The Botanic Garden Volume I Part 7

Wedgwood's manufacture; one of a Slave in chains, of which he distributed many hundreds, to excite the humane to attend to and to a.s.sist in the abolition of the detestable traffic in human creatures; and the other a cameo of Hope attended by Peace, and Art, and Labour; which was made of clay from Botany Bay; to which place he sent many of them to shew the inhabitants what their materials would do, and to encourage their industry. A print of this latter medallion is prefixed to Mr. Stockdale's edition of Philip's Expedition to Botany Bay.]

[_Portland's mystic urn_. l. 320. See additional notes, No. XXII.]

"_Here_ by fall'n columns and disjoin'd arcades, On mouldering stones, beneath deciduous shades, Sits HUMANKIND in hieroglyphic state, Serious, and pondering on their changeful state; 325 While with inverted torch, and swimming eyes, Sinks the fair shade of MORTAL LIFE, and dies.

_There_ the pale GHOST through Death's wide portal bends His timid feet, the dusky steep descends; With smiles a.s.suasive LOVE DIVINE invites, 330 Guides on broad wing, with torch uplifted lights; IMMORTAL LIFE, her hand extending, courts The lingering form, his tottering step supports; Leads on to Pluto's realms the dreary way, And gives him trembling to Elysian day.

335 _Beneath_ in sacred robes the PRIESTESS dress'd, The coif close-hooded, and the fluttering vest, With pointing finger guides the initiate youth, Unweaves the many-colour'd veil of Truth, Drives the profane from Mystery's bolted door, 340 And Silence guards the Eleusinian lore.--

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Portland Vase_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The first Compartment_, London Published Dec'r 1st 1791 by J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard.]

[Transcriber's note: 2nd line with date very small and nearly illegible]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The second Compartment_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Handles & Bottom of the Vase._ London Published Dec'r 1st 1791 by J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard.]

"Whether, O Friend of Art! your gems derive Fine forms from Greece, and fabled G.o.ds revive; Or bid from modern life the Portrait breathe, And bind round Honour's brow the laurel wreath; 345 Buoyant shall sail, with Fame's historic page, Each fair medallion o'er the wrecks of age; Nor Time shall mar; nor steel, nor fire, nor rust Touch the hard polish of the immortal bust.

[_Fine forms from Greece_. l. 342. In real stones, or in paste or soft coloured gla.s.s, many pieces of exquisite workmanship were produced by the antients. Ba.s.so-relievos of various sizes were made in coa.r.s.e brown earth of one colour; but of the improved kind of two or more colours, and of a true porcelain texture, none were made by the antients, nor attempted I believe by the moderns, before those of Mr. Wedgwood's manufactory.]

2. "HENCE sable COAL his ma.s.sy couch extends, 350 And stars of gold the sparkling Pyrite blends; Hence dull-eyed Naphtha pours his pitchy streams, And Jet uncolour'd drinks the solar beams, Bright Amber shines on his electric throne, And adds ethereal l.u.s.tres to his own.

355 --Led by the phosphor-light, with daring tread Immortal FRANKLIN sought the fiery bed; Where, nursed in night, inc.u.mbent Tempest shrouds The seeds of Thunder in circ.u.mfluent clouds, Besieged with iron points his airy cell, 360 And pierced the monster slumbering in the sh.e.l.l.

[_Hence sable Coal_. l. 349. See additional notes, No. XXIII. on coal.]

[_Bright Amber shines_. l. 353. Coal has probably all been sublimed more or less from the clay, with which it was at first formed in decomposing mora.s.ses; the petroleum seems to have been separated and condensed again in superior strata, and a still finer kind of oil, as naphtha, has probably had the same origin. Some of these liquid oils have again lost their more volatile parts, and become cannel-coal, asphaltum, jet, and amber, according to the purity of the original fossil oil. Dr. Priestley has shewn, that essential oils long exposed to the atmosphere absorb both the vital and phlogistic part of it; whence it is probable their becoming solid may in great measure depend, as well as by the exhalation of their more volatile parts. On distillation with volatile alcaly all these fossil oils are shewn to contain the acid of amber, which evinces the ident.i.ty of their origin. If a piece of amber be rubbed it attracts straws and hairs, whence the discovery of electricity, and whence its name, from electron the Greek word for amber.]

[_Immortal Franklin_. l. 356. See note on Canto I. l. 383.]

"So, born on sounding pinions to the WEST, When Tyrant-Power had built his eagle nest; While from his eyry shriek'd the famish'd brood, Clenched their sharp claws, and champ'd their beaks for blood, 365 Immortal FRANKLIN watch'd the callow crew, And stabb'd the struggling Vampires, ere they flew.

--The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran, Hill lighted hill, and man electrised man; Her heroes slain awhile COLUMBIA mourn'd, 370 And crown'd with laurels LIBERTY return'd.

"The Warrior, LIBERTY, with bending sails Helm'd his bold course to fair HIBERNIA'S vales;-- Firm as he steps, along the shouting lands, Lo! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands; 375 Sad Superst.i.tion wails her empire torn, Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn.

"Long had the Giant-form on GALLIA'S plains Inglorious slept, unconscious of his chains; Round his large limbs were wound a thousand strings 380 By the weak hands of Confessors and Kings; O'er his closed eyes a triple veil was bound, And steely rivets lock'd him to the ground; While stern Bastile with iron cage inthralls His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls.

385 --Touch'd by the patriot-flame, he rent amazed The flimsy bonds, and round and round him gazed; Starts up from earth, above the admiring throng Lifts his Colossal form, and towers along; High o'er his foes his hundred arms He rears, 390 Plowshares his swords, and pruning hooks his spears; Calls to the Good and Brave with voice, that rolls Like Heaven's own thunder round the echoing poles; Gives to the winds his banner broad unfurl'd, And gathers in its shade the living world!

[_While stern Bastile_. l. 383. "We descended with great difficulty into the dungeons, which were made too low for our standing upright; and were so dark, that we were obliged at noon-day to visit them by the light of a candle. We saw the hooks of those chains, by which the prisoners were fastened by their necks to the walls of their cells; many of which being below the level of the water were in a constant state of humidity; from which issued a noxious vapour, which more than once extinguished the candles. Since the destruction of the building many subterraneous cells have been discovered under a piece of ground, which seemed only a bank of solid earth before the horrid secrets of this prison-house were disclosed. Some skeletons were found in these recesses with irons still fastened to their decayed bones." Letters from France, by H.M. Williams, p. 24.]

395 VII. "GNOMES! YOU then taught volcanic airs to force Through bubbling Lavas their resistless course, O'er the broad walls of rifted Granite climb, And pierce the rent roof of inc.u.mbent Lime, Round sparry caves metallic l.u.s.tres fling, 400 And bear phlogiston on their tepid wing.

[_And pierce the rent roof_. l. 398. The granite rocks and the limestone rocks have been cracked to very great depths at the time they were raised up by subterranean fires; in these cracks are found most of the metallic ores, except iron and perhaps manganese, the former of which is generally found in horizontal strata, and the latter generally near the surface of the earth.

Philosophers possessing so convenient a test for the discovery of iron by the magnet, have long since found it in all vegetable and animal matters; and of late Mr. Scheele has discovered the existence of manganese in vegetable ashes. Scheele, 56 mem. Stock. 1774. Kirwan. Min.

353. Which accounts for the production of it near the surface of earth, and thence for its calciform appearance, or union with vital air.

Bergman has likewise shewn, that the limestones which become bluish or dark coloured when calcined, possess a mixture of manganese, and are thence preferable as a cement to other kinds of lime. 2. Bergman, 229.

Which impregnation with manganese has probably been received from the decomposition of superinc.u.mbent vegetable matters.

These cracks or perpendicular caverns in the granite or limestone pa.s.s to unknown depths; and it is up these channels that I have endeavoured to shew that the steam rises which becomes afterwards condensed and produces the warm springs of this island, and other parts of the world.

(See note on Fucus, Vol. II.) And up these cracks I suppose certain vapours arise, which either alone, or by meeting with something descending into them from above, have produced most of the metals; and several of the materials in which they are bedded. Thus the ponderous earth, Barytes, of Derbyshire, is found in these cracks, and is stratified frequently with lead-ore, and frequently surrounds it. This ponderous earth has been found by Dr. Hoepfner in a granite in Switzerland, and may have thus been sublimed from immense depths by great heat, and have obtained its carbonic or vitriolic acid from above.

Annales de Chimie. There is also reason to conclude that something from above is necessary to the formation of many of the metals: at Hawkstone in Shropshire, the seat of Sir Richard Hill, there is an elevated rock of siliceous sand which is coloured green with copper in many places high in the air; and I have in my possession a specimen of lead formed in the cavity of an iron nodule, and another of lead amid spar from a crack of a coal-stratum; all which countenance the modern production of those metals from descending materials. To which should be added, that the highest mountains of granite, which have therefore probably never been covered with marine productions on account of their early elevation, nor with vegetable or animal matters on account of their great coldness, contain no metallic ores, whilst the lower ones contain copper and tin in their cracks or veins, both in Saxony, Silesia, and Cornwall. Kirwan's Mineral. p. 374.

The trans.m.u.tation of one metal into another, though hitherto undiscovered by the alchymists, does not appear impossible; such trans.m.u.tations have been supposed to exist in nature, thus lapis calaminaris may have been produced from the destruction of lead-ore, as it is generally found on the top of the veins of lead, where it has been calcined or united with air, and because ma.s.ses of lead-ore are often found intirely inclosed in it. So silver is found mixed in almost all lead-ores, and sometimes in seperate filaments within the cavities of lead-ore, as I am informed by Mr. Mich.e.l.l, and is thence probably a partial trans.m.u.tation of the lead to silver, the rapid progress of modern chemistry having shewn the a.n.a.logy between metallic calces and acids, may lead to the power of trans.m.u.ting their bases: a discovery much to be wished.]

"HENCE glows, refulgent Tin! thy chrystal grains, And tawny Copper shoots her azure veins; Zinc lines his fretted vault with sable ore, And dull Galena tessellates the floor; 405 On vermil beds in Idria's mighty caves The living Silver rolls its ponderous waves; With gay refractions bright Platina shines, And studs with squander'd stars his dusky mines; Long threads of netted gold, and silvery darts, 410 Inlay the Lazuli, and pierce the Quartz;-- --Whence roof'd with silver beam'd PERU, of old, And hapless MEXICO was paved with gold.

"Heavens! on my sight what sanguine colours blaze!

Spain's deathless shame! the crimes of modern days!

415 When Avarice, shrouded in Religion's robe, Sail'd to the West, and slaughter'd half the globe; While Superst.i.tion, stalking by his side, Mock'd the loud groans, and lap'd the b.l.o.o.d.y tide; For sacred truths announced her frenzied dreams, 420 And turn'd to night the sun's meridian beams.-- Hear, oh, BRITANNIA! potent Queen of isles, On whom fair Art, and meek Religion smiles, Now AFRIC'S coasts thy craftier sons invade With murder, rapine, theft,--and call it Trade!

425 --The SLAVE, in chains, on supplicating knee, Spreads his wide arms, and lifts his eyes to Thee; With hunger pale, with wounds and toil oppress'd, "ARE WE NOT BRETHREN?" sorrow choaks the rest;-- --AIR! bear to heaven upon thy azure flood 430 Their innocent cries!--EARTH! cover not their blood!

VIII. "When Heaven's dread justice smites in crimes o'ergrown The blood-nursed Tyrant on his purple throne, GNOMES! YOUR bold forms unnumber'd arms outstretch, And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch.-- 435 Thus when CAMBYSES led his barbarous hosts From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts, Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood, And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood; Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states, 440 And pour'd destruction through her hundred gates; In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands, And swarming armies blacken'd all the lands, By Memphis these to ETHIOP'S sultry plains, And those to HAMMON'S sand-incircled fanes.-- 445 Slow as they pa.s.s'd, the indignant temples frown'd, Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground; Long ailes of Cypress waved their deepen'd glooms, And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs; Prophetic whispers breathed from S 450 And MEMNON'S lyre with hollow murmurs rung; Burst from each pyramid expiring groans, And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones.-- Day after day their deathful rout They steer, l.u.s.t in the van, and rapine in the rear.

[_Thus when Cambyses_. l. 435. Cambyses marched one army from Thebes, after having overturned the temples, ravaged the country, and deluged it with blood, to subdue Ethiopia; this army almost perished by famine, insomuch, that they repeatedly slew every tenth man to supply the remainder with food. He sent another army to plunder the temple of Jupiter Ammon, which perished overwhelm'd with sand.]

[_Expiring groans_. l. 451. Mr. Savery or Mr. Volney in their Travels through Egypt has given a curious description of one of the pyramids, with the operose method of closing them, and immuring the body, (as they supposed) for six thousand years. And has endeavoured from thence to shew, that, when a monarch died, several of his favourite courtiers were inclosed alive with the mummy in these great ma.s.ses of stone-work; and had food and water conveyed to them, as long as they lived, proper apertures being left for this purpose, and for the admission of air, and for the exclusion of any thing offensive.]

455 "GNOMES! as they march'd, You hid the gathered fruits, The bladed gra.s.s, sweet grains, and mealy roots; Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads, Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds; Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil, 460 Stay'd with vindictive hands the scanty rill.-- Loud o'er the camp the Fiend of Famine shrieks, Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks; O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand, And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand; 465 Perch'd on her crest the Griffin Discord clings, And Giant Murder rides between her wings; Blood from each clotted hair, and h.o.r.n.y quill, And showers of tears in blended streams distil; High-poised in air her spiry neck she bends, 470 Rolls her keen eye, her Dragon-claws extends, Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop With iron fangs the decimated troop.

"Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe, And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath; 475 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies, In red arcades the billowy plain surround, And stalking turrets dance upon the ground.

--Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend, 480 To Demon-G.o.ds their knees unhallow'd bend, Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square, And now they front, and now they fly the war, Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries, Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot eyes.

485 --GNOMES! o'er the waste YOU led your myriad powers, Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers!-- Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge; Wave over wave the driving desert swims, 490 Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs; Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush, Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush,-- Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, And one great earthy Ocean covers all!-- 495 Then ceased the storm,--NIGHT bow'd his Ethiop brow To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,-- Grim HORROR shook,--awhile the living hill Heaved with convulsive throes,--and all was still!

[_And stalking turrets_. l. 478. "At one o'clock we alighted among some acacia trees at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were here at once surprised and terrified by a sight surely one of the most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. to N.W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quant.i.ties of sand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often separated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken in the middle, as if struck with large cannon-shot. About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged along side of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S.E. leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry us out of this danger; and the full persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood.

"The same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented themselves to us this day in form and disposition like those we had seen at Waadi Halboub, only they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They came several times in a direction close upon us, that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began immediately after sun rise like a thick wood and almost darkened the sun. His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate, the Greeks shrieked out and said it was the day of judgment; Ismael p.r.o.nounced it to be h.e.l.l; and the Turcorories, that the world was on fire." Bruce's Travels, Vol. IV. p. 553,-555.

From this account it would appear, that the eddies of wind were owing to the long range of broken rocks, which bounded one side of the sandy desert, and bent the currents of air, which struck against their sides; and were thus like the eddies in a stream of water, which falls against oblique obstacles. This explanation is probably the true one, as these whirl-winds were not attended with rain or lightening like the tornadoes of the West-Indies.]

IX. "GNOMES! whose fine forms, impa.s.sive as the air, 500 Shrink with soft sympathy for human care; Who glide unseen, on printless slippers borne, Beneath the waving gra.s.s, and nodding corn; Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms, Where shadowy cowslips stretch their golden arms,-- 505 So mark'd on orreries in lucid signs, Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac shines; Borne on fine wires amid the pictured skies With ivory orbs the planets set and rise; Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd, 510 And the sun twinkling whirls his rays of gold.-- Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hosts, With spears and helmets glittering round the coasts; Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane, Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train; 515 Watch, where proud Surges break their treacherous mounds, And sweep resistless o'er the cultured grounds; Such as erewhile, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain, Roll'd her rich ruins to the insatiate main; With piles and piers the ruffian waves engage, 520 And bid indignant Ocean stay his rage.

[_So mark'd on orreries_. l. 505. The first orrery was constructed by a Mr. Rowley, a mathematician born at Lichfield; and so named from his patron the Earl of Orrery. Johnson's Dictionary.]