The Botanic Garden Volume I Part 1

The Botanic Garden.

by Erasmus Darwin.

APOLOGY.

It may be proper here to apologize for many of the subsequent conjectures on some articles of natural philosophy, as not being supported by accurate investigation or conclusive experiments.

Extravagant theories however in those parts of philosophy, where our knowledge is yet imperfect, are not without their use; as they encourage the execution of laborious experiments, or the investigation of ingenious deductions, to confirm or refute them. And since natural objects are allied to each other by many affinities, every kind of theoretic distribution of them adds to our knowledge by developing some of their a.n.a.logies.

The Rosicrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders, was thought to afford a proper machinery for a Botanic poem; as it is probable, that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures representing the elements.

Many of the important operations of Nature were shadowed or allegorized in the heathen mythology, as the first Cupid springing from the Egg of Night, the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, the Rape of Proserpine, the Congress of Jupiter and Juno, Death and Resuscitation of Adonis, &c.

many of which are ingeniously explained in the works of Bacon, Vol. V.

p. 47. 4th Edit. London, 1778. The Egyptians were possessed of many discoveries in philosophy and chemistry before the invention of letters; these were then expressed in hieroglyphic paintings of men and animals; which after the discovery of the alphabet were described and animated by the poets, and became first the deities of Egypt, and afterwards of Greece and Rome. Allusions to those fables were therefore thought proper ornaments to a philosophical poem, and are occasionally introduced either as represented by the poets, or preserved on the numerous gems and medallions of antiquity.

TO

THE AUTHOR

OF THE

POEM ON THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS.

BY THE REV. W.B. STEPHENS.

Oft tho' thy genius, D----! amply fraught With native wealth, explore new worlds of mind; Whence the bright ores of drossless wisdom brought, Stampt by the Muse's hand, enrich mankind;

Tho' willing Nature to thy curious eye, Involved in night, her mazy depths betray; Till at their source thy piercing search descry The streams, that bathe with Life our mortal clay;

Tho', boldly soaring in sublimer mood Through trackless skies on metaphysic wings, Thou darest to scan the approachless Cause of Good, And weigh with steadfast hand the Sum of Things;

Yet wilt thou, charm'd amid his whispering bowers Oft with lone step by glittering Derwent stray, Mark his green foliage, count his musky flowers, That blush or tremble to the rising ray;

While FANCY, seated in her rock-roof'd dell, Listening the secrets of the vernal grove, Breathes sweetest strains to thy symphonious sh.e.l.l, And gives new echoes to the throne of Love.

_Repton, Nov. 28, 1788._

_Argument of the First Canto._

The Genius of the place invites the G.o.ddess of Botany. 1. She descends, is received by Spring, and the Elements, 59. Addresses the Nymphs of Fire. Star-light Night seen in the Camera Obscura, 81. I. Love created the Universe. Chaos explodes. All the Stars revolve. G.o.d. 97. II.

Shooting Stars. Lightning. Rainbow. Colours of the Morning and Evening Skies. Exterior Atmosphere of inflammable Air. Twilight. Fire-b.a.l.l.s.

Aurora Borealis. Planets. Comets. Fixed Stars. Sun's...o...b.. 115. III. 1.

Fires at the Earth's Centre. Animal Incubation, 137. 2. Volcanic Mountains. Venus visits the Cyclops, 149. IV. Heat confined on the Earth by the Air. Phosphoric lights in the Evening. Bolognian Stone. Calcined Sh.e.l.ls. Memnon's Harp, 173. Ignis fatuus. Luminous Flowers. Glow-worm.

Fire-fly. Luminous Sea-insects. Electric Eel. Eagle armed with Lightning, 189. V. 1. Discovery of Fire. Medusa, 209. 2. The chemical Properties of Fire. Phosphorus. Lady in Love, 223. 3. Gunpowder, 237.

VI. Steam-engine applied to Pumps, Bellows, Water-engines, Corn-mills, Coining, Barges, Waggons, Flying-chariots, 253. Labours of Hercules.

Abyla and Calpe, 297. VII. 1. Electric Machine. Hesperian Dragon.

Electric kiss. Halo round the heads of Saints. Electric Shock. Fairy- rings, 335. 2. Death of Professor Richman, 371. 3. Franklin draws Lightning from the Clouds. Cupid s.n.a.t.c.hes the Thunder-bolt from Jupiter, 383. VIII. Phosphoric Acid and Vital Heat produced in the Blood. The great Egg of Night, 399. IX. Western Wind unfettered. Naiad released.

Frost a.s.sailed. Whale attacked, 421. X. Buds and Flowers expanded by Warmth, Electricity, and Light. Drawings with colourless sympathetic Inks; which appear when warmed by the Fire, 457. XI. Sirius. Jupiter and Semele. Northern Constellations. Ice-islands navigated into the Tropic Seas. Rainy Monsoons, 497. XII. Points erected to procure Rain. Elijah on Mount-Carmel, 549. Departure of the Nymphs of Fire like sparks from artificial Fireworks, 587.

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

CANTO I.

STAY YOUR RUDE STEPS! whose throbbing b.r.e.a.s.t.s infold The legion-fiends of Glory, or of Gold!

Stay! whose false lips seductive simpers part, While Cunning nestles in the harlot-heart!-- 5 For you no Dryads dress the roseate bower, For you no Nymphs their sparkling vases pour; Unmark'd by you, light Graces swim the green, And hovering Cupids aim their shafts, unseen.

"But THOU! whose mind the well-attemper'd ray 10 Of Taste and Virtue lights with purer day; Whose finer sense each soft vibration owns With sweet responsive sympathy of tones; So the fair flower expands it's lucid form To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm;-- 15 For thee my borders nurse the fragrant wreath, My fountains murmur, and my zephyrs breathe; Slow slides the painted snail, the gilded fly Smooths his fine down, to charm thy curious eye; On twinkling fins my pearly nations play, 20 Or win with sinuous train their trackless way; My plumy pairs in gay embroidery dress'd Form with ingenious bill the pensile nest, To Love's sweet notes attune the listening dell, And Echo sounds her soft symphonious sh.e.l.l.

[ _So the fair flower_. l. 13. It seems to have been the original design of the philosophy of Epicurus to render the mind exquisitely sensible to agreeable sensations, and equally insensible to disagreeable ones.]

25 "And, if with Thee some hapless Maid should stray, Disasterous Love companion of her way, Oh, lead her timid steps to yonder glade, Whose arching cliffs depending alders shade; There, as meek Evening wakes her temperate breeze, 30 And moon-beams glimmer through the trembling trees, The rills, that gurgle round, shall soothe her ear, The weeping rocks shall number tear for tear; There as sad Philomel, alike forlorn, Sings to the Night from her accustomed thorn; 35 While at sweet intervals each falling note Sighs in the gale, and whispers round the grot; The sister-woe shall calm her aching breast, And softer slumbers steal her cares to rest.--

[_Disasterous Love_. l. 26. The scenery is taken from a botanic garden about a mile from Lichfield, where a cold bath was erected by Sir John Floyer. There is a grotto surrounded by projecting rocks, from the edges of which trickles a perpetual shower of water; and it is here represented as adapted to love-scenes, as being thence a proper residence for the modern G.o.ddess of Botany, and the easier to introduce the next poem on the Loves of the Plants according to the system of Linneus.]

"Winds of the North! restrain your icy gales, 40 Nor chill the bosom of these happy vales!

Hence in dark heaps, ye gathering Clouds, revolve!

Disperse, ye Lightnings! and, ye Mists, dissolve!

--Hither, emerging from yon orient skies, BOTANIC G.o.dDESS! bend thy radiant eyes; 45 O'er these soft scenes a.s.sume thy gentle reign, Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train; O'er the still dawn thy placid smile effuse, And with thy silver sandals print the dews; In noon's bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold, 50 And wave thy emerald banner star'd with gold."

Thus spoke the GENIUS, as He stept along, And bade these lawns to Peace and Truth belong; Down the steep slopes He led with modest skill The willing pathway, and the truant rill, 55 Stretch'd o'er the marshy vale yon willowy mound, Where s.h.i.+nes the lake amid the tufted ground, Raised the young woodland, smooth'd the wavy green, And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene.--

She comes!--the G.o.dDESS!--through the whispering air, 60 Bright as the morn, descends her blus.h.i.+ng car; Each circling wheel a wreath of flowers intwines, And gem'd with flowers the silken harness s.h.i.+nes; The golden bits with flowery studs are deck'd, And knots of flowers the crimson reins connect.-- 65 And now on earth the silver axle rings, And the sh.e.l.l sinks upon its slender springs; Light from her airy seat the G.o.ddess bounds, And steps celestial press the pansied grounds.

Fair Spring advancing calls her feather'd quire, 70 And tunes to softer notes her laughing lyre; Bids her gay hours on purple pinions move, And arms her Zephyrs with the shafts of Love, Pleased GNOMES, ascending from their earthy beds, Play round her graceful footsteps, as she treads; 75 Gay SYLPHS attendant beat the fragrant air On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair; Blue NYMPHS emerging leave their sparkling streams, And FIERY FORMS alight from orient beams; Musk'd in the rose's lap fresh dews they shed, 80 Or breathe celestial l.u.s.tres round her head.

[_Pleased Gnomes_. l. 73. The Rosicrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders affords proper machinery for a philosophic poem; as it is probable that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures of the Elements, or of Genii presiding over their operations.

The Fairies of more modern days seem to have been derived from them, and to have inherited their powers. The Gnomes and Sylphs, as being more nearly allied to modern Fairies are represented as either male or female, which distinguishes the latter from the Aurae of the Latin Poets, which were only female; except the winds, as Zephyrus and Auster, may be supposed to have been their husbands.]