The Botanic Garden

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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.

CANTO III.

AGAIN the GODDESS 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 circumfluent 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
quantity 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 grass: 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 grass 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 associate 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 passing 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 dashing wave;
35 Pluck the pale primrose bending from its edge,
Or tittering dance amid the whispering sedge.--

"Onward YOU pass, the pine-capt hills divide,
Or feed the golden harvests on their side;
The wide-ribb'd arch with hurrying torrents fill,
40 Shove the slow barge, or whirl the foaming mill.
OR lead with beckoning hand the sparkling train
Of refluent water to its parent main,
And pleased revisit in their sea-moss vales
Blue Nereid-forms array'd in shining scales,
45 Shapes, whose broad oar the torpid wave impels,
And Tritons bellowing through their twisted shells.

"So from the heart the sanguine stream distils,
O'er Beauty's radiant shrine in vermil rills,
Feeds each fine nerve, each slender hair pervades,
50 The skins bright snow with living purple shades,
Each dimpling cheek with warmer blushes dyes,
Laughs on the lips, and lightens in the eyes.
--Erewhile absorb'd, the vagrant globules swim
From each fair feature, and proportion'd limb,
55 Join'd in one trunk with deeper tint return
To the warm concave of the vital urn.

II. 1."AQUATIC MAIDS! YOU sway the mighty realms
Of scale and shell, which Ocean overwhelms;
As Night's pale Queen her rising orb reveals,
60 And climbs the zenith with refulgent wheels,
Car'd on the foam your glimmering legion rides,
Your little tridents heave the dashing tides,
Urge on the sounding shores their crystal course,
Restrain their fury, or direct their force.

[_Car'd on the foam_. l. 61. The phenomena of the tides have been well
investigated and satisfactorily explained by Sir Isaac Newton and Dr.
Halley from the reciprocal gravitations of the earth, moon, and sun. As
the earth and moon move round a centre of motion near the earth's
surface, at the same time that they are proceeding in their annual orbit
round the sun, it follows that the water on the side of the earth
nearest this centre of motion between the earth and moon will be more
attracted by the moon, and the waters on the opposite side of the earth
will be less attracted by the moon, than the central parts of the earth.
Add to this that the centrifugal force of the water on the side of the
earth furthest from the centre of the motion, round which the earth and
moon move, (which, as was said before, is near the surface of the earth)
is greater than that on the opposite side of the earth. From both these
causes it is easy to comprehend that the water will rise on two sides of
the earth, viz. on that nearest to the moon, and its opposite side, and
that it will be flattened in consequence at the quadratures, and thus
produce two tides in every lunar day, which consists of about twenty-
four hours and forty-eight minutes.

These tides will be also affected by the solar attraction when it
coincides with the lunar one, or opposes it, as at new and full moon,
and will also be much influenced by the opposing shores in every part of
the earth.

Now as the moon in moving round the centre of gravity between itself and
the earth describes a much larger orbit than the earth describes round
the same centre, it follows that the centrifugal motion on the side of
the moon opposite to the earth must be much greater than the centrifugal
motion of the side of the earth opposite to the moon round the same
centre. And secondly, as the attraction of the earth exerted on the
moon's surface next to the earth is much greater than the attraction of
the moon exerted on the earth's surface, the tides on the lunar sea, (if
such there be,) should be much greater than those of our ocean. Add to
this that as the same face of the moon always is turned to the earth,
the lunar tides must be permanent, and if the solid parts of the moon be
spherical, must always cover the phasis next to us. But as there are
evidently hills and vales and volcanos on this side of the moon, the
consequence is that the moon has no ocean, or that it is frozen.]

65 2."NYMPHS! YOU adorn, in glossy volumes roll'd,
The gaudy conch with azure, green, and gold.
You round Echinus ray his arrowy mail,
Give the keel'd Nautilus his oar and sail;
Firm to his rock with silver cords suspend
70 The anchor'd Pinna, and his Cancer-friend;
With worm-like beard his toothless lips array,
And teach the unwieldy Sturgeon to betray.--
Ambush'd in weeds, or sepulcher'd in sands,
In dread repose He waits the scaly bands,
75 Waves in red spires the living lures, and draws
The unwary plunderers to his circling jaws,
Eyes with grim joy the twinkling shoals beset,
And clasps the quick inextricable net.
You chase the warrior Shark, and cumberous Whale,
80 And guard the Mermaid in her briny vale;
Feed the live petals of her insect-flowers,
Her shell-wrack gardens, and her sea-fan bowers;
With ores and gems adorn her coral cell,
And drop a pearl in every gaping shell.

[_The gaudy conch_. l. 66. The spiral form of many shells seem to have
afforded a more frugal manner of covering the long tail of the fish with
calcareous armour; since a single thin partition between the adjoining
circles of the fish was sufficient to defend both surfaces, and thus
much cretaceous matter is saved; and it is probable that from this
spiral form they are better enabled to feel the vibrations of the
element in which they exist. See note on Canto IV. l. 162. This
cretaceous matter is formed by a mucous secretion from the skin of the
fish, as is seen in crab-fish, and others which annually cast their
shells, and is at first a soft mucous covering, (like that of a hen's
egg, when it is laid a day or two too soon,) and which gradually
hardens. This may also be seen in common shell snails, if a part of
their shell be broken it becomes repaired in a similar manner with
mucus, which by degrees hardens into shell.

It is probable the calculi or stones found in other animals may have a
similar origin, as they are formed on mucous membranes, as those of the
kidney and bladder, chalk-stones in the gout, and gall-stones; and are
probably owing to the inflammation of the membrane where they are
produced, and vary according to the degree of inflammation of the
membrane which forms them, and the kind of mucous which it naturally
produces. Thus the shelly matter of different shell-fish differs, from
the courser kinds which form the shells of crabs, to the finer kinds
which produces the mother-pearl.

The beautiful colours of some shells originate from the thinness of the
laminae of which they consist, rather than to any colouring matter, as
is seen in mother-pearl, which reflects different colours according to
the obliquity of the light which falls on it. The beautiful prismatic
colours seen on the Labrodore stone are owing to a similar cause, viz.
the thinness of the laminae of which it consists, and has probably been
formed from mother-pearl shells.

It is curious that some of the most common fossil shells are not now
known in their recent state, as the cornua ammonis; and on the contrary,
many shells which are very plentiful in their recent state, as limpets,
sea-ears, volutes, cowries, are very rarely found fossil. Da Costa's
Conchology, p. 163. Were all the ammoniae destroyed when the continents
were raised? Or do some genera of animals perish by the increasing power
of their enemies? Or do they still reside at inaccessible depths in the
sea? Or do some animals change their forms gradually and become new
genera?]

[_Echinus. Nautilus_. l. 67, 68. See additional notes, No. XXVII.]

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