Infernal Cupids flapp'd their demon wings;
Earth with deep yawn received the Fair, amaz'd,
And far in Night celestial Beauty blaz'd.
[_When playful Proserpine_. l. 178. The fable of Proserpine's being
seized by Pluto as she was gathering flowers, is explained by Lord Bacon
to signify the combination or marriage of etherial spirit with earthly
materials. Bacon's Works, Vol. V. p. 470. edit. 4to. Lond. 1778. This
allusion is still more curiously exact, from the late discovery of pure
air being given up from vegetables, and that then in its unmixed state
it more readily combines with metallic or inflammable bodies. From these
fables which were probably taken from antient hieroglyphics there is
frequently reason to believe that the Egyptians possessed much chemical
knowledge, which for want of alphabetical writing perished with their
philosophers.]
195 VI. "Led by the Sage, Lo! Britain's sons shall guide
Huge SEA-BALLOONS beneath the tossing tide;
The diving castles, roof'd with spheric glass,
Ribb'd with strong oak, and barr'd with bolts of brass,
Buoy'd with pure air shall endless tracks pursue,
200 And PRIESTLEY'S hand the vital flood renew.--
Then shall BRITANNIA rule the wealthy realms,
Which Ocean's wide insatiate wave o'erwhelms;
Confine in netted bowers his scaly flocks,
Part his blue plains, and people all his rocks.
205 Deep, in warm waves beneath the Line that roll,
Beneath the shadowy ice-isles of the Pole,
Onward, through bright meandering vales, afar,
Obedient Sharks shall trail her sceptred car,
With harness'd necks the pearly flood disturb,
210 Stretch the silk rein, and champ the silver curb;
Pleased round her triumph wondering Tritons play,
And Seamaids hail her on the watery way.
--Oft shall she weep beneath the crystal waves
O'er shipwreck'd lovers weltering in their graves;
215 Mingling in death the Brave and Good behold
With slaves to glory, and with slaves to gold;
Shrin'd in the deep shall DAY and SPALDING mourn,
Each in his treacherous bell, sepulchral urn!--
Oft o'er thy lovely daughters, hapless PIERCE!
220 Her sighs shall breathe, her sorrows dew their hearse.--
With brow upturn'd to Heaven, "WE WILL NOT PART!"
He cried, and clasp'd them to his aching heart,--
--Dash'd in dread conflict on the rocky grounds,
Crash the mock'd masts, the staggering wreck rebounds;
225 Through gaping seams the rushing deluge swims,
Chills their pale bosoms, bathes their shuddering limbs,
Climbs their white shoulders, buoys their streaming hair,
And the last sea-shriek bellows in the air.--
Each with loud sobs her tender sire caress'd,
230 And gasping strain'd him closer to her breast!--
--Stretch'd on one bier they sleep beneath the brine,
And their white bones with ivory arms intwine!
[_Led by the Sage_. l. 195. Dr. Priestley's discovery of the production
of pure air from such variety of substances will probably soon be
applied to the improvement of the diving bell, as the substances which
contain vital air in immense quantities are of little value as manganese
and minium. See additional notes, No. XXXIII. In every hundred weight of
minium there is combined about twelve pounds of pure air, now as sixty
pounds of water are about a cubic foot, and as air is eight hundred
times lighter than water, five hundred weight of minium will produce
eight hundred cubic feet of air or about six thousand gallons. Now, as
this is at least thrice as pure as atmospheric air, a gallon of it may
be supposed to serve for three minutes respiration for one man. At
present the air can not be set at liberty from minium by vitriolic acid
without the application of some heat, this is however very likely soon
to be discovered, and will then enable adventurers to journey beneath
the ocean in large inverted ships or diving balloons.
Mr. Boyle relates, that Cornelius Drebelle contrived not only a vessel
to be rowed under water, but also a liquor to be caried in that vessel,
which would supply the want of fresh air. The vessel was made by order
of James I. and carried twelve rowers besides passengers. It was tried
in the river Thames, and one of the persons who was in that submarine
voyage told the particulars of the experiments to a person who related
them to Mr. Boyle. Annual Register for 1774, p. 248.]
[_Day and Spalding mourn_. l. 217. Mr. Day perished in a diving bell, or
diving boat, of his own construction at Plymouth in June 1774, in which
he was to have continued for a wager twelve hours one hundred feet deep
in water, and probably perished from his not possessing all the
hydrostatic knowledge that was necessary. See note on Ulva, Vol. II. of
this work. See Annual Register for 1774. p. 245.
Mr. Spalding was professionally ingenious in the art of constructing and
managing the diving bell, and had practised the business many years with
success. He went down accompanied by one of his young men twice to view
the wreck of the Imperial East-Indiaman at the Kish bank in Ireland. On
descending the third time in June, 1783, they remained about an hour
under water, and had two barrels of air sent down to them, but on the
signals from below not being again repeated, after a certain time, they
were drawn up by their assistants and both found dead in the bell.
Annual Register for 1783, p. 206. These two unhappy events may for a
time check the ardor of adventurers in traversing the bottom of the
ocean, but it is probable in another half century it may be safer to
travel under the ocean than over it, since Dr. Priestley's discovery of
procuring pure air in such great abundance from the calces of metals.]
[_Hapless Pierce!_ l, 219. The Haslewell East-Indiaman, outward bound,
was wrecked off Seacomb in the isle of Purbec on the 6th of January,
1786; when Capt. Pierce, the commander, with two young ladies, his
daughters, and the greatest part of the crew and passengers perished in
the sea. Some of the officers and about seventy seamen escaped with
great difficulty on the rocks, but Capt. Pierce finding it was
impossible to save the lives of the young ladies refused to quit the
ship, and perished with them.]
"VII. SYLPHS OF NICE EAR! with beating wings you guide
The fine vibrations of the aerial tide;
235 Join in sweet cadences the measured words,
Or stretch and modulate the trembling cords.
You strung to melody the Grecian lyre,
Breathed the rapt song, and fan'd the thought of fire,
Or brought in combinations, deep and clear,
240 Immortal harmony to HANDEL'S ear.--
YOU with soft breath attune the vernal gale,
When breezy evening broods the listening vale;
Or wake the loud tumultuous sounds, that dwell
In Echo's many-toned diurnal shell.
245 YOU melt in dulcet chords, when Zephyr rings
The Eolian Harp, and mingle all its strings;
Or trill in air the soft symphonious chime,
When rapt CECILIA lifts her eye sublime,
Swell, as she breathes, her bosoms rising snow,
250 O'er her white teeth in tuneful accents slow,
Through her fair lips on whispering pinions move,
And form the tender sighs, that kindle love!
"So playful LOVE on Ida's flowery sides
With ribbon-rein the indignant Lion guides;
255 Pleased on his brinded back the lyre he rings,
And shakes delirious rapture from the strings;
Slow as the pausing Monarch stalks along,
Sheaths his retractile claws, and drinks the song;
Soft Nymphs on timid step the triumph view,
260 And listening Fawns with beating hoofs pursue;
With pointed ears the alarmed forest starts,
And Love and Music soften savage hearts.
[_Indignant lion guides_. l. 254. Described from an antient gem,
expressive of the combined power of love and music, in the Museum
Florent.]
VIII. "SYLPHS! YOUR bold hosts, when Heaven with justice dread
Calls the red tempest round the guilty head,
265 Fierce at his nod assume vindictive forms,
And launch from airy cars the vollied storms.--
From Ashur's vales when proud SENACHERIB trod,
Pour'd his swoln heart, defied the living GOD,
Urged with incessant shouts his glittering powers;
270 And JUDAH shook through all her massy towers;
Round her sad altars press'd the prostrate crowd,
Hosts beat their breasts, and suppliant chieftains bow'd;
Loud shrieks of matrons thrill'd the troubled air,
And trembling virgins rent their scatter'd hair;
275 High in the midst the kneeling King adored,
Spread the blaspheming scroll before the Lord,
Raised his pale hands, and breathed his pausing sighs,
And fixed on Heaven his dim imploring eyes,--
"Oh! MIGHTY GOD! amidst thy Seraph-throng
280 "Who sit'st sublime, the Judge of Right and Wrong;
"Thine the wide earth, bright sun, and starry zone,
"That twinkling journey round thy golden throne;
"Thine is the crystal source of life and light,
"And thine the realms of Death's eternal night.
285 "Oh, bend thine ear, thy gracious eye incline,
"Lo! Ashur's King blasphemes thy holy shrine,
"Insults our offerings, and derides our vows,---
"Oh! strike the diadem from his impious brows,
"Tear from his murderous hand the bloody rod,
290 "And teach the trembling nations, "THOU ART GOD!"--
--SYLPHS! in what dread array with pennons broad
Onward ye floated o'er the ethereal road,
Call'd each dank steam the reeking marsh exhales,
Contagious vapours, and volcanic gales,
295 Gave the soft South with poisonous breath to blow,
And rolled the dreadful whirlwind on the foe!--
Hark! o'er the camp the venom'd tempest sings,
Man falls on Man, on buckler buckler rings;
Groan answers groan, to anguish anguish yields,
300 And DEATH'S loud accents shake the tented fields!
--High rears the Fiend his grinning jaws, and wide
Spans the pale nations with colossal stride,
Waves his broad falchion with uplifted hand,
And his vast shadow darkens all the land.
[_Volcanic gales_. l. 294. The pestilential winds of the east are
described by various authors under various denominations; as harmattan,
samiel, samium, syrocca, kamsin, seravansum. M. de Beauchamp describes a
remarkable south wind in the deserts about Bagdad, called seravansum, or
poison-wind; it burns the face, impedes respiration, strips the trees of
their leaves, and is said to pass on in a streight line, and often kills
people in six hours. P. Cotte sur la Meteorol. Analytical Review for
February, 1790. M. Volney says, the hot wind or ramsin seems to blow at
the season when the sands of the deserts are the hottest; the air is
then filled with an extreamly subtle dust. Vol. I. p. 61. These winds
blow in all directions from the deserts; in Egypt the most violent
proceed from the S.S.W. at Mecca from the E. at Surat from the N. at
Bassora from the N.W. at Bagdad from the W. and in Syria from the S.E.
On the south of Syria, he adds, where the Jordan flows is a country of
volcanos; and it is observed that the earthquakes in Syria happen after
their rainy season, which is also conformable to a similar observation
made by Dr. Shaw in Barbary. Travels in Egypt, Vol. I. p. 303.
These winds seem all to be of volcanic origin, as before mentioned, with
this difference, that the Simoom is attended with a stream of electric
matter; they seem to be in consequence of earthquakes caused by the
monsoon floods, which fall on volcanic fires in Syria, at the same time
that they inundate the Nile.]
305 IX. 1. "Ethereal cohorts! Essences of Air!
Make the green children of the Spring your care!
Oh, SYLPHS! disclose in this inquiring age
One GOLDEN SECRET to some favour'd sage;
Grant the charm'd talisman, the chain, that binds,
310 Or guides the changeful pinions of the winds!
--No more shall hoary Boreas, issuing forth
With Eurus, lead the tempests of the North;
Rime the pale Dawn, or veil'd in flaky showers
Chill the sweet bosoms of the smiling Hours.
315 By whispering Auster waked shall Zephyr rise,
Meet with soft kiss, and mingle in the skies,
Fan the gay floret, bend the yellow ear,
And rock the uncurtain'd cradle of the year;
Autumn and Spring in lively union blend,
320 And from the skies the Golden Age descend.
[_One golden secret_. l. 308. The suddenness of the change of the wind
from N.E. to S.W. seems to shew that it depends on some minute chemical
cause; which if it was discovered might probably, like other chemical
causes, be governed by human agency; such as blowing up rocks by
gunpowder, or extracting the lightening from the clouds. If this could
be accomplished, it would be the most happy discovery that ever has
happened to these northern latitudes, since in this country the N.E.
winds bring frost, and the S.W. ones are attended with warmth and
moisture; if the inferior currents of air could be kept perpetually from
the S.W. supplied by new productions of air at the line, or by superior
currents flowing in a contrary direction, the vegetation of this country
would be doubled; as in the moist vallies of Africa, which know no
frost; the number of its inhabitants would be increased, and their lives
prolonged; as great abundance of the aged and infirm of mankind, as well
as many birds and animals, are destroyed by severe continued frosts in
this climate.]
2. "Castled on ice, beneath the circling Bear,
A vast CAMELION spits and swallows air;
O'er twelve degrees his ribs gigantic bend,
And many a league his leathern jaws extend;
325 Half-fish, beneath, his scaly volutes spread,
And vegetable plumage crests his head;
Huge fields of air his wrinkled skin receives,
From panting gills, wide lungs, and waving leaves;
Then with dread throes subsides his bloated form,
330 His shriek the thunder, and his sigh the storm.
Oft high in heaven the hissing Demon wins
His towering course, upborne on winnowing fins;
Steers with expanded eye and gaping mouth,
His mass enormous to the affrighted South;
335 Spreads o'er the shuddering Line his shadowy limbs,
And Frost and Famine follow as he swims.--
SYLPHS! round his cloud-built couch your bands array,
And mould the Monster to your gentle sway;
Charm with soft tones, with tender touches check,
340 Bend to your golden yoke his willing neck,
With silver curb his yielding teeth restrain,
And give to KIRWAN'S hand the silken rein.
--Pleased shall the Sage, the dragon-wings between,
Bend o'er discordant climes his eye serene,
345 With Lapland breezes cool Arabian vales,
And call to Hindostan antarctic gales,
Adorn with wreathed ears Kampschatca's brows,
And scatter roses on Zealandic snows,
Earth's wondering Zones the genial seasons share,
350 And nations hail him "MONARCH OF THE AIR."
[_A vast Camelion_. l. 322. See additional notes, No. XXXIII. on the
destruction and reproduction of the atmosphere.]
[_To Kirwan's hand_. l. 342. Mr. Kirwan has published a valuable
treatise on the temperature of climates, as a step towards investigating
the theory of the winds; and has since written some ingenious papers on
this subject in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Society.]
X. 1. "SYLPHS! as you hover on ethereal wing,
Brood the green children of parturient Spring!--
Where in their bursting cells my Embryons rest,
I charge you guard the vegetable nest;
355 Count with nice eye the myriad SEEDS, that swell
Each vaulted womb of husk, or pod, or shell;
Feed with sweet juices, clothe with downy hair,
Or hang, inshrined, their little orbs in air.
[_The myriad seeds_. l. 355. Nature would seem to have been wonderfully
prodigal in the seeds of vegetables, and the spawn of fish; almost any
one plant, if all its seeds should grow to maturity, would in a few
years alone people the terrestrial globe. Mr. Ray asserts that 101
seeds of tobacco weighed only one grain, and that from one tobacco plant
the seeds thus calculated amounted to 360,000! The seeds of the ferns
are by him supposed to exceed a million on a leaf. As the works of
nature are governed by general laws this exuberant reproduction prevents
the accidental extinction of the species, at the same time that they
serve for food for the higher orders of animation.
Every seed possesses a reservoir of nutriment designed for the growth of
the future plant, this consists of starch, mucilage, or oil, within the
coat of the seed, or of sugar and subacid pulp in the fruits, which
belongs to it.
For the preservation of the immature seed nature has used many ingenious
methods; some are wrapped in down, as the seeds of the rose, bean, and
cotton-plant; others are suspended in a large air-vessel, as those of
the bladder-sena, staphylaea, and pea.]
"So, late descry'd by HERSCHEL'S piercing sight,
360 Hang the bright squadrons of the twinkling Night;
Ten thousand marshall'd stars, a silver zone,
Effuse their blended lustres round her throne;
Suns call to suns, in lucid clouds conspire,
And light exterior skies with golden fire;
365 Resistless rolls the illimitable sphere,
And one great circle forms the unmeasured year.
--Roll on, YE STARS! exult in youthful prime,
Mark with bright curves the printless steps of Time;
Near and more near your beamy cars approach,
370 And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach;--
Flowers of the sky! ye too to age must yield,
Frail as your silken sisters of the field!
Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush,
Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush,
375 Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall,
And Death and Night and Chaos mingle all!
--Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,
Immortal NATURE lifts her changeful form,
Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
380 And soars and shines, another and the same.
[_And light exterior_. l. 364. I suspect this line is from Dwight's
Conquest of Canaan, a poem written by a very young man, and which
contains much fine versification.]
[_Near and more near_. l. 369. From the vacant spaces in some parts of
the heavens, and the correspondent clusters of stars in their vicinity,
Mr. Herschel concludes that the nebulae or constellations of fixed stars
are approaching each other, and must finally coalesce in one mass. Phil.
Trans. Vol. LXXV.]
[_Till o'er the wreck_. l. 377. The story of the phenix rising from its
own ashes with a twinkling star upon its head, seems to have been an
antient hieroglyphic emblem of the destruction and resuscitation of all
things.
There is a figure of the great Platonic year with a phenix on his hand
on the reverse of a medal of Adrian. Spence's Polym. p. 189.]
2. "Lo! on each SEED within its slender rind
Life's golden threads in endless circles wind;
Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd,
And, as they burst, the living flame unfold.
385 The pulpy acorn, ere it swells, contains
The Oak's vast branches in its milky veins;
Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line
Traced with nice pencil on the small design.
The young Narcissus, in it's bulb compress'd,
390 Cradles a second nestling on its breast;
In whose fine arms a younger embryon lies,
Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;
Grain within grain successive harvests dwell,
And boundless forests slumber in a shell.
395 --So yon grey precipice, and ivy'd towers,
Long winding meads, and intermingled bowers,
Green files of poplars, o'er the lake that bow,
And glimmering wheel, which rolls and foams below,
In one bright point with nice distinction lie
400 Plan'd on the moving tablet of the eye.
--So, fold on fold, Earth's wavy plains extend,
And, sphere in sphere, its hidden strata bend;--
Incumbent Spring her beamy plumes expands
O'er restless oceans, and impatient lands,
405 With genial lustres warms the mighty ball,
And the GREAT SEED evolves, disclosing ALL;
LIFE _buds_ or _breathes_ from Indus to the Poles,
And the vast surface kindles, as it rolls!
[_Maze within maze_. l. 383. The elegant appearance on dissection of the
young tulip in the bulb was first observed by Mariotte and is mentioned
in the note on tulipa in Vol.II, and was afterwards noticed by Du Hamel.
Acad. Scien. Lewenhook assures us that in the bud of a currant tree he
could not only discover the ligneous part but even the berries
themselves, appearing like small grapes. Chamb. Dict. art. Bud. Mr.
Baker says he dissected a seed of trembling grass in which a perfect
plant appeared with its root, sending forth two branches, from each of
which several leaves or blades of grass proceeded. Microsc. Vol. I. p.
252. Mr. Bonnet saw four generations of successive plants in the bulb of
a hyacinth. Bonnet Corps Organ. Vol. I. p. 103. Haller's Physiol. Vol.
I. p. 91. In the terminal bud of a horse-chesnut the new flower may be
seen by the naked eye covered with a mucilaginous down, and the same in
the bulb of a narcissus, as I this morning observed in several of them
sent me by Miss ---- for that purpose. Sept. 16.
Mr. Ferber speaks of the pleasure he received in observing in the buds
of Hepatica and pedicularis hirsuta yet lying hid in the earth, and in
the gems of the shrub daphne mezereon, and at the base of osmunda
lunaria a perfect plant of the future year, discernable in all its parts
a year before it comes forth, and in the seeds of nymphea nelumbo the
leaves of the plant were seen so distinctly that the author found out by
them what plant the seeds belonged to. The same of the seeds of the
tulip tree or liriodendum tulipiferum. Amaen. Aced. Vol. VI.]
[_And the great seed_. l. 406. Alluding to the [Greek: proton oon], or
first great egg of the antient philosophy, it had a serpent wrapped
round it emblematical of divine wisdom, an image of it was afterwards
preserved and worshipped in the temple of Dioscuri, and supposed to
represent the egg of Leda. See a print of it in Bryant's Mythology. It
was said to have been broken by the horns of the celestial bull, that
is, it was hatched by the warmth of the Spring. See note on Canto I. l.
413.]
[_And the vast surface_. l. 408. L'Organization, le sentiment, le
movement spontané, la vie, n'existent qu'a la surface de la terre, et
dans le lieux exposes á la lumiére. Traité de Chymie par M. Lavoisier,
Tom. I. p. 202.]
3. "Come, YE SOFT SYLPHS! who sport on Latian land,
410 Come, sweet-lip'd Zephyr, and Favonius bland!
Teach the fine SEED, instinct with life, to shoot
On Earth's cold bosom its descending root;
With Pith elastic stretch its rising stem,
Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem;
415 Clasp in your airy arms the aspiring Plume,
Fan with your balmy breath its kindling bloom,
Each widening scale and bursting film unfold,
Swell the green cup, and tint the flower with gold;
While in bright veins the silvery Sap ascends,
420 And refluent blood in milky eddies bends;
While, spread in air, the leaves respiring play,
Or drink the golden quintessence of day.
--So from his shell on Delta's shower-less isle
Bursts into life the Monster of the Nile;
425 First in translucent lymph with cobweb-threads
The Brain's fine floating tissue swells, and spreads;
Nerve after nerve the glistening spine descends,
The red Heart dances, the Aorta bends;
Through each new gland the purple current glides,
430 New veins meandering drink the refluent tides;
Edge over edge expands the hardening scale,
And sheaths his slimy skin in silver mail.
--Erewhile, emerging from the brooding sand,
With Tyger-paw He prints the brineless strand,
435 High on the flood with speckled bosom swims,
Helm'd with broad tail, and oar'd with giant limbs;
Rolls his fierce eye-balls, clasps his iron claws,
And champs with gnashing teeth his massy jaws;
Old Nilus sighs along his cane-crown'd shores,
440 And swarthy Memphis trembles and adores.
[_Teach the fine seed_. l. 411. The seeds in their natural state fall on
the surface of the earth, and having absorbed some moisture the root
shoots itself downwards into the earth and the plume rises in air. Thus
each endeavouring to seek its proper pabulum directed by a vegetable
irritability similar to that of the lacteal system and to the lungs in
animals.
The pith seems to push up or elongate the bud by its elasticity, like
the pith in the callow quills of birds. This medulla Linneus believes to
consist of a bundle of fibres, which diverging breaks through the bark
yet gelatinous producing the buds.
The lobes are reservoirs of prepared nutriment for the young seed, which
is absorbed by its placental vessels, and converted into sugar, till it
has penetrated with its roots far enough into the earth to extract
sufficient moisture, and has acquired leaves to convert it into
nourishment. In some plants these lobes rise from the earth and supply
the place of leaves, as in kidney-beans, cucumbers, and hence seem to
serve both as a placenta to the foetus, and lungs to the young plant.
During the process of germination the starch of the seed is converted
into sugar, as is seen in the process of malting barley for the purpose
of brewing. And is on this account very similar to the digestion of food
in the stomachs of animals, which converts all their aliment into a
chyle, which consists of mucilage, oil, and sugar; the placentation of
buds will be spoken of hereafter.]
[_The silvery sap_. l. 419. See additional notes, No. XXXVI.]
[_Or drink the golden_. l. 422. Linneus having observed the great
influence of light on vegetation, imagined that the leaves of plants
inhaled electric matter from the light with their upper surface. (System
of Vegetables translated, p. 8.)
The effect of light on plants occasions the actions of the vegetable
muscles of their leaf-stalks, which turn the upper side of the leaf to
the light, and which open their calyxes and chorols, according to the
experiments of Abbe Tessier, who exposed variety of plants in a cavern
to different quantities of light. Hist. de L'Academie Royal. Ann. 1783.
The sleep or vigilance of plants seems owing to the presence or absence
of this stimulus. See note on Nimosa, Vol. II.]
XI. "Come, YE SOFT SYLPHS! who fan the Paphian groves,
And bear on sportive wings the callow Loves;
Call with sweet whisper, in each gale that blows,
The slumbering Snow-drop from her long repose;
445 Charm the pale Primrose from her clay-cold bed,
Unveil the bashful Violet's tremulous head;
While from her bud the playful Tulip breaks,
And young Carnations peep with blushing cheeks;
Bid the closed _Petals_ from nocturnal cold
450 The virgin _Style_ in silken curtains fold,
Shake into viewless air the morning dews,
And wave in light their iridescent hues;
While from on high the bursting _Anthers_ trust
To the mild breezes their prolific dust;
455 Or bend in rapture o'er the central Fair,
Love out their hour, and leave their lives in air.
So in his silken sepulchre the Worm,
Warm'd with new life, unfolds his larva-form;
Erewhile aloft in wanton circles moves,
460 And woos on Hymen-wings his velvet loves.
[_Love out their hour_. l. 456. The vegetable passion of love is
agreeably seen in the flower of the parnassia, in which the males
alternately approach and recede from the female, and in the flower of
nigella, or devil in the bush, in which the tall females bend down to
their dwarf husbands. But I was this morning surprised to observe,
amongst Sir Brooke Boothby's valuable collection of plants at Ashbourn,
the manifest adultery of several females of the plant Collinsonia, who
had bent themselves into contact with the males of other flowers of the
same plant in their vicinity, neglectful of their own. Sept. 16. See
additional notes, No. XXXVIII.]
[_Unfolds his larva-form_. l. 458. The flower bursts forth from its
larva, the herb, naked and perfect like a butterfly from its chrysolis;
winged with its corol; wing-sheathed by its calyx; consisting alone of
the organs of reproduction. The males, or stamens, have their anthers
replete with a prolific powder containing the vivifying fovilla: in the
females, or pistils, exists the ovary, terminated by the tubular stigma.
When the anthers burst and shed their bags of dust, the male fovilla is
received by the prolific lymph of the stigma, and produces the seed or
egg, which is nourished in the ovary. System of Vegetables translated
from Linneus by the Lichfield Society, p. 10.]
XII. 1. "If prouder branches with exuberance rude
Point their green gems, their barren shoots protrude;
Wound them, ye SYLPHS! with little knives, or bind
A wiry ringlet round the swelling rind;
465 Bisect with chissel fine the root below,
Or bend to earth the inhospitable bough.
So shall each germ with new prolific power
Delay the leaf-bud, and expand the flower;
Closed in the _Style_ the tender pith shall end,
470 The lengthening Wood in circling _Stamens_ bend;
The smoother Rind its soft embroidery spread
In vaulted _Petals_ o'er their fertile bed;
While the rough Bark, in circling mazes roll'd,
Forms the green _Cup_ with many a wrinkled fold;
475 And each small bud-scale spreads its foliage hard,
Firm round the callow germ, a _Floral Guard_.
[_Wound them, ye Sylphs!_ l. 463. Mr. Whitmill advised to bind some of
the most vigorous shoots with strong wire, and even some of the large
roots; and Mr. Warner cuts, what he calls a wild worm about the body of
the tree, or scores the bark quite to the wood like a screw with a sharp
knife. Bradley on Gardening, Vol. II. p. 155. Mr. Fitzgerald produced
flowers and fruit on wall trees by cutting off a part of the bark. Phil.
Trans. Ann. 1761. M. Buffon produced the same effect by a straight
bandage put round a branch, Act. Paris, Ann. 1738, and concludes that an
ingrafted branch bears better from its vessels being compressed by the
callous.
A compleat cylinder of the bark about an inch in height was cut off from
the branch of a pear tree against a wall in Mr. Howard's garden at
Lichfield about five years ago, the circumcised part is now not above
half the diameter of the branch above and below it, yet this branch has
been full of fruit every year since, when the other branches of the tree
bore only sparingly. I lately observed that the leaves of this wounded
branch were smaller and paler, and the fruit less in size, and ripened
sooner than on the other parts of the tree. Another branch has the bark
taken off not quite all round with much the same effect.
The theory of this curious vegetable fact has been esteemed difficult,
but receives great light from the foregoing account of the individuality
of buds. A flower-bud dies, when it has perfected its seed, like an
annual plant, and hence requires no place on the bark for new roots to
pass downwards; but on the contrary leaf-buds, as they advance into
shoots, form new buds in the axilla of every leaf, which new buds
require new roots to pass down the bark, and thus thicken as well as
elongate the branch, now if a wire or string be tied round the bark,
many of these new roots cannot descend, and thence more of the buds will
be converted into flower-buds.
It is customary to debark oak-trees in the spring, which are intended to
be felled in the ensuing autumn; because the bark comes off easier at
this season, and the sap-wood, or alburnum, is believed to become harder
and more durable, if the tree remains till the end of summer. The trees
thus stripped of their bark put forth shoots as usual with acorns on the
6th 7th and 8th joint, like vines; but in the branches I examined, the
joints of the debarked trees were much shorter than those of other oak-
trees; the acorns were more numerous; and no new buds were produced
above the joints which bore acorns. From hence it appears that the
branches of debarked oak-trees produce fewer leaf-buds, and more flower-
buds, which last circumstance I suppose must depend on their being
sooner or later debarked in the vernal months. And, secondly, that the
new buds of debarked oak-trees continue to obtain moisture from the
alburnum after the season of the ascent of sap in other vegetables
ceases; which in this unnatural state of the debarked tree may act as
capillary tubes, like the alburnum of the small debarked cylinder of a
pear-tree abovementioned; or may continue to act as placental vessels,
as happens to the animal embryon in cases of superfetation; when the
fetus continues a month or two in the womb beyond its usual time, of
which some instances have been recorded, the placenta continues to
supply perhaps the double office both of nutrition and of respiration.]
[_And bend to earth_. l. 466. Mr. Hitt in his treatise on fruit trees
observes that if a vigorous branch of a wall tree be bent to the
horizon, or beneath it, it looses its vigour and becomes a bearing
branch. The theory of this I suppose to depend on the difficulty with
which the leaf-shoots can protrude the roots necessary for their new
progeny of buds upwards along the bended branch to the earth contrary to
their natural habits or powers, whence more flower-shoots are produced
which do not require new roots to pass along the bark of the bended
branch, but which let their offspring, the seeds, fall upon the earth
and seek roots for themselves.]
[_With new prolific power_. l. 467. About Midsummer the new buds are
formed, but it is believed by some of the Linnean school, that these
buds may in their early state be either converted into flower-buds or
leaf-buds according to the vigour of the vegetating branch. Thus if the
upper part of a branch be cut away, the buds near the extremity of the
remaining stem, having a greater proportional supply of nutriment, or
possessing a greater facility of shooting their roots, or absorbent
vessels, down the bark, will become leaf-buds, which might otherwise
have been flower-buds. And the contrary as explained in note on l. 463.
of this Canto.]
[_Closed in the style_. l. 469. "I conceive the medulla of a plant to
consist of a bundle of nervous fibres, and that the propelling vital
power separates their uppermost extremities. These, diverging, penetrate
the bark, which is now gelatinous, and become multiplied in the new gem,
or leaf-bud. The ascending vessels of the bark being thus divided by the
nervous fibres, which perforate it, and the ascent of its fluids being
thus impeded, the bark is extended into a leaf. But the flower is
produced, when the protrusion of the medulla is greater than the
retention of the including cortical part; whence the substance of the
bark is expanded in the calyx; that of the rind, (or interior bark,) in
the corol; that of the wood in the stamens, that of the medulla in the
pistil. Vegetation thus terminates in the production of new life, the
ultimate medullary and cortical fibres being collected in the seeds."
Linnei Systema Veget. p. 6. edit. 14.]
2. "Where cruder juices swell the leafy vein,
Stint the young germ, the tender blossom stain;
On each lop'd shoot a softer scion bind,
480 Pith press'd to pith, and rind applied to rind,
So shall the trunk with loftier crest ascend,
And wide in air its happier arms extend;
Nurse the new buds, admire the leaves unknown,
And blushing bend with fruitage not its own.
[_Nurse the new buds_. l. 483. Mr. Fairchild budded a passion-tree,
whose leaves were spotted with yellow, into one which bears long fruit.
The buds did not take, nevertheless in a fortnight yellow spots began to
shew themselves about three feet above the inoculation, and in a short
time afterwards yellow spots appeared on a shoot which came out of the
ground from another part of the plant. Bradley, Vol. II. p. 129. These
facts are the more curious since from experiments of ingrafting red
currants on black (Ib. Vol. II.) the fruit does not acquire any change
of flavour, and by many other experiments neither colour nor any other
change is produced in the fruit ingrafted on other stocks.
There is an apple described in Bradley's work which is said to have one
side of it a sweet fruit which boils soft, and the other side a sour
fruit which boils hard, which Mr. Bradley so long ago as the year 1721
ingeniously ascribes to the farina of one of these apples impregnating
the other, which would seem the more probable if we consider that each
division of an apple is a separate womb, and may therefore have a
separate impregnation like puppies of different kinds in one litter. The
same is said to have occurred in oranges and lemons, and grapes of
different colours.]
485 "Thus when in holy triumph Aaron trod,
And offer'd on the shrine his mystic rod;
First a new bark its silken tissue weaves,
New buds emerging widen into leaves;
Fair fruits protrude, enascent flowers expand,
490 And blush and tremble round the living wand.
XIII. 1. "SYLPHS! on each Oak-bud wound the wormy galls,
With pigmy spears, or crush the venom'd balls;
Fright the green Locust from his foamy bed,
Unweave the Caterpillar's gluey thread;
495 Chase the fierce Earwig, scare the bloated Toad,
Arrest the snail upon his slimy road;
Arm with sharp thorns the Sweet-brier's tender wood,
And dash the Cynips from her damask bud;
Steep in ambrosial dews the Woodbine's bells,
500 And drive the Night-moth from her honey'd cells.
So where the Humming-bird in Chili's bowers
On murmuring pinions robs the pendent flowers;
Seeks, where fine pores their dulcet balm distill,
And sucks the treasure with proboscis-bill;
505 Fair CYPREPEDIA with successful guile
Knits her smooth brow, extinguishes her smile;
A Spiders bloated paunch and jointed arms
Hide her fine form, and mask her blushing charms;
In ambush sly the mimic warrior lies,
510 And on quick wing the panting plunderer flies.
[_Fair Cyprepedia_. l. 505. The cyprepedium from South America is
supposed to be of larger size and brighter colours than that from North
America from which this print is taken; it has a large globular nectary
about the size of a pidgeon's egg of a fleshy colour, and an incision or
depression on its upper part, much resembling the body of the large
American spider; this globular nectary is attached to divergent slender
petals not unlike the legs of the same animal. This spider is called by
Linneus Arenea avicularia, with a convex orbicular thorax, the center
transversely excavated, he adds that it catches small birds as well as
insects, and has the venemous bite of a serpent. System Nature, Tom. I.
p. 1034. M. Lonvilliers de Poincy, (Histoire Nat. des Antilles, Cap.
xiv. art. III.) calls it Phalange, and describes the body to be the size
of a pidgeon's egg, with a hollow on its back like a navel, and mentions
its catching the humming-bird in its strong nets.
The similitude of this flower to this great spider seems to be a
vegetable contrivance to prevent the humming-bird from plundering its
honey. About Matlock in Derbyshire the fly-ophris is produced, the
nectary of which so much resembles the small wall-bee, perhaps the apis
ichneumonea, that it may be easily mistaken for it at a small distance.
It is probable that by this means it may often escape being plundered.
See note on lonicera in the next poem.
A bird of our own country called a willow-wren (Motacilla) runs up the
stem of the crown-imperial (Frittillaria coronalis) and sips the
pendulous drops within its petals. This species of Motacilla is called
by Ray Regulus non cristatus. White's Hist. of Selborne.]
[Illustration: _Cypripedium. London, Published Dec'r 1st 1791 by J.
Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard._]
2. "Shield the young Harvest from devouring blight,
The Smut's dark poison, and the Mildew white;
Deep-rooted Mould, and Ergot's horn uncouth,
And break the Canker's desolating tooth.
515 First in one point the festering wound confin'd
Mines unperceived beneath the shrivel'd rin'd;
Then climbs the branches with increasing strength,
Spreads as they spread, and lengthens with their length;
--Thus the slight wound ingraved on glass unneal'd
520 Runs in white lines along the lucid field;
Crack follows crack, to laws elastic just,
And the frail fabric shivers into dust.
[_Shield the young harvest_. l. 511. Linneus enumerates but four
diseases of plants; Erysyche, the white mucor or mould, with sessile
tawny heads, with which the leaves are sprinkled, as is frequent on the
hop, humulus, maple, acer, &c. Rubigo, the ferrugineous powder sprinkled
under the leaves frequent in lady's mantle, alchemilla, &c.
Clavus, when the seeds grow out into larger horns black without, as in
rye. This is called Ergot by the french writers.
Ustulago, when the fruit instead of seed produces a black powder, as in
barley, oats, &c. To which perhaps the honey-dew ought to have been
added, and the canker, in the former of which the nourishing fluid of
the plant seems to be exsuded by a retrograde motion of the cutaneous
lymphatics, as in the sweating sickness of the last century. The latter
is a phagedenic ulcer of the bark, very destructive to young apple-
trees, and which in cherry-trees is attended with a deposition of gum
arabic, which often terminates in the death of the tree.]
[_Ergot's horn_. l. 513. There is a disease frequently affects the rye
in France, and sometimes in England in moist seasons, which is called
Ergot, or horn seed; the grain becomes considerably elongated and is
either straight or crooked, containing black meal along with the white,
and appears to be pierced by insects, which were probably the cause of
the disease. Mr. Duhamel ascribes it to this cause, and compares it to
galls on oak-leaves. By the use of this bad grain amongst the poor
diseases have been produced attended with great debility and
mortification of the extremities both in France and England. Dict.
Raison. art. Siegle. Philosop. Transact.]
[_On glass unneal'd_. l. 519. The glass makers occasionally make what
they call _proofs_, which are cooled hastily, whereas the other glass
vessels are removed from warmer ovens to cooler ones, and suffered to
cool by slow degrees, which is called annealing, or nealing them. If an
unnealed glass be scratched by even a grain of sand falling into it, it
will seem to consider of it for some time, or even a day, and will then
crack into a thousand pieces.
The same happens to a smooth surfaced lead-ore in Derbyshire, the
workmen having cleared a large face of it scratch it with picks, and in
a few hours many tons of it crack to pieces and fall, with a kind of
explosion. Whitehurst's Theory of Earth.
Glass dropped into cold water, called Prince Rupert's drops, explode
when a small part of their tails are broken off, more suddenly indeed,
but probably from the same cause. Are the internal particles of these
elastic bodies kept so far from each other by the external crust that
they are nearly in a state of repulsion into which state they are thrown
by their vibrations from any violence applied? Or, like elastic balls in
certain proportions suspended in contact with each other, can motion
once began be increased by their elasticity, till the whole explodes?
And can this power be applied to any mechanical purposes?]
XIV. I. "SYLPHS! if with morn destructive Eurus springs,
O, clasp the Harebel with your velvet wings;
525 Screen with thick leaves the Jasmine as it blows,
And shake the white rime from the shuddering Rose;
Whilst Amaryllis turns with graceful ease
Her blushing beauties, and eludes the breeze.--
SYLPHS! if at noon the Fritillary droops,
530 With drops nectareous hang her nodding cups;
Thin clouds of Gossamer in air display,
And hide the vale's chaste Lily from the ray;
Whilst Erythrina o'er her tender flower
Bends all her leaves, and braves the sultry hour;--
535 Shield, when cold Hesper sheds his dewy light,
Mimosa's soft sensations from the night;
Fold her thin foilage, close her timid flowers,
And with ambrosial slumbers guard her bowers;
O'er each warm wall while Cerea flings her arms,
540 And wastes on night's dull eye a blaze of charms.
[Illustration: _Erythrina Corallodendron. London Published Dec'r 1st by
J. Johnson St. Paul's Church Yard._]
[_With ambrosial slumbers_. l. 538. Many vegetables during the night do
not seem to respire, but to sleep like the dormant animals and insects
in winter. This appears from the mimosa and many other plants closing
the upper sides of their leaves together in their sleep, and thus
precluding that side of them from both light and air. And from many
flowers closing up the polished or interior side of their petals, which
we have also endeavoured to shew to be a respiratory organ.
The irritability of plants is abundantly evinced by the absorption and
pulmonary circulation of their juices; their sensibility is shewn by the
approaches of the males to the females, and of the females to the males
in numerous instances; and, as the essential circumstance of sleep
consists in the temporary abolition of voluntary power alone, the sleep
of plants evinces that they possess voluntary power; which also
indisputably appears in many of them by closing their petals or their
leaves during cold, or rain, or darkness, or from mechanic violence.]
2. Round her tall Elm with dewy fingers twine
The gadding tendrils of the adventurous Vine;
From arm to arm in gay festoons suspend
Her fragrant flowers, her graceful foliage bend;
545 Swell with sweet juice her vermil orbs, and feed
Shrined in transparent pulp her pearly seed;
Hang round the Orange all her silver bells,
And guard her fragrance with Hesperian spells;
Bud after bud her polish'd leaves unfold,
550 And load her branches with successive gold.
So the learn'd Alchemist exulting sees
Rise in his bright matrass DIANA'S trees;
Drop after drop, with just delay he pours
The red-fumed acid on Potosi's ores;
555 With sudden flash the fierce bullitions rise,
And wide in air the gas phlogistic flies;
Slow shoot, at length, in many a brilliant mass
Metallic roots across the netted glass;
Branch after branch extend their silver stems,
560 Bud into gold, and blossoms into gems.
[_Diana's trees_, l. 552. The chemists and astronomers from the earliest
antiquity have used the same characters to represent the metals and the
planets, which were most probably outlines or abstracts of the original
hieroglyphic figures of Egypt. These afterwards acquired niches in their
temples, and represented Gods as well as metals and planets; whence
silver is called Diana, or the moon, in the books of alchemy.
The process for making Diana's silver tree is thus described by Lemeri.
Dissolve one ounce of pure silver in acid of nitre very pure and
moderately strong; mix this solution with about twenty ounces of
distilled water; add to this two ounces of mercury, and let it remain at
rest. In about four days there will form upon the mercury a tree of
silver with branches imitating vegetation.
1. As the mercury has a greater affinity than silver with the nitrous
acid, the silver becomes precipitated; and, being deprived of the
nitrous oxygene by the mercury, sinks down in its metallic form and
lustre. 2. The attraction between silver and mercury, which causes them
readily to amalgamate together, occasions the precipitated silver to
adhere to the surface of the mercury in preference to any other part of
the vessel. 3. The attraction of the particles of the precipitated
silver to each other causes the beginning branches to thicken and
elongate into trees and shrubs rooted on the mercury. For other
circumstances concerning this beautiful experiment see Mr. Keir's
Chemical Dictionary, art. Arbor Dianae; a work perhaps of greater
utility to mankind than the lost Alexandrian Library; the continuation
of which is so eagerly expected by all, who are occupied in the arts, or
attached to the sciences.]
So sits enthron'd in vegetable pride
Imperial KEW by Thames's glittering side;
Obedient sails from realms unfurrow'd bring
For her the unnam'd progeny of spring;
565 Attendant Nymphs her dulcet mandates hear,
And nurse in fostering arms the tender year,
Plant the young bulb, inhume the living seed,
Prop the weak stem, the erring tendril lead;
Or fan in glass-built fanes the stranger flowers
570 With milder gales, and steep with warmer showers.
Delighted Thames through tropic umbrage glides,
And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides;
Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales,
And calls the sons of science to his vales.
575 In one bright point admiring Nature eyes
The fruits and foliage of discordant skies,
Twines the gay floret with the fragrant bough,
And bends the wreath round GEORGE'S royal brow.
--Sometimes retiring, from the public weal
580 One tranquil hour the ROYAL PARTNERS steal;
Through glades exotic pass with step sublime,
Or mark the growths of Britain's happier clime;
With beauty blossom'd, and with virtue blaz'd,
Mark the fair Scions, that themselves have rais'd;
585 Sweet blooms the Rose, the towering Oak expands,
The Grace and Guard of Britain's golden lands.
XV. SYLPHS! who, round earth on purple pinions borne,
Attend the radiant chariot of the morn;
Lead the gay hours along the ethereal hight,
590 And on each dun meridian shower the light;
SYLPHS! who from realms of equatorial day
To climes, that shudder in the polar ray,
From zone to zone pursue on shifting wing,
The bright perennial journey of the spring;
595 Bring my rich Balms from Mecca's hallow'd glades,
Sweet flowers, that glitter in Arabia's shades;
Fruits, whose fair forms in bright succession glow
Gilding the Banks of Arno, or of Po;
Each leaf, whose fragrant steam with ruby lip
600 Gay China's nymphs from pictur'd vases sip;
Each spicy rind, which sultry India boasts,
Scenting the night-air round her breezy coasts;
Roots whose bold stems in bleak Siberia blow,
And gem with many a tint the eternal snow;
605 Barks, whose broad umbrage high in ether waves
O'er Ande's steeps, and hides his golden caves;
--And, where yon oak extends his dusky shoots
Wide o'er the rill, that bubbles from his roots;
Beneath whose arms, protected from the storm
610 A turf-built altar rears it's rustic form;
SYLPHS! with religious hands fresh garlands twine,
And deck with lavish pomp HYGEIA'S shrine.
"Call with loud voice the Sisterhood, that dwell
On floating cloud, wide wave, or bubbling well;
615 Stamp with charm'd foot, convoke the alarmed Gnomes
From golden beds, and adamantine domes;
Each from her sphere with beckoning arm invite,
Curl'd with red flame, the Vestal Forms of light.
Close all your spotted wings, in lucid ranks
620 Press with your bending knees the crowded banks,
Cross your meek arms, incline your wreathed brows,
And win the Goddess with unwearied vows.
"Oh, wave, HYGEIA! o'er BRITANNIA'S throne
Thy serpent-wand, and mark it for thy own;
625 Lead round her breezy coasts thy guardian trains,
Her nodding forests, and her waving plains;
Shed o'er her peopled realms thy beamy smile,
And with thy airy temple crown her isle!"
The GODDESS ceased,--and calling from afar
630 The wandering Zephyrs, joins them to her car;
Mounts with light bound, and graceful, as she bends,
Whirls the long lash, the flexile rein extends;
On whispering wheels the silver axle slides,
Climbs into air, and cleaves the crystal tides;
635 Burst from its pearly chains, her amber hair
Streams o'er her ivory shoulders, buoy'd in air;
Swells her white veil, with ruby clasp confined
Round her fair brow, and undulates behind;
The lessening coursers rise in spiral rings,
640 Pierce the slow-sailing clouds, and stretch their shadowy wings.
CONTENTS
OF
THE NOTES.
CANTO I.
Rosicrucian machinery. 73
All bodies are immersed in the matter of heat. Particles of bodies do
not touch each other. 97
Gradual progress of the formation of the earth, and of plants and
animals. Monstrous births 101
Fixed stars approach towards each other, they were projected from chaos
by explosion, and the planets projected from them 105
An atmosphere of inflammable air above the common atmosphere principally
about the poles 123
Twilight fifty miles high. Wants further observations 126
Immediate cause of volcanos from steam and other vapours. They prevent
greater earthquakes 152
Conductors of heat. Cold on the tops of mountains 176
Phosphorescent light in the evening from all bodies 177
Phosphoric light from calcined shells. Bolognian stone. Experiments of
Beccari and Wilson 182
Ignis fatuus doubtful 189
Electric Eel. Its electric organs. Compared to the electric Leyden phial
202
Discovery of fire. Tools of steel. Forests subdued. Quantity of food
increased by cookery 212
Medusa originally an hieroglyphic of divine wisdom 218
Cause of explosions from combined heat. Heat given out from air in
respiration. Oxygene looses less heat when converted into nitrous acid
than in any other of its combinations 226
Sparks from the collision of flints are electric. From the collision of
flint and steel are from the combustion of the steel 229
Gunpowder described by Bacon. Its power. Should be lighted in the
centre. A new kind of it. Levels the weak and strong 242
Steam-engine invented by Savery. Improved by Newcomen. Perfected by Watt
and Boulton 254
Divine benevolence. The parts of nature not of equal excellence 278
Mr. Boulton's steam-engine for the purpose of coining would save many
lives from the executioner 281
Labours of Hercules of great antiquity. Pillars of Hercules. Surface of
the Mediteranean lower than the Atlantic. Abyla and Calpe. Flood of
Deucalion 297
Accumulation of electricity not from friction 335
Mr. Bennet's sensible electrometer 345
Halo of saints is pictorial language 358
We have a sense adapted to perceive heat but not electricity 365
Paralytic limbs move by electric influence 367
Death of Professor Richman by electricity 373
Lightning drawn from the clouds. How to be safe in thunder storms 383
Animal heat from air in respiration. Perpetual necessity of respiration.
Spirit of animation perpetually renewed 401
Cupid rises from the egg of night. Mrs. Cosway's painting of this
subject 413
Western-winds. Their origin. Warmer than south-winds. Produce a thaw
430
Water expands in freezing. Destroys succulent plants, not resinous ones.
Trees in valleys more liable to injury. Fig-trees bent to the ground in
winter 439
Buds and bulbs are the winter cradle of the plant. Defended from frost
and from insects. Tulip produces one flower-bulb and several leaf-bulbs,
and perishes. 460
Matter of heat is different from light. Vegetables blanched by exclusion
of light. Turn the upper surface of their leaves to the light. Water
decomposed as it escapes from their pores. Hence vegetables purify air
in the day time only. 462
Electricity forwards the growth of plants. Silk-worms electrised spin
sooner. Water decomposed in vegetables, and by electricity 463
Sympathetic inks which appear by heat, and disappear in the cold. Made
from cobalt 487
Star in Cassiope's chair 515
Ice-islands 100 fathoms deep. Sea-ice more difficult of solution. Ice
evaporates producing great cold. Ice-islands increase. Should be
navigated into southern climates. Some ice-islands have floated
southwards 60 miles long. Steam attending them in warm climates 529
Monsoon cools the sands of Abyssinia 547
Ascending vapours are electrised plus, as appears from an experiment of
Mr. Bennet. Electricity supports vapour in clouds. Thunder showers from
combination of inflammable and vital airs 553
CANTO II.
Solar volcanos analogous to terrestrial and lunar ones. Spots of the sun
are excavations 14
Spherical form of the earth. Ocean from condensed vapour. Character of
Mr. Whitehurst 17
Granite the oldest part of the earth. Then limestone. And lastly, clay,
iron, coal, sandstone. Three great concentric divisions of the globe
35
Formation of primeval islands before the production of the moon.
Paradise. The Golden Age. Rain-bow. Water of the sea originally fresh
36
Venus rising from the sea an hieroglyphic emblem of the production of
the earth beneath the ocean 47
First great volcanos in the central parts of the earth. From steam,
inflammable gas, and vital air. Present volcanos like mole-hills 68
Moon has little or no atmosphere. Its ocean is frozen. Is not yet
inhabited, but may be in time 82
Earth's axis changed by the ascent of the moon. Its diurnal motion
retarded. One great tide 84
Limestone produced from shells. Spars with double refractions. Marble.
Chalk 93
Antient statues of Hercules. Antinous. Apollo. Venus. Designs of
Roubiliac. Monument of General Wade. Statues of Mrs. Damer 101
Morasses rest on limestone. Of immense extent 116
Salts from animal and vegetable bodies decompose each other, except
marine salt. Salt mines in Poland. Timber does not decay in them. Rock-
salt produced by evaporation from sea-water. Fossil shells in salt
mines. Salt in hollow pyramids. In cubes. Sea-water contains about one-
thirtieth of salt 119
Nitre, native in Bengal and Italy. Nitrous gas combined with vital air
produces red clouds, and the two airs occupy less space than one of them
before, and give out heat. Oxygene and azote produce nitrous acid 143
Iron from decomposed vegetables. Chalybeat springs. Fern-leaves in
nodules of iron. Concentric spheres of iron nodules owing to polarity,
like iron-filings arranged by a magnet. Great strata of the earth owing
to their polarity 183
Hardness of steel for tools. Gave superiority to the European nations.
Welding of steel. Its magnetism. Uses of gold 192
Artificial magnets improved by Savery and Dr. Knight, perfected by Mr.
Michel. How produced. Polarity owing to the earth's rotatory motion. The
electric fluid, and the matter of heat, and magnetism gravitate on each
other. Magnetism being the lightest is found nearest the axis of the
motion. Electricity produces northern lights by its centrifugal motion
193
Acids from vegetable recrements. Flint has its acid from the new world.
Its base in part from the old world, and in part from the new. Precious
stones 215
Diamond. Its great refraction of light. Its volatibility by heat. If an
inflammable body. 228
Fires of the new world from fermentation. Whence sulphur and bitumen by
sublimation, the clay, coal, and flint remaining 275
Colours not distinguishable in the enamel-kiln, till a bit of dry wood
is introduced 283
Etrurian pottery prior to the foundations of Rome. Excelled in fine
forms, and in a non-vitreous encaustic painting, which was lost till
restored by Mr. Wedgwood. Still influences the taste of the inhabitants
291
Mr. Wedgwood's cameo of a slave in chains, and of Hope 315
Basso-relievos of two or more colours not made by the antients. Invented
by Mr. Wedgwood 342
Petroleum and naptha have been sublimed. Whence jet and amber. They
absorb air. Attract straws when rubbed. Electricity from electron the
greek name for amber 353
Clefts in granite rocks in which metals are found. Iron and manganese
found in all vegetables. Manganese in limestone. Warm springs from steam
rising up the clefts of granite and limestone. Ponderous earth in
limestone clefts and in granite. Copper, lead, iron, from descending
materials. High mountains of granite contain no ores near their summits.
Transmutation of metals. Of lead into calamy. Into silver 398
Armies of Cambytes destroyed by famine, and by sand-storms 435
Whirling turrets of sand described and explained 478
Granite shews iron as it decomposes. Marble decomposes. Immense quantity
of charcoal exists in limestone. Volcanic slags decompose, and become
clay 523
Millstones raised by wooden pegs 524
Hannibal made a passage by fire over the Alps 534
Passed tense of many words twofold, as driven or drove, spoken or spoke.
A poetic licence 609
CANTO III.
Clouds consist of aqueous spheres, which do not easily unite, like
globules of quicksilver, as may be seen in riding through water. Owing
to electricity. Snow. Hailstones rounded by attrition and dissolution of
their angles. Not from frozen drops of water 15
Dew on points and edges of grass, or hangs over cabbage-leaves, needle
floats on water 18
Mists over rivers and on mountains. Halo round the moon. Shadow of a
church-steeple upon a mist. Dry mist, or want of transparency of the
air, a sign of fair-weather 20
Tides on both sides of the earth. Moon's tides should be much greater
than the earth's tides. The ocean of the moon is frozen 61
Spiral form of shells saves calcareous matter. Serves them as an organ
of hearing. Calcareous matter produced from inflamed membranes. Colours
of shells, labradore-stone from mother-pearl. Fossil shells not now
found recent 66
Sea-insects like flowers. Actinia 82
Production of pearls, not a disease of the fish. Crab's eyes. Reservoirs
of pearly matter 84
Rocks of coral in the south-sea. Coralloid limestone at Linsel, and
Coalbrook Dale 90
Rocks thrown from mountains, ice from glaciers, and portions of earth,
or morasses, removed by columns of water. Earth-motion in Shropshire.
Water of wells rising above the level of the ground. St. Alkmond's well
near Derby might be raised many yards, so as to serve the town. Well at
Sheerness, and at Hartford in Connecticut 116
Moonsoons attended with rain Overflowing of the Nile. Vortex of
ascending air. Rising of the Dogstar announces the floods of the Nile.
Anubis hung out upon their temples 129
Situations exempt from rain. At the Line in Lower Egypt. On the coast of
Peru 138
Giesar, a boiling fountain in Iceland. Water with great degrees of heat
dissolves siliceous matter. Earthquake from steam 150
Warm springs not from decomposed pyrites. From steam rising up fissures
from great depths 166
Buxton bath possesses 82 degrees of heat. Is improperly called a warm
bath. A chill at immersion, and then a sensation of warmth, like the eye
in an obscure room owing to increased sensibility of the skin 184
Water compounded of pure air and inflammable air with as much matter of
heat as preserves it fluid. Perpetually decomposed by vegetables in the
sun's light, and recomposed in the atmosphere 204
Mythological interpretation of Jupiter and Juno designed as an emblem of
the composition of water from two airs 260
Death of Mrs. French 308
Tomb of Mr. Brindley 341
Invention of the pump. The piston lifts the atmosphere above it. The
surrounding atmosphere presses up the water into the vacuum. Manner in
which a child sucks 366
Air-cell in engines for extinguishing fire. Water dispersed by the
explosion of Gunpowder. Houses preserved from fire by earth on the
floors, by a second ceiling of iron-plates or coarse mortar. Wood
impregnated with alabaster or flint 406
Muscular actions and sensations of plants 460
River Achelous. Horn of Plenty 495
Flooding lands defends them from vernal frosts. Some springs deposit
calcareous earth. Some contain azotic gas, which contributes to produce
nitre. Snow water less serviceable 540
CANTO IV.
Cacalia produces much honey, that a part may be taken by insects without
injury 2
Analysis of common air. Source of azote. Of Oxygene. Water decomposed by
vegetable pores and the sun's light. Blood gives out phlogiston and
receives vital air. Acquires heat and the vivifying principle 34
Cupid and Psyche 48
Simoom, a pestilential wind. Described. Owing to volcanic electricity.
Not a whirlwind 65
Contagion either animal or vegetable 82
Thyrsis escapes the Plague 91
Barometer and air-pump, Dew on exhausting the receiver though the
hygrometer points to dryness. Rare air will dissolve or acquire more
heat, and more moisture, and more electricity 128
Sound propagated best by dense bodies, as wood, and water, and earth.
Fish in spiral shells all ear 164
Discoveries of Dr. Priestley. Green vegetable matter. Pure air contained
in the calces of metals, as minium, manganese, calamy, ochre 166
Fable of Proserpine an antient chemical emblem 178
Diving balloons supplied with pure air from minium. Account of one by
Mr. Boyle 195
Mr. Day. Mr. Spalding 217
Captain Pierce and his daughters 219
Pestilential winds of volcanic origin. Jordan flows through a country of
volcanos 294
Change of wind owing to small causes. If the wind could be governed, the
products of the earth would be doubled, and its number of inhabitants
increased 308
Mr. Kirwan's treatise on temperature of climates 342
Seeds of plants. Spawn of fish. Nutriment lodged in seeds. Their
preservation in their seed-vessels 355
Fixed stars approach each other 369
Fable of the Phoenix 377
Plants visible within bulbs, and buds, and seeds 383
Great Egg of Night 406
Seeds shoot into the ground. Pith. Seed-lobes. Starch converted into
sugar. Like animal chyle 411
Light occasions the actions of vegetable muscles. Keeps them awake
422
Vegetable love in Parnassia, Nigella. Vegetable adultery in Collinsonia
456
Strong vegetable shoots and roots bound with wire, in part debarked,
whence leaf-buds converted into flower-buds. Theory of this curious fact
463
Branches bent to the horizon bear more fruit 466
Engrafting of a spotted passion-flower produced spots upon the stock.
Apple soft on one side and hard on the other 483
Cyprepedium assumes the form of a large spider to affright the humming-
bird. Fly-ophris. Willow-wren sucks the honey of the crown-imperial
505
Diseases of plants four kinds. Honey-dew 511
Ergot a disease of rye 513
Glass unannealed. Its cracks owing to elasticity. One kind of lead-ore
cracks into pieces. Prince Rupert's drops. Elastic balls 519
Sleep of plants. Their irritability, sensibility, and voluntary motions
538
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
NOTE I.--METEORS.
_Etherial Forms! you chase the shooting stars,
Or yoke the vollied lightnings to your cars._
CANTO I. l. 115.
There seem to be three concentric strata of our incumbent atmosphere; in
which, or between them, are produced four kinds of meteors; lightning,
shooting stars, fire-balls, and northern lights. First, the lower region
of air, or that which is dense enough to resist by the adhesion of its
particles the descent of condensed vapour, or clouds, which may extend
from one to three or four miles high. In this region the common
lightning is produced from the accumulation or defect of electric matter
in those floating fields of vapour either in respect to each other, or
in respect to the earth beneath them, or the dissolved vapour above
them, which is constantly varying both with the change of the form of
the clouds, which thus evolve a greater or less surface; and also with
their ever-changing degree of condensation. As the lightning is thus
produced in dense air, it proceeds but a short course on account of the
greater resistance which it encounters, is attended with a loud
explosion, and appears with a red light.
2. The second region of the atmosphere I suppose to be that which has
too little tenacity to support condensed vapour or clouds; but which yet
contains invisible vapour, or water in aerial solution. This aerial
solution of water differs from that dissolved in the matter of heat, as
it is supported by its adhesion to the particles of air, and is not
precipitated by cold. In this stratum it seems probable that the meteors
called shooting stars are produced; and that they consist of electric
sparks, or lightning, passing from one region to another of these
invisible fields of aero-aqueous solution. The height of these shooting
stars has not yet been ascertained by sufficient observation; Dr.
Blagden thinks their situation is lower down in the atmosphere than that
of fireballs, which he conjectures from their swift apparent motion, and
ascribes their smallness to the more minute division of the electric
matter of which they are supposed to consist, owing to the greater
resistance of the denser medium through which they pass, than that in
which the fire-balls exist. Mr. Brydone observed that the shooting stars
appeared to him to be as high in the atmosphere, when he was near the
summit of mount Etna, as they do when observed from the plain. Phil.
Tran. Vol. LXIII.
As the stratum of air, in which shooting stars are supposed to exist is
much rarer than that in which lightning resides, and yet much denser
than that in which fire-balls are produced, they will be attracted at a
greater distance than the former, and at a less than the latter. From
this rarity of the air so small a sound will be produced by their
explosion, as not to reach the lower parts of the atmosphere; their
quantity of light from their greater distance being small, is never seen
through dense air at all, and thence does not appear red, like lightning
or fire balls. There are no apparent clouds to emit or to attract them,
because the constituent parts of these aero-aqueous regions may possess
an abundance or deficiency of electric matter and yet be in perfect
reciprocal solution. And lastly their apparent train of light is
probably owing only to a continuance of their impression on the eye; as
when a fire-stick is whirled in the dark it gives the appearance of a
compleat circle of fire: for these white trains of shooting stars
quickly vanish, and do not seem to set any thing on fire in their
passage, as seems to happen in the transit of fire-balls.
3. The second region or stratum of air terminates I suppose where the
twilight ceases to be refracted, that is, where the air is 3000 times
rarer than at the surface of the earth; and where it seems probable that
the common air ends, and is surrounded by an atmosphere of inflammable
gas tenfold rarer than itself. In this region I believe fire-balls
sometimes to pass, and at other times the northern lights to exist. One
of these fire-balls or draco volans, was observed by Dr. Pringle and
many others on Nov. 26, 1758, which was afterwards estimated to have
been a mile and a half in circumference, to have been about one hundred
miles high, and to have moved towards the north with a velocity of near
thirty miles in a second of time. This meteor had a real tail many miles
long, which threw off sparks in its course, and the whole exploded with
a sound like distant thunder. Philos. Trans. Vol. LI.
Dr. Blagden has related the history of another large meteor, or fire-
ball, which was seen the 18th of August, 1783, with many ingenious
observations and conjectures. This was estimated to be between 60 and 70
miles high, and to travel 1000 miles at the rate of about twenty miles
in a second. This fire-ball had likewise a real train of light left
behind it in its passage, which varied in colour; and in some part of
its course gave off sparks or explosions where it had been brightest;
and a dusky red streak remained visible perhaps a minute. Philos. Trans.
Vol. LXXIV.
These fire-balls differ from lightning, and from shooting stars in many
remarkable circumstances; as their very great bulk, being a mile and a
half in diameter; their travelling 1000 miles nearly horizontally; their
throwing off sparks in their passage; and changing colours from bright
blue to dusky red; and leaving a train of fire behind them, continuing
about a minute. They differ from the northern lights in not being
diffused, but passing from one point of the heavens to another in a
defined line; and this in a region above the crepuscular atmosphere,
where the air is 3000 tines rarer than at the surface of the earth.
There has not yet been even a conjecture which can account for these
appearances!--One I shall therefore hazard; which, if it does not
inform, may amuse the reader.
In the note on l. 123, it was shewn that there is probably a supernatant
stratum of inflammable gas or hydrogene, over the common atmosphere; and
whose density at the surface where they meet, must be at least ten times
less than that upon which it swims; like chemical ether floating upon
water, and perhaps without any real contact. 1. In this region, where
the aerial atmosphere terminates and the inflammable one begins, the
quantity of tenacity or resistance must be almost inconceivable; in
which a ball of electricity might pass 1000 miles with greater ease than
through a thousandth part of an inch of glass. 2. Such a ball of
electricity passing between inflammable and common air would set fire to
them in a line as it patted along; which would differ in colour
according to the greater proportionate commixture of the two airs; and
from the same cause there might occur greater degrees of inflammation,
or branches of fire, in some parts of its course.
As these fire-balls travel in a defined line, it is pretty evident from
the known laws of electricity, that they must be attracted; and as they
are a mile or more in diameter, they must be emitted from a large
surface of electric matter; because large nobs give larger sparks, less
diffused, and more brightly luminous, than less ones or points, and
resist more forceably the emission of the electric matter. What is there
in nature can attract them at so great a distance as 1000 miles, and so
forceably as to detach an electric spark of a mile diameter? Can
volcanos at the time of their eruptions have this effect, as they are
generally attended with lightning? Future observations must discover
these secret operations of nature! As a stream of common air is carried
along with the passage of electric aura from one body to another; it is
easy to conceive, that the common air and the inflammable air between
which the fire-ball is supposed to pass, will be partially intermixed by
being thus agitated, and so far as it becomes intermixed it will take
fire, and produce the linear flame and branching sparks above described.
In this circumstance of their being attracted, and thence passing in a
defined line, the fire-balls seem to differ from the coruscations of the
aurora borealis, or northern lights, which probably take place in the
same region of the atmosphere; where the common air exists in extreme
tenuity, and is covered by a still rarer sphere of inflammable gas, ten
times lighter than itself.
As the electric streams, which constitute these northern lights, seem to
be repelled or radiated from an accumulation of that fluid in the north,
and not attracted like the fireballs; this accounts for the diffusion of
their light, as well as the silence of their passage; while their
variety of colours, and the permanency of them, and even the breadth of
them in different places, may depend on their setting on fire the
mixture of inflammable and common air through which they pass; as seems
to happen in the transit of the fire-balls.
It was observed by Dr. Priestley that the electric shock taken through
inflammable air was red, in common air it is blueish; to these
circumstances perhaps some of the colours of the northern lights may
bear analogy; though the density of the medium through which light is
seen must principally vary its colour, as is well explained by Mr.
Morgan. Phil. Trans. Vol. LXXV. Hence lightning is red when seen through
a dark cloud, or near the horizon; because the more refrangible rays
cannot permeate so dense a medium. But the shooting stars consist of
white light, as they are generally seen on clear nights, and nearly
vertical: in other situations their light is probably too faint to come
to us. But as in some remarkable appearances of the northern lights, as
in March, 1716, all the prismatic colours were seen quickly to succeed
each other, these appear to have been owing to real combustion; as the
density of the interposed medium could not be supposed to change so
frequently; and therefore these colours must have been owing to
different degrees of heat according to Mr. Morgan's theory of
combustion. In Smith's Optics, p. 69. the prismatic colours, and optical
deceptions of the northern lights are described by Mr. Cotes.
The Torricellian vacuum, if perfectly free from air, is said by Mr.
Morgan and others to be a perfect non-conductor. This circumstance
therefore would preclude the electric streams from rising above the
atmosphere. But as Mr. Morgan did not try to pass an electric shock
through a vacuum, and as air, or something containing air, surrounding
the transit of electricity may be necessary to the production of light,
the conclusion may perhaps still be dubious. If however the streams of
the northern lights were supposed to rise above our atmosphere, they
would only be visible at each extremity of their course; where they
emerge from, or are again immerged into the atmosphere; but not in their
journey through the vacuum; for the absence of electric light in a
vacuum is sufficiently proved by the common experiment of shaking a
barometer in the dark; the electricity, produced by the friction of the
mercury in the glass at its top, is luminous if the barometer has a
little air in it; but there is no light if the vacuum be complete.
The aurora borealis, or northern dawn, is very ingeniously accounted for
by Dr. Franklin on principles of electricity. He premises the following
electric phenomena: 1. that all new fallen snow has much positive
electricity standing on its surface. 2. That about twelve degrees of
latitude round the poles are covered with a crust of eternal ice, which
is impervious to the electric fluid. 3. That the dense part of the
atmosphere rises but a few miles high; and that in the rarer parts of it
the electric fluid will pass to almost any distance.
Hence he supposes there must be a great accumulation of positive
electric matter on the fresh fallen snow in the polar regions; which,
not being able to pass through the crust of ice into the earth, must
rise into the rare air of the upper parts of our atmosphere, which will
the least resist its passage; and passing towards the equator descend
again into the denser atmosphere, and thence into the earth in silent
streams. And that many of the appearances attending these lights are
optical deceptions, owing to the situation of the eye that beholds them;
which makes all ascending parallel lines appear to converge to a point.