Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

PRODUCTION OF LIFE.

CANTO I.

ARGUMENT.

I. SUBJECT proposed. Life, Love, and Sympathy, 1. Four past Ages, a fifth beginning, 9. Invocation
to Love, 15. II. Bowers of Eden, Adam and Eve, 33. Temple of Nature, 65. Time chained by
Sculpture, 75. Proteus bound by Menclaus, 83. Bowers of Pleasure, 89. School of Venus, 97.
Court of Pain, 105. Den of Oblivion, 113. Muse of Melancholy, 121. Cave of Trophonius, 125.
Shrine of Nature, 129. Eleusinian Mysteries, 137. III. Morning, 155. Procession of Virgins, 159.
Address to the Priestess, 167. Descent of Orpheus into Hell, 185. IV. Urania, 205. God the
First Cause, 223. Life began beneath the Sea, 233. Repulsion, Attraction, Contraction, Life, 235.
Spontaneous Production of Minute Animals, 247. Irritation, Appetency, 251. Life enlarges the
Earth, 265. Sensation, Volition, Association, 269. Scene in the Microscope; Mucor, Monas, Vi-
brio, Vorticella, Proteus, Mite, 281. V. Vegetables and Animals improve by Reproduction, 295.
Have all arisen from Microscopic Animalcules, 303. Rocks of Shell and Coral, 315.
Continents raised from Earthquakes, 321. Emigration of Animals from the Sea, 327.
Tadpole, Musquito, 343. Diodon, Lizard, Beaver, Lamprey, Remora, Whale, 35.
from the Sea, emblem of Organic Nature, 371. All animals are first Aquatic, 385.
Womb, 389. Animals from the Mud of the Nile, 401. The Hierophant and Muse, 421-450.

[blocks in formation]

Whether immersed in day, the Sun your throne,
You gird the planets in your silver zone;
Or warm, descending on ethereal wing,

Islands and Trapa, 335. Venus rising Fetus in the

[blocks in formation]

Cradle of the world, 1. 36. The nations, which possess Europe and a part of Asia and of Africa, appear to have descended from one family; and to have had their origin near the banks of the Mediterranean, as probably in Syria, the site of Paradise, according to the Mosaic history. This seems highly probable from the similarity of the structure of the languages of these nations, and from their early possession of similar religions, customs, and arts, as well as from the most ancient histories extant. The two former of these

The Earth's cold bosom with the beams of may be collected from Lord Monboddo's learned

spring;

work on the Origin of Language, and from Mr.

B

Four sparkling currents laved with wandering tides

40

Their velvet avenues, and flowery sides;
On sun-bright lawns unclad the Graces stray'd,
And guiltless Cupids haunted every glade;
Fill the fair Bride, forbidden shades among,
Heard unalarm'd the Tempter's serpent tongue;
Eyed the sweet fruit, the mandate disobey'd,
And her fond Lord with sweeter smiles betray'd.
Conscious awhile with throbbing heart he strove,
Spread his wide arms, and barter'd life for
love!-

Now rocks on rocks, in savage grandeur roll'd,
Steep above steep, the blasted plains infold;
The incumbent crags eternal tempest shrouds,
And livid lightnings cleave the lambent
clouds;
50
Round the firm base loud-howling whirlwinds
blow,

And sands in burning eddies dance below.

Hence ye profane !-the warring winds exclude [rude; Unhallow'd throngs, that press with footstep But court the Muse's train with milder skies, And call with softer voice the good and wise.. -Charm'd at her touch the opening wall divides, And rocks of crystal form the polish'd sides; Through the bright arch the Loves and Graces tread,

From earth to heaven, unwrought by mortal toil,
Towers the vast fabric on the desert soil;
O'er many a league the ponderous domes extend,
And deep in earth the ribbed vaults descend ; 70
A thousand jasper steps with circling sweep
Lead the slow votary up the winding steep;
Ten thousand piers, now join'd and now aloof,
Bear on their branching arms the fretted roof.

Unnumber d aisles connect unnumber d halls, And sacred symbols crowd the pictured walls; With pencil rude forgotten days design, And arts, or empires, live in every line. While chain'd reluctant on the marble ground, Indignant Time reclines, by Sculpture bound; And sternly bending o'er a scroll unroll'd, 81 Inscribes the future with his style of gold. So erst, when Proteus on the briny shore, New forms assumed of eagle, pard, or boar; The wise Atrides bound in sea-weed thongs The changeful god amid his scaly throngs; Till in deep tones his opening lips at last Reluctant told the future and the past.

Here o'er piazza'd courts, and long arcades, The bowers of Pleasure root their waving shades; 90

Shed o'er the pansied moss a checker'd gloom, Bend with new fruits, with flow'rs successive bloom.

Innocuous thunders murmuring o'er their Pleased, their light limbs on beds of roses press'd,

head;

Pair after pair, and tittering, as they pass, View their fair features in the walls of glass; Leave with impatient step the circling bourn, And hear behind the closing rocks return.

Here, high in air, unconscious of the storm, Thy temple, Nature, rears its mystic form;

60

Bryant's curious account of Ancient Mythology.

The use of iron tools, of the bow and arrow, of earthen vessels to boil water in, of wheels for carriages, and the arts of cultivating wheat, of coagulating milk for cheese, and of spinning vegetable fibres for clothing, have been known in all European countries, as long as their histories have existed; besides the similarity of the texture of their languages, and of many words in them; thus the word sack is said to mean a bag in all of them, as cazzov in Greek, saccus in Latin, sacco in Italian, sac in French, and sack in English and German.

Other families of mankind, nevertheless, appear to have arisen in other parts of the habitable earth, as the language of the Chinese is said not to resemble those of this part of the world in any respect. And the inhabitants of the islands of the South-Sea had neither the use of iron tools, nor of the bow, nor of wheels, nor of spinning, nor had learned to coagulate milk, or to boil water, though the domestication of fire seems to have been the first great discovery that distinguished mankind from the bestial inhabitants of the forest.

In slight undress recumbent beauties rest; On tiptoe steps surrounding Graces move, And gay Desires expand their wings above.

Here young Dione arms her quiver'd loves, Schools her bright nymphs, and practices her doves;

Pictured walls, 1. 76. The application of mankind, in the early ages of society, to the imitative arts of painting, carving, statuary, and the casting of figures in metals, seems to have preceded the discovery of letters; and to have been used as a written language to convey intelligence to their distant friends, or to transmit to posterity the history of themselves, or of their discoveries. Hence the origin of the hieroglyphic figures which crowded the walls of the temples of antiquity; many of which may be seen in the tablet of Isis in the works of Montfaucon; and some of them are still used in the sciences of chemistry and astronomy, as the characters for the metals and planets, and the figures of animals on the celestial globe.

It seems pro

So erst, when Proteus, 1. 83. bable that Proteus was the name of a hieroglyphic figure representing Time; whose form was perpetually changing, and who could discover the past events of the world, and predict the future. Herodotus does not doubt but that Proteus was an Egyptian king or deity; and Orpheus calls him the principle of all things, and the most ancient of the gods; and adds, that he keeps the keys of Nature, Danet's Dict. all which might well accord with a figure representing Time.

[blocks in formation]

Behind in twilight gloom with scowling mien The demon Pain, convokes his court unseen; Whips, fetters, flames, pourtray'd on sculptur'd

stone,

In dread festoons, adorn his ebon throne;
Each side a cohort of diseases stands,
And shudd'ring Fever leads the ghastly
bands;
110
O'er all Despair expands his raven wings,
And guilt-stain'd Conscience darts a thousand
stings.

Tower upon tower her beamy forehead crests,
And births unnumber'd milk her hundred
breasts;

Drawn round her brows a lucid veil depends,
O'er her fine waist the purfled woof descends;
Her stately limbs the gather'd folds surround,
And spread their golden selvage on the ground

From this first altar famed Eleusis stole
Her secret symbols and her mystic scroll;
With pious fraud in after ages rear'd
Her gorgeous temple, and the gods revered. 140
-First in dim pomp before the astonish'd
throng,

Silence, and Night, and Chaos, stalk'd along ;
Dread scenes of Death, in nodding sables dress'd,
Froze the broad eye, and thrill'd the unbreath-
ing breast.
[leads
Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr,
The queen of Beauty to the blossom'd meads;
Charm'd in her train admiring Hymen moves,

Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral And tiptoe Graces hand in hand with Loves.

[blocks in formation]

Trophonius scoop'd, 1. 126. Plutarch mentions, that prophecies of evil events were uttered from the cave of Trophonius; but the allegorical story, that whoever entered this cavern were never again seen to smile, seems to have been designed to warn the contemplative from considering too much the dark side of nature. Thus an ancient poet is said to have written a poem on the miseries of the world, and to have thence become so unhappy as to destroy himself. When we reflect on the perpetual destruction of organic life, we should also recollect, that it is perpetually renewed in other forms by the same materials, and thus the sum total of the happiness of the world continues undiminished; and that a philosopher may thus smile again on turning his eyes from the coffins of nature to her cradles.

[blocks in formation]

Famed Eleusis stole, l. 137. The Eleusinian mysteries were invented in Egypt, and afterwards transferred into Greece along with most of the other early arts and religions of Europe. They seem to have consisted of scenical representations of the philosophy and religion of those times, which had previously been painted in hieroglyphic figures to perpetuate them before the discovery of letters; and are well explained in Dr. Warburton's divine legation of Moses; who believes with great probability, that Virgil in the sixth book of the Eneid has described a part of these mysteries in his account of the Elysian

fields.

In the first part of this scenery was represented Death, and the destruction of all things; as mentioned in the note on the Portland Vase in the Botanic Garden. Next the marriage of Cupid and Psyche seems to have shown the reproduction of living nature; and afterwards the procession of torches, which is said to have constituted a part of the mysteries, probably signified the return of light, and the resuscitation of all things.

Lastly, the histories of illustrious persons of the early ages seem to have been enacted; who were first represented by hieroglyphic figures, and afterwards became the gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Might not such a dignified pantomime e contrived, even in this age, as might strike the spectators with awe. and at the same time explain many philosophical truths by adapted imagery, and both thus amuse and instruct?

[blocks in formation]

Hell's triple dog his playful jaws expands,
Fawns round the god, and licks his baby hands;
In wondering groups the shadowy nations
throng,

"Priestess of Nature! while with pious awe Thy votary bends, the mystic veil withdraw; Charm after charm, succession bright, display, And give the goddess to adoring day! 170 So kneeling realms shall own the power divine, And heaven and earth pour incense on her shrine.

"Oh grant the Muse with pausing step to press
Each sun-bright avenue, and green recess;
Led by thy hand survey the trophied walls,
The statued galleries, and the pictured halls;
Scan the proud pyramid, and arch sublime,
Earth-canker'd urn, medallion green with time,
Stern busts of gods, with helmed heroes mix'd,
And beauty's radiant forms, that smile betwixt.

And sigh or simper, as he steps along;
Sad swains, and nymphs forlorn, on Lethe's
brink,

Hug their past sorrows, and refuse to drink ;
Night's dazzled empress feels the golden flame
Play round her breast, and melt her frozen
frame;

Charms with soft words, and sooths with amor-
ous wiles,
199

Her iron-hearted lord,-and Pluto smiles.
His trembling bride the kard triumphant led
From the pale mansions of the astonish'd dead;
Gave the fair phantom to admiring light,
Ah, soon again to tread irremeable night!"

[blocks in formation]

"Waked by thy voice, transmuted by thy Down her fine form, and undulate behind; The purple border, on the pavement roll'd, Swells in the gale, and spreads its fringe of gold.

181

wand,
Their lips shall open, and their arms expand;
The love-lost lady, and the warrior slain,
Leap from their tombs, and sigh or fight again.
-So when ill-fated Orpheus tuned to wo
His potent lyre, and sought the realms below;
Charm'd into life unreal forms respired,
And list'ning shades the dulcet notes admired.-

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

God the first cause !-in this terrene abode

The statued galleries, 1. 176. The art of paint- Young Nature lisps, she is the child of God. ing has appeared in the early state of all societies before the invention of the alphabet. Thus when the Spanish adventurers, under Cortez, invaded America, intelligence of their debarkation and movements was daily transmitted to Montezuma, by drawings which corresponded with the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The antiquity of statuary appears from the Memnon and sphinxes of Egypt; that of casting figures in metals from the golden calf of Aaron; and that of carving in wood from the idols or household gods, which Rachel stole from her father Laban, and hid beneath her garments as she sat upon the straw. Gen. c. xxxi. v. 34.

Fawns round the god, 1. 192. This idea is copied from a painting of the descent of Orpheus, by a celebrated Parisian artist.

Love lea the sage, 1. 189. This description is taken from the figures on the Barbarini, or Portland Vase, where Eros, or Divine Love, with his torch precedes the manes through the gates of Death, and reverting his smiling countenance invites him into the Elysian fields.

God the first cause, 1. 223.—

A Jove principium, musa! Jovis omnia plen

VIRGIL.

In him we live, and move, and have our being.
ST. PAUL.

Young Nature lisps, 1. 224. The perpetual production and increase of the strata of limestone from the shells of aquatic animals; and of all those incumbent on them from the recrements of vegetables and of terrestrial animals, are now well understood from our improved knowledge of geology; and show, that the solid parts of the globe are gradually enlarg

From embryon births her changeful forms im- | Approaching parts with quick embrace combines,
prove,
Swells into spheres, and lengthens into lines.
Grow, as they live, and strengthen as they move. Last, as fine goads the gluten-threads excite.

"Ere Time began, from flaming Chaos hurl'd Rose the bright spheres, which form the circling world; [burst, Earths from each sun with quick explosions And second planets issued from the first. 230 Then, whilst the sea at their coeval birth, Surge over surgé, involved the shoreless earth; Nursed by warm sun-beams in primeval caves Organic Life began beneath the waves.

"First Heat from chemic dissolution springs,
And gives to matter its eccentric wings;
With strong Repulsion parts the exploding mass,
Melts into lymph, or kindles into gas.
Attraction next, as earth or air subsides,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The ponderous atoms from the light divides, 240 nothing can act where it does not exist, the

ing, and consequently that it is young; as the fluid parts are not yet all converted into solid ones. Add to this, that some parts of the earth and its inhabitants appear younger than others; thus the greater height of the mountains of America seems to show that continent to be less ancient than Europe, Asia, and Africa; as their summits have been less washed away, and the wild animals of America, as the tigers and crocodiles, are said to be less perfect in respect to their size and strength; which would show them to be still in a state of infancy, or of progressive improvement. Lastly, the progress of mankind in arts and sciences, which continues slowly to extend, and to increase, seems to evince the youth of human society; whilst the unchanging state of the societies of some insects, as of the bee, wasp, and ant, which is usually ascribed to instinct, seems to evince the longer existence, and greater maturity of those societies. The juvenility of the earth shows, that it has had a beginning or birth, and is a strong natural argument evincing the existence of a cause of its production, that is of the Deity.

Earths from each sun, 1. 229. Garden, Part. I. Cant I. 1. 107.

See Botan.

power of gravity must be conceived as extending from the sun to the planets, occupying that immense space; and may therefore be considered as an ethereal fluid, though not cognizable by our senses like heat, light, and electricity.

Particular attraction, or chemical affinity, must likewise occupy the spaces between the particles of matter which they cause to approach each other. The power of gravity may therefore be called the general attractive ether, and the matter of heat may be called the general repulsive ether; which constitute the two great agents in the changes of inanimate matter.

And quick Contraction, 1. 245. The power of contraction, which exists in organized bodies, and distinguishes life from inanimation, appears to consist of an ethereal fluid which resides in the brain and nerves of living bodies, and is expended in the act of shortening their fibres. The attractive and repulsive ethers require only the vicinity of bodies for the exertion of their activity, but the contractive ether requires at first the contact of a goad or stimulus, which appears to draw it off from the contracting fibre, and to excite the sensorial power of irritation. These contractions of animal fibres are afterwards excited or repeated by the sensorial powers of sensation, volition, or association, as explained at large in Zoonomia, Part. I.

First heat from chemic, 1. 235. The matter of heat is an ethereal fluid, in which all things are There seems nothing more wonderful in the immersed, and which constitutes the general ether of contraction producing the shortening of power of repulsion; as appears in explosions a fibre, than in the ether of attraction causing which are produced by the sudden evolution of two bodies to approach each other. The former combined heat, and by the expansion of all indeed seems in some measure to resemble the bodies by the slower diffusion of it in its uncom- latter, as it probably occasions the minute parbined state. Without heat all the matter of the ticles of the fibre to approach into absolute or world would be condensed into a point by the adhesive contact, by withdrawing from them power of attraction; and neither fluidity nor their repulsive atmospheres; whereas the latter life could exist. There are also particular seems only to cause particles of matter to appowers of repulsion, as those of magnetism and proach into what is popularly called contact, electricity, and of chemistry, such as oil and like the particles of fluids; but which are only water; which last may be as numerous as the in the vicinity of each other, and still retain particular attractions which constitute chemical their repulsive atmospheres, as may be seen in affinities; and may both of them exist as atmos-riding through shallow water by the number of pheres round the individual particles of matter; see Botanic Garden, Part. I. additional note VII. on elementary heat.

Attraction next, 1. 239. The power of attraction may be divided into general attraction, which is called gravity; and into particular attraction, which is termed chemical affinity. As

minute globules of it thrown up by the horse's feet, which roll far on its surface; and by the difficulty with which small globules of mercury poured on the surface of a quantity of it can be made to unite with it.

Spontaneous birth, 1. 247. See additional Note. No. I.

« ПредишнаНапред »