Volume I Part 5 (1/2)
Hence then the primeval islands had their gradual origin, were raised but a few feet above the level of the sea, and were not exposed to the great or sudden variations of heat and cold, as is so well explained in Mr. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, chap. xvi. Whence the paradise of the sacred writers, and the golden age of the profane ones, seems to have had a real existence. As there can be no rainbow, when the heavens are covered with clouds, because the sun-beams are then precluded from falling upon the rain-drops opposite to the eye of the spectator, the rainbow is a mark of gentle or partial showers. Mr. Whitehurst has endeavoured to show that the primitive islands were only moistened by nocturnal dews and not by showers, as occurs at this day to the Delta of Egypt; and is thence of opinion, that the rainbow had no existence till after the production of mountains and continents. As the salt of the sea has been gradually acc.u.mulating, being washed down into it from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, the sea must originally have been as fresh as river water; and as it is not yet saturated with salt, must become annually more saline. See note on l. 119 of this Canto.]
”O'er those blest isles no ice-crown'd mountains tower'd, 40 No lightnings darted, and no tempests lower'd; Soft fell the vesper-drops, condensed below, Or bent in air the rain-refracted bow; Sweet breathed the zephyrs, just perceiv'd and lost; And brineless billows only kiss'd the coast; 45 Round the bright zodiac danced the vernal hours, And Peace, the Cherub, dwelt in mortal bowers!
”So young DIONE, nursed beneath the waves, And rock'd by Nereids in their coral caves, Charm'd the blue sisterhood with playful wiles, 50 Lisp'd her sweet tones, and tried her tender smiles.
Then, on her beryl throne by Triton's borne, Bright rose the G.o.ddess like the Star of morn; When with soft fires the milky dawn He leads, And wakes to life and love the laughing meads;-- 55 With rosy fingers, as uncurl'd they hung Round her fair brow, her golden locks she wrung; O'er the smooth surge on silver sandals flood, And look'd enchantment on the dazzled flood.-- The bright drops, rolling from her lifted arms, 60 In slow meanders wander o'er her charms, Seek round her snowy neck their lucid track, Pearl her white shoulders, gem her ivory back, Round her fine waist and swelling bosom swim, And star with glittering brine each crystal limb.-- 65 --The immortal form enamour'd Nature hail'd, And Beauty blazed to heaven and earth, unvail'd.
[_So young Dione_. l. 47. There is an antient gem representing Venus rising out of the ocean supported by two Tritons. From the formality of the design it would appear to be of great antiquity before the introduction of fine taste into the world. It is probable that this beautiful allegory was originally an hieroglyphic picture (before the invention of letters) descriptive of the formation of the earth from the ocean, which seems to have been an opinion of many of the most antient philosophers.]
III. ”You! who then, kindling after many an age, Saw with new fires the first VOLCANO rage, O'er smouldering heaps of livid sulphur swell 70 At Earth's firm centre, and distend her sh.e.l.l, Saw at each opening cleft the furnace glow, And seas rush headlong on the gulphs below.-- GNOMES! how you shriek'd! when through the troubled air Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war; 75 When rose the continents, and sunk the main, And Earth's huge sphere exploding burst in twain.-- GNOMES! how you gazed! when from her wounded side Where now the South-Sea heaves its waste of tide, Rose on swift wheels the MOON'S refulgent car, 80 Circling the solar orb; a sister-star, Dimpled with vales, with s.h.i.+ning hills emboss'd, And roll'd round Earth her airless realms of frost.
[_The first volcano_. l. 68. As the earth before the existence of earthquakes was nearly level, and the greatest part of it covered with sea; when the first great fires began deep in the internal parts of it, those parts would become much expanded; this expansion would be gradually extended, as the heat increased, through the whole terraqueous globe of 7000 miles diameter; the crust would thence in many places open into fissures, which by admitting the sea to flow in upon the fire, would produce not only a quant.i.ty of steam beyond calculation by its expansion, but would also by its decomposition produce inflammable air and vital air in quant.i.ties beyond conception, sufficient to effect those violent explosions, the vestiges of which all over the world excite our admiration and our study; the difficulty of understanding how subterraneous fires could exist without the presence of air has disappeared since Dr. Priestley's discoveries of such great quant.i.ties of pure air which const.i.tute all the acids, and consequently exist in all saline bodies, as sea-salt, nitre, lime-stone, and in all calciform ores, as manganese, calamy, ochre, and other mineral substances. See an ingenious treatise by Mr. Michel on earthquakes in the Philos. Trans.
In these first tremendous ignitions of the globe, as the continents were heaved up, the vallies, which now hold the sea, were formed by the earth subsiding into the cavities made by the rising mountains; as the steam, which raised them condensed; which would thence not have any caverns of great extent remain beneath them, as some philosophers have imagined.
The earthquakes of modern days are of very small extent indeed compared to those of antient times, and are ingeniously compared by M. De Luc to the operations of a mole-hill, where from a small cavity are raised from time to time small quant.i.ties of lava or pumice stone. Monthly Review, June, 1790.]
[_The moon's refulgent car_. l. 79. See additional notes, No. XV. on solar volcanos.]
[_Her airless realms of frost_. l. 82. If the moon had no atmosphere at the time of its elevation from the earth; or if its atmosphere was afterwards stolen from it by the earth's attraction; the water on the moon would rise quickly into vapour; and the cold produced by a certain quant.i.ty of this evaporation would congeal the remainder of it. Hence it is not probable that the moon is at present inhabited, but as it seems to have suffered and to continue to suffer much by volcanos, a sufficient quant.i.ty of air may in process of time be generated to produce an atmosphere; which may prevent its heat from so easily escaping, and its water from so easily evaporating, and thence become fit for the production of vegetables and animals.
That the moon possesses little or no atmosphere is deduced from the undiminished l.u.s.tre of the stars, at the instant when they emerge from behind her disk. That the ocean of the moon is frozen, is confirmed from there being no appearance of lunar tides; which, if they existed, would cover the part of her disk nearest the earth. See note on Canto III. l.
61.]
”GNOMES! how you trembled! with the dreadful force When Earth recoiling stagger'd from her course; 85 When, as her Line in slower circles spun, And her shock'd axis nodded from the sun, With dreadful march the acc.u.mulated main Swept her vast wrecks of mountain, vale, and plain; And, while new tides their shouting floods unite, 90 And hail their Queen, fair Regent of the night; Chain'd to one centre whirl'd the kindred spheres, And mark'd with lunar cycles solar years.
[_When earth recoiling_. l. 84. On supposition that the moon was thrown from the earth by the explosion of water or the generation of other vapours of greater power, the remaining part of the globe would recede from its...o...b..t in one direction as the moon receded in another, and that in proportion to the respective momentum of each, and would afterwards revolve round their common centre of gravity.
If the moon rose from any part of the earth except exactly at the line or poles, the shock would tend to turn the axis of the earth out of its previous direction. And as a ma.s.s of matter rising from deep parts of the globe would have previously acquired less diurnal velocity than the earth's surface from whence it rose, it would receive during the time of its rising additional velocity from the earth's surface, and would consequently so much r.e.t.a.r.d the motion of the earth round its axis.
When the earth thus receded the shock would overturn all its buildings and forests, and the water would rush with inconceivable violence over its surface towards the new satellite, from two causes, both by its not at first acquiring the velocity with which the earth receded, and by the attraction of the new moon, as it leaves the earth; on these accounts at first there would be but one tide till the moon receded to a greater distance, and the earth moving round a common centre of gravity between them, the water on the side furthest from the moon would acquire a centrifugal force in respect to this common centre between itself and the moon.]
IV. ”GNOMES! you then bade dissolving Sh.e.l.lS distil From the loose summits of each shatter'd hill, 95 To each fine pore and dark interstice flow, And fill with liquid chalk the ma.s.s below.
Whence sparry forms in dusky caverns gleam With borrow'd light, and twice refract the beam; While in white beds congealing rocks beneath 100 Court the nice chissel, and desire to breathe.--
[Footnote: _Dissolving sh.e.l.ls distil_. l. 93. The lime-stone rocks have had their origin from sh.e.l.ls formed beneath the sea, the softer strata gradually dissolving and filling up the interstices of the harder ones, afterwards when these acc.u.mulations of sh.e.l.ls were elevated above the waters the upper strata became dissolved by the actions of the air and dews, and filled up the interstices beneath, producing solid rocks of different kinds from the coa.r.s.e lime-stones to the finest marbles. When those lime-stones have been in such a situation that they could form perfect crystals they are called spars, some of which possess a double refraction, as observed by Sir Isaac Newton. When these crystals are jumbled together or mixed with some colouring impurities it is termed marble, if its texture be equable and firm; if its texture be coa.r.s.e and porous yet hard, it is called lime-stone; if its texture be very loose and porous it is termed chalk. In some rocks the sh.e.l.ls remain almost unchanged and only covered, or bedded with lime-stone, which seems to have been dissolved and sunk down amongst them. In others the softer sh.e.l.ls and bones are dissolved, and only sharks teeth or harder echini have preserved their form inveloped in the chalk or lime-stone; in some marbles the solution has been compleat and no vestiges of sh.e.l.l appear, as in the white kind called statuary by the workmen. See addit. notes, No. XVI.]
”Hence wearied HERCULES in marble rears His languid limbs, and rests a thousand years; Still, as he leans, shall young ANTINOUS please With careless grace, and unaffected ease; 105 Onward with loftier step APOLLO spring, And launch the unerring arrow from the string; In Beauty's bashful form, the veil unfurl'd, Ideal VENUS win the gazing world.
Hence on ROUBILIAC'S tomb shall Fame sublime 110 Wave her triumphant wings, and conquer Time; Long with soft touch shall DAMER'S chissel charm, With grace delight us, and with beauty warm; FOSTER'S fine form shall hearts unborn engage, And MELBOURN's smile enchant another age.
[_Hence wearied Hercules_. l. 101. Alluding to the celebrated Hercules of Glyco resting after his labours; and to the easy att.i.tude of Antinous; the lofty step of the Apollo of Belvidere; and the retreating modesty of the Venus de Medici. Many of the designs by Roubiliac in Westminster Abbey are uncommonly poetical; the allegory of Time and Fame contending for the trophy of General Wade, which is here alluded to, is beautifully told; the wings of Fame are still expanded, and her hair still floating in the air; which not only shews that she has that moment arrived, but also that her force is not yet expended; at the same time, that the old figure of Time with his disordered wings is rather leaning backwards and yielding to her impulse, and must apparently in another instant be driven from his attack upon the trophy.]
[_Foster's fine form_. l. 113. Alluding to the beautiful statues of Lady Elizabeth Foster and of Lady Melbourn executed by the ingenious Mrs.
Damer.]
115 V. GNOMES! you then taught transuding dews to pa.s.s Through time-fall'n woods, and root-inwove mora.s.s Age after age; and with filtration fine Dispart, from earths and sulphurs, the saline.