Alas! that partial Science should approve Thy sly Rectangle's* too licentious love! For three bright nymphs the wily wizard burns; Three bright-eyed nymphs requite his flame by turns. Strange force of magic skill! combined of yore much more numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the line that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of these animals. Dicitur altam Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the end, whether of ornament or of defence, which they could be supposed to answer. I should be inclined to believe that in this instance the mice were dead, and that so vast a collection of them must have been furnished by way of tribute, to free the country from these destructive animals. This superabundance of the murine race must have been owing to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction of the feline species. The traces of this disproportion are to be found in the early history of every country.-The ancient laws of Wales estimate a cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufficient to cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with ber fore-feet touching the ground.-See Howel Dha.In Germany, it is recorded that an army of rats, a larger animal of the mus tribe, were employed as the ministers of Divine vengence against a feudal tyrant; and the commercial legend of our own Whittington might probably be traced to an equally authentic origin. *Rectangle-A figure which has one angle, or more, of ninety degrees.' Johnson's Dictionary. It here means a rightangled triangle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our author's Prosopopcia, be supposed to be in love with three or any greater number of nymphs. + Plato's and Menecmus' lore-Proclus attributes the discovery of the Conic Sections to Plato, but obscurely. Eratosthenes seems to adjudge it to Menecmus. Neque Menecmeos necesse erit in cono secare ternarios.' (Vide Montucla). From Greece they were carried to Alexandria, where (according to our author's beautiful fiction) Rectangle either did or might learn magic. This learn'd the Seer; and learn'd, alas! too well, [cave Gins+-black and huge! who in Dom-Daniel's + Writhe your scorch'd limbs on sulphur's§ azure Or, shivering yell, amidst eternal snows, [wave, Where cloud-capp'd Caf|| protrudes his granite (Bound by his will, Judea's fabled king¶, [toes; Lord of Aladdin's lamp and mystic ring): Gins! ye remember, for your toil convey'd Whate'er of drugs the powerful charm could aid; Air, earth, and sea ye search'd, and where below Flame embryo lavas, young volcanoes** glow— Zatanai-Supposed to be the same with Satan.-Vide the New Arabian Nights, translated by Cazotte, author of Le Diable amoureux,' + Gins-the Eastern name for Genii.-Vide Tales of Ditto. Dom-Daniel-A sub-marine palace near Tunis, where Zatanai usually held his court.-Vide New Arabian Nights. Sulphur-A substance which, when cold, reflects the yellow rays, and is therefore said to be yellow. When raised to a temperature at which it attracts oxygene (a process usually called burning), it emits a blue flame. This may be beautifully exemplified, and at a moderate expense, by igniting those fasciculi of brimstone matches, frequently sold (so frequently, indeed, as to form one of the London cries) by women of an advanced age in this metropolis. They will be found to yield an azure or blue light. Caf-The Indian Caucasus-Vide Bailly's Lettres sur l'Atlantide; in which he proves that this was the native country of Gog and Magog (now resident in Guildhall), as well as.of the Peris or Fairies of the Asiatic Romances. Judea's fabled king-Mr. Higgins does not mean to deny that Solomon was really king of Judea. The epithet fabled,' applies to that empire over the Genii, which the retrospective generosity of the Arabian Fabulists has bestowed upon this monarch. **Young volcanoes-The genesis of burning mountains was never, till lately, well explained. Those with which we are best acquainted are certainly not viviparons; it is therefore probable that there exists in the centre of the earth a considerable reservoir of their eggs, which, during the obstetrical convulsions of general earthquakes produce new volcanoes. Gins! ye beheld appall'd the' enchanter's hand And first, the fair Parabola ‡ behold, *Far extended heel-The personification of Triangle, besides answering a poetical purpose, was necessary to illustrate Mr. Higgin's philosophical opinions. The ancient mathematicians conceived that a Cone was generated by the revolution of a Triangle; but this, as our author justly observes, would be impossible, without supposing in the Triangle that expansive nisus, discovered by Blumenbach, and improved by Darwin, which is peculiar to animated matter, and which alone explains the whole mystery of organization. Our enchanter sits on the ground, with his heels stretched out, his head erect, his wand (or hypothenuse) resting on the extremities of his feet and the tip of his nose (as is finely expressed in the engraving in the original work), and revolves upon his bottom with great velocity. His skin, by magical means, has acquired an indefinite power of expansion, as well as that of assimilating to itself all the azote of the air, which he decomposes by expiration from his lungs-an immense quantity, and which, in our present unimproved and uneconomical mode of breathing, is quite thrown away-by this simple process the transformation is very naturally accounted for. + Phænician Cone-It was under this shape that Venus was worshiped in Phoenicia. Mr. Higgins thinks it was the Venus Urania, or Celestial Venus; in allusion to which he supposes that the Phoenician grocers first introduced the practice of preserving sugar loaves in blue or sky-coloured paper. He also believes that the conical form of the original grenadiers' caps was typical of the loves of Mars and Venus. Parabola-The curve described by projectiles of all sorts, as bombs, shuttlecocks, &c. Though, climbing oft, she strive with bolder grace Through every posture of luxurious love, Her sportive limbs with easiest grace expand; Her charms unveil'd provoke the lover's hand :— Unveil'd, except in many a filmy ray Where light Asymptotes + o'er her bosom play, Nor touch the glowing skin, nor intercept the day. Yet why, Ellipsis ‡ at thy fate repine? More lasting bliss, securer joys are thine. Though to each fair his treacherous wish may stray, Though each, in turn, may seize a transient sway, "Tis thine with mild coercion to restrain, Twine round his struggling heart, and bind with endless chain. Thus, happy France! in thy regenerate land, Where Taste with Rapine saunters hand in hand; Where, nursed in seats of innocence and bliss, Reform greets Terror with fraternal kiss; Where mild Philosophy first taught to scan The wrongs of Providence, and rights of Man; Where Memory broods o'er Freedom's earlier scene, The lanthern bright, and brighter guillotine ; Hyperbola-Not figuratively speaking, as in rhetoric, but mathematically; and therefore blue-eyed. + Asymptotes Lines which, though they may approach still nearer together, till they are nearer than the least assignable distance, yet, being still produced infinitely, will never meet.' Johnson's Dictionary. Ellipsis-A curve, the revolution of which on its axis produces an ellipsoid, or solid resembling the eggs of birds, particularly those of the gallinaceous tribe. Ellipsis is the only curve that embraces the cone. VOL. V. BB Three gentle swains evolve their longing arms, And woo the young Republic's virgin charms : And though proud Barras with the fair succeed, Though not in vain the' Attorney Rewbell plead, Oft doth the' impartial nymph their love forego, To clasp thy crooked shoulders, bless'd Lepeaux ! So with dark dirge athwart the blasted heath, Three Sister Witches hail'd the' appall'd Macbeth. So the three Fates beneath grim Pluto's roof, Strain the dun warp, and weave the murky woof; Till deadly Atropos with fatal shears Slits the thin promise of the' expected years, While midst the dungeon's gloom or battle's din, Ambition's victims perish as they spin. Thus the three Graces on the Idalian green Bow with deft homage to Cythera's queen; Her polish'd arms with pearly bracelets deck, Part her light locks, and bare her ivory neck; Round her fair form ethereal odours throw, And teach the' unconscious zephyrs where to blow; Floats the thin gauze, and, glittering as they play, The bright folds flutter in phlogistic day. So with his Daughters three, the' unsceptred Lear [tear; Heaved the loud sigh, and pour'd the glistering His Daughters three, save one alone, conspire. (Rich in his gifts) to spurn their generous sire; Bid the rude storm his hoary tresses drench, Stint the spare meal, the hundred knights retrench; Mock his mad sorrow, and with alter'd mien Renounce the daughter and assert the queen. A father's griefs his feeble frame convulse, Rack his white head, and fire his feverous pulse; Till kind Cordelia soothes his soul to rest, And folds the parent-monarch to her breast. |