The Botanic Garden Volume Ii Part 6

_B_. Is this reasoning about degrees of probability just?--When Sir Joshua Reynolds, who is unequalled both in the theory and practice of his art, and who is a great master of the pen as well as the pencil, has a.s.serted in a discourse delivered to the Royal Academy, December 11, 1786, that "the higher styles of painting, like the higher kinds of the Drama, do not aim at any thing like deception; or have any expectation, that the spectators should think the events there represented are really pa.s.sing before them." And he then accuses Mr. Fielding of bad judgment, when he attempts to compliment Mr. Garrick in one of his novels, by introducing an ignorant man, mistaking the representation of a scene in Hamlet for a reality; and thinks, because he was an ignorant man, he was less liable to make such a mistake.

_P_. It is a metaphysical question, and requires more attention than Sir Joshua has bestowed upon it.--You will allow, that we are perfectly deceived in our dreams; and that even in our waking reveries, we are often so much absorbed in the contemplation of what pa.s.ses in our imaginations, that for a while we do not attend to the lapse of time or to our own locality; and thus suffer a similar kind of deception as in our dreams. That is, we believe things present before our eyes, which are not so.

There are two circ.u.mstances, which contribute to this compleat deception in our dreams. First, because in sleep the organs of sense are closed or inert, and hence the trains of ideas a.s.sociated in our imaginations are never interrupted or dissevered by the irritations of external objects, and can not therefore be contrasted with our sensations. On this account, though we are affected with a variety of pa.s.sions in our dreams, as anger, love, joy; yet we never experience surprize.--For surprize is only produced when any external irritations suddenly obtrude themselves, and dissever our pa.s.sing trains of ideas.

Secondly, because in sleep there is a total suspension of our voluntary power, both over the muscles of our bodies, and the ideas of our minds; for we neither walk about, nor reason in compleat sleep. Hence, as the trains of ideas are pa.s.sing in our imaginations in dreams, we cannot compare them with our previous knowledge of things, as we do in our waking hours; for this is a voluntary exertion; and thus we cannot perceive their incongruity. Thus we are deprived in sleep of the only two means by which we can distinguish the trains of ideas pa.s.sing in our imaginations, from those excited by our sensations; and are led by their vivacity to believe them to belong to the latter. For the vivacity of these trains of ideas, pa.s.sing in the imagination, is greatly increased by the causes above-mentioned; that is, by their not being disturbed or dissevered either by the appulses of external bodies, as in surprize; or by our voluntary exertions in comparing them with our previous knowledge, of things, as in reasoning upon them.

_B_. Now to apply.

_P_. When by the art of the Painter or Poet a train of ideas is suggested to our imaginations, which interests us so much by the pain or pleasure it affords, that we cease to attend to the irritations of common external objects, and cease also to use any voluntary efforts to compare these interesting trains of ideas with our previous knowledge of things, a compleat reverie is produced: during which time, however short, if it be but for a moment, the objects themselves appear to exist before us. This, I think, has been called by an ingenious critic "the ideal presence" of such objects. (Elements of Criticism by Lord Kaimes). And in respect to the compliment intended by Mr. Fielding to Mr. Garrick, it would seem that an ignorant Rustic at the play of Hamlet, who has some previous belief in the appearance of Ghosts, would sooner be liable to fall into reverie, and continue in it longer, than one who possessed more knowledge of the real nature of things, and had a greater facility of exercising his reason.

_B_. It must require great art in the Painter or Poet to produce this kind of deception?

_P_. The matter must be interesting from its sublimity, beauty, or novelty; this is the scientific part; and the art consists in bringing these distinctly before the eye, so as to produce (as above-mentioned) the ideal presence of the object, in which the great Shakespear particularly excells.

_B_. Then it is not of any consequence whether the representations correspond with nature?

_P_. Not if they so much interest the reader or spectator as to induce the reverie above described. Nature may be seen in the market-place, or at the card-table; but we expect something more than this in the play-house or picture-room. The further the artists recedes from nature, the greater novelty he is likely to produce; if he rises above nature, he produces the sublime; and beauty is probably a selection and new combination of her most agreeable parts. Yourself will be sensible of the truth of this doctrine by recollecting over in your mind the works of three of our celebrated artists. Sir Joshua Reynolds has introduced sublimity even into its portraits; we admire the representation of persons, whose reality we should have pa.s.sed by unnoticed. Mrs. Angelica Kauffman attracts our eyes with beauty, which I suppose no where exists; certainly few Grecian faces are seen in this country. And the daring pencil of Fuseli transports us beyond the boundaries of nature, and ravishes us with the charm of the most interesting novelty. And Shakespear, who excells in all these together, so far captivates the spectator, as to make him unmindful of every kind of violation of Time, Place, or Existence. As at the first appearance of the Ghost of Hamlet, "his ear must be dull as the fat weed, which roots itself on Lethe's brink," who can attend to the improbablity of the exhibition. So in many scenes of the Tempest we perpetually believe the action pa.s.sing before our eyes, and relapse with somewhat of distaste into common life at the intervals of the representation.

_B_. I suppose a poet of less ability would find such great machinery difficult and c.u.mbersome to manage?

_P_. Just so, we should be mocked at the apparent improbabilities. As in the gardens of a Scicilian n.o.bleman, described in Mr. Brydone's and in Mr. Swinburn's travels, there are said to be six hundred statues of imaginary monsters, which so disgust the spectators, that the state had once a serious design of destroying them; and yet the very improbable monsters in Ovid's Metamorphoses have entertained the world for many centuries.

_B._ The monsters in your Botanic Garden, I hope, are of the latter kind?

_P._ The candid reader must determine.

THE

LOVES

OF THE

PLANTS.

CANTO II.

Again the G.o.ddess strikes the golden lyre, And tunes to wilder notes the warbling wire; With soft suspended step Attention moves, And Silence hovers o'er the listening groves; 5 Orb within orb the charmed audience throng, And the green vault reverberates the song.

"Breathe soft, ye Gales!" the fair CARLINA cries, Bear on broad wings your Votress to the skies.

How sweetly mutable yon orient hues, 10 As Morn's fair hand her opening roses strews; How bright, when Iris blending many a ray Binds in embroider'd wreath the brow of Day; Soft, when the pendant Moon with l.u.s.tres pale O'er heaven's blue arch unfurls her milky veil; 15 While from the north long threads of silver light Dart on swift shuttles o'er the tissued night!

[_Carlina._ l. 7. Carline Thistle. Of the cla.s.s Confederate Males. The seeds of this and of many other plants of the same cla.s.s are furnished with a plume, by which admirable mechanism they perform long aerial journeys, crossing lakes and deserts, and are thus disseminated far from the original plant, and have much the appearance of a Shuttlec.o.c.k as they fly. The wings are of different construction, some being like a divergent tuft of hairs, others are branched like feathers, some are elevated from the crown of the seed by a slender foot-stalk, which gives, than a very elegant appearance, others sit immediately on the crown of the seed.

Nature has many other curious vegetable contrivances for the dispersion of seeds: see note on Helianthus. But perhaps none of them has more the appearance of design than the admirable apparatus of Tillandsia for this purpose. This plant grows on the branches of trees, like the misleto, and never on the ground; the seeds are furnished with many long threads on their crowns; which, as they are driven forwards by the winds, wrap round the arms of trees, and thus hold them fast till they vegetate. This it very a.n.a.logous to the migration of Spiders on the gossamer, who are said to attach themselves to the end of a long thread, and rise thus to the tops of trees or buildings, as the accidental breezes carry them.]

"Breathe soft, ye Zephyrs! hear my fervent sighs, Bear on broad wings your Votress to the skies!"-- --Plume over plume in long divergent lines 20 On whale-bone ribs the fair Mechanic joins; Inlays with eider down the silken strings, And weaves in wide expanse Daedalian wings; Round her bold sons the waving pennons binds, And walks with angel-step upon the winds.

25 So on the sh.o.r.eless air the intrepid Gaul Launch'd the vast concave of his buoyant ball.-- Journeying on high, the silken castle glides Bright as a meteor through the azure tides; O'er towns and towers and temples wins its way, 30 Or mounts sublime, and gilds the vault of day.

Silent with upturn'd eyes unbreathing crowds Pursue the floating wonder to the clouds; And, flush'd with transport or benumb'd with fear, Watch, as it rises, the diminish'd sphere.

35 --Now less and less!--and now a speck is seen!-- And now the fleeting rack obtrudes between!-- With bended knees, raised arms, and suppliant brow To every shrine with mingled cries they vow.-- "Save Him, ye Saints! who o'er the good preside; 40 "Bear Him, ye Winds! ye Stars benignant! guide."

--The calm Philosopher in ether fails, Views broader stars, and breathes in purer gales; Sees, like a map, in many a waving line Round Earth's blue plains her lucid waters mine; 45 Sees at his feet the forky lightnings glow, And hears innocuous thunders roar below.

----Rife, great MONGOLFIER! urge thy venturous flight High o'er the Moon's pale ice-reflected light; High o'er the pearly Star, whose beamy horn.

50 Hangs in the east, gay harbinger of morn; Leave the red eye of Mars on rapid wing; Jove's silver guards, and Saturn's dusky ring; Leave the fair beams, which, issuing from afar; Play with new l.u.s.tres round the Georgian star; 55 Shun with strong oars the Sun's attractive throne, The sparkling zodiack, and the milky zone; Where headlong Comets with increasing force Through other systems bend their blazing course.-- For thee Ca.s.siope her chair withdraws, 60 For thee the Bear retracts his s.h.a.ggy paws; High o'er the North thy golden orb shall roll, And blaze eternal round the wondering pole.

So Argo, rising from the southern main, Lights with new stars the blue etherial plain; 65 With favoring beams the mariner protects, And the bold course, which first it steer'd, directs.

Inventress of the Woof, fair LINA flings The flying shuttle through the dancing strings;

[_For thee the Bear._ l. 60. Tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens Scorpius.

Virg. Georg. l. 1. 34. A new star appeared in Ca.s.siope's chair in 1572.

Herschel's Construction of the Heavens. Phil. Trans. V. 75. p. 266.]

[_Linum._ l. 67. Flax Five males and five females. It was first found on the banks of the Nile. The Linum Lusitanic.u.m, or portigal flax, has ten males: see the note on Curc.u.ma. Isis was said to invent spinning and weaving: mankind before that time were clothed with the skins of animals.

The fable of Arachne was to compliment this new art of spinning and weaving, supposed to surpa.s.s in fineness the web of the Spider.]

Inlays the broider'd weft with flowery dyes, 70 Quick beat the reeds, the pedals fall and rise; Slow from the beam the lengths of warp unwind, And dance and nod the ma.s.sy weights behind.-- Taught by her labours, from the fertile soil Immortal Isis clothed the banks of Nile; 75 And fair ARACHNE with her rival loom Found undeserved a melancholy doom.-- _Five_ Sister-nymphs with dewy fingers twine The beamy flax, and stretch the fibre-line; Quick eddying threads from rapid spindles reel, 80 Or whirl with beaten foot the dizzy wheel.

--Charm'd round the busy Fair _five_ shepherds press, Praise the nice texture of their snowy dress, Admire the Artists, and the art approve, And tell with honey'd words the tale of love.

85 So now, where Derwent rolls his dusky floods Through vaulted mountains, and a night of woods, The Nymph, GOSSYPIA, treads the velvet sod, And warms with rosy smiles the watery G.o.d; His ponderous oars to slender spindles turns, 90 And pours o'er ma.s.sy wheels his foamy urns; With playful charms her h.o.a.ry lover wins, And wields his trident,--while the Monarch spins.

--First with nice eye emerging Naiads cull From leathery pods the vegetable wool;

[_Gossypia_. l. 87. Gossypium. The cotton plant. On the river Derwent near Matlock in Derbyshire, Sir RICHARD ARKWRIGHT has created his curious and magnificent machinery for spinning cotton; which had been in vain attempted by many ingenious artists before him. The cotton-wool is first picked from the pods and seeds by women. It is then carded by _cylindrical cards_, which move against each other, with different velocities. It is taken from these by an _iron-hand_ or comb, which has a motion similar to that of scratching, and takes the wool off the cards longitudinally in respect to the fibres or staple, producing a continued line loosely cohering, called the _Rove_ or _Roving_. This Rove, yet very loosely twisted, is then received or drawn into a _whirling canister_, and is rolled by the centrifugal force in spiral lines within it; being yet too tender for the spindle. It is then pa.s.sed between _two pairs of rollers_; the second pair moving faster than the first elongate the thread with greater equality than can be done by the hand; and is then twisted on spoles or bobbins.

The great fertility of the Cotton-plant in these fine flexile threads, whilst those from Flax, Hemp, and Nettles, or from the bark of the Mulberry-tree, require a previous putrefection of the parenchymatous substance, and much mechanical labour, and afterwards bleaching, renders this plant of great importance to the world. And since Sir Richard Arkwright's ingenious machine has not only greatly abbreviated and simplefied the labour and art of carding and spinning the Cotton-wool, but performs both these circ.u.mstances _better_ than can be done by hand, it is probable, that the clothing of this small seed will become the princ.i.p.al clothing of mankind; though animal wool and silk may be preferable in colder climates, as they are more imperfect conductors of heat, and are thence a warmer clothing.]

95 With wiry teeth _revolving cards_ release The tanged knots, and smooth the ravell'd fleece; Next moves the _iron-band_ with fingers fine, Combs the wide card, and forms the eternal line; Slow, with soft lips, the _whirling Can_ acquires 100 The tender skeins, and wraps in rising spires; With quicken'd pace _successive rollers_ move, And these retain, and those extend the _rove_; Then fly the spoles, the rapid axles glow;-- And slowly circ.u.mvolves the labouring wheel below.

105 PAPYRA, throned upon the banks of Nile, Spread her smooth leaf, and waved her silver style.

[_Cyperus. Papyrus._ l. 105. Three males, one female. The leaf of this plant was first used for paper, whence the word _paper_; and leaf, or folium, for a fold of a book. Afterwards the bark of a species of mulberry was used; whence _liber_ signifies a book, and the bark of a tree. Before the invention of letters mankind may be said to have been perpetually in their infancy, as the arts of one age or country generally died with their inventors. Whence arose the policy, which still continues in Indostan, of obliging the son to practice the profession of his father. After the discovery of letters, the facts of Astronomy and Chemistry became recorded in written language, though the antient hieroglyphic characters for the planets and metals continue in use at this day. The antiquity of the invention of music, of astronomical observations, and the manufacture of Gold and Iron, are recorded in Scripture.]

--The storied pyramid, the laurel'd bust, The trophy'd arch had crumbled into dust; The sacred symbol, and the epic song, 110 (Unknown the character, forgot the tongue,) With each unconquer'd chief, or fainted maid, Sunk undistinguish'd in Oblivion's shade.

Sad o'er the scatter'd ruins Genius sigh'd, And infant Arts but learn'd to lisp and died.

115 Till to astonish'd realms PAPYRA taught To paint in mystic colours Sound and Thought.

With Wisdom's voice to print the page sublime, And mark in adamant the steps of Time.

--Three favour'd youths her soft attention share, 120 The fond disciples of the studious Fair,