The Botanic Garden

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2. On the other compartment of this celebrated vase is exhibited an
emblem of immortality, the representation of which was well known to
constitute a very principal part of the shews at the Eleusinian
mysteries, as Dr. Warburton has proved by variety of authority. The
habitation of spirits or ghosts after death was supposed by the antients
to be placed beneath the earth, where Pluto reigned, and dispensed
rewards or punishments. Hence the first figure in this group is of the
MANES or GHOST, who having passed through an open portal is descending
into a dusky region, pointing his toe with timid and unsteady step,
feeling as it were his way in the gloom. This portal Aeneas enters,
which is described by Virgil,--patet atri janua ditis, Aen. VI. l. 126;
as well as the easy descent,--facilis descensus Averni. Ib. The darkness
at the entrance to the shades is humorously described by Lucian. Div.
Legat. Vol. I. p. 241. And the horror of the gates of hell was in the
time of Homer become a proverb; Achilles says to Ulysses, "I hate a liar
worse than the gates of hell;" the same expression is used in Isaiah,
ch. xxxviii. v. 10. The MANES or GHOST appears lingering and fearful,
and wishes to drag after him a part of his mortal garment, which however
adheres to the side of the portal through which he has passed. The
beauty of this allegory would have been expressed by Mr. Pope, by "We
feel the ruling passion strong in death."

A little lower down in the group the manes or ghost is received by a
beautiful female, a symbol of IMMORTAL LIFE. This is evinced by her
fondling between her knees a large and playful serpent, which from its
annually renewing its external skin has from great antiquity, even as
early as the fable of Prometheus, been esteemed an emblem of renovated
youth. The story of the serpent acquiring immortal life from the ass of
Prometheus, who carried it on his back, is told in Bacon's Works, Vol.
V. p. 462. Quarto edit. Lond. 1778. For a similar purpose a serpent was
wrapped round the large hieroglyphic egg in the temple of Dioscuri, as
an emblem of the renewal of life from a state of death. Bryant's
Mythology, Vol II. p. 359. sec. edit. On this account also the serpent
was an attendant on Aesculapius, which seems to have been the name of
the hieroglyphic figure of medicine. This serpent shews this figure to
be an emblem, as the torch shewed the central figure of the other
compartment to be an emblem, hence they agreeably correspond, and
explain each other, one representing MORTAL LIFE, and the other IMMORTAL
LIFE.

This emblematic figure of immortal life sits down with her feet towards
the figure of Pluto, but, turning back her face towards the timid ghost,
she stretches forth her hand, and taking hold of his elbow, supports his
tottering steps, as well as encourages him to advance, both which
circumstances are thus with wonderful ingenuity brought to the eye. At
the same time the spirit loosely lays his hand upon her arm, as one
walking in the dark would naturally do for the greater certainty of
following his conductress, while the general part of the symbol of
IMMORTAL LIFE, being turned toward the figure of Pluto, shews that she
is leading the phantom to his realms.

In the Pamphili gardens at Rome, Perseus in assisting Andromeda to
descend from the rock takes hold of her elbow to steady or support her
step, and she lays her hand loosely on his arm as in this figure. Admir.
Roman. Antiq.

The figure of PLUTO can not be mistaken, as is agreed by most of the
writers who have mentioned this vase; his grisley beard, and his having
one foot buried in the earth, denotes the infernal monarch. He is placed
at the lowest part of the group, and resting his chin on his hand, and
his arm upon his knee, receives the stranger-spirit with inquisitive
attention; it was before observed that when people think attentively
they naturally rest their bodies in some easy attitude, that more animal
power may be employed on the thinking faculty. In this group of figures
there is great art shewn in giving an idea of a descending plain, viz.
from earth to Elysium, and yet all the figures are in reality on an
horizontal one. This wonderful deception is produced first by the
descending step of the manes or ghost; secondly, by the arm of the
sitting figure of immortal life being raised up to receive him as he
descends; and lastly, by Pluto having one foot sunk into the earth.

There is yet another figure which is concerned in conducing the manes or
ghost to the realms of Pluto, and this is LOVE. He precedes the
descending spirit on expanded wings, lights him with his torch, and
turning back his beautiful countenance beckons him to advance. The
antient God of love was of much higher dignity than the modern Cupid. He
was the first that came out of the great egg of night, (Hesiod. Theog.
V. CXX. Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p. 348.) and is said to possess the
keys of the sky, sea, and earth. As he therefore led the way into this
life, he seems to constitute proper emblem for leading the way to a
future life. See Bacon's works. Vol. I. p. 568. and Vol. III. p. 582.
Quarto edit.

The introduction of love into this part of the mysteries requires a
little further explanation. The Psyche of the Aegyptians was one of
their most favourite emblems, and represented the soul, or a future
life; it was originally no other than the aurelia, or butterfly, but in
after times was represented by a lovely female child with the beautiful
wings of that insect. The aurelia, after its first stage as an eruca or
caterpillar, lies for a season in a manner dead, and is inclosed in a
sort of coffin, in this state of darkness it remains all the winter, but
at the return of spring it bursts its bonds and comes out with new life,
and in the most beautiful attire. The Aegyptians thought this a very
proper picture of the soul of man, and of the immortality to which it
aspired. But as this was all owing to divine Love, of which EROS was an
emblem, we find this person frequently introduced as a concomitant of
the soul in general or Psyche. (Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p. 386.) EROS,
or divine Love, is for the same reason a proper attendant on the manes
or soul after death, and much contributes to tell the story, that is, to
shew that a soul or manes is designed by the descending figure. From
this figure of Love M. D'Hancarville imagines that Orpheus and Eurydice
are typified under the figure of the manes and immortal life as above
described. It may be sufficient to answer, first, that Orpheus is always
represented with a lyre, of which there are prints of four different
gems in Spence's Polymetis, and Virgil so describes him, Aen. VI.
cythara fretus. And secondly, that it is absurd to suppose that Eurydice
was fondling and playing with a serpent that had slain her. Add to this
that Love seems to have been an inhabitant of the infernal regions, as
exhibited in the mysteries, for Claudian, who treats more openly of the
Eleusinian mysteries, when they were held in less veneration, invokes
the deities to disclose to him their secrets, and amongst other things
by what torch Love softens Pluto.

Dii, quibus in numerum, &c.
Vos mihi sacrarum penetralia pandite rerum,
Et vestri secreta poli, qua lampade Ditem
Flexit amor.

In this compartment there are two trees, whose branches spread over the
figures, one of them has smoother leaves like some evergreens, and might
thence be supposed to have some allusion to immortality, but they may
perhaps have been designed only as ornaments, or to relieve the figures,
or because it was in groves, where these mysteries were originally
celebrated. Thus Homer speaks of the woods of Proserpine, and mentions
many trees in Tartarus, as presenting their fruits to Tantalus; Virgil
speaks of the pleasant groves of Elysium; and in Spence's Polymetis
there are prints of two antient gems, one of Orpheus charming Cerberus
with his lyre, and the other of Hercules binding him in a cord, each of
them standing by a tree. Polymet. p. 284. As however these trees have
all different foliage so clearly marked by the artist, they may have had
specific meanings in the exhibitions of the mysteries, which have not
reached posterity, of this kind seem to have been the tree of knowledge
of good and evil, and the tree of life, in sacred writ, both which must
have been emblematic or allegorical. The masks, hanging to the handles
of the vase, seem to indicate that there is a concealed meaning in the
figures besides their general appearance. And the priestess at the
bottom, which I come now to describe, seems to shew this concealed
meaning to be of the sacred or Eleusinian kind.

3. The figure on the bottom of the vase is on a larger scale than the
others, and less finely finished, and less elevated, and as this bottom
part was afterwards cemented to the upper part, it might be executed by
another artist for the sake of expedition, but there seems no reason to
suppose that it was not originally designed for the upper part of it as
some have conjectured. As the mysteries of Ceres were celebrated by
female priests, for Porphyrius says the antients called the priestesses
of Ceres, Melissai, or bees, which were emblems of chastity. Div. Leg.
Vol. I. p. 235. And as, in his Satire against the sex, Juvenal says,
that few women are worthy to be priestesses of Ceres. Sat. VI. the
figure at the bottom of the vase would seem to represent a PRIESTESS or
HIEROPHANT, whose office it was to introduce the initiated, and point
out to them, and explain the exhibitions in the mysteries, and to
exclude the uninitiated, calling out to them, "Far, far retire, ye
profane!" and to guard the secrets of the temple. Thus the introductory
hymn sung by the hierophant, according to Eusebius, begins, "I will
declare a secret to the initiated, but let the doors be shut against the
profane." Div. Leg. Vol. I. p. 177. The priestess or hierophant appears
in this figure with a close hood, and dressed in linen, which fits close
about her; except a light cloak, which flutters in the wind. Wool, as
taken from slaughtered animals, was esteemed profane by the priests of
Aegypt, who were always dressed in linen. Apuleus, p. 64. Div. Leg. Vol.
I. p. 318. Thus Eli made for Samuel a linen ephod. Samuel i. 3.

Secrecy was the foundation on which all mysteries rested, when publicly
known they ceased to be mysteries; hence a discovery of them was not
only punished with death by the Athenian law; but in other countries a
disgrace attended the breach of a solemn oath. The priestess in the
figure before us has her finger pointing to her lips as an emblem of
silence. There is a figure of Harpocrates, who was of Aegyptian origin,
the same as Orus, with the lotus on his head, and with his finger
pointing to his lips not pressed upon them, in Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II.
p. 398, and another female figure standing on a lotus, as if just risen
from the Nile, with her finger in the same attitude, these seem to have
been representations or emblems of male and female priests of the secret
mysteries. As these sort of emblems were frequently changed by artists
for their more elegant exhibition, it is possible the foliage over the
head of this figure may bear some analogy to the lotus above mentioned.

This figure of secrecy seems to be here placed, with great ingenuity, as
a caution to the initiated, who might understand the meaning of the
emblems round the vase, not to divulge it. And this circumstance seems
to account for there being no written explanation extant, and no
tradition concerning these beautiful figures handed down to us along
with them.

Another explanation of this figure at the bottom of the vase would seem
to confirm the idea that the basso relievos round its sides are
representations of a part of the mysteries, I mean that it is the head
of ATIS. Lucian says that Atis was a young man of Phrygia, of uncommon
beauty, that he dedicated a temple in Syria to Rhea, or Cybele, and
first taught her mysteries to the Lydians, Phrygians, and Samothracians,
which mysteries he brought from India. He was afterwards made an eunuch
by Rhea, and lived like a woman, and assumed a feminine habit, and in
that garb went over the world teaching her ceremonies and mysteries.
Dict. par M. Danet, art. Atis. As this figure is covered with clothes,
while those on the sides of the vase are naked, and has a Phrygian cap
on the head, and as the form and features are so soft, that it is
difficult to say whether it be a male or female figure, there is reason
to conclude, 1. that it has reference to some particular person of some
particular country; 2. that this person is Atis, the first great
hierophant, or teacher of mysteries, to whom M. De la Chausse says the
figure itself bears a resemblance. Museo. Capitol. Tom. IV. p. 402.

In the Museum Etruscum, Vol. I. plate 96, there is the head of Atis with
feminine features, clothed with a Phrygian cap, and rising from very
broad foliage, placed on a kind of term supported by the paw of a lion.
Goreus in his explanation of the figure says that it is placed on a
lion's foot because that animal was sacred to Cybele, and that it rises
from very broad leaves because after he became an eunuch he determined
to dwell in the groves. Thus the foliage, as well as the cap and
feminine features, confirm the idea of this figure at the bottom of the
vase representing the head of Atis the first great hierophant, and that
the figures on the sides of the vase are emblems from the antient
mysteries.

I beg leave to add that it does not appear to have been uncommon amongst
the antients to put allegorical figures on funeral vases. In the
Pamphili palace at Rome there is an elaborate representation of Life and
of Death, on an antient sarcophagus. In the first Prometheus is
represented making man, and Minerva is placing a butterfly, or the soul,
upon his head. In the other compartment Love extinguishes his torch in
the bosom of the dying figure, and is receiving the butterfly, or
Psyche, from him, with a great number of complicated emblematic figures
grouped in very bad taste. Admir. Roman. Antiq.

NOTE XXIII.--COAL

_Whence sable Coal his massy couch extends,
And stars of gold the sparkling Pyrite blends._

CANTO II. l. 349.

To elucidate the formation of coal-beds I shall here describe a fountain
of fossil tar, or petroleum, discovered lately near Colebrook Dale in
Shropshire, the particulars of which were sent me by Dr. Robert Darwin
of Shrewsbury.

About a mile and a half below the celebrated iron-bridge, constructed by
the late Mr. DARBY near Colebrook Dale, on the east side of the river
Severn, as the workmen in October 1786 were making a subterranean canal
into the mountain, for the more easy acquisition and conveyance of the
coals which lie under it, they found an oozing of liquid bitumen, or
petroleum; and as they proceeded further cut through small cavities of
different sizes from which the bitumen issued. From ten to fifteen
barrels of this fossil tar, each barrel containing thirty-two gallons,
were at first collected in a day, which has since however gradually
diminished in quantity, so that at present the product is about seven
barrels in fourteen days.

The mountain, into which this canal enters, consists of siliceous sand,
in which however a few marine productions, apparently in their recent
state, have been found, and are now in the possession of Mr. WILLIAM
REYNOLDS of Ketly Bank. About three hundred yards from the entrance into
the mountain, and about twenty-eight yards below the surface of it, the
tar is found oozing from the sand-rock above into the top and sides of
the canal.

Beneath the level of this canal a shaft has been sunk through a grey
argillaceous substance, called in this country clunch, which is said to
be a pretty certain indication of coal; beneath this lies a stratum of
coal, about two or three inches thick, of an inferior kind, yielding
little flame in burning, and leaving much ashes; below this is a rock of
a harder texture; and beneath this are found coals of an excellent
quality; for the purpose of procuring which with greater facility the
canal, or horizontal aperture, is now making into the mountain. July,
1788.

Beneath these coals in some places is found salt water, in other parts
of the adjacent country there are beds of iron-stone, which also contain
some bitumen in a less fluid state, and which are about on a level with
the new canal, into which the fossil tar oozes, as above described.

There are many interesting circumstances attending the situation and
accompaniments of this fountain of fossil tar, tending to develop the
manner of its production. 1. As the canal passing into the mountain runs
over the beds of coals, and under the reservoir of petroleum, it appears
that a _natural distillation_ of this fossil in the bowels of the earth
must have taken place at some early period of the world, similar to the
artificial distillation of coal, which has many years been carried on in
this place on a smaller scale above ground. When this reservoir of
petroleum was cut into, the slowness of its exsudation into the canal
was not only owing to its viscidity, but to the pressure of the
atmosphere, or to the necessity there was that air should at the same
time insinuate itself into the small cavities from which the petroleum
descended. The existence of such a distillation at some antient time is
confirmed by the thin stratum of coal beneath the canal, (which covers
the hard rock,) having been deprived of its fossil oil, so as to burn
without flame, and thus to have become a natural coak, or fossil
charcoal, while the petroleum distilled from it is found in the cavities
of the rock above it.

There are appearances in other places, which favour this idea of the
natural distillation of petroleum, thus at Matlock in Derbyshire a hard
bitumen is found adhering to the spar in the clefts of the lime-rocks in
the form of round drops about the size of peas; which could perhaps only
be deposited there in that form by sublimation.

2. The second deduction, which offers itself, is, that these beds of
coal have been _exposed to a considerable degree of heat_, since the
petroleum above could not be separated, as far as we know, by any other
means, and that the good quality of the coals beneath the hard rock was
owing to the impermeability of this rock to the bituminous vapour, and
to its pressure being too great to permit its being removed by the
elasticity of that vapour. Thus from the degree of heat, the degree of
pressure, and the permeability of the superincumbent strata, many of the
phenomena attending coal-beds receive an easy explanation, which much
accords with the ingenious theory of the earth by Dr. Hutton, Trans. of
Edinb. Vol. I.

In some coal works the fusion of the strata of coal has been so slight,
that there remains the appearance of ligneus fibres, and the impression
of leaves, as at Bovey near Exeter, and even seeds of vegetables, of
which I have had specimens from the collieries near Polesworth in
Warwickshire. In some, where the heat was not very intense and the
incumbent stratum not permeable to vapour, the fossil oil has only risen
to the upper part of the coal-bed, and has rendered that much more
inflammable than the lower parts of it, as in the collieries near
Beaudesert, the seat of the EARL OF UXBRIDGE in Staffordshire, where the
upper stratum is a perfect cannel, or candle-coal, and the lower one of
an inferior quality. Over the coal-beds near Sir H. HARPUR'S house in
Derbyshire a thin lamina of asphaltum is found in some places near the
surface of the earth, which would seem to be from a distillation of
petroleum from the coals below, the more fluid part of which had in
process of time exhaled, or been consolidated by its absorption of air.
In other coal-works the upper part of the stratum is of a worse kind
than the lower one, as at Alfreton and Denbigh in Derbyshire, owing to
the supercumbent stratum having permitted the exhalation of a great part
of the petroleum; whilst at Widdrington in Northumberland there is first
a seam of coal about six inches thick of no value, which lies under
about four fathom of clay, beneath this is a white freestone, then a
hard stone, which the workmen there call a whin, then two fathoms of
clay, then another white stone, and under that a vein of coals three
feet nine inches thick, of a similar nature to the Newcastle coal. Phil.
Trans. Abridg. Vol. VI. plate II. p. 192. The similitude between the
circumstances of this colliery, and of the coal beneath the fountain of
tar above described, renders it highly probable that this upper thin
seam of coal has suffered a similar distillation, and that the
inflammable part of it had either been received into the clay above in
the form of sulphur, which when burnt in the open air would produce
alum; or had been dissipated for want of a receiver, where it could be
condensed. The former opinion is perhaps in this case more probable as
in some other coal-beds, of which I have procured accounts, the surface
of the coal beneath clunch or clay is of an inferior quality, as at West
Hallum in Nottinghamshire. The clunch probably from hence acquires its
inflammable part, which on calcination becomes vitriolic acid. I
gathered pieces of clunch converted partially into alum at a colliery
near Bilston, where the ground was still on fire a few years ago.

The heat, which has thus pervaded the beds of morass, seems to have been
the effect of the fermentation of their vegetable materials; as new hay
sometimes takes fire even in such very small masses from the sugar it
contains, and seems hence not to have been attended with any expulsion
of lava, like the deeper craters of volcanos situated in beds of
granite.

3. The marine shells found in the loose sand-rock above this reservoir
of petroleum, and the coal-beds beneath it, together with the existence
of sea-salt beneath these coals, prove that these coal beds have been
_at the bottom of the sea_, during some remote period of time, and were
afterwards raised into their present situation by subterraneous
expansions of vapour. This doctrine is further supported by the marks of
violence, which some coal-beds received at the time they were raised out
of the sea, as in the collieries at Mendip in Somersetshire. In these
there are seven strata of coals, equitant upon each other, with beds of
clay and stone intervening; amongst which clay are found shells and fern
branches. In one part of this hill the strata are disjoined, and a
quantity of heterogeneous substances fill up the chasm which disjoins
them, on one side of this chasm the seven strata of coal are seen
corresponding in respect to their reciprocal thickness and goodness with
the seven strata on the other side of the cavity, except that they have
been elevated several yards higher. Phil. Trans. No. 360. abridg. Vol.
V. p. 237.

The cracks in the coal-bed near Ticknall in Derbyshire, and in the sand-
stone rock over it, in both of which specimens of lead-ore and spar are
found, confirm this opinion of their having been forcibly raised up by
subterraneous fires. Over the colliery at Brown-hills near Lichfield,
there is a stratum of gravel on the surface of the ground; which may be
adduced as another proof to shew that those coals had some time been
beneath the sea, or the bed of a river. Nevertheless, these arguments
only apply to the collieries above mentioned, which are few compared
with those which bear no marks of having been immersed in the sea.

On the other hand the production of coals from morasses, as described in
note XX. is evinced from the vegetable matters frequently found in them,
and in the strata over them; as fern-leaves in nodules of iron-ore, and
from the bog-shells or fresh water muscles sometimes found over them, of
both which I have what I believe to be specimens; and is further proved
from some parts of these beds being only in part transformed to coal;
and the other part still retaining not only the form, but some of the
properties of wood; specimens of which are not unfrequent in the
cabinets of the curious, procured from Loch Neigh in Ireland, from Bovey
near Exeter, and other places; and from a famous cavern called the
Temple of the Devil, near the town of Altorf in Franconia, at the foot
of a mountain covered with pine and savine, in which are found large
coals resembling trees of ebony; which are so far mineralized as to be
heavy and compact; and so to effloresce with pyrites in some parts as to
crumble to pieces; yet from other parts white ashes are produced on
calcination, from which _fixed alcali_ is procured; which evinces their
vegetable origin. (Dict. Raisonne, art. Charbon.) To these may be added
another argument from the oil which is distilled from coals, and which
is analogous to vegetable oil, and does not exist in any bodies truly
mineral. Keir's Chemical Dictionary, art. Bitumen.

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