Volume I Part 3 (1/2)
[_Cold from each point_. l. 339. See additional note, No. XIII.]
345 ”YOU bid gold-leaves, in crystal lantherns held, Approach attracted, and recede repel'd; While paper-nymphs instinct with motion rife, And dancing fauns the admiring Sage surprize.
OR, if on wax some fearless Beauty stand, 350 And touch the sparkling rod with graceful hand; Through her fine limbs the mimic lightnings dart, And flames innocuous eddy round her heart; O'er her fair brow the kindling l.u.s.tres glare, Blue rays diverging from her bristling hair; 355 While some fond Youth the kiss ethereal sips.
And soft fires issue from their meeting lips.
So round the virgin Saint in silver streams The holy Halo shoots it's arrowy beams.
[_You bid gold leaves_. l. 345. Alluding to the very sensible electrometer improved by Mr. Bennett, it consists of two slips of gold- leaf suspended from a tin cap in a gla.s.s cylinder, which has a partial coating without, communicating with the wooden pedestal. If a stick of sealing wax be rubbed for a moment on a dry cloth, and then held in the air _at the distance of two or three feet_ from the cap of this instrument, the gold leaves seperate, such is its astonis.h.i.+ng sensibility to electric influence! (See Bennet on electricity, Johnson, Lond.) The nerves of sense of animal bodies do not seem to be affected by less quant.i.ties of light or heat!]
[_The holy Halo_. l. 358. I believe it is not known with certainty at what time the painters first introduced the luminous circle round the head to import a Saint or holy person. It is now become a part of the symbolic language of painting, and it is much to be wished that this kind of hieroglyphic character was more frequent in that art; as it is much wanted to render historic pictures both more intelligible, and more sublime; and why should not painting as well as poetry express itself in metaphor, or in indistinct allegory? A truly great modern painter lately endeavoured to enlarge the sphere of pictorial language, by putting a demon behind the pillow of a wicked man on his death bed. Which unfortunately for the scientific part of painting, the cold criticism of the present day has depreciated; and thus barred perhaps the only road to the further improvement in this science.]
”YOU crowd in coated jars the denser fire, 360 Pierce the thin gla.s.s, and fuse the blazing wire; Or dart the red flash through the circling band Of youths and timorous damsels, hand in hand.
--Starts the quick Ether through the fibre-trains Of dancing arteries, and of tingling veins, 365 Goads each fine nerve, with new sensation thrill'd, Bends the reluctant limbs with power unwill'd; Palsy's cold hands the fierce concussion own, And Life clings trembling on her tottering throne.-- So from dark clouds the playful lightning springs, 370 Rives the firm oak, or prints the Fairy-rings.
[_With new sensation thrill'd_. l. 365. There is probably a system of nerves in animal bodies for the purpose of perceiving heat; since the degree of this fluid is so necessary to health that we become presently injured either by its access or defect; and because almost every part of our bodies is supplied with branches from different pairs of nerves, which would not seem necessary for their motion alone: It is therefore probable, that our sensation of electricity is only of its violence in pa.s.sing through our system by its suddenly distending the muscles, like any other mechanical violence; and that it is general pain alone that we feel, and not any sensation a.n.a.logous to the specific quality of the object. Nature may seem to have been n.i.g.g.ardly to mankind in bestowing upon them so few senses; since a sense to have perceived electricity, and another to have perceived magnetism might have been of great service to them, many ages before these fluids were discovered by accidental experiment, but it is possible an increased number of senses might have incommoded us by adding to the size of our bodies.]
[_Palsy's cold hands_. l. 367. Paralytic limbs are in general only incapable of being stimulated into action by the power of the will; since the pulse continues to beat and the fluids to be absorbed in them; and it commonly happens, when paralytic people yawn and stretch themselves, (which is not a voluntary motion,) that the affected limb moves at the same time. The temporary motion of a paralytic limb is likewise caused by pa.s.sing the electric shock through it; which would seem to indicate some a.n.a.logy between the electric fluid, and the nervous fluid, which is seperated from the blood by the brain, and thence diffused along the nerves for the purposes of motion and sensation. It probably destroys life by its sudden expansion of the nerves or fibres of the brain; in the same manner as it fuses metals and splinters wood or stone, and removes the atmosphere, when it pa.s.ses from one object to another in a dense state.]
[_Prints the Fairy rings_. l. 370. See additional note No. XIII.]
2. NYMPHS! on that day YE shed from lucid eyes.
Celestial tears, and breathed ethereal sighs!
When RICHMAN rear'd, by fearless haste betrayed, The wiry rod in Nieva's fatal shade;-- 375 Clouds o'er the Sage, with fringed skirts succeed, Flash follows flash, the warning corks recede; Near and more near He ey'd with fond amaze The silver streams, and watch'd the saphire blaze; Then burst the steel, the dart electric sped, 380 And the bold Sage lay number'd with the dead!-- NYMPHS! on that day YE shed from lucid eyes Celestial tears, and breathed ethereal sighs!
[_When Richman reared_. l. 373. Dr. Richman Professor of natural philosophy at Petersburgh about the year 1763, elevated an insulated metallic rod to collect the aerial electricity, as Dr. Franklin had previously done at Philadelphia; and as he was observing the repulsion of the b.a.l.l.s of his electrometer approached too near the conductor, and receiving the lightening in his head with a loud explosion, was struck dead amidst his family.]
3. ”YOU led your FRANKLIN to your glazed retreats, Your air-built castles, and your silken seats; 385 Bade his bold arm invade the lowering sky, And seize the tiptoe lightnings, ere they fly; O'er the young Sage your mystic mantle spread, And wreath'd the crown electric round his head.-- Thus when on wanton wing intrepid LOVE 390 s.n.a.t.c.h'd the raised lightning from the arm of JOVE; Quick o'er his knee the triple bolt He bent, The cl.u.s.ter'd darts and forky arrows rent, Snapp'd with illumin'd hands each flaming shaft, His tingling fingers shook, and stamp'd, and laugh'd; 395 Bright o'er the floor the scatter'd fragments blaz'd, And G.o.ds retreating trembled as they gaz'd; The immortal Sire, indulgent to his child, Bow'd his ambrosial locks, and Heaven relenting smiled.
[_You led your Franklin_. l. 383. Dr. Franklin was the first that discovered that lightening consisted of electric matter, he elevated a tall rod with a wire wrapped round it, and fixing the bottom of a rod into a gla.s.s bottle, and preserving it from falling by means of silk- strings, he found it electrified whenever a cloud parted over it, receiving sparks by his finger from it, and charging coated phials. This great discovery taught us to defend houses and s.h.i.+ps and temples from lightning, and also to understand, _that people are always perfectly safe in a room during a thunder storm if they keep themselves at three or four feet distance from the walls_; for the matter of lightning in pa.s.sing from the clouds to the earth, or from the earth to the clouds, runs through the walls of a house, the trunk of a tree, or other elevated object; except there be some moister body, as an animal in contact with them, or nearly so; and in that case the lightning leaves the wall or tree, and pa.s.ses through the animal; but as it can pa.s.s through metals with still greater facility, it will leave animal bodies to pa.s.s through metallic ones.
If a person in the open air be surprized by a thunderstorm, he will know his danger by observing on a second watch the time which pa.s.ses between the flash and the crack, and reckoning a mile for every four seconds and a half, and a little more. For sound travels at the rate of 1142 feet in a second of time, and the velocity of light through such small distances is not to be estimated. In these circ.u.mstances a person will be safer by lying down on the ground, than erect, and still safer if within a few feet of his horse; which being then a more elevated animal will receive the shock, in preference as the cloud pa.s.ses over. See additional notes, No. XIII.]
[_Intrepid Love_. l. 389. This allegory is uncommonly beautiful, representing Divine Justice as disarmed by Divine Love, and relenting of his purpose. It is expressed on an agate in the Great Duke's collection at Florence. Spence.]
VIII. ”When Air's pure essence joins the vital flood, 400 And with phosphoric Acid dyes the blood, YOUR VIRGIN TRAINS the transient HEAT dispart, And lead the soft combustion round the heart; Life's holy lamp with fires successive feed, From the crown'd forehead to the prostrate weed, 405 From Earth's proud realms to all that swim or sweep The yielding ether or tumultuous deep.
You swell the bulb beneath the heaving lawn, Brood the live seed, unfold the bursting sp.a.w.n; Nurse with soft lap, and warm with fragrant breath 410 The embryon panting in the arms of Death; Youth's vivid eye with living light adorn, And fire the rising blush of Beauty's golden morn.
[_Transient heat dispart_. l. 401. Dr. Crawford in his ingenious work on animal heat has endeavoured to prove, that during the combination of the pure part of the atmosphere with the phlogistic part of the blood, that much of the matter of the heat is given out from the air; and that this is the great and perpetual source of the heat of animals; to which we may add that the phosphoric acid is probably produced by this combination; by which acid the colour of the blood is changed in the lungs from a deep crimson to a bright scarlet. There seems to be however another source of animal heat, though of a similar nature; and that is from the chemical combinations produced in all the glands; since by whatever cause any glandular secretion is increased, as by friction or topical imflammation, the heat of that part becomes increased at the same time; thus after the hands have been for a time immersed in snow, on coming into a warm room, they become red and hot, without any increased pulmonary action. BESIDES THIS there would seem to be another material received from the air by respiration; which is so necessary to life, that the embryon must learn to breathe almost within a minute after its birth, or it dies. The perpetual necessity of breathing shews, that the material thus acquired is perpetually consuming or escaping, and on that account requires perpetual renovation. Perhaps the spirit of animation itself is thus acquired from the atmosphere, which if it be supposed to be finer or more subtle than the electric matter, could not long be retained in our bodies, and must therefore require perpetual renovation.]
”Thus when the Egg of Night, on Chaos hurl'd, Burst, and disclosed the cradle of the world; 415 First from the gaping sh.e.l.l refulgent sprung IMMORTAL LOVE, his bow celestial strung;-- O'er the wide waste his gaudy wings unfold, Beam his soft smiles, and wave his curls of gold;-- With silver darts He pierced the kindling frame, 420 And lit with torch divine the ever-living flame.”
[_Thus when the egg of Night_. l. 413. There were two Cupids belonging to the antient mythology, one much elder than the other. The elder cupid, or Eros, or divine Love, was the first that came out of the great egg of night, which floated in Chaos, and was broken by the horns of the celestial bull, that is, was hatched by the warmth of the spring. He was winged and armed, and by his arrows and torch pierced and vivified all things, producing life and joy. Bacon, Vol. V. p. 197. Quarto edit.