The Botanic Garden Volume I Part 8

"Where, girt with clouds, the rifted mountain yawns, And chills with length of shade the gelid lawns, Climb the rude steeps, the granite-cliffs surround, Pierce with steel points, with wooden wedges wound; 525 Break into clays the soft volcanic slaggs, Or melt with acid airs the marble craggs; Crown the green summits with adventurous flocks, And charm with novel flowers the wondering rocks.

--So when proud Rome the Afric Warrior braved, 530 And high on Alps his crimson banner waved; While rocks on rocks their beetling brows oppose With piny forests, and unfathomed snows; Onward he march'd, to Latium's velvet ground With fires and acids burst the obdurate bound, 535 Wide o'er her weeping vales destruction hurl'd, And shook the rising empire of the world.

[_The granite-cliffs._ l. 523. On long exposure to air the granites or porphories of this country exhibit a ferrugenous crust, the iron being calcined by the air first becomes visible, and is then washed away from the external surface, which becomes white or grey, and thus in time seems to decompose. The marbles seem to decompose by loosing their carbonic acid, as the outside, which has been long exposed to the air, does not seem to effervesce so hastily with acids as the parts more recently broken. The immense quant.i.ty of carbonic acid, which exists in the many provinces of lime-stone, if it was extricated and decomposed would afford charcoal enough for fuel for ages, or for the production of new vegetable or animal bodies. The volcanic slaggs on Mount Vesuvius are said by M. Ferber to be changed into clay by means of the sulphur- acid, and even pots made of clay and burnt or vitrified are said by him to be again reducible to ductile clay by the volcanic steams. Ferber's Travels through Italy, p. 166.]

[_Wooden wedges wound_. l. 524. It is usual in seperating large mill- stones from the siliceous sand-rocks in some parts of Derbys.h.i.+re to bore horizontal holes under them in a circle, and fill these with pegs made of dry wood, which gradually swell by the moisture of the earth, and in a day or two lift up the mill-stone without breaking it.]

[_With fires and acids_. l. 534. Hannibal was said to erode his way over the Alps by fire and vinegar. The latter is supposed to allude to the vinegar and water which was the beverage of his army. In respect to the former it is not improbable, but where wood was to be had in great abundance, that fires made round limestone precipices would calcine them to a considerable depth, the night-dews or mountain-mists would penetrate these calcined parts and pulverize them by the force of the steam which the generated heat would produce, the winds would disperse this lime-powder, and thus by repeated fires a precipice of lime-stone might be destroyed and a pa.s.sage opened. It should be added, that according to Ferber's observations, these Alps consist of lime-stone.

Letters from Italy.]

X. "Go, gentle GNOMES! resume your vernal toil, Seek my chill tribes, which sleep beneath the soil; On grey-moss banks, green meads, or furrow'd lands 540 Spread the dark mould, white lime, and crumbling sands; Each bursting bud with healthier juices feed, Emerging scion, or awaken'd seed.

So, in descending streams, the silver Chyle Streaks with white clouds the golden floods of bile; 545 Through each nice valve the mingling currents glide, Join their fine rills, and swell the sanguine tide; Each countless cell, and viewless fibre seek, Nerve the strong arm, and tinge the blus.h.i.+ng cheek.

"Oh, watch, where bosom'd in the teeming earth, 550 Green swells the germ, impatient for its birth; Guard from rapacious worms its tender shoots, And drive the mining beetle from its roots; With ceaseless efforts rend the obdurate clay, And give my vegetable babes to day!

555 --Thus when an Angel-form, in light array'd, Like HOWARD pierced the prison's noisome shade; Where chain'd to earth, with eyes to heaven upturn'd, The kneeling Saint in holy anguish mourn'd;-- Ray'd from his lucid vest, and halo'd brow 560 O'er the dark roof celestial l.u.s.tres glow, "PETER, arise!" with cheering voice He calls, And sounds seraphic echo round the walls; Locks, bolts, and chains his potent touch obey, And pleased he leads the dazzled Sage to day.

565 XI. "YOU! whose fine fingers fill the organic cells, With virgin earth, of woods and bones and sh.e.l.ls; Mould with retractile glue their spongy beds, And stretch and strengthen all their fibre-threads.-- Late when the ma.s.s obeys its changeful doom, 570 And sinks to earth, its cradle and its tomb, GNOMES! with nice eye the slow solution watch, With fostering hand the parting atoms catch, Join in new forms, combine with life and sense, And guide and guard the transmigrating Ens.

[_Mould with retractile glue_. l. 567. The const.i.tuent parts of animal fibres are believed to be earth and gluten. These do not seperate except by long putrefaction or by fire. The earth then effervesces with acids, and can only be converted into gla.s.s by the greatest force of fire. The gluten has continued united with the earth of the bones above 2000 years in Egyptian mummies; but by long exposure to air or moisture it diffolves and leaves only the earth. Hence bones long buried, when exposed to the air, absorb moisture and crumble into powder. Phil.

Trans. No. 475. The retractibility or elasticity of the animal fibre depends on the gluten; and of these fibres are composed the membranes muscles and bones. Haller. Physiol. Tom. I, p. 2.

For the chemical decomposition of animal and vegetable bodies see the ingenious work of Lavoisier, Traite de Chimie, Tom. I. p. 132. who resolves all their component parts into oxygene, hydrogene, carbone, and azote, the three former of which belong princ.i.p.ally to vegetable and the last to animal matter.]

[_The transmigrating Ens_. l. 574, The perpetual circulation of matter in the growth and dissolution of vegetable and animal bodies seems to have given Pythagoras his idea of the metempsycosis or transmigration of spirit; which was afterwards dressed out or ridiculed in variety of amusing fables. Other philosophers have supposed, that there are two different materials or essences, which fill the universe. One of these, which has the power of commencing or producing motion, is called spirit; the other, which has the power of receiving and of communicating motion, but not of beginning it, is called matter. The former of these is supposed to be diffused through all s.p.a.ce, filling up the interstices of the suns and planets, and const.i.tuting the gravitations of the sidereal bodies, the attractions of chemistry, with the spirit of vegetation, and of animation. The latter occupies comparatively but small s.p.a.ce, const.i.tuting the solid parts of the suns and planets, and their atmospheres. Hence these philosophers have supposed, that both matter and spirit are equally immortal and unperishable; and that on the dissolution of vegetable or animal organization, the matter returns to the general ma.s.s of matter; and the spirit to the general ma.s.s of spirit, to enter again into new combinations, according to the original idea of Pythagoras.

The small apparent quant.i.ty of matter that exists in the universe compared to that of spirit, and the short time in which the recrements of animal or vegetable bodies become again vivified in the forms of vegetable mucor or microscopic insects, seems to have given rise to another curious fable of antiquity. That Jupiter threw down a large handful of souls upon the earth, and left them to scramble for the few bodies which were to be had.]

575 "So when on Lebanon's sequester'd hight The fair ADONIS left the realms of light, Bow'd his bright locks, and, fated from his birth To change eternal, mingled with the earth;-- With darker horror shook the conscious wood, 580 Groan'd the sad gales, and rivers blush'd with blood; On cypress-boughs the Loves their quivers hung, Their arrows scatter'd, and their bows unstrung; And BEAUTY'S G.o.dDESS, bending o'er his bier, Breathed the soft sigh, and pour'd the tender tear.-- 585 Admiring PROSERPINE through dusky glades Led the fair phantom to Elysian shades, Clad with new form, with finer sense combined, And lit with purer flame the ethereal mind.

--Erewhile, emerging from infernal night, 590 The bright a.s.surgent rises into light, Leaves the drear chambers of the insatiate tomb, And s.h.i.+nes and charms with renovated bloom.-- While wondering Loves the bursting grave surround, And edge with meeting wings the yawning ground, 595 Stretch their fair necks, and leaning o'er the brink View the pale regions of the dead, and shrink; Long with broad eyes ecstatic BEAUTY stands, Heaves her white bosom, spreads her waxen hands; Then with loud shriek the panting Youth alarms, 600 "My Life! my Love!" and springs into his arms."

[_Adonis_. l. 576. The very antient story of the beautiful Adonis pa.s.sing one half of the year with Venus, and the other with Proserpine alternately, has had variety of interpretations. Some have supposed that it allegorized the summer and winter solstice; but this seems too obvious a fact to have needed an hieroglyphic emblem. Others have believed it to represent the corn, which was supposed to sleep in the earth during the winter months, and to rise out of it in summer. This does not accord with the climate of Egypt, where the harvest soon follows the seed-time.

It seems more probably to have been a story explaining some hieroglyphic figures representing the decomposition and resuscitation of animal matter; a sublime and interesting subject, and which seems to have given origin to the doctrine of the transmigration, which had probably its birth also from the hieroglyphic treasures of Egypt. It is remarkable that the cypress groves in the ancient greek writers, as in Theocritus, were dedicated to Venus; and afterwards became funereal emblems. Which was probably occasioned by the Cypress being an accompaniment of Venus in the annual processions, in which she was supposed to lament over the funeral of Adonis; a ceremony which obtained over all the eastern world from great antiquity, and is supposed to be referred to by Ezekiel, who accuses the idolatrous woman of weeping for Thammus.]

The G.o.dDESS ceased,--the delegated throng O'er the wide plains delighted rush along; In dusky squadrons, and in s.h.i.+ning groups, Hosts follow hosts, and troops succeed to troops; 605 Scarce bears the bending gra.s.s the moving freight, And nodding florets bow beneath their weight.

So when light clouds on airy pinions sail, Flit the soft shadows o'er the waving vale; Shade follows shade, as laughing Zephyrs drive, 610 And all the chequer'd landscape seems alive.

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

Shade follows shade by laughing Zephyrs drove, And all the chequer'd landscape seems to move.

but were altered on account of the supposed false grammar in using the word drove for driven, according to the opinion of Dr. Lowth: at the same time it may be observed, 1. that this is in many cases only an ellipsis of the letter _n_ at the end of the word; as froze, for frozen; wove, for woven; spoke, for spoken; and that then the participle accidentally becomes similar to the past tense: 2. that the language seems gradually tending to omit the letter _n_ in other kind of words for the sake of euphony; as housen is become houses; eyne, eyes; thine, thy, &c. and in common conversation, the words forgot, spoke, froze, rode, are frequently used for forgotten, spoken, frozen, ridden. 3. It does not appear that any confusion would follow the indiscriminate use of the same word for the past tense and the participle pa.s.sive, since the auxiliary verb _have_, or the preceding noun or p.r.o.noun always clearly distinguishes them: and lastly, rhime-poetry must lose the use of many elegant words without this license.]

_Argument of the Third Canto._

Address to the Nymphs. I. Steam rises from the ocean, floats in clouds, descends in rain and dew, or is condensed on hills, produces springs, and rivers, and returns to the sea. So the blood circulates through the body and returns to the heart. 11. II. 1. Tides, 57. 2. Echinus, nautilus, pinna, cancer. Grotto of a mermaid. 65. 3. Oil stills the waves. Coral rocks. s.h.i.+p-worm, or Teredo. Maelstrome, a whirlpool on the coast of Norway. 85. III. Rivers from beneath the snows on the Alps. The Tiber. 103. IV. Overflowing of the Nile from African Monsoons, 129. V.

1. Giesar, a boiling fountain in Iceland, destroyed by inundation, and consequent earthquake, 145. 2. Warm medicinal springs. Buxton. Duke and Dutchess of Devons.h.i.+re. 157. VI. Combination of vital air and inflammable gas produces water. Which is another source of springs and rivers. Allegorical loves of Jupiter and Juno productive of vernal showers. 201. VII. Aquatic Taste. Distant murmur of the sea by night.

Sea-horse. Nereid singing. 261. VIII. The Nymphs of the river Derwent lament the death of Mrs. French, 297. IX. Inland navigation. Monument for Mr. Brindley, 341. X. Pumps explained. Child sucking. Mothers exhorted to nurse their children. Cherub sleeping. 365. XI. Engines for extinguis.h.i.+ng fire. Story of two lovers peris.h.i.+ng in the flames. 397.

XII. Charities of Miss Jones, 447. XIII. Marshes drained. Hercules conquers Achilous. The horn of Plenty. 483. XIV. Showers. Dews. Floating lands with water. Lacteal system in animals. Caravan drinking. 529.

Departure of the Nymphs like water spiders; like northern nations skaiting on the ice. 569.

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

CANTO III.

AGAIN the G.o.dDESS speaks!--glad Echo swells The tuneful tones along her shadowy dells, Her wrinkling founts with soft vibration shakes, Curls her deep wells, and rimples all her lakes, 5 Thrills each wide stream, Britannia's isle that laves, Her headlong cataracts, and circ.u.mfluent waves.

--Thick as the dews, which deck the morning flowers, Or rain-drops twinkling in the sun-bright showers, Fair Nymphs, emerging in pellucid bands, 10 Rise, as she turns, and whiten all the lands.

I. "YOUR buoyant troops on dimpling ocean tread, Wafting the moist air from his oozy bed, AQUATIC NYMPHS!--YOU lead with viewless march The winged vapours up the aerial arch, 15 On each broad cloud a thousand sails expand, And steer the shadowy treasure o'er the land, Through vernal skies the gathering drops diffuse, Plunge in soft rains, or sink in silver dews.-- YOUR lucid bands condense with fingers chill 20 The blue mist hovering round the gelid hill; In clay-form'd beds the trickling streams collect, Strain through white sands, through pebbly veins direct; Or point in rifted rocks their dubious way, And in each bubbling fountain rise to day.

[_The winged vapours_. l. 14. See additional note No. XXV. on evaporation.]

[_On each broad cloud_. l. 15. The clouds consist of condensed vapour, the particles of which are too small separately to overcome the tenacity of the air, and which therefore do not descend. They are in such small spheres as to repel each other, that is, they are applied to each other by such very small surfaces, that the attraction of the particles of each drop to its own centre is greater than its attraction to the surface of the drop in its vicinity; every one has observed with what difficulty small spherules of quicksilver can be made to unite, owing to the same cause; and it is common to see on riding through shallow water on a clear day, numbers of very small spheres of water as they are thrown from the horses feet run along the surface for many yards before they again unite with it. In many cases these spherules of water, which compose clouds, are kept from uniting by a surplus of electric fluid; and fall in violent showers as soon as that is withdrawn from them, as in thunder storms. See note on Canto I. l. 553.

If in this state a cloud becomes frozen, it is torn to pieces in its descent by the friction of the air, and falls in white flakes of snow.

Or these flakes are rounded by being rubbed together by the winds, and by having their angles thawed off by the warmer air beneath as they descend; and part of the water produced by these angles thus dissolved is absorbed into the body of the hailstone, as may be seen by holding a lump of snow over a candle, and there becomes frozen into ice by the quant.i.ty of cold which the hailstone possesses beneath the freezing point, or which is produced by its quick evaporation in falling; and thus hailstones are often found of greater or less density according as they consist of a greater portion of snow or ice. If hailstones consisted of the large drops of showers frozen in their descent, they would consist of pure transparent ice.

As hail is only produced in summer, and is always attended with storms, some philosophers have believed that the sudden departure of electricity from a cloud may effect something yet unknown in this phenomenon; but it may happen in summer independent of electricity, because the aqueous vapour is then raised higher in the atmosphere, whence it has further to fall, and there is warmer air below for it to fall through.]

[_Or sink in silver dews_. l. 18. During the coldness of the night the moisture before dissolved in the air is gradually precipitated, and as it subsides adheres to the bodies it falls upon. Where the attraction of the body to the particles of water is greater than the attractions of those particles to each other, it becomes spread upon their surface, or slides down them in actual contact; as on the broad parts of the blades of moist gra.s.s: where the attraction of the surface to the water is less than the attraction of the particles of water to each other, the dew stands in drops; as on the points and edges of gra.s.s or gorse, where the surface presented to the drop being small it attracts it so little as but just to support it without much changing its globular form: where there is no attraction between the vegetable surface and the dew drops, as on cabbage leaves, the drop does not come into contact with the leaf, but hangs over it repelled, and retains it natural form, composed of the attraction and pressure of its own parts, and thence looks like quicksilver, reflecting light from both its surfaces. Nor is this owing to any oiliness of the leaf, but simply to the polish of its surface, as a light needle may be laid on water in the same manner without touching it; for as the attractive powers of polished surfaces are greater when in actual contact, so the repulsive power is greater before contact.]

[_The blue mist_. l. 20. Mists are clouds resting on the ground, they generally come on at the beginning of night, and either fill the moist vallies, or hang on the summits of hills, according to the degree of moisture previously dissolved, and the eduction of heat from them. The air over rivers during the warmth of the day suspends much moisture, and as the changeful surface of rivers occasions them to cool sooner than the land at the approach of evening, mists are most frequently seen to begin over rivers, and to spread themselves over moist grounds, and fill the vallies, while the mists on the tops of mountains are more properly clouds, condensed by the coldness of their situation.

On ascending up the side of a hill from a misty valley, I have observed a beautiful coloured halo round the moon when a certain thickness of mist was over me, which ceased to be visible as soon as I emerged out of it; and well remember admiring with other spectators the shadow of the three spires of the cathedral church at Lichfield, the moon rising behind it, apparently broken off, and lying distinctly over our heads as if horizontally on the surface of the mist, which arose about as high as the roof of the church. There are some curious remarks on shadows or reflexions seen on the surface of mists from high mountains in Ulloa's Voyages. The dry mist of summer 1783, was probably occasioned by volcanic eruption, as mentioned in note on Chunda, Vol. II. and therefore more like the atmosphere of smoke which hangs on still days over great cities.

There is a dry mist, or rather a diminished transparence of the air, which according to Mr. Saussure accompanies fair weather, while great transparence of air indicates rain. Thus when large rivers two miles broad, such as at Liverpool, appear narrow, it is said to prognosticate rain; and when wide, fair weather. This want of transparence of the air in dry weather, may be owing to new combinations or decompositions of the vapours dissolved in it, but wants further investigation. Essais sur L'Hygromet, p. 357.]

[_Round the gelid hill_. l. 20. See additional notes, No. XXVI. on the origin of springs.]

25 "NYMPHS! YOU then guide, attendant from their source, The a.s.sociate rills along their sinuous course; Float in bright squadrons by the willowy brink, Or circling slow in limpid eddies sink; Call from her crystal cave the Naiad-Nymph, 30 Who hides her fine form in the pa.s.sing lymph, And, as below she braids her hyaline hair, Eyes her soft smiles reflected in the air; Or sport in groups with River-Boys, that lave Their silken limbs amid the das.h.i.+ng wave; 35 Pluck the pale primrose bending from its edge, Or t.i.ttering dance amid the whispering sedge.--