As when at noon in Hybla"s fragrant bowers CACALIA opens all her honey"d flowers; Contending swarms on bending branches cling, And nations hover on aurelian wing; 5 So round the G.o.dDESS, ere she speaks, on high Impatient SYLPHS in gawdy circlets fly; Quivering in air their painted plumes expand, And coloured shadows dance upon the land.
[_Cacalia opens_. l. 2. The importance of the nectarium or honey-gland in the vegetable economy is seen from the very complicated apparatus, which nature has formed in some flowers for the preservation of their honey from insects, as in the aconites or monkshoods; in other plants instead of a great apparatus for its protection a greater secretion of it is produced that thence a part may be spared to the depredation of insects. The cacalia suaveolens produces so much honey that on some days it may be smelt at a great distance from the plant. I remember once counting on one of these plants besides bees of various kinds without number, above two hundred painted b.u.t.terflies, which gave it the beautiful appearance of being covered with additional flowers.]
I. "SYLPHS! YOUR light troops the tropic Winds confine, 10 And guide their streaming arrows to the Line; While in warm floods ecliptic breezes rise, And sink with wings benumb"d in colder skies.
You bid Monsoons on Indian seas reside, And veer, as moves the sun, their airy tide; 15 While southern gales o"er western oceans roll, And Eurus steals his ice-winds from the Pole.
Your playful trains, on sultry islands born, Turn on fantastic toe at eve and morn; With soft susurrant voice alternate sweep 20 Earth"s green pavilions and encircling deep.
OR in itinerant cohorts, borne sublime On tides of ether, float from clime to clime; O"er waving Autumn bend your airy ring, Or waft the fragrant bosom of the Spring.
[_The tropic winds_. l. 9. See additional notes, No. x.x.xIII.]
25 II. "When Morn, escorted by the dancing Hours, O"er the bright plains her dewy l.u.s.tre showers; Till from her sable chariot Eve serene Drops the dark curtain o"er the brilliant scene; You form with chemic hands the airy surge, 30 Mix with broad vans, with shadowy tridents urge.
SYLPHS! from each sun-bright leaf, that twinkling shakes O"er Earth"s green lap, or shoots amid her lakes, Your playful bands with simpering lips invite, And wed the enamour"d OXYGENE to LIGHT.-- 35 Round their white necks with fingers interwove, Cling the fond Pair with unabating love; Hand link"d in hand on buoyant step they rise, And soar and glisten in unclouded skies.
Whence in bright floods the VITAL AIR expands, 40 And with concentric spheres involves the lands; Pervades the swarming seas, and heaving earths, Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births; Fills the fine lungs of all that _breathe_ or _bud_, Warms the new heart, and dyes the gushing blood; 45 With Life"s first spark inspires the organic frame, And, as it wastes, renews the subtile flame.
[_The enamour"d oxygene_. l. 34. The common air of the atmosphere appears by the a.n.a.lysis of Dr. Priestley and other philosophers to consist of about three parts of an elastic fluid unfit for respiration or combustion, called azote by the French school, and about one fourth of pure vital air fit for the support of animal life and of combustion, called oxygene. The princ.i.p.al source of the azote is probably from the decomposition of all vegetable and animal matters by putrefaction and combustion; the princ.i.p.al source of vital air or oxygene is perhaps from the decomposition of water in the organs of vegetables by means of the sun"s light. The difficulty of injecting vegetable vessels seems to shew that their perspirative pores are much less than those of animals, and that the water which const.i.tutes their perspiration is so divided at the time of its exclusion that by means of the sun"s light it becomes decomposed, the inflammable air or hydrogene, which is one of its const.i.tuent parts, being retained to form the oil, resin, wax, honey, &c. of the vegetable economy; and the other part, which united with light or heat becomes vital air or oxygene gas, rises into the atmosphere and replenishes it with the food of life.
Dr. Priestley has evinced by very ingenious experiments that the blood gives out phlogiston, and receives vital air, or oxygene-gas by the lungs. And Dr. Crawford has shewn that the blood acquires heat from this vital air in respiration. There is however still a something more subtil than heat, which must be obtained in respiration from the vital air, a something which life can not exist a few minutes without, which seems necessary to the vegetable as well as to the animal world, and which as no organized vessels can confine it, requires perpetually to be renewed.
See note on Canto I. l. 401.]
"So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone Fair PSYCHE, kneeling at the ethereal throne; Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove, 50 And warm"d the bosom of unconquer"d LOVE.-- Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers Onward they march to HYMEN"S sacred bowers; With lifted torch he lights the festive train, Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain; 55 Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows, And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows.
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling, Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing.-- --Hence plastic Nature, as Oblivion whelms 60 Her fading forms, repeoples all her realms; Soft Joys disport on purple plumes unfurl"d, And Love and Beauty rule the willing world.
[_Fair Psyche_. l. 48. Described from an antient gem on a fine onyx in possession of the Duke of Marlborough, of which there is a beautiful print in Bryant"s Mythol. Vol II. p. 392. And from another antient gem of Cupid and Psyche embracing, of which there is a print in Spence"s Polymetis. p. 82.]
[_Repeoples all her realms_. l. 60.
Quae mare navigerum et terras frugiferentes Concelebras; per te quoniam genus omne animantum Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina folis. Lucret.]
III. 1. "SYLPHS! Your bold myriads on the withering heath Stay the fell SYROC"S suffocative breath; 65 Arrest SIMOOM in his realms of sand, The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand;-- Fierce on blue streams he rides the tainted air, Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair; While, as he turns, the undulating soil 70 Rolls in red waves, and billowy deserts boil.
[_Arrest Simoom_. l. 65. "At eleven o"clock while we were with great pleasure contemplating the rugged tops of Chiggre, where we expected to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out with a loud voice, "fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom!" I saw from the S.E. a haze come in colour like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so compressed or thick; it did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of a blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I saw was indeed pa.s.sed; but the light air that still blew was of heat to threaten suffocation. For my part I found distinctly in my breast, that I had imbibed a part of it; nor was I free of an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months in Italy." Bruce"s Travels. Vol.
IV. p. 557.
It is difficult to account for the narrow track of this pestilential wind, which is said not to exceed twenty yards, and for its small elevation of twelve feet. A whirlwind will pa.s.s forwards, and throw down an avenue of trees by its quick revolution as it pa.s.ses, but nothing like a whirling is described as happening in these narrow streams of air, and whirlwinds ascend to greater heights. There seems but one known manner in which this channel of air could be effected, and that is by electricity.
The volcanic origin of these winds is mentioned in the note on Chunda in Vol. II. of this work; it must here be added, that Professor Vairo at Naples found, that during the eruption of Vesuvius perpendicular iron bars were electric; and others have observed suffocating damps to attend these eruptions. Ferber"s Travels in Italy, p. 133. And lastly, that a current of air attends the pa.s.sage of electric matter, as is seen in presenting an electrized point to the flame of a candle. In Mr. Bruce"s account of this simoom, it was in its course over a quite dry desert of sand, (and which was in consequence unable to conduct an electric stream into the earth beneath it,) to some moist rocks at but a few miles distance; and thence would appear to be a stream of electricity from a volcano attended with noxious air; and as the bodies of Mr. Bruce and his attendants were insulated on the sand, they would not be sensible of their increased electricity, as it pa.s.sed over them; to which it may be added, that a sulphurous or suffocating sensation is said to accompany flames of lightning, and even strong sparks of artificial electricity.
In the above account of the simoom, a great redness in the air is said to be a certain sign of its approach, which may be occasioned by the eruption of flame from a distant volcano in these extensive and impenetrable deserts of sand. See Note on l. 294 of this Canto.]
You seize TORNADO by his locks of mist, Burst his dense clouds, his wheeling spires untwist; Wide o"er the West when borne on headlong gales, Dark as meridian night, the Monster sails, 75 Howls high in air, and shakes his curled brow, Lashing with serpent-train the waves below, Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings, And showers a deluge from his demon-wings.
[_Tornado"s_. l. 71. See additional notes, No. x.x.xIII.]
2. "SYLPHS! with light shafts YOU pierce the drowsy FOG, 80 That lingering slumbers on the sedge-wove bog, With webbed feet o"er midnight meadows creeps, Or flings his hairy limbs on stagnant deeps.
YOU meet CONTAGION issuing from afar, And dash the baleful conqueror from his car; 85 When, Guest of DEATH! from charnel vaults he steals, And bathes in human gore his armed wheels.
[_On stagnant deeps_. l. 82. All contagious miasmata originate either from animal bodies, as those of the small pox, or from putrid mora.s.ses; these latter produce agues in the colder climates, and malignant fevers in the warmer ones. The volcanic vapours which cause epidemic coughs, are to be ranked amongst poisons, rather than amongst the miasmata, which produce contagious diseases.]
"Thus when the PLAGUE, upborne on Belgian air, Look"d through the mist and shook his clotted hair, O"er shrinking nations steer"d malignant clouds, 90 And rain"d destruction on the gasping crouds.
The beauteous AEGLE felt the venom"d dart, Slow roll"d her eye, and feebly throbb"d her heart; Each fervid sigh seem"d shorter than the last, And starting Friendship shunn"d her, as she pa.s.s"d.
95 --With weak unsteady step the fainting Maid Seeks the cold garden"s solitary shade, Sinks on the pillowy moss her drooping head, And prints with lifeless limbs her leafy bed.
--On wings of Love her plighted Swain pursues, 100 Shades her from winds, and shelters her from dews, Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof, Spreads o"er the straw-wove matt the flaxen woof, Sweet buds and blossoms on her bolster strows, And binds his kerchief round her aching brows; 105 Sooths with soft kiss, with tender accents charms, And clasps the bright Infection in his arms.-- With pale and languid smiles the grateful Fair Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care; Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled 110 On timorous step, or number"d with the dead; Calls to its bosom all its scatter"d rays, And pours on THYRSIS the collected blaze; Braves the chill night, caressing and caress"d, And folds her Hero-lover to her breast.-- 115 Less bold, LEANDER at the dusky hour Eyed, as he swam, the far love-lighted tower; Breasted with struggling arms the tossing wave, And sunk benighted in the watery grave.
Less bold, TOBIAS claim"d the nuptial bed, 120 Where seven fond Lovers by a Fiend had bled; And drove, instructed by his Angel-Guide, The enamour"d Demon from the fatal bride.-- --SYLPHS! while your winnowing pinions fan"d the air, And shed gay visions o"er the sleeping pair; 125 LOVE round their couch effused his rosy breath, And with his keener arrows conquer"d DEATH.
[_The beauteous Aegle_. l. 91. When the plague raged in Holland in 1636, a young girl was seized with it, had three carbuncles, and was removed to a garden, where her lover, who was betrothed to her, attended her as a nurse, and slept with her as his wife. He remained uninfected, and she recovered, and was married to him. The story is related by Vinc.
Fabricius in the Misc. Cur. Ann. II. Obs. 188.]
IV. 1. "You charm"d, indulgent SYLPHS! their learned toil, And crown"d with fame your TORRICELL, and BOYLE; Taught with sweet smiles, responsive to their prayer, 130 The spring and pressure of the viewless air.
--How up exhausted tubes bright currents flow Of liquid silver from the lake below, Weigh the long column of the inc.u.mbent skies, And with the changeful moment fall and rise.
135 --How, as in brazen pumps the pistons move, The membrane-valve sustains the weight above; Stroke follows stroke, the gelid vapour falls, And misty dew-drops dim the crystal walls; Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin, 140 And Silence dwells with Vacancy within.-- So in the mighty Void with grim delight Primeval Silence reign"d with ancient Night.
[_Torricell and Boyle_. l. 128. The pressure of the atmosphere was discovered by Torricelli, a disciple of Galileo, who had previously found that the air had weight. Dr. Hook and M. Du Hamel ascribe the invention of the air-pump to Mr. Boyle, who however confesses he had some hints concerning its construction from De Guerick. The vacancy at the summit of the barometer is termed the Torricellian vacuum, and the exhausted receiver of an air pump the Boylean vacuum, in honour of these two philosophers.
The mist and descending dew which appear at first exhausting the receiver of an air-pump, are explained in the Phil. Trans. Vol. LXXVIII.
from the cold produced by the expansion of air. For a thermometer placed in the receiver sinks some degrees, and in a very little time, as soon as a sufficient quant.i.ty of heat can be acquired from the surrounding bodies, the dew becomes again taken up. See additional notes, No. VII.
Mr. Saussure observed on placing his hygrometer in a receiver of an air- pump, that though on beginning to exhaust it the air became misty, and parted with its moisture, yet the hair of his hygrometer contracted, and the instrument pointed to greater dryness. This unexpected occurrence is explained by M. Monge (Annales de Chymie, Tom. V.) to depend on the want of the usual pressure of the atmosphere to force the aqueous particles into the pores of the hair; and M. Saussure supposes, that his vesicular vapour requires more time to be redissolved, than is necessary to dry the hair of his thermometer. Essais sur l"Hygrom. p. 226. but I suspect there is a less hypothetical way of understanding it; when a colder body is brought into warm and moist air, (as a bottle of spring-water for instance,) a steam is quickly collected on its surface; the contrary occurs when a warmer body is brought into cold and damp air, it continues free from dew so long as it continues warm; for it warms the atmosphere around it, and renders it capable of receiving instead of parting with moisture. The moment the air becomes rarefied in the receiver of the air-pump it becomes colder, as appears by the thermometer, and deposits its vapour; but the hair of Mr. Saussure"s hygrometer is now warmer than the air in which it is immersed, and in consequence becomes dryer than before, by warming the air which immediately surrounds it, a part of its moisture evaporating along with its heat.]
2. "SYLPHS! your soft voices, whispering from the skies, Bade from low earth the bold MONGULFIER rise; 145 Outstretch"d his buoyant ball with airy spring, And bore the Sage on levity of wing;-- Where were ye, SYLPHS! when on the ethereal main Young ROSIERE launch"d, and call"d your aid in vain?
Fair mounts the light balloon, by Zephyr driven, 150 Parts the thin clouds, and sails along the heaven; Higher and yet higher the expanding bubble flies, Lights with quick flash, and bursts amid the skies.-- Headlong He rushes through the affrighted air With limbs distorted, and dishevel"d hair, 155 Whirls round and round, the flying croud alarms, And DEATH receives him in his sable arms!-- So erst with melting wax and loosen"d strings Sunk hapless ICARUS on unfaithful wings; His scatter"d plumage danced upon the wave, 160 And sorrowing Mermaids deck"d his watery grave; O"er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed, And strew"d with crimson moss his marble bed; Struck in their coral towers the pausing bell, And wide in ocean toll"d his echoing knell.
[_Young Rosiere launch"d_. l. 148. M. Pilatre du Rosiere with a M.
Romain rose in a balloon from Boulogne in June 1785, and after having been about a mile high for about half an hour the balloon took fire, and the two adventurers were dashed to pieces on their fall to the ground.
Mr. Rosiere was a philosopher of great talents and activity, joined with such urbanity and elegance of manners, as conciliated the affections of his acquaintance and rendered his misfortune universally lamented.
Annual Register for 1784 and 1785, p. 329.]
[_And wide in ocean_. l. 164. Denser bodies propagate vibration or sound better than rarer ones; if two stones be struck together under the water, they may be heard a mile or two by any one whose head is immersed at that distance, according to an experiment of Dr. Franklin. If the ear be applied to one end of a long beam of timber, the stroke of a pin at the other end becomes sensible; if a poker be suspended in the middle of a garter, each end of which is pressed against the ear, the least percussions on the poker give great sounds. And I am informed by laying the ear on the ground the tread of a horse may be discerned at a great distance in the night. The organs of hearing belonging to fish are for this reason much less complicated than of quadrupeds, as the fluid they are immersed in so much better conveys its vibrations. And it is probable that some sh.e.l.l-fish which have twisted sh.e.l.ls like the cochlea and semicircular ca.n.a.ls of the ears of men and quadrupeds may have no appropriated organ for perceiving the vibrations of the element they live in, but may by their spiral form be in a manner all ear.]
165 V. "SYLPHS! YOU, retiring to sequester"d bowers, Where oft your PRIESTLEY woos your airy powers, On noiseless step or quivering pinion glide, As sits the Sage with Science by his side; To his charm"d eye in gay undress appear, 170 Or pour your secrets on his raptured ear.
How nitrous Gas from iron ingots driven Drinks with red lips the purest breath of heaven; How, while Conferva from its tender hair Gives in bright bubbles empyrean air; 175 The crystal floods phlogistic ores calcine, And the pure ETHER marries with the MINE.