Volume Ii Part 11 (1/2)
[_Rolls his brineless tide._ l. 411. Some philosophers have believed that the continent of America was not raised out of the great ocean at so early a period of time as the other continents. One reason for this opinion was, because the great lakes, perhaps nearly as large as the Mediterranean Sea, consist of fresh water. And as the sea-salt seems to have its origin from the destruction of vegetable and animal bodies, washed down by rains, and carried by rivers into lakes or seas; it would seem that this source of sea-salt had not so long existed in that country. There is, however, a more satisfactory way of explaining this circ.u.mstance; which is, that the American lakes lie above the level of the ocean, and are hence perpetually desalited by the rivers which run through them; which is not the case with the Mediterranean, into which a current from the main ocean perpetually pa.s.ses.]
[_Caffia._ l. 413. Ten males, one female. The seeds are black, the stamens gold-colour. This is one of the American fruits, which are annually thrown on the coasts of Norway; and are frequently in so recent a state as to vegetate, when properly taken care of, the fruit of the anacardium, cashew-nut; of cucurbita lagenaria, bottlegourd; of the mimosa scandens, coc.o.o.ns; of the piscidia erythrina, logwood-tree; and cocoa-nuts are enumerated by Dr. Tonning. (Amaen. Acad. 149.) amongst these emigrant seeds. The fact is truly wonderful, and cannot be accounted for but by the existence of under currents in the depths of the ocean; or from vortexes of water pa.s.sing from one country to another through caverns of the earth.
Sir Hans Sloane has given an account of four kinds of seeds, which are frequently thrown by the sea upon the coasts of the islands of the northern parts of Scotland. Phil. Trans. abridged, Vol. III. p. 540.
which seeds are natives of the West Indies, and seem to be brought thither by the gulf-stream described below. One of these is called, by Sir H. Sloane, Phaseolus maximus perennis, which is often also thrown on the coast of Kerry in Ireland; another is called, in Jamaica, Horse-eye-bean; and a third is called Niker in Jamaica. He adds, that the Lenticula marina, or Sargosso, grows on the rocks about Jamaica, is carried by the winds and current towards the coast of Florida, and thence into the North-American ocean, where it lies very thick on the surface of the sea.
Thus a rapid current pa.s.ses from the gulf of Florida to the N.E.
along the coast of North-America, known to seamen by the name of the GULF-STREAM. A chart of this was published by Dr. Francklin in 1768, from the information princ.i.p.ally of Capt. Folger. This was confirmed by the ingenious experiments of Dr. Blagden, published in 1781, who found that the water of the Gulf-stream was from six to eleven degrees warmer than the water of the sea through which it ran; which must have been occasioned by its being brought from a hotter climate. He ascribes the origin of this current to the power of the trade-winds, which, blowing always in the same direction, carry the waters of the Atlantic ocean to the westward, till they are stopped by the opposing continent on the west of the Gulf of Mexico, and are thus acc.u.mulated there, and run down the Gulf of Florida. Philos. Trans. V. 71, p. 335. Governor Pownal has given an elegant map of this Gulf-stream, tracing it from the Gulf of Florida northward as far as Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, and then across the Atlantic ocean to the coast of Africa between the Canary-islands and Senegal, increasing in breadth, as it runs, till it occupies five or six degrees of lat.i.tude. The Governor likewise ascribes this current to the force of the trade-winds _protruding_ the waters westward, till they are opposed by the continent, and acc.u.mulated in the Gulf of Mexico. He very ingeniously observes, that a great eddy must be produced in the Atlantic ocean between this Gulf-stream and the westerly current protruded by the tropical winds, and in this eddy are found the immense fields of floating vegetables, called Saragosa weeds, and Gulf-weeds, and some light woods, which circulate in these vast eddies, or are occasionally driven out of them by the winds. Hydraulic and Nautical Observations by Governor Pownal, 1787. Other currents are mentioned by the Governor in this ingenious work, as those in the Indian Sea, northward of the line, which are ascribed to the influence of the Monsoons. It is probable, that in process of time the narrow tract of land on the west of the Gulf of Mexico may be worn away by this elevation of water das.h.i.+ng against it, by which this immense current would cease to exist, and a wonderful change take place in the Gulf of Mexico and West Indian islands, by the subsiding of the sea, which might probably lay all those islands int one, or join them to the continent.]
415 Cinctured with gold while _ten_ fond brothers stand, And guard the beauty on her native land,
Soft breathes the gale, the current gently moves, And bears to Norway's coasts her infant-loves.
--So the sad mother at the noon of night 420 From b.l.o.o.d.y Memphis stole her silent flight; Wrapp'd her dear babe beneath her folded vest, And clasp'd the treasure to her throbbing breast, With soothing whispers hushed its feeble cry, Pressed the soft kiss, and breathed the secret sigh.-- 425 --With dauntless step she seeks the winding sh.o.r.e, Hears unappall'd the glimmering torrents roar; With Paper-flags a floating cradle weaves, And hides the smiling boy in Lotus-leaves; Gives her white bosom to his eager lips, 430 The salt tears mingling with the milk he sips; Waits on the reed-crown'd brink with pious guile, And trusts the scaly monsters of the Nile.--
--Erewhile majestic from his lone abode, Emba.s.sador of Heaven, the Prophet trod; 435 Wrench'd the red Scourge from proud Oppression's hands, And broke, curst Slavery! thy iron bands.
Hark! heard ye not that piercing cry, Which shook the waves and rent the sky!--
E'en now, e'en now, on yonder Western sh.o.r.es 440 Weeps pale Despair, and writhing Anguish roars: E'en now in Afric's groves with hideous yell Fierce SLAVERY stalks, and slips the dogs of h.e.l.l; From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound, And sable nations tremble at the sound!-- 445 --YE BANDS OF SENATORS! whose suffrage sways Britannia's realms, whom either Ind obeys; Who right the injured, and reward the brave, Stretch your strong arm, for ye have power to save!
Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread resort, 450 Inexorable CONSCIENCE holds his court; With still small voice the plots of Guilt alarms, Bares his mask'd brow, his lifted hand disarms; But, wrapp'd in night with terrors all his own, He speaks in thunder, when the deed is done.
455 _Hear him_ ye Senates! hear this truth sublime, ”HE, WHO ALLOWS OPPRESSION, SHARES THE CRIME.”
No radiant pearl, which crested Fortune wears, No gem, that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears, Not the bright stars, which Night's blue arch adorn, 460 Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn, s.h.i.+ne with such l.u.s.tre as the tear, that breaks For other's woe down Virtue's manly cheeks.”
Here ceased the MUSE, and dropp'd her tuneful sh.e.l.l, Tumultuous woes her panting bosom swell, 465 O'er her flush'd cheek her gauzy veil she throws, Folds her white arms, and bends her laurel'd brows; For human guilt awhile the G.o.ddess sighs, And human sorrows dim celestial eyes.
INTERLUDE III.
_Bookseller_. Poetry has been called a sister-art both to Painting and to Music; I wish to know, what are the particulars of their relations.h.i.+p?
_Poet_. It has been already observed, that the princ.i.p.al part of the language of poetry consists of those words, which are expressive of the ideas, which we originally receive by the organ of sight; and in this it nearly indeed resembles painting; which can express itself in no other way, but by exciting the ideas or sensations belonging to the sense of vision. But besides this essential similitude in the language of the poetic pen and pencil, these two sisters resemble each other, if I may so say, in many of their habits and manners. The painter, to produce a strong effect, makes a few parts of his picture large, distinct, and luminous, and keeps the remainder in shadow, or even beneath its natural size and colour, to give eminence to the princ.i.p.al figure. This is similar to the common manner of poetic composition, where the subordinate characters are kept down, to elevate and give consequence to the hero or heroine of the piece.
In the south aile of the cathedral church at Lichfield, there is an antient monument of a rec.u.mbent figure; the head and neck of which lie on a roll of matting in a kind of niche or cavern in the wall; and about five feet distant horizontally in another opening or cavern in the wall are seen the feet and ankles, with some folds of garment, lying also on a matt; and though the intermediate s.p.a.ce is a solid stone-wall, yet the imagination supplies the deficiency, and the whole figure seems to exist before our eyes. Does not this resemble one of the arts both of the painter and the poet? The former often shows a muscular arm amidst a group of figures, or an impa.s.sioned face; and, hiding the remainder of the body behind other objects, leaves the imagination to compleat it. The latter, describing a single feature or att.i.tude in picturesque words, produces before the mind an image of the whole.
I remember seeing a print, in which was represented a shrivelled hand stretched through an iron grate, in the stone floor of a prison-yard, to reach at a mess of porrage, which affected me with more horrid ideas of the distress of the prisoner in the dungeon below, than could have been perhaps produced by an exhibition of the whole person. And in the following beautiful scenery from the Midsummer-night's dream, (in which I have taken the liberty to alter the place of a comma), the description of the swimming step and prominent belly bring the whole figure before our eyes with the distinctness of reality.
When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind; Which she with pretty and with swimming gate, Following her womb, (then rich with my young squire), Would imitate, and sail upon the land.
There is a third sister-feature, which belongs both to the pictorial and poetic art; and that is the making sentiments and pa.s.sions visible, as it were, to the spectator; this is done in both arts by describing or portraying the effects or changes which those sentiments or pa.s.sions produce upon the body. At the end of the unaltered play of Lear, there is a beautiful example of poetic painting; the old King is introduced as dying from grief for the loss of Cordelia; at this crisis, Shakespear, conceiving the robe of the king to be held together by a clasp, represents him as only saying to an attendant courtier in a faint voice, ”Pray, Sir, undo this b.u.t.ton,--thank you, Sir,” and dies. Thus by the art of the poet, the oppression at the bosom of the dying King is made visible, not described in words.
_B_. What are the features, in which these Sister-arts do not resemble each other?
_P_. The ingenious Bishop Berkeley, in his Treatise on Vision, a work of great ability, has evinced, that the colours, which we see, are only a language suggesting to our minds the ideas of solidity and extension, which we had before received by the sense of touch. Thus when we view the trunk of a tree, our eye can only acquaint us with the colours or shades; and from the previous experience of the sense of touch, these suggest to us the cylindrical form, with the prominent or depressed wrinkles on it. From hence it appears, that there is the strictest a.n.a.logy between colours and sounds; as they are both but languages, which do not represent their correspondent ideas, but only suggest them to the mind from the habits or a.s.sociations of previous experience. It is therefore reasonable to conclude, that the more artificial arrangements of these two languages by the poet and the painter bear a similar a.n.a.logy.
But in one circ.u.mstance the Pen and the Pencil differ widely from each other, and that is the quant.i.ty of Time which they can include in their respective representations. The former can unravel a long series of events, which may const.i.tute the history of days or years; while the latter can exhibit only the actions of a moment. The Poet is happier in describing successive scenes; the Painter in representing stationary ones: both have their advantages.
Where the pa.s.sions are introduced, as the Poet, on one hand, has the power gradually to prepare the mind of his reader by previous climacteric circ.u.mstances; the Painter, on the other hand, can throw stronger illumination and distinctness on the princ.i.p.al moment or catastrophe of the action; besides the advantage he has in using an universal language, which can be _read_ in an instant of time. Thus where a great number of figures are all seen together, supporting or contrasting each other, and contributing to explain or aggrandize the princ.i.p.al effect, we view a picture with agreeable surprize, and contemplate it with unceasing admiration. In the representation of the sacrifice of Jephtha's Daughter, a print done from a painting of Ant. Coypel, at one glance of the eye we read all the interesting pa.s.sages of the last act of a well-written tragedy; so much poetry is there condensed into a moment of time.
_B._ Will you now oblige me with an account of the relations.h.i.+p between Poetry, and her other sister, Music? _P_. In the poetry of our language I don't think we are to look for any thing a.n.a.logous to the notes of the gamut; for, except perhaps in a few exclamations or interrogations, we are at liberty to raise or sink our voice an octave or two at pleasure, without altering the sense of the words. Hence, if either poetry or prose be read in melodious tones of voice, as is done in recitativo, or in chaunting, it must depend on the speaker, not on the writer: for though words may be selected which are less harsh than others, that is, which have fewer sudden stops or abrupt consonants amongst the vowels, or with fewer sibilant letters, yet this does not const.i.tute melody, which consists of agreeable successions of notes referrable to the gamut; or harmony, which consists of agreeable combinations of them. If the Chinese language has many words of similar articulation, which yet signify different ideas, when spoken in a higher or lower musical note, as some travellers affirm, it must be capable of much finer effect, in respect to the audible part of poetry, than any language we are acquainted with.
There is however another affinity, in which poetry and music more nearly resemble each other than has generally been understood, and that is in their measure or time. There are but two kinds of time acknowledged in modern music, which are called _triple time_, and _common time_. The former of these is divided by bars, each bar containing three crotchets, or a proportional number of their subdivisions into quavers and semiquavers. This kind of time is a.n.a.logous to the measure of our heroic or iambic verse. Thus the two following couplets are each of them divided into five bars of _triple time_, each bar consisting of two crotchets and two quavers; nor can they be divided into bars a.n.a.logous to _common time_ without the bars interfering with some of the crotchets, so as to divide them.