Chapter V: Canto II (2)

Philosophers possessing so convenient a test for the discovery of iron by the magnet, have long since found it in all vegetable and animal matters; and of late Mr. Scheele has discovered the existence of manganese in vegetable ashes. Scheele, 56 mem. Stock. 1774. Kirwan. Min. 353. Which accounts for the production of it near the surface of earth, and thence for its calciform appearance, or union with vital air. Bergman has likewise shewn, that the limestones which become bluish or dark coloured when calcined, possess a mixture of manganese, and are thence preferable as a cement to other kinds of lime. 2. Bergman, 229. Which impregnation with manganese has probably been received from the decomposition of superincumbent vegetable matters.

These cracks or perpendicular caverns in the granite or limestone pass to unknown depths; and it is up these channels that I have endeavoured to shew that the steam rises which becomes afterwards condensed and produces the warm springs of this island, and other parts of the world. (See note on Fucus, Vol. II.) And up these cracks I suppose certain vapours arise, which either alone, or by meeting with something descending into them from above, have produced most of the metals; and several of the materials in which they are bedded. Thus the ponderous earth, Barytes, of Derbyshire, is found in these cracks, and is stratified frequently with lead-ore, and frequently surrounds it. This ponderous earth has been found by Dr. Hoepfner in a granite in Switzerland, and may have thus been sublimed from immense depths by great heat, and have obtained its carbonic or vitriolic acid from above. Annales de Chimie. There is also reason to conclude that something from above is necessary to the formation of many of the metals: at Hawkstone in Shropshire, the seat of Sir Richard Hill, there is an elevated rock of siliceous sand which is coloured green with copper in many places high in the air; and I have in my possession a specimen of lead formed in the cavity of an iron nodule, and another of lead amid spar from a crack of a coal-stratum; all which countenance the modern production of those metals from descending materials. To which should be added, that the highest mountains of granite, which have therefore probably never been covered with marine productions on account of their early elevation, nor with vegetable or animal matters on account of their great coldness, contain no metallic ores, whilst the lower ones contain copper and tin in their cracks or veins, both in Saxony, Silesia, and Cornwall. Kirwan's Mineral. p. 374.

The transmutation of one metal into another, though hitherto undiscovered by the alchymists, does not appear impossible; such transmutations have been supposed to exist in nature, thus lapis calaminaris may have been produced from the destruction of lead-ore, as it is generally found on the top of the veins of lead, where it has been calcined or united with air, and because masses of lead-ore are often found intirely inclosed in it. So silver is found mixed in almost all lead-ores, and sometimes in seperate filaments within the cavities of lead-ore, as I am informed by Mr. Michell, and is thence probably a partial transmutation of the lead to silver, the rapid progress of modern chemistry having shewn the analogy between metallic calces and acids, may lead to the power of transmuting their bases: a discovery much to be wished.]

"HENCE glows, refulgent Tin! thy chrystal grains,
And tawny Copper shoots her azure veins;
Zinc lines his fretted vault with sable ore,
And dull Galena tessellates the floor;
405 On vermil beds in Idria's mighty caves
The living Silver rolls its ponderous waves;
With gay refractions bright Platina shines,
And studs with squander'd stars his dusky mines;
Long threads of netted gold, and silvery darts,
410 Inlay the Lazuli, and pierce the Quartz;--
--Whence roof'd with silver beam'd PERU, of old,
And hapless MEXICO was paved with gold.

"Heavens! on my sight what sanguine colours blaze!
Spain's deathless shame! the crimes of modern days!
415 When Avarice, shrouded in Religion's robe,
Sail'd to the West, and slaughter'd half the globe;
While Superstition, stalking by his side,
Mock'd the loud groans, and lap'd the bloody tide;
For sacred truths announced her frenzied dreams,
420 And turn'd to night the sun's meridian beams.--
Hear, oh, BRITANNIA! potent Queen of isles,
On whom fair Art, and meek Religion smiles,
Now AFRIC'S coasts thy craftier sons invade
With murder, rapine, theft,--and call it Trade!
425 --The SLAVE, in chains, on supplicating knee,
Spreads his wide arms, and lifts his eyes to Thee;
With hunger pale, with wounds and toil oppress'd,
"ARE WE NOT BRETHREN?" sorrow choaks the rest;--
--AIR! bear to heaven upon thy azure flood
430 Their innocent cries!--EARTH! cover not their blood!

VIII. "When Heaven's dread justice smites in crimes o'ergrown
The blood-nursed Tyrant on his purple throne,
GNOMES! YOUR bold forms unnumber'd arms outstretch,
And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch.--
435 Thus when CAMBYSES led his barbarous hosts
From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts,
Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood,
And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood;
Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states,
440 And pour'd destruction through her hundred gates;
In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands,
And swarming armies blacken'd all the lands,
By Memphis these to ETHIOP'S sultry plains,
And those to HAMMON'S sand-incircled fanes.--
445 Slow as they pass'd, the indignant temples frown'd,
Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground;
Long ailes of Cypress waved their deepen'd glooms,
And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs;
Prophetic whispers breathed from S
450 And MEMNON'S lyre with hollow murmurs rung;
Burst from each pyramid expiring groans,
And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones.--
Day after day their deathful rout They steer,
Lust in the van, and rapine in the rear.

[_Thus when Cambyses_. l. 435. Cambyses marched one army from Thebes, after having overturned the temples, ravaged the country, and deluged it with blood, to subdue Ethiopia; this army almost perished by famine, insomuch, that they repeatedly slew every tenth man to supply the remainder with food. He sent another army to plunder the temple of Jupiter Ammon, which perished overwhelm'd with sand.]

[_Expiring groans_. l. 451. Mr. Savery or Mr. Volney in their Travels through Egypt has given a curious description of one of the pyramids, with the operose method of closing them, and immuring the body, (as they supposed) for six thousand years. And has endeavoured from thence to shew, that, when a monarch died, several of his favourite courtiers were inclosed alive with the mummy in these great masses of stone-work; and had food and water conveyed to them, as long as they lived, proper apertures being left for this purpose, and for the admission of air, and for the exclusion of any thing offensive.]

455 "GNOMES! as they march'd, You hid the gathered fruits,
The bladed grass, sweet grains, and mealy roots;
Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads,
Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds;
Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil,
460 Stay'd with vindictive hands the scanty rill.--
Loud o'er the camp the Fiend of Famine shrieks,
Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks;
O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand,
And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand;
465 Perch'd on her crest the Griffin Discord clings,
And Giant Murder rides between her wings;
Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill,
And showers of tears in blended streams distil;
High-poised in air her spiry neck she bends,
470 Rolls her keen eye, her Dragon-claws extends,
Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop
With iron fangs the decimated troop.

"Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe,
And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath;
475 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise
Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies,
In red arcades the billowy plain surround,
And stalking turrets dance upon the ground.
--Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend,
480 To Demon-Gods their knees unhallow'd bend,
Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square,
And now they front, and now they fly the war,
Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries,
Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot eyes.
485 --GNOMES! o'er the waste YOU led your myriad powers,
Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers!--
Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,
Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;
Wave over wave the driving desert swims,
490 Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs;
Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,
Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush,--
Wheeling in air the winged islands fall,
And one great earthy Ocean covers all!--
495 Then ceased the storm,--NIGHT bow'd his Ethiop brow
To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,--
Grim HORROR shook,--awhile the living hill
Heaved with convulsive throes,--and all was still!

[_And stalking turrets_. l. 478. "At one o'clock we alighted among some acacia trees at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were here at once surprised and terrified by a sight surely one of the most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. to N.W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of sand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often separated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken in the middle, as if struck with large cannon-shot. About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged along side of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S.E. leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry us out of this danger; and the full persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood.

"The same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented themselves to us this day in form and disposition like those we had seen at Waadi Halboub, only they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They came several times in a direction close upon us, that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began immediately after sun rise like a thick wood and almost darkened the sun. His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate, the Greeks shrieked out and said it was the day of judgment; Ismael pronounced it to be hell; and the Turcorories, that the world was on fire." Bruce's Travels, Vol. IV. p. 553,-555.

From this account it would appear, that the eddies of wind were owing to the long range of broken rocks, which bounded one side of the sandy desert, and bent the currents of air, which struck against their sides; and were thus like the eddies in a stream of water, which falls against oblique obstacles. This explanation is probably the true one, as these whirl-winds were not attended with rain or lightening like the tornadoes of the West-Indies.]

IX. "GNOMES! whose fine forms, impassive as the air,
500 Shrink with soft sympathy for human care;
Who glide unseen, on printless slippers borne,
Beneath the waving grass, and nodding corn;
Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms,
Where shadowy cowslips stretch their golden arms,--
505 So mark'd on orreries in lucid signs,
Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac shines;
Borne on fine wires amid the pictured skies
With ivory orbs the planets set and rise;
Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd,
510 And the sun twinkling whirls his rays of gold.--
Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hosts,
With spears and helmets glittering round the coasts;
Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane,
Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train;
515 Watch, where proud Surges break their treacherous mounds,
And sweep resistless o'er the cultured grounds;
Such as erewhile, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain,
Roll'd her rich ruins to the insatiate main;
With piles and piers the ruffian waves engage,
520 And bid indignant Ocean stay his rage.

[_So mark'd on orreries_. l. 505. The first orrery was constructed by a Mr. Rowley, a mathematician born at Lichfield; and so named from his patron the Earl of Orrery. Johnson's Dictionary.]

"Where, girt with clouds, the rifted mountain yawns,
And chills with length of shade the gelid lawns,
Climb the rude steeps, the granite-cliffs surround,
Pierce with steel points, with wooden wedges wound;
525 Break into clays the soft volcanic slaggs,
Or melt with acid airs the marble craggs;
Crown the green summits with adventurous flocks,
And charm with novel flowers the wondering rocks.
--So when proud Rome the Afric Warrior braved,
530 And high on Alps his crimson banner waved;
While rocks on rocks their beetling brows oppose
With piny forests, and unfathomed snows;
Onward he march'd, to Latium's velvet ground
With fires and acids burst the obdurate bound,
535 Wide o'er her weeping vales destruction hurl'd,
And shook the rising empire of the world.

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

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

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

X. "Go, gentle GNOMES! resume your vernal toil,
Seek my chill tribes, which sleep beneath the soil;
On grey-moss banks, green meads, or furrow'd lands
540 Spread the dark mould, white lime, and crumbling sands;
Each bursting bud with healthier juices feed,
Emerging scion, or awaken'd seed.
So, in descending streams, the silver Chyle
Streaks with white clouds the golden floods of bile;
545 Through each nice valve the mingling currents glide,
Join their fine rills, and swell the sanguine tide;
Each countless cell, and viewless fibre seek,
Nerve the strong arm, and tinge the blushing cheek.

"Oh, watch, where bosom'd in the teeming earth,
550 Green swells the germ, impatient for its birth;
Guard from rapacious worms its tender shoots,
And drive the mining beetle from its roots;
With ceaseless efforts rend the obdurate clay,
And give my vegetable babes to day!
555 --Thus when an Angel-form, in light array'd,
Like HOWARD pierced the prison's noisome shade;
Where chain'd to earth, with eyes to heaven upturn'd,
The kneeling Saint in holy anguish mourn'd;--
Ray'd from his lucid vest, and halo'd brow
560 O'er the dark roof celestial lustres glow,
"PETER, arise!" with cheering voice He calls,
And sounds seraphic echo round the walls;
Locks, bolts, and chains his potent touch obey,
And pleased he leads the dazzled Sage to day.

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

[_Mould with retractile glue_. l. 567. The constituent parts of animal fibres are believed to be earth and gluten. These do not seperate except by long putrefaction or by fire. The earth then effervesces with acids, and can only be converted into glass by the greatest force of fire. The gluten has continued united with the earth of the bones above 2000 years in Egyptian mummies; but by long exposure to air or moisture it diffolves and leaves only the earth. Hence bones long buried, when exposed to the air, absorb moisture and crumble into powder. Phil. Trans. No. 475. The retractibility or elasticity of the animal fibre depends on the gluten; and of these fibres are composed the membranes muscles and bones. Haller. Physiol. Tom. I, p. 2.

For the chemical decomposition of animal and vegetable bodies see the ingenious work of Lavoisier, 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 principally to vegetable and the last to animal matter.]

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

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

575 "So when on Lebanon's sequester'd hight
The fair ADONIS left the realms of light,
Bow'd his bright locks, and, fated from his birth
To change eternal, mingled with the earth;--
With darker horror shook the conscious wood,
580 Groan'd the sad gales, and rivers blush'd with blood;
On cypress-boughs the Loves their quivers hung,
Their arrows scatter'd, and their bows unstrung;
And BEAUTY'S GODDESS, bending o'er his bier,
Breathed the soft sigh, and pour'd the tender tear.--
585 Admiring PROSERPINE through dusky glades
Led the fair phantom to Elysian shades,
Clad with new form, with finer sense combined,
And lit with purer flame the ethereal mind.
--Erewhile, emerging from infernal night,
590 The bright Assurgent rises into light,
Leaves the drear chambers of the insatiate tomb,
And shines and charms with renovated bloom.--
While wondering Loves the bursting grave surround,
And edge with meeting wings the yawning ground,
595 Stretch their fair necks, and leaning o'er the brink
View the pale regions of the dead, and shrink;
Long with broad eyes ecstatic BEAUTY stands,
Heaves her white bosom, spreads her waxen hands;
Then with loud shriek the panting Youth alarms,
600 "My Life! my Love!" and springs into his arms."

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

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

The GODDESS ceased,--the delegated throng
O'er the wide plains delighted rush along;
In dusky squadrons, and in shining groups,
Hosts follow hosts, and troops succeed to troops;
605 Scarce bears the bending grass the moving freight,
And nodding florets bow beneath their weight.
So when light clouds on airy pinions sail,
Flit the soft shadows o'er the waving vale;
Shade follows shade, as laughing Zephyrs drive,
610 And all the chequer'd landscape seems alive.

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

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

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

_Argument of the Third Canto._

Address to the Nymphs. I. Steam rises from the ocean, floats in clouds, descends in rain and dew, or is condensed on hills, produces springs, and rivers, and returns to the sea. So the blood circulates through the body and returns to the heart. 11. II. 1. Tides, 57. 2. Echinus, nautilus, pinna, cancer. Grotto of a mermaid. 65. 3. Oil stills the waves. Coral rocks. Ship-worm, or Teredo. Maelstrome, a whirlpool on the coast of Norway. 85. III. Rivers from beneath the snows on the Alps. The Tiber. 103. IV. Overflowing of the Nile from African Monsoons, 129. V. 1. Giesar, a boiling fountain in Iceland, destroyed by inundation, and consequent earthquake, 145. 2. Warm medicinal springs. Buxton. Duke and Dutchess of Devonshire. 157. VI. Combination of vital air and inflammable gas produces water. Which is another source of springs and rivers. Allegorical loves of Jupiter and Juno productive of vernal showers. 201. VII. Aquatic Taste. Distant murmur of the sea by night. Sea-horse. Nereid singing. 261. VIII. The Nymphs of the river Derwent lament the death of Mrs. French, 297. IX. Inland navigation. Monument for Mr. Brindley, 341. X. Pumps explained. Child sucking. Mothers exhorted to nurse their children. Cherub sleeping. 365. XI. Engines for extinguishing fire. Story of two lovers perishing in the flames. 397. XII. Charities of Miss Jones, 447. XIII. Marshes drained. Hercules conquers Achilous. The horn of Plenty. 483. XIV. Showers. Dews. Floating lands with water. Lacteal system in animals. Caravan drinking. 529. Departure of the Nymphs like water spiders; like northern nations skaiting on the ice. 569.

THE
ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.