[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, allother inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spellinghas been maintained. 

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THE TEMPLE OF NATURE;

OR, THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

T. Bensley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London. 

THE TEMPLE OF NATURE;

OR, THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY:

A POEM, WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES. 

BY

ERASMUS DARWIN, M. D. F. R. S. 

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN, OF ZOONOMIA, AND OF PHYTOLOGIA. 

 Unde hominum pecudumque genus, vitæque volantum, Et quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus? Igneus est illis vigor, & cælestis origo. 

 VIRG. Æn. VI. 728. 

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, BY T. BENSLEY, BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET. 

1803. 

PREFACE. 

The Poem, which is here offered to the Public, does not pretend toinstruct by deep researches of reasoning; its aim is simply to amuseby bringing distinctly to the imagination the beautiful and sublimeimages of the operations of Nature in the order, as the Authorbelieves, in which the progressive course of time presented them. 

The Deities of Egypt, and afterwards of Greece, and Rome, were derivedfrom men famous in those early times, as in the ages of hunting, pasturage, and agriculture. The histories of some of their actionsrecorded in Scripture, or celebrated in the heathen mythology, areintroduced, as the Author hopes, without impropriety into his accountof those remote periods of human society. 

In the Eleusinian mysteries the philosophy of the works of Nature, with the origin and progress of society, are believed to have beentaught by allegoric scenery explained by the Hierophant to theinitiated, which gave rise to the machinery of the following Poem. 

PRIORY NEAR DERBY, Jan. 1, 1802. 

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

CANTO I. 

PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

CONTENTS. 

I. Subject proposed. Life, Love, and Sympathy 1. Four past Ages, afifth beginning 9. Invocation to Love 15. II. Bowers of Eden, Adam andEve 33. Temple of Nature 65. Time chained by Sculpture 75. Proteusbound by Menelaus 83. Bowers of Pleasure 89. School of Venus 97. Courtof Pain 105. Den of Oblivion 113. Muse of Melancholy 121. Cave ofTrophonius 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 Cause223. 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, Vibrio, Vorticella, Proteus, Mite 281. V. Vegetables and Animalsimprove by Reproduction 295. Have all arisen from MicroscopicAnimalcules 303. Rocks of Shell and Coral 315. Islands and Continentsraised by Earthquakes 321. Emigration of Animals from the Sea 327. Trapa 335. Tadpole, Musquito 343. Diodon, Lizard, Beaver, Lamprey, Remora, Whale 351. Venus rising from the Sea, emblem of Organic Nature371. All animals are first Aquatic 385. Fetus in the Womb 389. Animalsfrom the Mud of the Nile 401. The Hierophant and Muse 421-450. 

CANTO I. 

PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

 I. By firm immutable immortal laws Impress'd on Nature by the GREAT FIRST CAUSE, Say, MUSE! how rose from elemental strife Organic forms, and kindled into life; How Love and Sympathy with potent charm Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm; Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains, And bind Society in golden chains. 

 Four past eventful Ages then recite, And give the fifth, new-born of Time, to light; 10 The silken tissue of their joys disclose, Swell with deep chords the murmur of their woes; Their laws, their labours, and their loves proclaim, And chant their virtues to the trump of Fame. 

 IMMORTAL LOVE! who ere the morn of Time, On wings outstretch'd, o'er Chaos hung sublime; Warm'd into life the bursting egg of Night, And gave young Nature to admiring Light!-- YOU! whose wide arms, in soft embraces hurl'd Round the vast frame, connect the whirling world! 20 Whether immers'd in day, the Sun your throne, You gird the planets in your silver zone; Or warm, descending on ethereal wing, The Earth's cold bosom with the beams of spring; Press drop to drop, to atom atom bind, Link sex to sex, or rivet mind to mind; Attend my song!--With rosy lips rehearse, And with your polish'd arrows write my verse!-- So shall my lines soft-rolling eyes engage, And snow-white fingers turn the volant page; 30 The smiles of Beauty all my toils repay, And youths and virgins chant the living lay. 

 II. WHERE EDEN'S sacred bowers triumphant sprung, By angels guarded, and by prophets sung, Wav'd o'er the east in purple pride unfurl'd, And rock'd the golden cradle of the World; Four sparkling currents lav'd with wandering tides Their velvet avenues, and flowery sides; On sun-bright lawns unclad the Graces stray'd, And guiltless Cupids haunted every glade; 40 Till 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 light'nings cleave the lambent clouds; 50 Round the firm base loud-howling whirlwinds blow, And sands in burning eddies dance below. 

 [Footnote: _Cradle of the world_, l. 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 may be collected from Lord Monboddo's learned work on the Origin of Language, and from Mr. 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 [Greek: sakkon] 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. ]

 Hence ye profane!--the warring winds exclude Unhallow'd throngs, that press with footstep rude; 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, Innocuous thunders murmuring o'er their head; 60 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 it's mystic form; From earth to heav'n, 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 ailes connect unnumber'd halls, And sacred symbols crowd the pictur'd 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; 80 And sternly bending o'er a scroll unroll'd, Inscribes the future with his style of gold. --So erst, when PROTEUS on the briny shore, New forms assum'd 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. 

 [Footnote: _Pictur'd walls_, l. 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. ]

 [Footnote: _So erst, when Proteus_, l. 83. It seems probable 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. ]

 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. Pleas'd, their light limbs on beds of roses press'd, 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 practises her doves; Calls round her laughing eyes in playful turns, The glance that lightens, and the smile that burns; 100 Her dimpling cheeks with transient blushes dies, Heaves her white bosom with seductive sighs; Or moulds with rosy lips the magic words, That bind the heart in adamantine cords. 

 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. 

 Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, OBLIVION dwells amid unlabell'd graves; The storied tomb, the laurell'd bust o'erturns, And shakes their ashes from the mould'ring urns. -- No vernal zephyr breathes, no sunbeams cheer, Nor song, nor simper, ever enters here; O'er the green floor, and round the dew-damp wall, The slimy snail, and bloated lizard crawl; 120 While on white heaps of intermingled bones The muse of MELANCHOLY sits and moans; Showers her cold tears o'er Beauty's early wreck, Spreads her pale arms, and bends her marble neck. 

 So in rude rocks, beside the Ægean wave, TROPHONIUS scoop'd his sorrow-sacred cave; Unbarr'd to pilgrim feet the brazen door, And the sad sage returning smil'd no more. 

 [Footnote: _Trophonius scoop'd_, l. 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. ]

 SHRIN'D in the midst majestic NATURE stands, Extends o'er earth and sea her hundred hands; 130 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. 

 [Footnote: _Fam'd 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 Æneid 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 be 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 thus both amuse and instruct?]

 From this first altar fam'd ELEUSIS stole Her secret symbols and her mystic scroll; With pious fraud in after ages rear'd Her gorgeous temple, and the gods rever'd. 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 unbreathing breast. Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr, leads The queen of Beauty to the blossom'd meads; Charm'd in her train admiring Hymen moves, And tiptoe Graces hand in hand with Loves. Next, while on pausing step the masked mimes Enact the triumphs of forgotten times, 150 Conceal from vulgar throngs the mystic truth, Or charm with Wisdom's lore the initiate youth; Each shifting scene, some patriot hero trod, Some sainted beauty, or some saviour god. 

 III. Now rose in purple pomp the breezy dawn, And crimson dew-drops trembled on the lawn; Blaz'd high in air the temple's golden vanes, And dancing shadows veer'd upon the plains. -- Long trains of virgins from the sacred grove, Pair after pair, in bright procession move, 160 With flower-fill'd baskets round the altar throng, Or swing their censers, as they wind along. The fair URANIA leads the blushing bands, Presents their offerings with unsullied hands; Pleas'd to their dazzled eyes in part unshrouds The goddess-form;--the rest is hid in clouds. 

 "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 pictur'd 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. 180

 [Footnote: _The statued galleries_, l. 176. The art of painting 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. ]

 "Waked by thy voice, transmuted by thy 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 woe His potent lyre, and sought the realms below; Charm'd into life unreal forms respir'd, And list'ning shades the dulcet notes admir'd. --

 "LOVE led the Sage through Death's tremendous porch, Cheer'd with his smile, and lighted with his torch;-- 190 Hell's triple Dog his playful jaws expands, Fawns round the GOD, and licks his baby hands; In wondering groups the shadowy nations throng, 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 amorous wiles, Her iron-hearted Lord, --and PLUTO smiles. -- 200 His trembling Bride the Bard 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!"

 [Footnote: _Love led the Sage_, l. 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. ]

 [Footnote: _Fawns round the God_, l. 192. This idea is copied from a painting of the descent of Orpheus, by a celebrated Parisian artist. ]

 IV. HER snow-white arm, indulgent to my song, Waves the fair Hierophant, and moves along. -- High plumes, that bending shade her amber hair, Nod, as she steps, their silver leaves in air; Bright chains of pearl, with golden buckles brac'd, Clasp her white neck, and zone her slender waist; 210 Thin folds of silk in soft meanders wind 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. 

 "FIRST, if you can, celestial Guide! disclose From what fair fountain mortal life arose, Whence the fine nerve to move and feel assign'd, Contractile fibre, and ethereal mind:

 "How Love and Sympathy the bosom warm, Allure with pleasure, and with pain alarm, 220 With soft affections weave the social plan, And charm the listening Savage into Man. "

 "GOD THE FIRST CAUSE!--in this terrene abode Young Nature lisps, she is the child of GOD. From embryon births her changeful forms improve, Grow, as they live, and strengthen as they move. 

 [Footnote: _God the first cause_, l. 223. 

 A Jove principium, musæ! Jovis omnia plena. VIRGIL. 

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

 [Footnote: _Young Nature lisps_, l. 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 enlarging, 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. ]

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

 [Footnote: _Earths from each sun_, l. 229. See Botan. Garden, Vol. I. Cant. I. L. 107. ]

 "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, The ponderous atoms from the light divides, 240 Approaching parts with quick embrace combines, Swells into spheres, and lengthens into lines. Last, as fine goads the gluten-threads excite, Cords grapple cords, and webs with webs unite; And quick CONTRACTION with ethereal flame Lights into life the fibre-woven frame. -- Hence without parent by spontaneous birth Rise the first specks of animated earth; From Nature's womb the plant or insect swims, And buds or breathes, with microscopic limbs. 250

 [Footnote: _First Heat from chemic_, l. 235. The matter of heat is an ethereal fluid, in which all things are immersed, and which constitutes the general power of repulsion; as appears in explosions which are produced by the sudden evolution of combined heat, and by the expansion of all bodies by the slower diffusion of it in its uncombined state. Without heat all the matter of the world would be condensed into a point by the power of attraction; and neither fluidity nor life could exist. There are also particular powers of repulsion, as those of magnetism and electricity, and of chemistry, such as oil and water; which last may be as numerous as the particular attractions which constitute chemical affinities; and may both of them exist as atmospheres round the individual particles of matter; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional note VII. On elementary heat. ]

 [Footnote: _Attraction next_, l. 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 nothing can act where it does not exist, the 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. ]

 [Footnote: _And quick Contraction_, l. 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, Vol. I. 

 There seems nothing more wonderful in the ether of contraction producing the shortening of a fibre, than in the ether of attraction causing two bodies to approach each other. The former indeed seems in some measure to resemble the latter, as it probably occasions the minute particles of the fibre to approach into absolute or adhesive contact, by withdrawing from them their repulsive atmospheres; whereas the latter seems only to cause particles of matter to approach into what is popularly called contact, like the particles of fluids; but which are only in the vicinity of each other, and still retain their repulsive atmospheres, as may be seen in riding through shallow water by the number of minute globules of it thrown up by the horses 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. ]

 [Footnote: _Spontaneous birth_, l. 247. See additional Note, No. I. ]

 "IN earth, sea, air, around, below, above, Life's subtle woof in Nature's loom is wove; Points glued to points a living line extends, Touch'd by some goad approach the bending ends; Rings join to rings, and irritated tubes Clasp with young lips the nutrient globes or cubes; And urged by appetencies new select, Imbibe, retain, digest, secrete, eject. In branching cones the living web expands, Lymphatic ducts, and convoluted glands; 260 Aortal tubes propel the nascent blood, And lengthening veins absorb the refluent flood; Leaves, lungs, and gills, the vital ether breathe On earth's green surface, or the waves beneath. So Life's first powers arrest the winds and floods, To bones convert them, or to shells, or woods; Stretch the vast beds of argil, lime, and sand, And from diminish'd oceans form the land!

 [Footnote: _In branching cones_, l. 259. The whole branch of an artery or vein may be considered as a cone, though each distinct division of it is a cylinder. It is probable that the amount of the areas of all the small branches from one trunk may equal that of the trunk, otherwise the velocity of the blood would be greater in some parts than in others, which probably only exists when a part is compressed or inflamed. ]

 [Footnote: _Absorb the refluent flood_, l. 262. The force of the arterial impulse appears to cease, after having propelled the blood through the capillary vessels; whence the venous circulation is owing to the extremities of the veins absorbing the blood, as those of the lymphatics absorb the fluids. The great force of absorption is well elucidated by Dr. Hales's experiment on the rise of the sap-juice in a vine-stump; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXIII. ]

 [Footnote: _And from diminish'd oceans_, l. 268. The increase of the solid parts of the globe by the recrements of organic bodies, as limestone rocks from shells and bones, and the beds of clay, marl, coals, from decomposed woods, is now well known to those who have attended to modern geology; and Dr. Halley, and others, have endeavoured to show, with great probability, that the ocean has decreased in quantity during the short time which human history has existed. Whence it appears, that the exertions of vegetable and animal life convert the fluid parts of the globe into solid ones; which is probably effected by combining the matter of heat with the other elements, instead of suffering it to remain simply diffused amongst them, which is a curious conjecture, and deserves further investigation. ]

 "Next the long nerves unite their silver train, And young SENSATION permeates the brain; 270 Through each new sense the keen emotions dart, Flush the young cheek, and swell the throbbing heart. From pain and pleasure quick VOLITIONS rise, Lift the strong arm, or point the inquiring eyes; With Reason's light bewilder'd Man direct, And right and wrong with balance nice detect. Last in thick swarms ASSOCIATIONS spring, Thoughts join to thoughts, to motions motions cling; Whence in long trains of catenation flow Imagined joy, and voluntary woe. 280

 [Footnote: _And young Sensation_, l. 270. Both sensation and volition consist in an affection of the central part of the sensorium, or of the whole of it; and hence cannot exist till the nerves are united in the brain. The motions of a limb of any animal cut from the body, are therefore owing to irritation, not to sensation or to volition. For the definitions of irritation, sensation, volition, and association, see additional Note II. ]

 "So, view'd through crystal spheres in drops saline, Quick-shooting salts in chemic forms combine; Or Mucor-stems, a vegetative tribe, Spread their fine roots, the tremulous wave imbibe. Next to our wondering eyes the focus brings Self-moving lines, and animated rings; First Monas moves, an unconnected point, Plays round the drop without a limb or joint; Then Vibrio waves, with capillary eels, And Vorticella whirls her living wheels; 290 While insect Proteus sports with changeful form Through the bright tide, a globe, a cube, a worm. Last o'er the field the Mite enormous swims, Swells his red heart, and writhes his giant limbs. 

 [Footnote: _Or Mucor-stems_, l. 283. Mucor or mould in its early state is properly a microscopic vegetable, and is spontaneously produced on the scum of all decomposing organic matter. The Monas is a moving speck, the Vibrio an undulating wire, the Proteus perpetually changes its shape, and the Vorticella has wheels about its mouth, with which it makes an eddy, and is supposed thus to draw into its throat invisible animalcules. These names are from Linneus and Muller; see Appendix to Additional Note I. ]

 V. "ORGANIC LIFE beneath the shoreless waves Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves; First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; 300 Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing. 

 [Footnote: _Beneath the shoreless waves_, l. 295. The earth was originally covered with water, as appears from some of its highest mountains, consisting of shells cemented together by a solution of part of them, as the limestone rocks of the Alps; Ferber's Travels. It must be therefore concluded, that animal life began beneath the sea. 

 Nor is this unanalogous to what still occurs, as all quadrupeds and mankind in their embryon state are aquatic animals; and thus may be said to resemble gnats and frogs. The fetus in the uterus has an organ called the placenta, the fine extremities of the vessels of which permeate the arteries of the uterus, and the blood of the fetus becomes thus oxygenated from the passing stream of the maternal arterial blood; exactly as is done by the gills of fish from the stream of water, which they occasion to pass through them. 

 But the chicken in the egg possesses a kind of aerial respiration, since the extremities of its placental vessels terminate on a membranous bag, which contains air, at the broad end of the egg; and in this the chick in the egg differs from the fetus in the womb, as there is in the egg no circulating maternal blood for the insertion of the extremities of its respiratory vessels, and in this also I suspect that the eggs of birds differ from the spawn of fish; which latter is immersed in water, and which has probably the extremities of its respiratory organ inserted into the soft membrane which covers it, and is in contact with the water. ]

 [Footnote: _First forms minute_, l. 297. See Additional Note I. On Spontaneous Vitality. ]

 "Thus the tall Oak, the giant of the wood, Which bears Britannia's thunders on the flood; The Whale, unmeasured monster of the main, The lordly Lion, monarch of the plain, The Eagle soaring in the realms of air, Whose eye undazzled drinks the solar glare, Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd, Of language, reason, and reflection proud, 310 With brow erect who scorns this earthy sod, And styles himself the image of his God; Arose from rudiments of form and sense, An embryon point, or microscopic ens!

 "Now in vast shoals beneath the brineless tide, On earth's firm crust testaceous tribes reside; Age after age expands the peopled plain, The tenants perish, but their cells remain; Whence coral walls and sparry hills ascend From pole to pole, and round the line extend. 320

 [Footnote: _An embryon point_, l. 314. The arguments showing that all vegetables and animals arose from such a small beginning, as a living point or living fibre, are detailed in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4. 8. On Generation. ]

 [Footnote: _Brineless tide_, l. 315. As the salt of the sea has been gradually accumulating, being washed down into it from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, the sea must originally have been as fresh as river water; and as it is not saturated with salt, must become annually saline. The sea-water about our island contains at this time from about one twenty-eighth to one thirtieth part of sea salt, and about one eightieth of magnesian salt; Brownrigg on Salt. ]

 [Footnote: _Whence coral walls_, l. 319. An account of the structure of the earth is given in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Notes, XVI. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXIII. XXIV. ]

 "Next when imprison'd fires in central caves Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves; And, as new airs with dread explosion swell, Form'd lava-isles, and continents of shell; Pil'd rocks on rocks, on mountains mountains raised, And high in heaven the first volcanoes blazed; In countless swarms an insect-myriad moves From sea-fan gardens, and from coral groves; Leaves the cold caverns of the deep, and creeps On shelving shores, or climbs on rocky steeps. 330 As in dry air the sea-born stranger roves, Each muscle quickens, and each sense improves; Cold gills aquatic form respiring lungs, And sounds aerial flow from slimy tongues. 

 [Footnote: _Drunk the headlong waves_, l. 322. See Additional Note III. ]

 [Footnote: _An insect-myriad moves_, l. 327. After islands or continents were raised above the primeval ocean, great numbers of the most simple animals would attempt to seek food at the edges or shores of the new land, and might thence gradually become amphibious; as is now seen in the frog, who changes from an aquatic animal to an amphibious one; and in the gnat, which changes from a natant to a volant state. 

 At the same time new microscopic animalcules would immediately commence wherever there was warmth and moisture, and some organic matter, that might induce putridity. Those situated on dry land, and immersed in dry air, may gradually acquire new powers to preserve their existence; and by innumerable successive reproductions for some thousands, or perhaps millions of ages, may at length have produced many of the vegetable and animal inhabitants which now people the earth. 

 As innumerable shell-fish must have existed a long time beneath the ocean, before the calcareous mountains were produced and elevated; it is also probable, that many of the insect tribes, or less complicate animals, existed long before the quadrupeds or more complicate ones, which in some measure accords with the theory of Linneus in respect to the vegetable world; who thinks, that all the plants now extant arose from the conjunction and reproduction of about sixty different vegetables, from which he constitutes his natural orders. 

 As the blood of animals in the air becomes more oxygenated in their lungs, than that of animals in water by their gills; it becomes of a more scarlet colour, and from its greater stimulus the sensorium seems to produce quicker motions and finer sensations; and as water is a much better vehicle for vibrations or sounds than air, the fish, even when dying in pain, are mute in the atmosphere, though it is probable that in the water they may utter sounds to be heard at a considerable distance. See on this subject, Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. L. 176, Note. ]

 "So Trapa rooted in pellucid tides, In countless threads her breathing leaves divides, Waves her bright tresses in the watery mass, And drinks with gelid gills the vital gas; Then broader leaves in shadowy files advance, Spread o'er the crystal flood their green expanse; 340 And, as in air the adherent dew exhales, Court the warm sun, and breathe ethereal gales. 

 [Footnote: _So Trapa rooted_, l. 335. The lower leaves of this plant grow under water, and are divided into minute capillary ramifications; while the upper leaves are broad and round, and have air bladders in their footstalks to support them above the surface of the water. As the aerial leaves of vegetables do the office of lungs, by exposing a large surface of vessels with their contained fluids to the influence of the air; so these aquatic leaves answer a similar purpose like the gills of fish, and perhaps gain from water a similar material. As the material thus necessary to life seems to be more easily acquired from air than from water, the subaquatic leaves of this plant and of sisymbrium, oenanthe, ranunculus aquatilis, water crow-foot, and some others, are cut into fine divisions to increase the surface, whilst those above water are undivided; see Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Canto IV. L. 204. Note. 

 Few of the water plants of this country are used for economical purposes, but the ranunculus fluviatilis may be worth cultivation; as on the borders of the river Avon, near Ringwood, the cottagers cut this plant every morning in boats, almost all the year round, to feed their cows, which appear in good condition, and give a due quantity of milk; see a paper from Dr. Pultney in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. V. ]

 "So still the Tadpole cleaves the watery vale With balanc'd fins, and undulating tail; New lungs and limbs proclaim his second birth, Breathe the dry air, and bound upon the earth. So from deep lakes the dread Musquito springs, Drinks the soft breeze, and dries his tender wings, In twinkling squadrons cuts his airy way, Dips his red trunk in blood, and man his prey. 350

 [Footnote: _So still the Tadpole_, l. 343. The transformation of the tadpole from an aquatic animal into an aerial one is abundantly curious, when first it is hatched from the spawn by the warmth of the season, it resembles a fish; it afterwards puts forth legs, and resembles a lizard; and finally losing its tail, and acquiring lungs instead of gills, becomes an aerial quadruped. 

 The rana temporaria of Linneus lives in the water in spring, and on the land in summer, and catches flies. Of the rana paradoxa the larva or tadpole is as large as the frog, and dwells in Surinam, whence the mistake of Merian and of Seba, who call it a frog fish. The esculent frog is green, with three yellow lines from the mouth to the anus; the back transversely gibbous, the hinder feet palmated; its more frequent croaking in the evenings is said to foretell rain. Linnei Syst. Nat. Art. Rana. 

 Linneus asserts in his introduction to the class Amphibia, that frogs are so nearly allied to lizards, lizards to serpents, and serpents to fish, that the boundaries of these orders can scarcely be ascertained. ]

 [Footnote: _The dread Musquito springs_, l. 347. See Additional Note IV. ]

 "So still the Diodons, amphibious tribe, With two-fold lungs the sea or air imbibe; Allied to fish, the lizard cleaves the flood With one-cell'd heart, and dark frigescent blood; Half-reasoning Beavers long-unbreathing dart Through Erie's waves with perforated heart; With gills and lungs respiring Lampreys steer, Kiss the rude rocks, and suck till they adhere; The lazy Remora's inhaling lips, Hung on the keel, retard the struggling ships; 360 With gills pulmonic breathes the enormous Whale, And spouts aquatic columns to the gale; Sports on the shining wave at noontide hours, And shifting rainbows crest the rising showers. 

 [Footnote: _So still the Diodon_, l. 351. See Additional Note V. ]

 [Footnote: _At noontide hours_, l. 363. The rainbows in our latitude are only seen in the mornings or evenings, when the sun is not much more than forty-two degrees high. In the more northern latitudes, where the meridian sun is not more than forty-two degrees high, they are also visible at noon. ]

 "So erst, ere rose the science to record In letter'd syllables the volant word; Whence chemic arts, disclosed in pictured lines, Liv'd to mankind by hieroglyphic signs; And clustering stars, pourtray'd on mimic spheres, Assumed the forms of lions, bulls, and bears; 370 --So erst, as Egypt's rude designs explain, Rose young DIONE from the shoreless main; Type of organic Nature! source of bliss! Emerging Beauty from the vast abyss! Sublime on Chaos borne, the Goddess stood, And smiled enchantment on the troubled flood; The warring elements to peace restored, And young Reflection wondered and adored. "

 [Footnote: _As Egypt's rude design_, l. 371. See Additional Note VI. ]

 [Footnote: _Rose young Dione_, l. 372. The hieroglyphic figure of Venus rising from the sea supported on a shell by two tritons, as well as that of Hercules armed with a club, appear to be remains of the most remote antiquity. As the former is devoid of grace, and of the pictorial art of design, as one half of the group exactly resembles the other; and as that of Hercules is armed with a club, which was the first weapon. 

 The Venus seems to have represented the beauty of organic Nature rising from the sea, and afterwards became simply an emblem of ideal beauty; while the figure of Adonis was probably designed to represent the more abstracted idea of life or animation. Some of these hieroglyphic designs seem to evince the profound investigations in science of the Egyptian philosophers, and to have outlived all written language; and still constitute the symbols, by which painters and poets give form and animation to abstracted ideas, as to those of strength and beauty in the above instances. ]

 Now paused the Nymph, --The Muse responsive cries, Sweet admiration sparkling in her eyes, 380 "Drawn by your pencil, by your hand unfurl'd, Bright shines the tablet of the dawning world; Amazed the Sea's prolific depths I view, And VENUS rising from the waves in YOU!

 "Still Nature's births enclosed in egg or seed From the tall forest to the lowly weed, Her beaux and beauties, butterflies and worms, Rise from aquatic to aerial forms. Thus in the womb the nascent infant laves Its natant form in the circumfluent waves; 390 With perforated heart unbreathing swims, Awakes and stretches all its recent limbs; With gills placental seeks the arterial flood, And drinks pure ether from its Mother's blood. Erewhile the landed Stranger bursts his way, From the warm wave emerging into day; Feels the chill blast, and piercing light, and tries His tender lungs, and rolls his dazzled eyes; Gives to the passing gale his curling hair, And steps a dry inhabitant of air. 400

 [Footnote: _Awakes and stretches_, l. 392. During the first six months of gestation, the embryon probably sleeps, as it seems to have no use for voluntary power; it then seems to awake, and to stretch its limbs, and change its posture in some degree, which is termed quickening. ]

 [Footnote: _With gills placental_, l. 393. The placenta adheres to any side of the uterus in natural gestation, or of any other cavity in extra-uterine gestation; the extremities of its arteries and veins probably permeate the arteries of the mother, and absorb from thence through their fine coats the oxygen of the mother's blood; hence when the placenta is withdrawn, the side of the uterus, where it adhered, bleeds; but not the extremities of its own vessels. ]

 [Footnote: _His dazzled eyes_, l. 398. Though the membrana pupillaris described by modern anatomists guards the tender retina from too much light; the young infant nevertheless seems to feel the presence of it by its frequently moving its eyes, before it can distinguish common objects. ]

 "Creative Nile, as taught in ancient song, So charm'd to life his animated throng; O'er his wide realms the slow-subsiding flood Left the rich treasures of organic mud; While with quick growth young Vegetation yields Her blushing orchards, and her waving fields; Pomona's hand replenish'd Plenty's horn, And Ceres laugh'd amid her seas of corn. -- Bird, beast, and reptile, spring from sudden birth, Raise their new forms, half-animal, half-earth; 410 The roaring lion shakes his tawny mane, His struggling limbs still rooted in the plain; With flapping wings assurgent eagles toil To rend their talons from the adhesive soil; The impatient serpent lifts his crested head, And drags his train unfinish'd from the bed. -- As Warmth and Moisture blend their magic spells, And brood with mingling wings the slimy dells; Contractile earths in sentient forms arrange, And Life triumphant stays their chemic change. " 420

 [Footnote: _As warmth and moisture_, l. 417. 

 In eodem corpore sæpe Altera pars vivit; rudis est pars altera tellus. Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsêre humorque calorque, Concipiunt; & ab his oriuntur, cuncta duobus. 

 OVID. MET. L. 1. 430. 

 This story from Ovid of the production of animals from the mud of the Nile seems to be of Egyptian origin, and is probably a poetical account of the opinions of the magi or priests of that country; showing that the simplest animations were spontaneously produced like chemical combinations, but were distinguished from the latter by their perpetual improvement by the power of reproduction, first by solitary, and then by sexual generation; whereas the products of natural chemistry are only enlarged by accretion, or purified by filtration. ]

 Then hand in hand along the waving glades The virgin Sisters pass beneath the shades; Ascend the winding steps with pausing march, And seek the Portico's susurrant arch; Whose sculptur'd architrave on columns borne Drinks the first blushes of the rising morn, Whose fretted roof an ample shield displays, And guards the Beauties from meridian rays. While on light step enamour'd Zephyr springs, And fans their glowing features with his wings, 430 Imbibes the fragrance of the vernal flowers, And speeds with kisses sweet the dancing Hours. 

 Urania, leaning with unstudied grace, Rests her white elbow on a column's base; Awhile reflecting takes her silent stand, Her fair cheek press'd upon her lily hand; Then, as awaking from ideal trance, On the smooth floor her pausing steps advance, Waves high her arm, upturns her lucid eyes, Marks the wide scenes of ocean, earth, and skies; 440 And leads, meandering as it rolls along Through Nature's walks, the shining stream of Song. 

 First her sweet voice in plaintive accents chains The Muse's ear with fascinating strains; Reverts awhile to elemental strife, The change of form, and brevity of life; Then tells how potent Love with torch sublime Relights the glimmering lamp, and conquers Time. --The polish'd walls reflect her rosy smiles, And sweet-ton'd echoes talk along the ailes. 450

END OF CANTO I. 

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

CANTO II. 

REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

CONTENTS. 

I. Brevity of Life 1. Reproduction 13. Animals improve 31. Life andDeath alternate 37. Adonis emblem of Mortal Life 45. II. Solitaryreproduction 61. Buds, Bulbs, Polypus 65. Truffle; Buds of trees howgenerated 71. Volvox, Polypus, Tænia, Oysters, Corals, are without Sex83. Storge goddess of Parental Love; First chain of Society 92. III. Female sex produced 103. Tulip bulbs, Aphis 125. Eve from Adam's rib135. IV. Hereditary diseases 159. Grafted trees, bulbous rootsdegenerate 167. Gout, Mania, Scrofula, Consumption 177. Time andNature 185. V. Urania and the Muse lament 205. Cupid and Psyche, thedeities of sexual love 221. Speech of Hymen 239. Second chain ofSociety 250. Young Desire 251. Love and Beauty save the world 257. Vegetable sexes, Anthers and Stigmas salute 263. Vegetable sexualgeneration 271. Anthers of Vallisneria float to the Stigmas 279. Ant, Lampyris, Glow-Worm, Snail 287. Silk-Worm 293. VI. Demon of Jealousy307. Cocks, Quails, Stags, Boars 313. Knights of Romance 327. Helenand Paris 333. Connubial love 341. Married Birds, nests of the Linnetand Nightingale 343. Lions, Tigers, Bulls, Horses 357. Triumphal carof Cupid 361. Fish, Birds, Insects 371. Vegetables 389. March of Hymen411. His lamp 419. VII. Urania's advice to her Nymphs 425. Dines withthe Muse on forbidden Fruit 435. Angels visit Abraham 447-458. 

CANTO II. 

REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 

 I. "How short the span of LIFE! some hours possess'd, Warm but to cool, and active but to rest!-- The age-worn fibres goaded to contract, By repetition palsied, cease to act; When Time's cold hands the languid senses seize, Chill the dull nerves, the lingering currents freeze; Organic matter, unreclaim'd by Life, Reverts to elements by chemic strife. Thus Heat evolv'd from some fermenting mass Expands the kindling atoms into gas; 10 Which sink ere long in cold concentric rings, Condensed, on Gravity's descending wings. 

 [Footnote: _How short the span of Life_, l. 1. The thinking few in all ages have complained of the brevity of life, lamenting that mankind are not allowed time sufficient to cultivate science, or to improve their intellect. Hippocrates introduces his celebrated aphorisms with this idea; "Life is short, science long, opportunities of knowledge rare, experiments fallacious, and reasoning difficult. "--A melancholy reflection to philosophers!]

 [Footnote: _The age-worn fibres_, l. 3. Why the same kinds of food, which enlarge and invigorate the body from infancy to the meridian of life, and then nourish it for some years unimpaired, should at length gradually cease to do so, and the debility of age and death supervene, would be liable to surprise us if we were not in the daily habit of observing it; and is a circumstance which has not yet been well understood. 

 Before mankind introduced civil society, old age did not exist in the world, nor other lingering diseases; as all living creatures, as soon as they became too feeble to defend themselves, were slain and eaten by others, except the young broods, who were defended by their mother; and hence the animal world existed uniformly in its greatest strength and perfection; see Additional Note VII. ]

 "But REPRODUCTION with ethereal fires New Life rekindles, ere the first expires; Calls up renascent Youth, ere tottering age Quits the dull scene, and gives him to the stage; Bids on his cheek the rose of beauty blow, And binds the wreaths of pleasure round his brow; With finer links the vital chain extends, And the long line of Being never ends. 20

 [Footnote: _But Reproduction_, l. 13. See Additional Note VIII. ]

 "Self-moving Engines by unbending springs May walk on earth, or flap their mimic wings; In tubes of glass mercurial columns rise, Or sink, obedient to the incumbent skies; Or, as they touch the figured scale, repeat The nice gradations of circumfluent heat. But REPRODUCTION, when the perfect Elf Forms from fine glands another like itself, Gives the true character of life and sense, And parts the organic from the chemic Ens. -- 30 Where milder skies protect the nascent brood, And earth's warm bosom yields salubrious food; Each new Descendant with superior powers Of sense and motion speeds the transient hours; Braves every season, tenants every clime, And Nature rises on the wings of Time. 

 [Footnote: _Unbending springs_, l. 21. See Additional Note I. 4. ]

 "As LIFE discordant elements arrests, Rejects the noxious, and the pure digests; Combines with Heat the fluctuating mass, And gives a while solidity to gas; 40 Organic forms with chemic changes strive, Live but to die, and die but to revive! Immortal matter braves the transient storm, Mounts from the wreck, unchanging but in form. --

 [Footnote: _Combines with Heat_, l. 39. It was shown in note on line 248 of the first Canto, that much of the aerial and liquid parts of the terraqueous globe was converted by the powers of life into solid matter; and that this was effected by the combination of the fluid, heat, with other elementary bodies by the appetencies and propensities of the parts of living matter to unite with each other. But when these appetencies and propensities of the parts of organic matter to unite with each other cease, the chemical affinities of attraction and the aptitude to be attracted, and of repulsion and the aptitude to be repelled, succeed, and reduce much of the solid matters back to the condition of elements; which seems to be effected by the matter of heat being again set at liberty, which was combined with other matters by the powers of life; and thus by its diffusion the solid bodies return into liquid ones or into gasses, as occurs in the processes of fermentation, putrefaction, sublimation, and calcination. Whence solidity appears to be produced in consequence of the diminution of heat, as the condensation of steam into water, and the consolidation of water into ice, or by the combination of heat with bodies, as with the materials of gunpowder before its explosion. ]

 [Footnote: _Immortal matter_, l. 43. The perpetual mutability of the forms of matter seems to have struck the philosophers of great antiquity; the system of transmigration taught by Pythagoras, in which the souls of men were supposed after death to animate the bodies of a variety of animals, appears to have arisen from this source. He had observed the perpetual changes of organic matter from one creature to another, and concluded, that the vivifying spirit must attend it. ]

 "So, as the sages of the East record In sacred symbol, or unletter'd word; Emblem of Life, to change eternal doom'd, The beauteous form of fair ADONIS bloom'd. -- On Syrian hills the graceful Hunter slain Dyed with his gushing blood the shuddering plain; 50 And, slow-descending to the Elysian shade, A while with PROSERPINE reluctant stray'd; Soon from the yawning grave the bursting clay Restor'd the Beauty to delighted day; Array'd in youth's resuscitated charms, And young DIONE woo'd him to her arms. -- Pleased for a while the assurgent youth above Relights the golden lamp of life and love; Ah, soon again to leave the cheerful light, And sink alternate to the realms of night. 60

 [Footnote: _Emblem of Life_, l. 47. The Egyptian figure of Venus rising from the sea seems to have represented the Beauty of organic Nature; which the philosophers of that country, the magi, appear to have discovered to have been elevated by earthquakes from the primeval ocean. But the hieroglyphic figure of Adonis seems to have signified the spirit of animation or life, which was perpetually wooed or courted by organic matter, and which perished and revived alternately. Afterwards the fable of Adonis seems to have given origin to the first religion promising a resurrection from the dead; whence his funeral and return to life were celebrated for many ages in Egypt and Syria, the ceremonies of which Ezekiel complains as idolatrous, accusing the women of Israel of lamenting over Thammus; which St. Cyril interprets to be Adonis, in his Commentaries on Isaiah; Danet's Diction. ]

 II. "HENCE ere Vitality, as time revolves, Leaves the cold organ, and the mass dissolves; The Reproductions of the living Ens From sires to sons, unknown to sex, commence. New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots On lengthening branches, and protruding roots; Or on the father's side from bursting glands The adhering young its nascent form expands; In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns, And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns. 70

 "So the lone Truffle, lodged beneath the earth, Shoots from paternal roots the tuberous birth; No stamen-males ascend, and breathe above, No seed-born offspring lives by female love. From each young tree, for future buds design'd Organic drops exsude beneath the rind; While these with appetencies nice invite, And those with apt propensities unite; New embryon fibrils round the trunk combine With quick embrace, and form the living line: 80 Whose plume and rootlet at their early birth Seek the dry air, or pierce the humid earth. 

 [Footnote: _So the lone Truffle_, l. 71. Lycoperdon tuber. This plant never rises above the earth, is propagated without seed by its roots only, and seems to require no light. Perhaps many other fungi are generated without seed by their roots only, and without light, and approach on the last account to animal nature. ]

 [Footnote: _While these with appetencies_, l. 77. See Additional Note VIII. ]

 "So safe in waves prolific Volvox dwells, And five descendants crowd his lucid cells; So the male Polypus parental swims, And branching infants bristle all his limbs; So the lone Tænia, as he grows, prolongs His flatten'd form with young adherent throngs; Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells, And coral-insects build their radiate shells; 90 Parturient Sires caress their infant train, And heaven-born STORGE weaves the social chain; Successive births her tender cares combine, And soft affections live along the line. 

 [Footnote: _Prolific Volvox_, l. 83. The volvox globator dwells in the lakes of Europe, is transparent, and bears within it children and grandchildren to the fifth generation; Syst. Nat. ]

 [Footnote: _The male polypus_, l. 85. The Hydra viridis and fusca of Linneus dwell in our ditches and rivers under aquatic plants; these animals have been shown by ingenious observers to revive after having been dried, to be restored when mutilated, to be multiplied by dividing them, and propagated from portions of them, parts of different ones to unite, to be turned inside outwards and yet live, and to be propagated by seeds, to produce bulbs, and vegetate by branches. Syst. Nat. ]

 [Footnote: _The lone Tænia_, l. 87. The tape-worm dwells in the intestines of animals, and grows old at one extremity, producing an infinite series of young ones at the other; the separate joints have been called Gourd-worms, each of which possesses a mouth of its own, and organs of digestion. Syst. Nat. ]

 [Footnote: _The pregnant oyster_, l. 89. Ostrea edulis dwells in the European oceans, frequent at the tables of the luxurious, a living repast! New-born oysters swim swiftly by an undulating movement of fins thrust out a little way from their shells. Syst. Nat. But they do not afterwards change their place during their whole lives, and are capable of no other movement but that of opening the shell a little way: whence Professor Beckman observes, that their offspring is probably produced without maternal organs; and that those, who speak of male and female oysters, must be mistaken: Phil. Magaz. March 1800. It is also observed by H. I. Le Beck, that on nice inspection of the Pearl oysters in the gulf of Manar, he could observe no distinction of sexes. Nicholson's Journal. April 1800. ]

 [Footnote: _And coral insects_, l. 90. The coral habitation of the Madrepora of Linneus consists of one or more star-like cells; a congeries of which form rocks beneath the sea; the animal which constructs it is termed Medusa; and as it adheres to its calcareous cavity, and thence cannot travel to its neighbours, is probably without sex. I observed great masses of the limestone in Shropshire, which is brought to Newport, to consist of the cells of these animals. ]

 [Footnote: _And heaven-born Storge_, l. 92. See Additional Note IX. ]

 "On angel-wings the GODDESS FORM descends, Round her fond broods her silver arms she bends; White streams of milk her tumid bosom swell, And on her lips ambrosial kisses dwell. Light joys on twinkling feet before her dance With playful nod, and momentary glance; 100 Behind, attendant on the pansied plain, Young PSYCHE treads with CUPID in her train. 

 III. "IN these lone births no tender mothers blend Their genial powers to nourish or defend; No nutrient streams from Beauty's orbs improve These orphan babes of solitary love; Birth after birth the line unchanging runs, And fathers live transmitted in their sons; Each passing year beholds the unvarying kinds, The same their manners, and the same their minds. 110 Till, as erelong successive buds decay, And insect-shoals successive pass away, Increasing wants the pregnant parents vex With the fond wish to form a softer sex; Whose milky rills with pure ambrosial food Might charm and cherish their expected brood. The potent wish in the productive hour Calls to its aid Imagination's power, O'er embryon throngs with mystic charm presides, And sex from sex the nascent world divides, 120 With soft affections warms the callow trains, And gives to laughing Love his nymphs and swains; Whose mingling virtues interweave at length The mother's beauty with the father's strength. 

 [Footnote: _A softer sex_, l. 114. The first buds of trees raised from seed die annually, and are succeeded by new buds by solitary reproduction; which are larger or more perfect for several successive years, and then they produce sexual flowers, which are succeeded by seminal reproduction. The same occurs in bulbous rooted plants raised from seed; they die annually, and produce others rather more perfect than the parent for several years, and then produce sexual flowers. The Aphis is in a similar manner hatched from an egg in the vernal months, and produces a viviparous offspring without sexual intercourse for nine or ten successive generations; and then the progeny is both male and female, which cohabit, and from these new females are produced eggs, which endure the winter; the same process probably occurs in many other insects. ]

 [Footnote: _Imagination's power_, l. 118. The manner in which the similarity of the progeny to the parent, and the sex of it, are produced by the power of imagination, is treated of in Zoonomia. Sect. 39. 6. 3. It is not to be understood, that the first living fibres, which are to form an animal, are produced by imagination, with any similarity of form to the future animal; but with appetencies or propensities, which shall produce by accretion of parts the similarity of form and feature, or of sex, corresponding with the imagination of the father. ]

 [Footnote: _His nymphs and swains_, l. 122. The arguments which have been adduced to show, that mankind and quadrupeds were formerly in an hermaphrodite state, are first deduced from the present existence of breasts and nipples in all the males; which latter swell on titillation like those of the females, and which are said to contain a milky fluid at their birth; and it is affirmed, that some men have given milk to their children in desert countries, where the mother has perished; as the male pigeon is said to give a kind of milk from his stomach along with the regurgitated food, to the young doves, as mentioned in Additional Note IX. On Storge. 

 Secondly, from the apparent progress of many animals to greater perfection, as in some insects, as the flies with two wings, termed Diptera; which have rudiments of two other wings, called halteres, or poisers; and in many flowers which have rudiments of new stamina, or filaments without anthers on them. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Curcuma, Note, and the Note on l. 204 of Canto I. Of this work. It has been supposed by some, that mankind were formerly quadrupeds as well as hermaphrodites; and that some parts of the body are not yet so convenient to an erect attitude as to a horizontal one; as the fundus of the bladder in an erect posture is not exactly over the insertion of the urethra; whence it is seldom completely evacuated, and thus renders mankind more subject to the stone, than if he had preserved his horizontality: these philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to imagine, that mankind arose from one family of monkeys on the banks of the Mediterranean; who accidentally had learned to use the adductor pollicis, or that strong muscle which constitutes the ball of the thumb, and draws the point of it to meet the points of the fingers; which common monkeys do not; and that this muscle gradually increased in size, strength, and activity, in successive generations; and by this improved use of the sense of touch, that monkeys acquired clear ideas, and gradually became men. 

 Perhaps all the productions of nature are in their progress to greater perfection! an idea countenanced by modern discoveries and deductions concerning the progressive formation of the solid parts of the terraqueous globe, and consonant to the dignity of the Creator of all things. ]

 "So tulip-bulbs emerging from the seed, Year after year unknown to sex proceed; Erewhile the stamens and the styles display Their petal-curtains, and adorn the day; The beaux and beauties in each blossom glow With wedded joy, or amatorial woe. 130 Unmarried Aphides prolific prove For nine successions uninform'd of love; New sexes next with softer passions spring, Breathe the fond vow, and woo with quivering wing. 

 "So erst in Paradise creation's LORD, As the first leaves of holy writ record, From Adam's rib, who press'd the flowery grove, And dreamt delighted of untasted love, To cheer and charm his solitary mind, Form'd a new sex, the MOTHER OF MANKIND. 140 --Buoy'd on light step the Beauty seem'd to swim, And stretch'd alternate every pliant limb; Pleased on Euphrates' velvet margin stood, And view'd her playful image in the flood; Own'd the fine flame of love, as life began, And smiled enchantment on adoring Man. Down her white neck and o'er her bosom roll'd, Flow'd in sweet negligence her locks of gold; Round her fine form the dim transparence play'd, And show'd the beauties, that it seem'd to shade. 150 --Enamour'd ADAM gaz'd with fond surprise, And drank delicious passion from her eyes; Felt the new thrill of young Desire, and press'd The graceful Virgin to his glowing breast. -- The conscious Fair betrays her soft alarms, Sinks with warm blush into his closing arms, Yields to his fond caress with wanton play, And sweet, reluctant, amorous, delay. 

 [Footnote: _The mother of mankind_, l. 140. See Additional Note X. ]

 IV. "WHERE no new Sex with glands nutritious feeds, Nurs'd in her womb, the solitary breeds; 160 No Mother's care their early steps directs, Warms in her bosom, with her wings protects; The clime unkind, or noxious food instills To embryon nerves hereditary ills; The feeble births acquired diseases chase, Till Death extinguish the degenerate race. 

 [Footnote: _Acquired diseases_, l. 165. See Additional Note XI. ]

 "So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise, Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies; Till canker taints the vegetable blood, Mines round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. 170 So, years successive, from perennial roots The wire or bulb with lessen'd vigour shoots; Till curled leaves, or barren flowers, betray A waning lineage, verging to decay; Or till, amended by connubial powers, Rise seedling progenies from sexual flowers. 

 [Footnote: _So grafted trees_, l. 167. Mr. Knight first observed that those apple and pear trees, which had been propagated for above a century by ingraftment were now so unhealthy, as not to be worth cultivation. I have suspected the diseases of potatoes attended with the curled leaf, and of strawberry plants attended with barren flowers, to be owing to their having been too long raised from roots, or by solitary reproduction, and not from seeds, or sexual reproduction, and to have thence acquired those hereditary diseases. ]

 "E'en where unmix'd the breed, in sexual tribes Parental taints the nascent babe imbibes; Eternal war the Gout and Mania wage With fierce uncheck'd hereditary rage; 180 Sad Beauty's form foul Scrofula surrounds With bones distorted, and putrescent wounds; And, fell Consumption! thy unerring dart Wets its broad wing in Youth's reluctant heart. 

 [Footnote: _And, fell Consumption_, l. 183. 

 ... Hæret lateri lethalis arundo. VIRGIL. ]

 "With pausing step, at night's refulgent noon, Beneath the sparkling stars, and lucid moon, Plung'd in the shade of some religious tower, The slow bell counting the departed hour, O'er gaping tombs where shed umbrageous Yews On mouldering bones their cold unwholesome dews; 190 While low aerial voices whisper round, And moondrawn spectres dance upon the ground; Poetic MELANCHOLY loves to tread, And bend in silence o'er the countless Dead; Marks with loud sobs infantine Sorrows rave, And wring their pale hands o'er their Mother's grave; Hears on the new-turn'd sod with gestures wild The kneeling Beauty call her buried child; Upbraid with timorous accents Heaven's decrees, And with sad sighs augment the passing breeze. 200 'Stern Time, ' She cries, 'receives from Nature's womb Her beauteous births, and bears them to the tomb; Calls all her sons from earth's remotest bourn, And from the closing portals none return!'

 V. URANIA paused, --upturn'd her streaming eyes, And her white bosom heaved with silent sighs; With her the MUSE laments the sum of things, And hides her sorrows with her meeting wings; Long o'er the wrecks of lovely Life they weep, Then pleased reflect, "to die is but to sleep;" 210 From Nature's coffins to her cradles turn, Smile with young joy, with new affection burn. 

 And now the Muse, with mortal woes impress'd, Thus the fair Hierophant again address'd. --"Ah me! celestial Guide, thy words impart Ills undeserved, that rend the nascent heart! O, Goddess, say, if brighter scenes improve Air-breathing tribes, and births of sexual love?"-- The smiling Fair obeys the inquiring Muse, And in sweet tones her grateful task pursues. 220

 "Now on broad pinions from the realms above Descending CUPID seeks the Cyprian grove; To his wide arms enamour'd PSYCHE springs, And clasps her lover with aurelian wings. A purple sash across HIS shoulder bends, And fringed with gold the quiver'd shafts suspends; The bending bow obeys the silken string, And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring. Thin folds of gauze with dim transparence flow O'er HER fair forehead, and her neck of snow; 230 The winding woof her graceful limbs surrounds, Swells in the breeze, and sweeps the velvet grounds; As hand in hand along the flowery meads His blushing bride the quiver'd hero leads; Charm'd round their heads pursuing Zephyrs throng, And scatter roses, as they move along; Bright beams of Spring in soft effusion play, And halcyon Hours invite them on their way. 

 [Footnote: _Enamoured Psyché_, l. 223. A butterfly was the ancient emblem of the soul after death as rising from the tomb of its former state, and becoming a winged inhabitant of air from an insect creeping upon earth. At length the wings only were given to a beautiful nymph under the name of Psyche, which is the greek word for the soul, and also became afterwards to signify a butterfly probably from the popularity of this allegory. Many allegorical designs of Cupid or Love warming a butterfly or the Soul with his torch may be seen in Spence's Polymetis, and a beautiful one of their marriage in Bryant's Mythology; from which this description is in part taken. ]

 "Delighted HYMEN hears their whisper'd vows, And binds his chaplets round their polish'd brows, 240 Guides to his altar, ties the flowery bands, And as they kneel, unites their willing hands. 'Behold, he cries, Earth! Ocean! Air above, 'And hail the DEITIES OF SEXUAL LOVE! 'All forms of Life shall this fond Pair delight, 'And sex to sex the willing world unite; 'Shed their sweet smiles in Earth's unsocial bowers, 'Fan with soft gales, and gild with brighter hours; 'Fill Pleasure's chalice unalloy'd with pain, 'And give SOCIETY his golden chain. ' 250

 "Now young DESIRES, on purple pinions borne, Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn; With softer fires through virgin bosoms dart, Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart. Ere the weak powers of transient Life decay, And Heaven's ethereal image melts away; LOVE with nice touch renews the organic frame, Forms a young Ens, another and the same; Gives from his rosy lips the vital breath, And parries with his hand the shafts of death; 260 While BEAUTY broods with angel wings unfurl'd O'er nascent life, and saves the sinking world. 

 [Footnote: _While Beauty broods_, l. 261. 

 Alma Venus! per te quoniam genus omne animantum Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina coeli. LUCRET. ]

 "HENCE on green leaves the sexual Pleasures dwell, And Loves and Beauties crowd the blossom's bell; The wakeful Anther in his silken bed O'er the pleased Stigma bows his waxen head; With meeting lips and mingling smiles they sup Ambrosial dewdrops from the nectar'd cup; Or buoy'd in air the plumy Lover springs, And seeks his panting bride on Hymen-wings. 270

 [Footnote: _From the nectar'd cup_, l. 268. The anthers and stigmas of flowers are probably nourished by the honey, which is secreted by the honey-gland called by Linneus the nectary; and possess greater sensibility or animation than other parts of the plant. The corol of the flower appears to be a respiratory organ belonging to these anthers and stigmas for the purpose of further oxygenating the vegetable blood for the production of the anther dust and of this honey, which is also exposed to the air in its receptacle or honey-cup; which, I suppose, to be necessary for its further oxygenation, as in many flowers so complicate an apparatus is formed for its protection from insects, as in aconitum, delphinium, larkspur, lonicera, woodbine; and because the corol and nectary fall along with the anthers and stigmas, when the pericarp is impregnated. 

 Dr. B. S. Barton in the American Transactions has lately shown, that the honey collected from some plants is intoxicating and poisonous to men, as from rhododendron, azalea, and datura; and from some other plants that it is hurtful to the bees which collect it; and that from some flowers it is so injurious or disagreeable, that they do not collect it, as from the fritillaria or crown imperial of this country. ]

 "The Stamen males, with appetencies just, Produce a formative prolific dust; With apt propensities, the Styles recluse Secrete a formative prolific juice; These in the pericarp erewhile arrive, Rush to each other, and embrace alive. --Form'd by new powers progressive parts succeed, Join in one whole, and swell into a seed. 

 [Footnote: _With appetencies just_, l. 271. As in the productions by chemical affinity one set of particles must possess the power of attraction, and the other the aptitude to be attracted, as when iron approaches a magnet; so when animal particles unite, whether in digestion or reproduction, some of them must possess an appetite to unite, and others a propensity to be united. The former of these are secreted by the anthers from the vegetable blood, and the latter by the styles or pericarp; see the Additional Note VIII. On Reproduction. ]

 "So in fond swarms the living Anthers shine Of bright Vallisner on the wavy Rhine; 280 Break from their stems, and on the liquid glass Surround the admiring stigmas as they pass; The love-sick Beauties lift their essenced brows, Sigh to the Cyprian queen their secret vows, Like watchful Hero feel their soft alarms, And clasp their floating lovers in their arms. 

 [Footnote: _Of bright Vallisner_, l. 280. Vallisneria, of the class of dioecia. The flowers of the male plant are produced under water, and as soon as their farina or dust is mature, they detach themselves from the plant, rise to the surface and continue to flourish, and are wafted by the air or borne by the current to the female flowers. In this they resemble those tribes of insects, where the males at certain seasons acquire wings, but not the females, as ants, coccus, lampyris, phalæna, brumata, lichanella; Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Note on Vallisneria. ]

 "Hence the male Ants their gauzy wings unfold, And young Lampyris waves his plumes of gold; The Glow-Worm sparkles with impassion'd light On each green bank, and charms the eye of night; 290 While new desires the painted Snail perplex, And twofold love unites the double sex. 

 [Footnote: _And young Lampyris_, l. 288. The fire-fly is at some seasons so luminous, that M. Merian says, that by putting two of them under a glass, she was able to draw her figures of them by night. Whether the light of this and of other insects be caused by their amatorial passion, and thus assists them to find each other; or is caused by respiration, which is so analogous to combustion; or to a tendency to putridity, as in dead fish and rotten wood, is still to be investigated; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Note IX. ]

 "Hence, when the Morus in Italia's lands To spring's warm beam its timid leaf expands; The Silk-Worm broods in countless tribes above Crop the green treasure, uninform'd of love; Erewhile the changeful worm with circling head Weaves the nice curtains of his silken bed; Web within web involves his larva form, Alike secured from sunshine and from storm; 300 For twelve long days He dreams of blossom'd groves, Untasted honey, and ideal loves; Wakes from his trance, alarm'd with young Desire, Finds his new sex, and feels ecstatic fire; From flower to flower with honey'd lip he springs, And seeks his velvet loves on silver wings. 

 [Footnote: _Untasted honey_, l. 302. The numerous moths and butterflies seem to pass from a reptile leaf-eating state, and to acquire wings to flit in air, with a proboscis to gain honey for their food along with their organs of reproduction, solely for the purpose of propagating their species by sexual intercourse, as they die when that is completed. By the use of their wings they have access to each other on different branches or on different vegetables, and by living upon honey probably acquire a higher degree of animation, and thus seem to resemble the anthers of flowers, which probably are supported by honey only, and thence acquire greater sensibility; see Note on Vallisneria, l. 280 of this Canto. 

 A naturalist, who had studied this subject, thought it not impossible that the first insects were the anthers and stigmas of flowers, which had by some means loosened themselves from their parent plant, like the male flowers of vallisneria, and that other insects in process of time had been formed from these, some acquiring wings, others fins, and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure food or to secure themselves from injury. He contends, that none of these changes are more incomprehensible than the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Note XXXIX. ]

 VI. "The Demon, Jealousy, with Gorgon frown Blasts the sweet flowers of Pleasure not his own, Rolls his wild eyes, and through the shuddering grove Pursues the steps of unsuspecting Love; 310 Or drives o'er rattling plains his iron car, Flings his red torch, and lights the flames of war. 

 Here Cocks heroic burn with rival rage, And Quails with Quails in doubtful fight engage; Of armed heels and bristling plumage proud, They sound the insulting clarion shrill and loud, With rustling pinions meet, and swelling chests, And seize with closing beaks their bleeding crests; Rise on quick wing above the struggling foe, And aim in air the death-devoting blow. 320 There the hoarse stag his croaking rival scorns, And butts and parries with his branching horns; Contending Boars with tusk enamell'd strike, And guard with shoulder-shield the blow oblique; While female bands attend in mute surprise, And view the victor with admiring eyes. --

 [Footnote: _There the hoarse stag_, l. 321. A great want of one part of the animal world has consisted in the desire of the exclusive possession of the females; and these have acquired weapons to combat each other for this purpose, as the very thick shield-like horny skin on the shoulder of the boar is a defence only against animals of his own species, who strike obliquely upwards, nor are his tushes for other purposes, except to defend himself, as he is not naturally a carnivorous animal. So the horns of the stag are sharp to offend his adversary, but are branched for the purpose of parrying or receiving the thrusts of horns similar to his own, and have therefore been formed for the purpose of combating other stags for the exclusive possession of the females, who are observed, like the ladies in the times of chivalry, to attend the car of the victor. 

 The birds, which do not carry food to their young, and do not therefore marry, are armed with spurs for the purpose of fighting for the exclusive possession of the females, as cocks and quails. It is certain that these weapons are not provided for their defence against other adversaries, because the females of these species are without this armour; Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4, 8. ]

 "So Knight on Knight, recorded in romance, Urged the proud steed, and couch'd the extended lance; He, whose dread prowess with resistless force, O'erthrew the opposing warrior and his horse, 330 Bless'd, as the golden guerdon of his toils, Bow'd to the Beauty, and receiv'd her smiles. 

 "So when fair HELEN with ill-fated charms, By PARIS wooed, provoked the world to arms, Left her vindictive Lord to sigh in vain For broken vows, lost love, and cold disdain; Fired at his wrongs, associate to destroy The realms unjust of proud adulterous Troy, Unnumber'd Heroes braved the dubious fight, And sunk lamented to the shades of night. 340

 "Now vows connubial chain the plighted pair, And join paternal with maternal care; The married birds with nice selection cull Soft thistle-down, gray moss, and scattered wool, Line the secluded nest with feathery rings, Meet with fond bills, and woo with fluttering wings. Week after week, regardless of her food, The incumbent Linnet warms her future brood; Each spotted egg with ivory lips she turns, Day after day with fond expectance burns, 350 Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell, And breaks in hemispheres the obdurate shell. Loud trills sweet Philomel his tender strain, Charms his fond bride, and wakes his infant train; Perch'd on the circling moss, the listening throng Wave their young wings, and whisper to the song. 

 [Footnote: _The incumbent Linnet_, l. 348. The affection of the unexperienced and untaught bird to its egg, which induces it to sit days and weeks upon it to warm the enclosed embryon, is a matter of great difficulty to explain; See Additional Note IX. On Storge. Concerning the fabrication of their nests, see Zoonomia, Sect. XVI. 13. On instinct. ]

 [Footnote: _Hears the young prisoner_, l. 351. The air-vessel at the broad end of an incubated egg gradually extends its edges along the sides of the shell, as the chick enlarges, but is at the same time applied closer to the internal surface of the shell; when the time of hatching approaches the chick is liable to break this air-bag with its beak, and thence begin to breathe and to chirp; at this time the edges of the enlarged air-bag extend so as to cover internally one hemisphere of the egg; and as one half of the external shell is thus moist, and the other half dry, as soon as the mother hearing the chick chirp, or the chick itself wanting respirable air, strikes the egg, about its equatorial line, it breaks into two hemispheres, and liberates the prisoner. ]

 [Footnote: _And whisper to the song_, l. 356. A curious circumstance is mentioned by Kircherus de Musurgia, in his Chapter de Lusciniis. "That the young nightingales, that are hatched under other birds, never sing till they are instructed by the company of other nightingales. " And Johnston affirms, that the nightingales that visit Scotland, have not the same harmony as those of Italy, (Pennant's Zoology, octavo, p. 255), which would lead us to suspect, that the singing of birds, like human music, is an artificial language rather than a natural expression of passion. ]

 "The Lion-King forgets his savage pride, And courts with playful paws his tawny bride; The listening Tiger hears with kindling flame The love-lorn night-call of his brinded dame. 360 Despotic LOVE dissolves the bestial war, Bends their proud necks, and joins them to his car; Shakes o'er the obedient pairs his silken thong, And goads the humble, or restrains the strong. -- Slow roll the silver wheels, --in beauty's pride Celestial PSYCHE blushing by his side. -- The lordly Bull behind and warrior Horse With voice of thunder shake the echoing course, Chain'd to the car with herds domestic move, And swell the triumph of despotic LOVE. 370

 "Pleased as they pass along the breezy shore In twinkling shoals the scaly realms adore, Move on quick fin with undulating train, Or lift their slimy foreheads from the main. High o'er their heads on pinions broad display'd The feather'd nations shed a floating shade; Pair after pair enamour'd shoot along, And trill in air the gay impassion'd song. With busy hum in playful swarms around Emerging insects leave the peopled ground, 380 Rise in dark clouds, and borne in airy rings Sport round the car, and wave their golden wings. Admiring Fawns pursue on dancing hoof, And bashful Dryads peep from shades aloof; Emerging Nereids rise from coral cells, Enamour'd Tritons sound their twisted shells; From sparkling founts enchanted Naiads move, And swell the triumph of despotic LOVE. 

 [Footnote: _With undulating train_, l. 373. The side fins of fish seem to be chiefly used to poise them; as they turn upon their backs immediately when killed, the air-bladder assists them perhaps to rise or descend by its possessing the power to condense the air in it by muscular contraction; and it is possible, that at great depths in the ocean the air in this receptacle may by the great pressure of the incumbent water become condensed into so small a space, as to cease to be useful to the animal, which was possibly the cause of the death of Mr. Day in his diving ship. See note on Ulva, Botan. Gard. V. II. 

 The progressive motion of fish beneath the water is produced principally by the undulation of their tails. One oblique plain of a part of the tail on the right side of the fish strikes the water at the same time that another oblique plain strikes it on the left side, hence in respect to moving to the right or left these percussions of the water counteract each other, but they coincide in respect to the progression of the fish; this power seems to be better applied to push forwards a body in water, than the oars of boats, as the particles of water recede from the stroke of the oar, whence the comparative power acquired is but as the difference of velocity between the striking oar and the receding water. So a ship moves swifter with an oblique wind, than with a wind of the same velocity exactly behind it; and the common windmill sail placed obliquely to the wind is more powerful than one which directly recedes from it. Might not some machinery resembling the tails of fish be placed behind a boat, so as to be moved with greater effect than common oars, by the force of wind or steam, or perhaps by hand?]

 [Footnote: _On pinions broad display'd_, l. 375. The progressive motion of birds in the air is principally performed by the movement of their wings, and not by that of their tails as in fish. The bird is supported in an element so much lighter than itself by the resistance of the air as it moves horizontally against the oblique plain made by its breast, expanded tail and wings, when they are at rest; the change of this obliquity also assists it to rise, and even directs its descent, though this is owing principally to its specific gravity, but it is in all situations kept upright or balanced by its wings. 

 As the support of the bird in the air, as well as its progression, is performed by the motion of the wings; these require strong muscles as are seen on the breasts of partridges. Whence all attempts of men to fly by wings applied to the weak muscles of their arms have been ineffectual; but it is not certain whether light machinery so contrived as to be moved by their feet, might not enable them to fly a little way, though not so as to answer any useful purpose. ]

 "Delighted Flora, gazing from afar, Greets with mute homage the triumphal car; 390 On silvery slippers steps with bosom bare, Bends her white knee, and bows her auburn hair; Calls to her purple heaths, and blushing bowers, Bursts her green gems, and opens all her flowers; O'er the bright Pair a shower of roses sheds, And crowns with wreathes of hyacinth their heads. -- --Slow roll the silver wheels with snowdrops deck'd, And primrose bands the cedar spokes connect; Round the fine pole the twisting woodbine clings, And knots of jasmine clasp the bending springs; 400 Bright daisy links the velvet harness chain, And rings of violets join each silken rein; Festoon'd behind, the snow-white lilies bend, And tulip-tassels on each side depend. --Slow rolls the car, --the enamour'd Flowers exhale Their treasured sweets, and whisper to the gale; Their ravelled buds, and wrinkled cups unfold, Nod their green stems, and wave their bells of gold; Breathe their soft sighs from each enchanted grove, And hail THE DEITIES OF SEXUAL LOVE. 410

 "ONWARD with march sublime in saffron robe Young HYMEN steps, and traverses the globe; O'er burning sands, and snow-clad mountains, treads, Blue fields of air, and ocean's briny beds; Flings from his radiant torch celestial light O'er Day's wide concave, and illumes the Night. With dulcet eloquence his tuneful tongue Convokes and captivates the Fair and Young; His golden lamp with ray ethereal dyes The blushing cheek, and lights the laughing eyes; 420 With secret flames the virgin's bosom warms, And lights the impatient bridegroom to her arms; With lovely life all Nature's frame inspires, And, as they sink, rekindles all her fires. "

 VII. Now paused the beauteous Teacher, and awhile Gazed on her train with sympathetic smile. 'Beware of Love! she cried, ye Nymphs, and hear 'His twanging bowstring with alarmed ear; 'Fly the first whisper of the distant dart, 'Or shield with adamant the fluttering heart; 430 'To secret shades, ye Virgin trains, retire, 'And in your bosoms guard the vestal fire. ' --The obedient Beauties hear her words, advised, And bow with laugh repress'd, and smile chastised. 

 [Footnote: _With laugh repress'd_, l. 434. The cause of the violent actions of laughter, and of the difficulty of restraining them, is a curious subject of inquiry. When pain afflicts us, which we cannot avoid, we learn to relieve it by great voluntary exertions, as in grinning, holding the breath, or screaming; now the pleasurable sensation, which excites laughter, arises for a time so high as to change its name, and become a painful one; and we excite the convulsive motions of the respiratory muscles to relieve this pain. We are however unwilling to lose the pleasure, and presently put a stop to this exertion; and immediately the pleasure recurs, and again as instantly rises into pain. Which is further explained in Zoonomia, Sect. 34. 1. 4. When this pleasurable sensation rises into a painful one, and the customs of society will not permit us to laugh aloud, some other violent voluntary exertion is used instead of it to alleviate the pain. ]

 [Footnote: _With smile chastised_, l. 434. The origin of the smile has generally been ascribed to inexplicable instinct, but may be deduced from our early associations of actions and ideas. In the act of sucking, the lips of the infant are closed round the nipple of its mother, till it has filled its stomach, and the pleasure of digesting this grateful food succeeds; then the sphincter of the mouth, fatigued by the continued action of sucking, is relaxed; and the antagonist muscles of the face gently acting, produce the smile of pleasure, which is thus during our lives associated with gentle pleasure, which is further explained in Zoonomia, Sect. 16. 8. 4. ]

 Now at her nod the Nymphs attendant bring Translucent water from the bubbling spring; In crystal cups the waves salubrious shine, Unstain'd untainted with immodest wine. Next, where emerging from its ancient roots Its widening boughs the Tree of Knowledge shoots; 440 Pluck'd with nice choice before the Muse they placed The now no longer interdicted taste. Awhile they sit, from higher cares released, And pleased partake the intellectual feast. Of good and ill they spoke, effect and cause, Celestial agencies, and Nature's laws. 

 So when angelic Forms to Syria sent Sat in the cedar shade by ABRAHAM'S tent; A spacious bowl the admiring Patriarch fills With dulcet water from the scanty rills; 450 Sweet fruits and kernels gathers from his hoard, With milk and butter piles the plenteous board; While on the heated hearth his Consort bakes Fine flour well kneaded in unleaven'd cakes. The Guests ethereal quaff the lucid flood, Smile on their hosts, and taste terrestrial food; And while from seraph-lips sweet converse springs, Lave their fair feet, and close their silver wings. 

END OF CANTO II. 

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

CANTO III. 

PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 

CONTENTS. 

I. Urania and the Muse converse 1. Progress of the Mind 42. II. TheFour sensorial powers of Irritation, Sensation, Volition, andAssociation 55. Some finer senses given to Brutes 93. And Armour 108. Finer Organ of Touch given to Man 121. Whence clear ideas of Form 125. Vision is the Language of the Touch 131. Magic Lantern 139. Surprise, Novelty, Curiosity 145. Passions, Vices 149. Philanthropy 159. Shrineof Virtue 160. III. Ideal Beauty from the Female Bosom 163. Eros theGod of Sentimental Love 177. Young Dione idolized by Eros 186. Thirdchain of Society 206. IV. Ideal Beauty from curved Lines 207. Tastefor the Beautiful 222. Taste for the Sublime 223. For poeticMelancholy 231. For Tragedy 241. For artless Nature 247. The Genius ofTaste 259. V. The Senses easily form and repeat ideas 269. Imitationfrom clear ideas 279. The Senses imitate each other 293. In dancing295. In drawing naked Nymphs 299. In Architecture, as at St. Peter'sat Rome 303. Mimickry 319. VI. Natural Language from imitation 335. Language of Quails, Cocks, Lions, Boxers 343. Pantomime Action 357. Verbal Language from Imitation and Association 363. Symbols of ideas371. Gigantic form of Time 385. Wings of Hermes 391. VII. Recollectionfrom clear ideas 395. Reason and Volition 401. Arts of the Wasp, Bee, Spider, Wren, Silk-Worm 411. Volition concerned about Means or Causes435. Man distinguished by Language, by using Tools, labouring forMoney, praying to the Deity 438. The Tree of Knowledge of Good andEvil 445. VIII. Emotions from Imitation 461. The Seraph; Sympathy 467. Christian Morality the great bond of Society 483-496. 

CANTO III. 

PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 

 I. Now rose, adorn'd with Beauty's brightest hues, The graceful HIEROPHANT, and winged MUSE; Onward they step around the stately piles, O'er porcelain floors, through laqueated ailes, Eye Nature's lofty and her lowly seats, Her gorgeous palaces, and green retreats, Pervade her labyrinths with unerring tread, And leave for future guests a guiding thread. 

 First with fond gaze blue fields of air they sweep, Or pierce the briny chambers of the deep; 10 Earth's burning line, and icy poles explore, Her fertile surface, and her caves of ore; Or mark how Oxygen with Azote-Gas Plays round the globe in one aerial mass, Or fused with Hydrogen in ceaseless flow Forms the wide waves, which foam and roll below. 

 [Footnote: _How Oxygen_, l. 13. The atmosphere which surrounds us, is composed of twenty-seven parts of oxygen gas and seventy-three of azote or nitrogen gas, which are simply diffused together, but which, when combined, become nitrous acid. Water consists of eighty-six parts oxygen, and fourteen parts of hydrogen or inflammable air, in a state of combination. It is also probable, that much oxygen enters the composition of glass; as those materials which promote vitrification, contain so much of it, as minium and manganese; and that glass is hence a solid acid in the temperature of our atmosphere, as water is a fluid one. ]

 Next with illumined hands through prisms bright Pleased they untwist the sevenfold threads of light; Or, bent in pencils by the lens, convey To one bright point the silver hairs of Day. 20 Then mark how two electric streams conspire To form the resinous and vitreous fire; Beneath the waves the fierce Gymnotus arm, And give Torpedo his benumbing charm; Or, through Galvanic chain-work as they pass, Convert the kindling water into gas. 

 [Footnote: _Two electric streams_, l. 21. It is the opinion of some philosophers, that the electric ether consists of two kinds of fluids diffused together or combined; which are commonly known by the terms of positive and negative electricity, but are by these electricians called vitreous and resinous electricity. The electric shocks given by the torpedo and by the gymnotus, are supposed to be similar to those of the Galvanic pile, as they are produced in water. Which water is decomposed by the Galvanic pile and converted into oxygen and hydrogen gas; see Additional Note XII. 

 The magnetic ether may also be supposed to consist of two fluids, one of which attracts the needle, and the other repels it; and, perhaps, chemical affinities, and gravitation itself, may consist of two kinds of ether surrounding the particles of bodies, and may thence attract at one distance and repel at another; as appears when two insulated electrised balls are approached to each other, or when two small globules of mercury are pressed together. ]

 How at the poles opposing Ethers dwell, Attract the quivering needle, or repel. How Gravitation by immortal laws Surrounding matter to a centre draws; 30 How Heat, pervading oceans, airs, and lands, With force uncheck'd the mighty mass expands; And last how born in elemental strife Beam'd the first spark, and lighten'd into Life. 

 Now in sweet tones the inquiring Muse express'd Her ardent wish; and thus the Fair address'd. "Priestess of Nature! whose exploring sight Pierces the realms of Chaos and of Night; Of space unmeasured marks the first and last, Of endless time the present, future, past; 40 Immortal Guide! O, now with accents kind Give to my ear the progress of the Mind. How loves, and tastes, and sympathies commence From evanescent notices of sense? How from the yielding touch and rolling eyes The piles immense of human science rise?-- With mind gigantic steps the puny Elf, And weighs and measures all things but himself!"

 The indulgent Beauty hears the grateful Muse, Smiles on her pupil, and her task renews. 50 Attentive Nymphs in sparkling squadrons throng, And choral Virgins listen to the song; Pleased Fawns and Naiads crowd in silent rings, And hovering Cupids stretch their purple wings. 

 II. "FIRST the new actions of the excited sense, Urged by appulses from without, commence; With these exertions pain or pleasure springs, And forms perceptions of external things. Thus, when illumined by the solar beams, Yon waving woods, green lawns, and sparkling streams, In one bright point by rays converging lie 61 Plann'd on the moving tablet of the eye; The mind obeys the silver goads of light, And IRRITATION moves the nerves of sight. 

 [Footnote: _And Irritation moves_, l. 64. Irritation is an exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense in consequence of the appulses of external bodies. The word perception includes both the action of the organ of sense in consequence of the impact of external objects and our attention to that action; that is, it expresses both the motion of the organ of sense, or idea, and the pain or pleasure that succeeds or accompanies it. Irritative ideas are those which are preceded by irritation, which is excited by objects external to the organs of sense: as the idea of that tree, which either I attend to, or which I shun in walking near it without attention. In the former case it is termed perception, in the latter it is termed simply an irritative idea. ]

 "These acts repeated rise from joys or pains, And swell Imagination's flowing trains; So in dread dreams amid the silent night Grim spectre-forms the shuddering sense affright; Or Beauty's idol-image, as it moves, Charms the closed eye with graces, smiles, and loves; 70 Each passing form the pausing heart delights, And young SENSATION every nerve excites. 

 [Footnote: _And young Sensation_, l. 72. Sensation is an exertion or change of the central parts of the sensorium or of the whole of it, _beginning_ at some of those extreme parts of it which reside in the muscles or organs of sense. Sensitive ideas are those which are preceded by the sensation of pleasure or pain, are termed Imagination, and constitute our dreams and reveries. ]

 "Oft from sensation quick VOLITION springs, When pleasure thrills us, or when anguish stings; Hence Recollection calls with voice sublime Immersed ideas from the wrecks of Time, With potent charm in lucid trains displays Eventful stories of forgotten days. Hence Reason's efforts good with ill contrast, Compare the present, future, and the past; 80 Each passing moment, unobserved restrain The wild discordancies of Fancy's train; But leave uncheck'd the Night's ideal streams, Or, sacred Muses! your meridian dreams. 

 [Footnote: _Quick Volition springs_, l. 73. Volition is an exertion or change of the central parts of the sensorium, or of the whole of it _terminating_ in some of those extreme parts of it which reside in the muscles and organs of sense. The vulgar use of the word _memory_ is too unlimited for our purpose: those ideas which we voluntarily recall are here termed ideas of _recollection_, as when we will to repeat the alphabet backwards. And those ideas which are suggested to us by preceding ideas are here termed ideas of _suggestion_, as whilst we repeat the alphabet in the usual order; when by habits previously acquired B is suggested by A, and C by B, without any effort of deliberation. Reasoning is that operation of the sensorium by which we excite two or many tribes of ideas, and then reexcite the ideas in which they differ or correspond. If we determine this difference, it is called judgment; if we in vain endeavour to determine it, it is called doubting. 

 If we reexcite the ideas in which they differ, it is called distinguishing. If we reexcite those in which they correspond, it is called comparing. ]

 [Footnote: _Each passing moment_, l. 81. During our waking hours, we perpetually compare the passing trains of our ideas with the known system of nature, and reject those which are incongruous with it; this is explained in Zoonomia, Sect. XVII. 3. 7. And is there termed Intuitive Analogy. When we sleep, the faculty of volition ceases to act, and in consequence the uncompared trains of ideas become incongruous and form the farrago of our dreams; in which we never experience any surprise, or sense of novelty. ]

 "And last Suggestion's mystic power describes Ideal hosts arranged in trains or tribes. So when the Nymph with volant finger rings Her dulcet harp, and shakes the sounding strings; As with soft voice she trills the enamour'd song, Successive notes, unwill'd, the strain prolong; 90 The transient trains ASSOCIATION steers, And sweet vibrations charm the astonish'd ears. 

 [Footnote: _Association steers_, l. 91. Association is an exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensorium residing in the muscles and organs of sense in consequence of some antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions. Associate ideas, therefore, are those which are preceded by other ideas or muscular motions, without the intervention of irritation, sensation, or volition between them; these are also termed ideas of suggestion. ]

 "ON rapid feet o'er hills, and plains, and rocks, Speed the scared leveret and rapacious fox; On rapid pinions cleave the fields above The hawk descending, and escaping dove; With nicer nostril track the tainted ground The hungry vulture, and the prowling hound; Converge reflected light with nicer eye The midnight owl, and microscopic fly; 100 With finer ear pursue their nightly course The listening lion, and the alarmed horse. 

 "The branching forehead with diverging horns Crests the bold bull, the jealous stag adorns; Fierce rival boars with side-long fury wield The pointed tusk, and guard with shoulder-shield; Bounds the dread tiger o'er the affrighted heath Arm'd with sharp talons, and resistless teeth; The pouncing eagle bears in clinched claws The struggling lamb, and rends with ivory jaws; 110 The tropic eel, electric in his ire, Alarms the waves with unextinguish'd fire; The fly of night illumes his airy way, And seeks with lucid lamp his sleeping prey; Fierce on his foe the poisoning serpent springs, And insect armies dart their venom'd stings. 

 [Footnote: _The branching forehead_, l. 103. The peculiarities of the shapes of animals which distinguish them from each other, are enumerated in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4. 8. On Generation, and are believed to have been gradually formed from similar living fibres, and are varied by reproduction. Many of these parts of animals are there shown to have arisen from their three great desires of lust, hunger, and security. ]

 [Footnote: _The tropic eel_, l. 111. Gymnotus electricus. ]

 [Footnote: _The fly of night_, l. 113. Lampyris noctiluca. Fire-fly. ]

 "Proud Man alone in wailing weakness born, No horns protect him, and no plumes adorn; No finer powers of nostril, ear, or eye, Teach the young Reasoner to pursue or fly. -- 120 Nerved with fine touch above the bestial throngs, The hand, first gift of Heaven! to man belongs; Untipt with claws the circling fingers close, With rival points the bending thumbs oppose, Trace the nice lines of Form with sense refined, And clear ideas charm the thinking mind. Whence the fine organs of the touch impart Ideal figure, source of every art; Time, motion, number, sunshine or the storm, But mark varieties in Nature's _form_. 130

 [Footnote: _The hand, first gift of Heaven_, l. 122. The human species in some of their sensations are much inferior to animals, yet the accuracy of the sense of touch, which they possess in so eminent a degree, gives them a great superiority of understanding; as is well observed by the ingenious Mr. Buffon. The extremities of other animals terminate in horns, and hoofs, and claws, very unfit for the sensation of touch; whilst the human hand is finely adapted to encompass its object with this organ of sense. Those animals who have clavicles or collar-bones, and thence use their forefeet like hands, as cats, squirrels, monkeys, are more ingenious than other quadrupeds, except the elephant, who has a fine sense at the extremity of his proboscis; and many insects from the possessing finer organs of touch have greater ingenuity, as spiders, bees, wasps. ]

 [Footnote: _Trace the nice lines of form_, l. 125. When the idea of solidity is excited a part of the extensive organ of touch is compressed by some external body, and this part of the sensorium so compressed exactly resembles in figure the figure of the body that compressed it. Hence when we acquire the idea of solidity, we acquire at the same time the idea of figure; and this idea of figure, or motion of a part of the organ of touch, exactly resembles in its figure the figure of the body that occasions it; and thus exactly acquaints us with this property of the external world. 

 Now, as the whole universe with all its parts possesses a certain form or figure, if any part of it moves, that form or figure of the whole is varied. Hence, as motion is no other than a perpetual variation of figure, our idea of motion is also a real resemblance of the motion that produced it. 

 Hence arises the certainty of the mathematical sciences, as they explain these properties of bodies, which are exactly resembled by our ideas of them, whilst we are obliged to collect almost all our other knowledge from experiment; that is, by observing the effects exerted by one body upon another. ]

 "Slow could the tangent organ wander o'er The rock-built mountain, and the winding shore; No apt ideas could the pigmy mite, Or embryon emmet to the touch excite; But as each mass the solar ray reflects, The eye's clear glass the transient beams collects; Bends to their focal point the rays that swerve, And paints the living image on the nerve. So in some village-barn, or festive hall The spheric lens illumes the whiten'd wall; 140 O'er the bright field successive figures fleet, And motley shadows dance along the sheet. -- Symbol of solid forms is colour'd light, And the mute language of the touch is sight. 

 [Footnote: _The mute language of the touch_, l. 144. Our eyes observe a difference of colour, or of shade, in the prominences and depressions of objects, and that those shades uniformly vary when the sense of touch observes any variation. Hence when the retina becomes stimulated by colours or shades of light in a certain form, as in a circular spot, we know by experience that this is a sign that a tangible body is before us; and that its figure is resembled by the miniature figure of the part of the organ of vision that is thus stimulated. 

 Here whilst the stimulated part of the retina resembles exactly the visible figure of the whole in miniature, the various kinds of stimuli from different colours mark the visible figures of the minuter parts; and by habit we instantly recall the tangible figures. 

 So that though our visible ideas resemble in miniature the outline of the figure of coloured bodies, in other respects they serve only as a language, which by acquired associations introduce the tangible ideas of bodies. Hence it is, that this sense is so readily deceived by the art of the painter to our amusement and instruction. The reader will find much very curious knowledge on this subject in Bishop Berkeley's Essay on Vision, a work of great ingenuity. ]

 "HENCE in Life's portico starts young Surprise With step retreating, and expanded eyes; The virgin, Novelty, whose radiant train Soars o'er the clouds, or sinks beneath the main, With sweetly-mutable seductive charms Thrills the young sense, the tender heart alarms. 150 Then Curiosity with tracing hands And meeting lips the lines of form demands, Buoy'd on light step, o'er ocean, earth, and sky, Rolls the bright mirror of her restless eye. While in wild groups tumultuous Passions stand, And Lust and Hunger head the Motley band; Then Love and Rage succeed, and Hope and Fear; And nameless Vices close the gloomy rear; Or young Philanthropy with voice divine Convokes the adoring Youth to Virtue's shrine; 160 Who with raised eye and pointing finger leads To truths celestial, and immortal deeds. 

 [Footnote: _Starts young Surprise_, l. 145. Surprise is occasioned by the sudden interruption of the usual trains of our ideas by any violent stimulus from external objects, as from the unexpected discharge of a pistol, and hence does not exist in our dreams, because our external senses are closed or inirritable. The fetus in the womb must experience many sensations, as of resistance, figure, fluidity, warmth, motion, rest, exertion, taste; and must consequently possess trains both of waking and sleeping ideas. Surprise must therefore be strongly excited at its nativity, as those trains of ideas must instantly be dissevered by the sudden and violent sensations occasioned by the dry and cold atmosphere, the hardness of external bodies, light, sound, and odours; which are accompanied with pleasure or pain according to their quantity or intensity. 

 As some of these sensations become familiar by repetition, other objects not previously attended to present themselves, and produce the idea of novelty, which is a less degree of surprise, and like that is not perceived in our dreams, though for another reason; because in sleep we possess no voluntary power to compare our trains of ideas with our previous knowledge of nature, and do not therefore perceive their difference by intuitive analogy from what usually occurs. 

 As the novelty of our ideas is generally attended with pleasurable sensation, from this arises Curiosity, or a desire of examining a variety of objects, hoping to find novelty, and the pleasure consequent to this degree of surprise; see Additional Note VII. 3. ]

 [Footnote: _And meeting lips_, l. 152. Young children put small bodies into their mouths, when they are satiated with food, as well as when they are hungry, not with design to taste them, but use their lips as an organ of touch to distinguish the shape of them. Puppies, whose toes are terminated with nails, and who do not much use their forefeet as hands, seem to have no other means of acquiring a knowledge of the forms of external bodies, and are therefore perpetually playing with things by taking them between their lips. ]

 III. "As the pure language of the Sight commands The clear ideas furnish'd by the hands; Beauty's fine forms attract our wondering eyes, And soft alarms the pausing heart surprise. Warm from its cell the tender infant born Feels the cold chill of Life's aerial morn; Seeks with spread hands the bosoms velvet orbs, With closing lips the milky fount absorbs; 170 And, as compress'd the dulcet streams distil, Drinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill; Eyes with mute rapture every waving line, Prints with adoring kiss the Paphian shrine, And learns erelong, the perfect form confess'd, IDEAL BEAUTY from its Mother's breast. 

 [Footnote: _Seeks with spread hands_, l. 169. These eight beautiful lines are copied from Mr. Bilsborrow's Address prefixed to Zoonomia, and are translated from that work; Sect. XVI. 6. ]

 [Footnote: _Ideal Beauty_, l. 176. Sentimental Love, as distinguished from the animal passion of that name, with which it is frequently accompanied, consists in the desire or sensation of beholding, embracing, and saluting a beautiful object. 

 The characteristic of beauty therefore is that it is the object of love; and though many other objects are in common language called beautiful, yet they are only called so metaphorically, and ought to be termed agreeable. A Grecian temple may give us the pleasurable idea of sublimity, a Gothic temple may give us the pleasurable idea of variety, and a modern house the pleasurable idea of utility; music and poetry may inspire our love by association of ideas; but none of these, except metaphorically, can be termed beautiful, as we have no wish to embrace or salute them. 

 Our perception of beauty consists in our recognition by the sense of vision of those objects, first, which have before inspired our love by the pleasure, which they have afforded to many of our senses; as to our sense of warmth, of touch, of smell, of taste, hunger and thirst; and, secondly, which bear any analogy of form to such objects. ]

 "Now on swift wheels descending like a star Alights young EROS from his radiant car; On angel-wings attendant Graces move, And hail the God of SENTIMENTAL LOVE. 180 Earth at his feet extends her flowery bed, And bends her silver blossoms round his head; Dark clouds dissolve, the warring winds subside. And smiling ocean calms his tossing tide, O'er the bright morn meridian lustres play, And Heaven salutes him with a flood of day. 

 [Footnote: _Alights young Eros_, l. 178. There were two deities of Love belonging to the heathen mythology, the one said to be celestial, and the other terrestrial. Aristophanes says, "Sable-winged Night produced an egg, from which sprung up like a blossom Eros, the lovely, the desirable, with his glossy golden wings. " See Botanic Garden, Canto I. L. 412. Note. The other deity of Love, Cupido, seems of much later date, as he is not mentioned in the works of Homer, where there were so many apt situations to have introduced him. ]

 [Footnote: _Earth at his feet_, l. 181. 

 Te, Dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila coeli, Adventumque tuum; tibi suaves dædala tellus Submittit flores; tibi rident æquora ponti; Placatumque nitet diffuso lumine coelum. LUCRET. ]

 "Warm as the sun-beam, pure as driven snows, The enamour'd GOD for young DIONE glows; Drops the still tear, with sweet attention sighs, And woos the Goddess with adoring eyes; 190 Marks her white neck beneath the gauze's fold, Her ivory shoulders, and her locks of gold; Drinks with mute ecstacy the transient glow, Which warms and tints her bosom's rising snow. With holy kisses wanders o'er her charms, And clasps the Beauty in Platonic arms; Or if the dewy hands of Sleep, unbid, O'er her blue eye-balls close the lovely lid, Watches each nascent smile, and fleeting grace, That plays in day-dreams o'er her blushing face; 200 Counts the fine mazes of the curls, that break Round her fair ear, and shade her damask cheek; Drinks the pure fragrance of her breath, and sips With tenderest touch the roses of her lips;-- O'er female hearts with chaste seduction reigns, And binds SOCIETY in silken chains. 

 IV. "IF the wide eye the wavy lawns explores, The bending woodlands, or the winding shores, Hills, whose green sides with soft protuberance rise, Or the blue concave of the vaulted skies;-- 210 Or scans with nicer gaze the pearly swell Of spiral volutes round the twisted shell; Or undulating sweep, whose graceful turns Bound the smooth surface of Etrurian urns, When on fine forms the waving lines impress'd Give the nice curves, which swell the female breast; The countless joys the tender Mother pours Round the soft cradle of our infant hours, In lively trains of unextinct delight Rise in our bosoms _recognized by sight_; 220 Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine, And TASTE sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine. 

 [Footnote: _The wavy lawns_, l. 207. When the babe, soon after it is born into this cold world, is applied to its mother's bosom; its sense of perceiving warmth is first agreeably affected; next its sense of smell is delighted with the odour of her milk; then its taste is gratified by the flavour of it; afterwards the appetites of hunger and of thirst afford pleasure by the possession of their objects, and by the subsequent digestion of the aliment; and lastly, the sense of touch is delighted by the softness and smoothness of the milky fountain, the source of such variety of happiness. 

 All these various kinds of pleasure at length become associated with the form of the mother's breast; which the infant embraces with its hands, presses with its lips, and watches with its eyes; and thus acquires more accurate ideas of the form of its mother's bosom, than of the odour and flavour or warmth, which it perceives by its other senses. And hence at our maturer years, when any object of vision is presented to us, which by its waving or spiral lines bears any similitude to the form of the female bosom, whether it be found in a landscape with soft gradations of rising and descending surface, or in the forms of some antique vases, or in other works of the pencil or the chisel, we feel a general glow of delight, which seems to influence all our senses; and if the object be not too large, we experience an attraction to embrace it with our arms, and to salute it with our lips, as we did in our early infancy the bosom of our mother. And thus we find, according to the ingenious idea of Hogarth, that the waving lines of beauty were originally taken from the temple of Venus. ]

 "Where Egypt's pyramids gigantic stand, And stretch their shadows o'er the shuddering sand; Or where high rocks o'er ocean's dashing floods Wave high in air their panoply of woods; Admiring TASTE delights to stray beneath With eye uplifted, and forgets to breathe; Or, as aloft his daring footsteps climb, Crests their high summits with his arm sublime. 230

 [Footnote: _With his arm sublime_, l. 230. Objects of taste have been generally divided into the beautiful, the sublime, and the new; and lately to these have been added the picturesque. The beautiful so well explained in Hogarth's analysis of beauty, consists of curved lines and smooth surfaces, as expressed in the preceding note; any object larger than usual, as a very large temple or a very large mountain, gives us the idea of sublimity; with which is often confounded the terrific, and the melancholic: what is now termed picturesque includes objects, which are principally neither sublime nor beautiful, but which by their variety and intricacy joined with a due degree of regularity or uniformity convey to the mind an agreeable sentiment of novelty. Many other agreeable sentiments may be excited by visible objects, thus to the sublime and beautiful may be added the terrific, tragic, melancholic, artless, &c. While novelty superinduces a charm upon them all. See Additional Note XIII. ]

 "Where mouldering columns mark the lingering wreck Of Thebes, Palmyra, Babylon, Balbec; The prostrate obelisk, or shatter'd dome, Uprooted pedestal, and yawning tomb, On loitering steps reflective TASTE surveys With folded arms and sympathetic gaze; Charm'd with poetic Melancholy treads O'er ruin'd towns and desolated meads; Or rides sublime on Time's expanded wings, And views the fate of ever-changing things. 240

 [Footnote: _Poetic melancholy treads_, l. 237. The pleasure arising from the contemplation of the ruins of ancient grandeur or of ancient happiness, and here termed poetic melancholy, arises from a combination of the painful idea of sorrow with the pleasurable idea of the grandeur or happiness of past times; and becomes very interesting to us by fixing our attention more strongly on that grandeur and happiness, as the passion of Pity mentioned in the succeeding note is a combination of the painful idea of sorrow with the pleasurable one of beauty, or of virtue. ]

 "When Beauty's streaming eyes her woes express, Or Virtue braves unmerited distress; Love sighs in sympathy, with pain combined, And new-born Pity charms the kindred mind; The enamour'd Sorrow every cheek bedews, And TASTE impassion'd woos the tragic Muse. 

 [Footnote: _The tragic Muse_, l. 246. Why we are delighted with the scenical representations of Tragedy, which draw tears from our eyes, has been variously explained by different writers. The same distressful circumstance attending an ugly or wicked person affects us with grief or disgust; but when distress occurs to a beauteous or virtuous person, the pleasurable idea of beauty or of virtue becomes mixed with the painful one of sorrow and the passion of Pity is produced, which is a combination of love or esteem with sorrow; and becomes highly interesting to us by fixing our attention more intensely on the beauteous or virtuous person. 

 Other distressful scenes have been supposed to give pleasure to the spectator from exciting a comparative idea of his own happiness, as when a shipwreck is viewed by a person safe on shore, as mentioned by Lucretius, L. 3. But these dreadful situations belong rather to the terrible, or the horrid, than to the tragic; and may be objects of curiosity from their novelty, but not of Taste, and must suggest much more pain than pleasure. ]

 "The rush-thatch'd cottage on the purple moor, Where ruddy children frolic round the door, The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak, The shaggy locks that fringe the colt unbroke, 250 The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare Through the long tissue of his hoary hair;-- As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall, And crops the ivy, which prevents its fall;-- With rural charms the tranquil mind delight, And form a picture to the admiring sight. While TASTE with pleasure bends his eye surprised In modern days at Nature unchastised. 

 [Footnote: _Nature unchastised_, l. 258. In cities or their vicinity, and even in the cultivated parts of the country we rarely see undisguised nature; the fields are ploughed, the meadows mown, the shrubs planted in rows for hedges, the trees deprived of their lower branches, and the animals, as horses, dogs, and sheep, are mutilated in respect to their tails or ears; such is the useful or ill-employed activity of mankind! all which alterations add to the formality of the soil, plants, trees, or animals; whence when natural objects are occasionally presented to us, as an uncultivated forest and its wild inhabitants, we are not only amused with greater variety of form, but are at the same time enchanted by the charm of novelty, which is a less degree of Surprise, already spoken of in note on l. 145 of this Canto. ]

 "The GENIUS-FORM, on silver slippers born, With fairer dew-drops gems the rising morn; 260 Sheds o'er meridian skies a softer light, And decks with brighter pearls the brow of night; With finer blush the vernal blossom glows, With sweeter breath enamour'd Zephyr blows, The limpid streams with gentler murmurs pass, And gayer colours tinge the watery glass, Charm'd round his steps along the enchanted groves Flit the fine forms of Beauties, Graces, Loves. 

 V. "Alive, each moment of the transient hour, When Rest accumulates sensorial power, 270 The impatient Senses, goaded to contract, Forge new ideas, changing as they act; And, in long streams dissever'd, or concrete In countless tribes, the fleeting forms repeat. Which rise excited in Volition's trains, Or link the sparkling rings of Fancy's chains; Or, as they flow from each translucent source, Pursue Association's endless course. 

 [Footnote: _When rest accumulates_, l. 270. The accumulation of the spirit of animation, when those parts of the system rest, which are usually in motion, produces a disagreeable sensation. Whence the pain of cold and of hunger, and the irksomeness of a continued attitude, and of an indolent life: and hence the propensity to action in those confined animals, which have been accustomed to activity, as is seen in the motions of a squirrel in a cage; which uses perpetual exertion to exhaust a part of its accumulated sensorial power. This is one source of our general propensity to action; another perhaps arises from our curiosity or expectation of novelty mentioned in the note on l. 145. Of this canto. 

 But the immediate cause of our propensity to imitation above that of other animals arises from the greater facility, with which by the sense of touch we acquire the ideas of the outlines of objects, and afterwards in consequence by the sense of sight; this seems to have been observed by Aristotle, who calls man, "the imitative animal;" see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. ]

 "Hence when the inquiring hands with contact fine Trace on hard forms the circumscribing line; 280 Which then the language of the rolling eyes From distant scenes of earth and heaven supplies; Those clear ideas of the touch and sight Rouse the quick sense to anguish or delight; Whence the fine power of IMITATION springs, And apes the outlines of external things; With ceaseless action to the world imparts All moral virtues, languages, and arts. First the charm'd Mind mechanic powers collects, Means for some end, and causes of effects; 290 Then learns from other Minds their joys and fears, Contagious smiles and sympathetic tears. 

 [Footnote: _All moral virtues_, l. 288. See the sequel of this canto l. 453 on sympathy; and l. 331 on language; and the subsequent lines on the arts of painting and architecture. ]

 "What one fine stimulated Sense discerns, Another Sense by IMITATION learns. -- So in the graceful dance the step sublime Learns from the ear the concordance of Time. So, when the pen of some young artist prints Recumbent Nymphs in TITIAN'S living tints; The glowing limb, fair cheek, and flowing hair, Respiring bosom, and seductive air, 300 He justly copies with enamour'd sigh From Beauty's image pictured on his eye. 

 [Footnote: _Another sense_, l. 294. As the part of the organs of touch or of sight, which is stimulated into action by a tangible or visible object, must resemble in figure at least the figure of that object, as it thus constitutes an idea; it may be said to imitate the figure of that object; and thus imitation may be esteemed coeval with the existence both of man and other animals: but this would confound perception with imitation; which latter is better defined from the actions of one sense copying those of another. ]

 "Thus when great ANGELO in wondering Rome Fix'd the vast pillars of Saint Peter's dome, Rear'd rocks on rocks sublime, and hung on high A new Pantheon in the affrighted sky. Each massy pier, now join'd and now aloof, The figured architraves, and vaulted roof, Ailes, whose broad curves gigantic ribs sustain, Where holy echoes chant the adoring strain; 310 The central altar, sacred to the Lord, Admired by Sages, and by Saints ador'd, Whose brazen canopy ascends sublime On spiral columns unafraid of Time, Were first by Fancy in ethereal dyes Plann'd on the rolling tablets of his eyes; And his true hand with imitation fine Traced from his Retina the grand design. 

 [Footnote: _Thus when great Angelo_, l. 303. The origin of this propensity to imitation has not been deduced from any known principle; when any action presents itself to the view of a child, as of whetting a knife, or threading a needle; the parts of this action in respect of time, motion, figure, are imitated by parts of the retina of his eye; to perform this action therefore with his hands is easier to him than to invent any new action; because it consists in repeating with another set of fibres, viz. With the moving muscles, what he had just performed by some parts of the retina; just as in dancing we transfer the times of the motions from the actions of the auditory nerves to the muscles of the limbs. Imitation therefore consists of repetition, which is the easiest kind of animal action; as the ideas or motions become presently associated together; which adds to the facility of their production; as shown in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 2. 

 It should be added, that as our ideas, when we perceive external objects, are believed to consist in the actions of the immediate organs of sense in consequence of the stimulus of those objects; so when we think of external objects, our ideas are believed to consist in the repetitions of the actions of the immediate organs of sense, excited by the other sensorial powers of volition, sensation, or association. ]

 "The Muse of MIMICRY in every age With silent language charms the attentive stage; 320 The Monarch's stately step, and tragic pause, The Hero bleeding in his country's cause, O'er her fond child the dying Mother's tears, The Lover's ardor, and the Virgin's fears; The tittering Nymph, that tries her comic task, Bounds on the scene, and peeps behind her mask, The Punch and Harlequin, and graver throng, That shake the theatre with dance and song, With endless trains of Angers, Loves, and Mirths, Owe to the Muse of Mimicry their births. 330

 [Footnote: _The Muse of Mimicry_, l. 319. Much of the pleasure received from the drawings of flowers finely finished, or of portraits, is derived from their imitation or resemblance of the objects or persons which they represent. The same occurs in the pleasure we receive from mimicry on the stage; we are surprised at the accuracy of its enacted resemblance. Some part of the pleasure received from architecture, as when we contemplate the internal structure of gothic temples, as of King's College chapel in Cambridge, or of Lincoln Cathedral, may arise also from their imitation or resemblance of those superb avenues of large trees, which were formerly appropriated to religious ceremonies. ]

 "Hence to clear images of form belong The sculptor's statue, and the poet's song, The painter's landscape, and the builder's plan, And IMITATION marks the mind of Man. 

 [Footnote: _Imitation marks_, l. 334. Many other curious instances of one part of the animal system imitating another part of it, as in some contagious diseases; and also of some animals imitating each other, are given in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 3. To which may be added, that this propensity to imitation not only appears in the actions of children, but in all the customs and fashions of the world; many thousands tread in the beaten paths of others, who precede or accompany them, for one who traverses regions of his own discovery. ]

 VI. "WHEN strong desires or soft sensations move The astonish'd Intellect to rage or love; Associate tribes of fibrous motions rise, Flush the red cheek, or light the laughing eyes. Whence ever-active Imitation finds The ideal trains, that pass in kindred minds; 340 Her mimic arts associate thoughts excite And the first LANGUAGE enters at the sight. 

 [Footnote: _And the first Language_, l. 342. There are two ways by which we become acquainted with the passions of others: first, by having observed the effects of them, as of fear or anger, on our own bodies, we know at sight when others are under the influence of these affections. So children long before they can speak, or understand the language of their parents, may be frightened by an angry countenance, or soothed by smiles and blandishments. 

 Secondly, when we put ourselves into the attitude that any passion naturally occasions, we soon in some degree acquire that passion; hence when those that scold indulge themselves in loud oaths and violent actions of the arms, they increase their anger by the mode of expressing themselves; and, on the contrary, the counterfeited smile of pleasure in disagreeable company soon brings along with it a portion of the reality, as is well illustrated by Mr. Burke. (Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful. )

 These are natural signs by which we understand each other, and on this slender basis is built all human language. For without some natural signs no artificial ones could have been invented or understood, as is very ingeniously observed by Dr. Reid. (Inquiry into the Human Mind. )]

 "Thus jealous quails or village-cocks inspect Each other's necks with stiffen'd plumes erect; Smit with the wordless eloquence, they know The rival passion of the threatening foe. So when the famish'd wolves at midnight howl, Fell serpents hiss, or fierce hyenas growl; Indignant Lions rear their bristling mail, And lash their sides with undulating tail. 350 Or when the Savage-Man with clenched fist Parades, the scowling champion of the list; With brandish'd arms, and eyes that roll to know Where first to fix the meditated blow; Association's mystic power combines Internal passions with external signs. 

 "From these dumb gestures first the exchange began Of viewless thought in bird, and beast, and man; And still the stage by mimic art displays Historic pantomime in modern days; 360 And hence the enthusiast orator affords Force to the feebler eloquence of words. 

 "Thus the first LANGUAGE, when we frown'd or smiled, Rose from the cradle, Imitation's child; Next to each thought associate sound accords, And forms the dulcet symphony of words; The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat With soft vibration modulates the note; Love, pity, war, the shout, the song, the prayer Form quick concussions of elastic air. 370

 "Hence the first accents bear in airy rings The vocal symbols of ideal things, Name each nice change appulsive powers supply To the quick sense of touch, or ear or eye. Or in fine traits abstracted forms suggest Of Beauty, Wisdom, Number, Motion, Rest; Or, as within reflex ideas move, Trace the light steps of Reason, Rage, or Love. The next new sounds adjunctive thoughts recite, As hard, odorous, tuneful, sweet, or white. 380 The next the fleeting images select Of action, suffering, causes and effect; Or mark existence, with the march sublime O'er earth and ocean of recording TIME. 

 [Footnote: _Hence the first accents_, l. 371. Words were originally the signs or names of individual ideas; but in all known languages many of them by changing their terminations express more than one idea, as in the cases of nouns, and the moods and tenses of verbs. Thus a whip suggests a single idea of that instrument; but "to whip, " suggests an idea of action, joined with that of the instrument, and is then called a verb; and "to be whipped, " suggests an idea of being acted upon or suffering. Thus in most languages two ideas are suggested by one word by changing its termination; as amor, love; amare, to love; amari, to be loved. 

 Nouns are the names of the ideas of things, first as they are received by the stimulus of objects, or as they are afterwards repeated; secondly, they are names of more abstracted ideas, which do not suggest at the same time the external objects, by which they were originally excited; or thirdly, of the operations of our minds, which are termed reflex ideas by metaphysical writers; or lastly, they are the names of our ideas of parts or properties of objects; and are termed by grammarians nouns adjective. 

 Verbs are also in reality names of our ideas of things, or nouns, with the addition of another idea to them, as of acting or suffering; or of more than one other annexed idea, as of time, and also of existence. These with the numerous abbreviations, so well illustrated by Mr. Horne Tooke in his Diversions of Purley, make up the general theory of language, which consists of the symbols of ideas represented by vocal or written words; or by parts of those words, as their terminations; or by their disposition in respect to their order or succession; as further explained in Additional Note XIV. ]

 "The GIANT FORM on Nature's centre stands, And waves in ether his unnumber'd hands; Whirls the bright planets in their silver spheres, And the vast sun round other systems steers; Till the last trump amid the thunder's roar Sound the dread Sentence "TIME SHALL BE NO MORE!"

 "Last steps Abbreviation, bold and strong, 391 And leads the volant trains of words along; With sweet loquacity to HERMES springs, And decks his forehead and his feet with wings. 

 VII. "As the soft lips and pliant tongue are taught With other minds to interchange the thought; And sound, the symbol of the sense, explains In parted links the long ideal trains; From clear conceptions of external things The facile power of Recollection springs. 400

 [Footnote: _In parted links_, l. 398. As our ideas consist of successive trains of the motions, or changes of figure, of the extremities of the nerves of one or more of our senses, as of the optic or auditory nerves; these successive trains of motion, or configuration, are in common life divided into many links, to each of which a word or name is given, and it is called an idea. This chain of ideas may be broken into more or fewer links, or divided in different parts of it, by the customs of different people. Whence the meanings of the words of one language cannot always be exactly expressed by those of another; and hence the acquirement of different languages in their infancy may affect the modes of thinking and reasoning of whole nations, or of different classes of society; as the words of them do not accurately suggest the same ideas, or parts of ideal trains; a circumstance which has not been sufficiently analysed. ]

 "Whence REASON'S empire o'er the world presides, And man from brute, and man from man divides; Compares and measures by imagined lines Ellipses, circles, tangents, angles, sines; Repeats with nice libration, and decrees In what each differs, and in what agrees; With quick Volitions unfatigued selects Means for some end, and causes of effects; All human science worth the name imparts, And builds on Nature's base the works of Arts. 410

 [Footnote: _Whence Reason's empire_, l. 401. The facility of the use of the voluntary power, which is owing to the possession of the clear ideas acquired by our superior sense of touch, and afterwards of vision, distinguishes man from brutes, and has given him the empire of the world, with the power of improving nature by the exertions of art. 

 Reasoning is that operation of the sensorium by which we excite two or many tribes of ideas, and then reexcite the ideas in which they differ or correspond. If we determine this difference, it is called judgment; if we in vain endeavour to determine it, it is called doubting. 

 If we reexcite the ideas in which they differ, it is called distinguishing. If we reexcite those in which they correspond, it is called comparing. ]

 "The Wasp, fine architect, surrounds his domes With paper-foliage, and suspends his combs; Secured from frost the Bee industrious dwells, And fills for winter all her waxen cells; The cunning Spider with adhesive line Weaves his firm net immeasurably fine; The Wren, when embryon eggs her cares engross, Seeks the soft down, and lines the cradling moss; Conscious of change the Silkworm-Nymphs begin Attach'd to leaves their gluten-threads to spin; 420 Then round and round they weave with circling heads Sphere within Sphere, and form their silken beds. --Say, did these fine volitions first commence From clear ideas of the tangent sense; From sires to sons by imitation caught, Or in dumb language by tradition taught? Or did they rise in some primeval site Of larva-gnat, or microscopic mite; And with instructive foresight still await On each vicissitude of insect-state?-- 430 Wise to the present, nor to future blind, They link the reasoning reptile to mankind! --Stoop, selfish Pride! survey thy kindred forms, Thy brother Emmets, and thy sister Worms!

 [Footnote: _The Wasp, fine architect_, l. 411. Those animals which possess a better sense of touch are, in general, more ingenious than others. Those which have claviculæ, or collar-bones, and thence use the forefeet as hands, as the monkey, squirrel, rat, are more ingenious in seizing their prey or escaping from danger. And the ingenuity of the elephant appears to arise from the sense of touch at the extremity of his proboscis, which has a prominence on one side of its cavity like a thumb to close against the other side of it, by which I have seen him readily pick up a shilling which was thrown amongst the straw he stood upon. Hence the excellence of the sense of touch in many insects seems to have given them wonderful ingenuity so as to equal or even excel mankind in some of their arts and discoveries; many of which may have been acquired in situations previous to their present ones, as the great globe itself, and all that it inhabit, appear to be in a perpetual state of mutation and improvement; see Additional Note IX. ]

 "Thy potent acts, VOLITION, still attend The means of pleasure to secure the end; To express his wishes and his wants design'd Language, the _means_, distinguishes Mankind; For _future_ works in Art's ingenious schools His hands unwearied form and finish tools; 440 He toils for money _future_ bliss to share, And shouts to Heaven his mercenary prayer. Sweet Hope delights him, frowning Fear alarms, And Vice and Virtue court him to their arms. 

 [Footnote: _Thy potent acts, Volition_, l. 435. It was before observed, how much the superior accuracy of our sense of touch contributes to increase our knowledge; but it is the greater energy and activity of the power of volition, that marks mankind, and has given them the empire of the world. 

 There is a criterion by which we may distinguish our voluntary acts or thoughts from those that are excited by our sensations: "The former are always employed about the means to acquire pleasurable objects, or to avoid painful ones; while the latter are employed about the possession of those that are already in our power. "

 The ideas and actions of brutes, like those of children, are almost perpetually produced by their present pleasures or their present pains; and they seldom busy themselves about the _means_ of procuring future bliss, or of avoiding future misery. 

 Whilst the acquiring of languages, the making of tools, and the labouring for money, which are all only the _means_ of procuring pleasure; and the praying to the Deity, as another means to procure happiness, are characteristic of human nature. ]

 "Unenvied eminence, in Nature's plan Rise the reflective faculties of Man! Labour to Rest the thinking Few prefer! Know but to mourn! and reason but to err!-- In Eden's groves, the cradle of the world, Bloom'd a fair tree with mystic flowers unfurl'd; 450 On bending branches, as aloft it sprung, Forbid to taste, the fruit of KNOWLEDGE hung; Flow'd with sweet Innocence the tranquil hours, And Love and Beauty warm'd the blissful bowers. Till our deluded Parents pluck'd, erelong, The tempting fruit, and gather'd Right and Wrong; Whence Good and Evil, as in trains they pass, Reflection imaged on her polish'd glass; And Conscience felt, for blood by Hunger spilt, The pains of shame, of sympathy, and guilt! 460

 [Footnote: _And gather'd Right and Wrong_, l. 456. Some philosophers have believed that the acquisition of knowledge diminishes the happiness of the possessor; an opinion which seems to have been inculcated by the history of our first parents, who are said to have become miserable from eating of the tree of knowledge. But as the foresight and the power of mankind are much increased by their voluntary exertions in the acquirement of knowledge, they may undoubtedly avoid many sources of evil, and procure many sources of good; and yet possess the pleasures of sense, or of imagination, as extensively as the brute or the savage. ]

 VIII. "LAST, as observant Imitation stands, Turns her quick glance, and brandishes her hands, With mimic acts associate thoughts excites, And storms the soul with sorrows or delights; Life's shadowy scenes are brighten'd and refin'd, And soft emotions mark the feeling mind. 

 [Footnote: _And soft emotions_, l. 466. From our aptitude to imitation arises what is generally understood by the word sympathy, so well explained by Dr. Smith of Glasgow. Thus the appearance of a cheerful countenance gives us pleasure, and of a melancholy one makes us sorrowful. Yawning, and sometimes vomiting, are thus propagated by sympathy; and some people of delicate fibres, at the presence of a spectacle of misery, have felt pain in the same parts of their bodies, that were diseased or mangled in the object they saw. 

 The effect of this powerful agent in the moral world, is the foundation of all our intellectual sympathies with the pains and pleasures of others, and is in consequence the source of all our virtues. For in what consists our sympathy with the miseries or with the joys of our fellow creatures, but in an involuntary excitation of ideas in some measure similar or imitative of those which we believe to exist in the minds of the persons whom we commiserate or congratulate!]

 "The Seraph, SYMPATHY, from Heaven descends, And bright o'er earth his beamy forehead bends; On Man's cold heart celestial ardor flings, And showers affection from his sparkling wings; 470 Rolls o'er the world his mild benignant eye, Hears the lone murmur, drinks the whisper'd sigh; Lifts the closed latch of pale Misfortune's door, Opes the clench'd hand of Avarice to the poor, Unbars the prison, liberates the slave, Sheds his soft sorrows o'er the untimely grave, Points with uplifted hand to realms above, And charms the world with universal love. 

 "O'er the thrill'd frame his words assuasive steal, And teach the selfish heart what others feel; 480 With sacred truth each erring thought control, Bind sex to sex, and mingle soul with soul; From heaven, He cried, descends the moral plan, And gives Society to savage man. 

 "High on yon scroll, inscribed o'er Nature's shrine, Live in bright characters the words divine. "IN LIFE'S DISASTROUS SCENES TO OTHERS DO, WHAT YOU WOULD WISH BY OTHERS DONE TO YOU. " --Winds! wide o'er earth the sacred law convey, Ye Nations, hear it! and ye Kings, obey! 490

 [Footnote: _High on yon scroll_, l. 485. The famous sentence of Socrates "Know thyself, " so celebrated by writers of antiquity, and said by them to have descended from Heaven, however wise it may be, seems to be rather of a selfish nature; and the author of it might have added "Know also other people. " But the sacred maxims of the author of Christianity, "Do as you would be done by, " and "Love your neighbour as yourself, " include all our duties of benevolence and morality; and, if sincerely obeyed by all nations, would a thousandfold multiply the present happiness of mankind. ]

 "Unbreathing wonder hush'd the adoring throng, Froze the broad eye, and chain'd the silent tongue; Mute was the wail of Want, and Misery's cry, And grateful Pity wiped her lucid eye; Peace with sweet voice the Seraph-form address'd, And Virtue clasp'd him to her throbbing breast. "

END OF CANTO III. 

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. 

CANTO IV. 

OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

CONTENTS. 

I. Few affected by Sympathy 1. Cruelty of War 11. Of brute animals, Wolf, Eagle, Lamb, Dove, Owl, Nightingale 17. Of insects, Oestrus, Ichneumon, Libellula 29. Wars of Vegetables 41. Of fish, the Shark, Crocodile, Whale 55. The World a Slaughter-house 66. Pains from Defectand from Excess of Stimulus 71. Ebriety and Superstition 77. Mania 89. Association 93. Avarice, Imposture, Ambition, Envy, Jealousy 97. Floods, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Famine 109. Pestilence 117. Pains fromSympathy 123. II. Good outbalances Evil 135. Life combines inanimateMatter, and produces happiness by Irritation 145. As in viewing aLandscape 159. In hearing Music 171. By Sensation or Fancy in Dreams183. The Patriot and the Nun 197. Howard, Moira, Burdett 205. ByVolition 223. Newton, Herschel 233. Archimedes, Savery 241. Isis, Arkwright 253. Letters and Printing 265. Freedom of the Press 273. ByAssociation 291. Ideas of Contiguity, Resemblance, and of Cause andEffect 299. Antinous 319. Cecilia 329. III. Life soon ceases, Birthsand Deaths alternate 337. Acorns, Poppy-seeds, Aphises, Snails, Worms, Tadpoles, Herrings innumerable 347. So Mankind 369. All Nature teemswith Life 375. Dead Organic Matter soon revives 383. Death is but achange of Form 393. Exclamation of St. Paul 403. Happiness of theWorld increases 405. The Phoenix 411. System of Pythagoras 417. Rocksand Mountains produced by Organic Life 429. Are Monuments of pastFelicity 447. Munificence of the Deity 455. IV. Procession of Virgins469. Hymn to Heaven 481. Of Chaos 489. Of Celestial Love 499. Offeringof Urania 517-524. 

CANTO IV. 

OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

 I. "HOW FEW, " the MUSE in plaintive accents cries, And mingles with her words pathetic sighs. -- "How few, alas! in Nature's wide domains The sacred charm of SYMPATHY restrains! Uncheck'd desires from appetite commence, And pure reflection yields to selfish sense! --Blest is the Sage, who learn'd in Nature's laws With nice distinction marks effect and cause; Who views the insatiate Grave with eye sedate, Nor fears thy voice, inexorable Fate! 10

 [Footnote: _Blest is the Sage_, l. 7. 

 Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas; Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum, Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. VIRG. Georg. II. 490. ]

 "WHEN War, the Demon, lifts his banner high, And loud artillery rends the affrighted sky; Swords clash with swords, on horses horses rush, Man tramples man, and nations nations crush; Death his vast sithe with sweep enormous wields, And shuddering Pity quits the sanguine fields. 

 "The wolf, escorted by his milk-drawn dam, Unknown to mercy, tears the guiltless lamb; The towering eagle, darting from above, Unfeeling rends the inoffensive dove; 20 The lamb and dove on living nature feed, Crop the young herb, or crush the embryon seed. Nor spares the loud owl in her dusky flight, Smit with sweet notes, the minstrel of the night; Nor spares, enamour'd of his radiant form, The hungry nightingale the glowing worm; Who with bright lamp alarms the midnight hour, Climbs the green stem, and slays the sleeping flower. 

 [Footnote: _The towering eagle_, l. 19. 

 Torva leæna lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam, Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella. VIRG. ]

 "Fell Oestrus buries in her rapid course Her countless brood in stag, or bull, or horse; 30 Whose hungry larva eats its living way, Hatch'd by the warmth, and issues into day. The wing'd Ichneumon for her embryon young Gores with sharp horn the caterpillar throng. The cruel larva mines its silky course, And tears the vitals of its fostering nurse. While fierce Libellula with jaws of steel Ingulfs an insect-province at a meal; Contending bee-swarms rise on rustling wings, And slay their thousands with envenom'd stings. 40

 [Footnote: _Fell Oestrus buries_, l. 29. The gadfly, bot-fly, or sheep-fly: the larva lives in the bodies of cattle throughout the whole winter; it is extracted from their backs by an African bird called Buphaga. Adhering to the anus it artfully introduces itself into the intestines of horses, and becomes so numerous in their stomachs, as sometimes to destroy them; it climbs into the nostrils of sheep and calves, and producing a nest of young in a transparent hydatide in the frontal sinus, occasions the vertigo or turn of those animals. In Lapland it so attacks the rein deer that the natives annually travel with the herds from the woods to the mountains. Lin. Syst. Nat. ]

 [Footnote: _The wing'd Ichneumon_, l. 33. Linneus describes seventy-seven species of the ichneumon fly, some of which have a sting as long and some twice as long as their bodies. Many of them insert their eggs into various caterpillars, which when they are hatched seem for a time to prey on the reservoir of silk in the backs of those animals designed for their own use to spin a cord to support them, or a bag to contain them, while they change from their larva form to a butterfly; as I have seen in above fifty cabbage-caterpillars. The ichneumon larva then makes its way out of the caterpillar, and spins itself a small cocoon like a silk worm; these cocoons are about the size of a small pin's head, and I have seen about ten of them on each cabbage caterpillar, which soon dies after their exclusion. 

 Other species of ichneumon insert their eggs into the aphis, and into the larva of the aphidivorous fly: others into the bedeguar of rose trees, and the gall-nuts of oaks; whence those excrescences seem to be produced, as well as the hydatides in the frontal sinus of sheep and calves by the stimulus of the larvæ deposited in them. ]

 [Footnote: _While fierce Libellula_, l. 37. The Libellula or Dragon-fly is said to be a most voracious animal; Linneus says in their perfect state they are the hawks to naked winged flies; in their larva state they run beneath the water, and are the cruel crocodiles of aquatic insects. Syst. Nat. ]

 [Footnote: _Contending bee-swarms_, l. 39. Stronger bee-swarms frequently attack weak hives, and in two or three days destroy them and carry away their honey; this I once prevented by removing the attacked hive after the first day's battle to a distinct part of the garden. See Phytologia, Sect. XIV. 3. 7. ]

 "Yes! smiling Flora drives her armed car Through the thick ranks of vegetable war; Herb, shrub, and tree, with strong emotions rise For light and air, and battle in the skies; Whose roots diverging with opposing toil Contend below for moisture and for soil; Round the tall Elm the flattering Ivies bend, And strangle, as they clasp, their struggling friend; Envenom'd dews from Mancinella flow, And scald with caustic touch the tribes below; 50 Dense shadowy leaves on stems aspiring borne With blight and mildew thin the realms of corn; And insect hordes with restless tooth devour The unfolded bud, and pierce the ravell'd flower. 

 "In ocean's pearly haunts, the waves beneath Sits the grim monarch of insatiate Death; The shark rapacious with descending blow Darts on the scaly brood, that swims below; The crawling crocodiles, beneath that move, Arrest with rising jaw the tribes above; 60 With monstrous gape sepulchral whales devour Shoals at a gulp, a million in an hour. --Air, earth, and ocean, to astonish'd day One scene of blood, one mighty tomb display! From Hunger's arm the shafts of Death are hurl'd, And one great Slaughter-house the warring world!

 [Footnote: _The shark rapacious_, l. 57. The shark has three rows of sharp teeth within each other, which he can bend downwards internally to admit larger prey, and raise to prevent its return; his snout hangs so far over his mouth, that he is necessitated to turn upon his back, when he takes fish that swim over him, and hence seems peculiarly formed to catch those that swim under him. ]

 [Footnote: _The crawling crocodiles_, l. 59. As this animal lives chiefly at the bottom of the rivers, which he frequents, he has the power of opening the upper jaw as well as the under one, and thus with greater facility catches the fish or water-fowl which swim over him. ]

 [Footnote: _One great slaughter-house_, l. 66. As vegetables are an inferior order of animals fixed to the soil; and as the locomotive animals prey upon them, or upon each other; the world may indeed be said to be one great slaughter-house. As the digested food of vegetables consists principally of sugar, and from this is produced again their mucilage, starch, and oil, and since animals are sustained by these vegetable productions, it would seem that the sugar-making process carried on in vegetable vessels was the great source of life to all organized beings. And that if our improved chemistry should ever discover the art of making sugar from fossile or aerial matter without the assistance of vegetation, food for animals would then become as plentiful as water, and they might live upon the earth without preying on each other, as thick as blades of grass, with no restraint to their numbers but the want of local room. 

 It would seem that roots fixed in the earth and leaves innumerable waving in the air were necessary for the decomposition of water and air, and the conversion of them into saccharine matter, which would have been not only cumberous but totally incompatible with the locomotion of animal bodies. For how could a man or quadruped have carried on his head or back a forest of leaves, or have had long branching lacteal or absorbent vessels terminating in the earth? Animals therefore subsist on vegetables; that is they take the matter so prepared, and have organs to prepare it further for the purposes of higher animation and greater sensibility. ]

 "THE brow of Man erect, with thought elate, Ducks to the mandate of resistless fate; Nor Love retains him, nor can Virtue save Her sages, saints, or heroes from the grave. 70 While cold and hunger by defect oppress, Repletion, heat, and labour by excess, The whip, the sting, the spur, the fiery brand, And, cursed Slavery! thy iron hand; And led by Luxury Disease's trains, Load human life with unextinguish'd pains. 

 [Footnote: _While cold and hunger_, l. 71. Those parts of our system, which are in health excited into perpetual action, give us pain, when they are not excited into action: thus when the hands are for a time immersed in snow, an inaction of the cutaneous capillaries is induced, as is seen from the paleness of the skin, which is attended with the pain of coldness. So the pain of hunger is probably produced by the inaction of the muscular fibres of the stomach from the want of the stimulus of food. 

 Thus those, who have used much voluntary exertion in their early years, and have continued to do so, till the decline of life commences, if they then lay aside their employment, whether that of a minister of state, a general of an army, or a merchant, or manufacturer; they cease to have their faculties excited into their usual activity, and become unhappy, I suppose from the too great accumulation of the sensorial power of volition; which wants the accustomed stimulus or motive to cause its expenditure. ]

 "Here laughs Ebriety more fell than arms, And thins the nations with her fatal charms, With Gout, and Hydrops groaning in her train, And cold Debility, and grinning Pain, 80 With harlot's smiles deluded man salutes, Revenging all his cruelties to brutes! There the curst spells of Superstition blind, And fix her fetters on the tortured mind; She bids in dreams tormenting shapes appear, With shrieks that shock Imagination's ear, E'en o'er the grave a deeper shadow flings, And maddening Conscience darts a thousand stings. 

 [Footnote: _Here laughs Ebriety_, l. 77. 

 Sævior armis Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulciscitur orbem. HORAC. ]

 [Footnote: _E'en o'er the grave_, l. 87. Many theatric preachers among the Methodists successfully inculcate the fear of death and of Hell, and live luxuriously on the folly of their hearers: those who suffer under this insanity, are generally most innocent and harmless people, who are then liable to accuse themselves of the greatest imaginary crimes; and have so much intellectual cowardice, that they dare not reason about those things, which they are directed by their priests to believe. Where this intellectual cowardice is great, the voice of reason is ineffectual; but that of ridicule may save many from these mad-making doctors, as the farces of Mr. Foot; though it is too weak to cure those who are already hallucinated. ]

 "There writhing Mania sits on Reason's throne, Or Melancholy marks it for her own, 90 Sheds o'er the scene a voluntary gloom, Requests oblivion, and demands the tomb. And last Association's trains suggest Ideal ills, that harrow up the breast, Call for the dead from Time's o'erwhelming main, And bid departed Sorrow live again. 

 [Footnote: _And last association_, l. 93. The miseries and the felicities of life may be divided into those which arise in consequence of irritation, sensation, volition, and association; and consist in the actions of the extremities of the nerves of sense, which constitute our ideas; if they are much more exerted than usual, or much less exerted than usual, they occasion pain; as when the finger is burnt in a candle; or when we go into a cold bath: while their natural degree of exertion produces the pleasure of life or existence. This pleasure is nevertheless increased, when the system is stimulated into rather stronger action than usual, as after a copious dinner, and at the beginning of intoxication; and diminished, when it is only excited into somewhat less activity than usual, which is termed ennui, or irksomeness of life. ]

 [Footnote: _Ideal ills_, l. 94. The tooth-edge is an instance of bodily pain occasioned by association of ideas. Every one in his childhood has repeatedly bit a part of the glass or earthen vessel, in which his food has been given him, and has thence had a disagreeable sensation in his teeth, attended at the same time with a jarring sound: and ever after, when such a sound is accidentally produced, the disagreeable sensation of the teeth follows by association of ideas; this is further elucidated in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVI. 10. ]

 "Here ragged Avarice guards with bolted door His useless treasures from the starving poor; Loads the lorn hours with misery and care, And lives a beggar to enrich his heir. 100 Unthinking crowds thy forms, Imposture, gull, A Saint in sackcloth, or a Wolf in wool. While mad with foolish fame, or drunk with power, Ambition slays his thousands in an hour; Demoniac Envy scowls with haggard mien, And blights the bloom of other's joys, unseen; Or wrathful Jealousy invades the grove, And turns to night meridian beams of Love!

 [Footnote: _Enrich his heir_, l. 100. 

 Cum furor haud dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenitis, Ut locuples moriaris, egenti vivere fato. JUVENAL. ]

 [Footnote: _A Wolf in wool_, l. 102. A wolf in sheep's clothing. ]

 "Here wide o'er earth impetuous waters sweep, And fields and forests rush into the deep; 110 Or dread Volcano with explosion dire Involves the mountains in a flood of fire; Or yawning Earth with closing jaws inhumes Unwarned nations, living in their tombs; Or Famine seizes with her tiger-paw, And swallows millions with unsated maw. 

 "There livid Pestilence in league with Dearth Walks forth malignant o'er the shuddering earth, Her rapid shafts with airs volcanic wings, Or steeps in putrid vaults her venom'd stings. 120 Arrests the young in Beauty's vernal bloom, And bears the innocuous strangers to the tomb!--

 [Footnote: _With airs volcanic_, l. 119. Those epidemic complaints, which are generally termed influenza, are believed to arise from vapours thrown out from earthquakes in such abundance as to affect large regions of the atmosphere, see Botanic Garden, V. I. Canto IV. L. 65. While the diseases properly termed contagious originate from the putrid effluvia of decomposing animal or vegetable matter. ]

 "AND now, e'en I, whose verse reluctant sings The changeful state of sublunary things, Bend o'er Mortality with silent sighs, And wipe the secret tear-drops from my eyes, Hear through the night one universal groan, And mourn unseen for evils not my own, With restless limbs and throbbing heart complain, Stretch'd on the rack of sentimental pain! 130 --Ah where can Sympathy reflecting find One bright idea to console the mind? One ray of light in this terrene abode To prove to Man the Goodness of his GOD?"

 [Footnote: _Sentimental pain_, l. 130. Children should be taught in their early education to feel for all the remediable evils, which they observe in others; but they should at the same time be taught sufficient firmness of mind not intirely to destroy their own happiness by their sympathizing with too great sensibility with the numerous irremediable evils, which exist in the present system of the world: as by indulging that kind of melancholy they decrease the sum total of public happiness; which is so far rather reprehensible than commendable. See Plan for Female Education by Dr. Darwin, Johnson, London, Sect. XVII. 

 This has been carried to great excess in the East by the disciples of Confucius; the Gentoos during a famine in India refused to eat the flesh of cows and of other animals to satisfy their hunger, and save themselves from death. And at other times they have been said to permit fleas and musquitoes to feed upon them from this erroneous sympathy. ]

 II. "HEAR, O YE SONS OF TIME!" the Nymph replies, Quick indignation darting from her eyes; "When in soft tones the Muse lamenting sings, And weighs with tremulous hand the sum of things; She loads the scale in melancholy mood, Presents the evil, but forgets the good. 140 But if the beam some firmer hand suspends, And good and evil load the adverse ends; With strong libration, where the Good abides, Quick nods the beam, the ponderous gold subsides. 

 "HEAR, O ye Sons of Time! the powers of Life Arrest the elements, and stay their strife; From wandering atoms, ethers, airs, and gas, By combination form the organic mass; And, --as they seize, digest, secrete, --dispense The bliss of Being to the vital Ens. 150 Hence in bright groups from IRRITATION rise Young Pleasure's trains, and roll their azure eyes. 

 [Footnote: _From wandering atoms_, l. 147. Had those ancient philosophers, who contended that the world was formed from atoms, ascribed their combinations to certain immutable properties received from the hand of the Creator, such as general gravitation, chemical affinity, or animal appetency, instead of ascribing them to a blind chance; the doctrine of atoms, as constituting or composing the material world by the variety of their combinations, so far from leading the mind to atheism, would strengthen the demonstration of the existence of a Deity, as the first cause of all things; because the analogy resulting from our perpetual experience of cause and effect would have thus been exemplified through universal nature. ]

 "With fond delight we feel the potent charm, When Zephyrs cool us, or when sun-beams warm; With fond delight inhale the fragrant flowers, Taste the sweet fruits, which bend the blushing bowers, Admire the music of the vernal grove, Or drink the raptures of delirious love. 

 "So with long gaze admiring eyes behold The varied landscape all its lights unfold; 160 Huge rocks opposing o'er the stream project Their naked bosoms, and the beams reflect; Wave high in air their fringed crests of wood, And checker'd shadows dance upon the flood; Green sloping lawns construct the sidelong scene, And guide the sparkling rill that winds between; Conduct on murmuring wings the pausing gale, And rural echoes talk along the vale; Dim hills behind in pomp aerial rise, Lift their blue tops, and melt into the skies. 170

 [Footnote: _The varied landscape_, l. 160. The pleasure, we feel on examining a fine landscape, is derived from various sources; as first the excitement of the retina of the eye into certain quantities of action; which when there is in the optic nerve any accumulation of sensorial power, is always agreeable. 2. When it is excited into such successive actions, as relieve each other; as when a limb has been long exerted in one direction, by stretching it in another; as described in Zoonomia, Sect. XL. 6. On ocular spectra. 3. And lastly by the associations of its parts with some agreeable sentiments or tastes, as of sublimity, beauty, utility, novelty; and the objects suggesting other sentiments, which have lately been termed picturesque as mentioned in the note to Canto III, l. 230 of this work. The two former of these sources of pleasure arise from irritation, the last from association. ]

 "So when by HANDEL tuned to measured sounds The trumpet vibrates, or the drum rebounds; Alarm'd we listen with ecstatic wonder To mimic battles, or imagined thunder. When the soft lute in sweet impassion'd strains Of cruel nymphs or broken vows complains; As on the breeze the fine vibration floats, We drink delighted the melodious notes. But when young Beauty on the realms above Bends her bright eye, and trills the tones of love; 180 Seraphic sounds enchant this nether sphere; And listening angels lean from Heaven to hear. 

 [Footnote: _We drink delighted_, l. 178. The pleasure we experience from music, is, like that from viewing a landscape, derived from various sources; as first from the excitement of the auditory nerve into certain quantities of action, when there exists any accumulation of sensorial power. 2. When the auditory nerve is exerted in such successive actions as relieve each other, like stretching or yawning, as described in Botanic Garden, Vol. II, Interlude the third, these successions of sound are termed melody, and their combinations harmony. 3. From the repetition of sounds at certain intervals of time; as we hear them with greater facility and accuracy, when we expect them; because they are then excited by volition, as well as by irritation, or at least the tympanum is then better adapted to assist their production; hence the two musical times or bars; and hence the rhimes in poetry give pleasure, as well as the measure of the verse: and lastly the pleasure we receive from music, arises from the associations of agreeable sentiments with certain proportions, or repetitions, or quantities, or times of sounds which have been previously acquired; as explained in Zoonomia Vol. I. Sect. XVI. 10. And Sect. XXII. 2. ]

 "Next by SENSATION led, new joys commence From the fine movements of the excited sense; In swarms ideal urge their airy flight, Adorn the day-scenes, and illume the night. Her spells o'er all the hand of Fancy flings, Gives form and substance to unreal things; With fruits and foliage decks the barren waste, And brightens Life with sentiment and taste; 190 Pleased o'er the level and the rule presides, The painter's brush, the sculptor's chisel guides, With ray ethereal lights the poet's fire, Tunes the rude pipe, or strings the heroic lyre: Charm'd round the nymph on frolic footsteps move The angelic forms of Beauty, Grace, and Love. 

 "So dreams the Patriot, who indignant draws The sword of vengeance in his Country's cause; Bright for his brows unfading honours bloom, Or kneeling Virgins weep around his tomb. 200 So holy transports in the cloister's shade Play round thy toilet, visionary maid! Charm'd o'er thy bed celestial voices sing, And Seraphs hover on enamour'd wing. 

 "So HOWARD, MOIRA, BURDETT, sought the cells, Where want, or woe, or guilt in darkness dwells; With Pity's torch illumed the dread domains, Wiped the wet eye, and eased the galling chains; With Hope's bright blushes warm'd the midnight air, And drove from earth the Demon of Despair. 210 Erewhile emerging from the caves of night The Friends of Man ascended into light; With soft assuasive eloquence address'd The ear of Power to stay his stern behest; At Mercy's call to stretch his arm and save His tottering victims from the gaping grave. These with sweet smiles Imagination greets, For these she opens all her treasured sweets, Strews round their couch, by Pity's hand combined, Bright flowers of joy, the sunshine of the mind; 220 While Fame's loud trump with sounds applausive breathes And Virtue crowns them with immortal wreathes. 

 "Thy acts, VOLITION, to the world impart The plans of Science with the works of art; Give to proud Reason her comparing power, Warm every clime, and brighten every hour. In Life's first cradle, ere the dawn began Of young Society to polish man; The staff that propp'd him, and the bow that arm'd, The boat that bore him, and the shed that warm'd, 230 Fire, raiment, food, the ploughshare, and the sword, Arose, VOLITION, at thy plastic word. 

 "By thee instructed, NEWTON'S eye sublime Mark'd the bright periods of revolving time; Explored in Nature's scenes the effect and cause, And, charm'd, unravell'd all her latent laws. Delighted HERSCHEL with reflected light Pursues his radiant journey through the night; Detects new guards, that roll their orbs afar In lucid ringlets round the Georgian star. 240

 "Inspired by thee, with scientific wand Pleased ARCHIMEDES mark'd the figured sand; Seized with mechanic grasp the approaching decks, And shook the assailants from the inverted wrecks. --Then cried the Sage, with grand effects elate, And proud to save the Syracusian state; While crowds exulting shout their noisy mirth, 'Give where to stand, and I will move the earth. ' So SAVERY guided his explosive steam In iron cells to raise the balanced beam; 250 The Giant-form its ponderous mass uprears, Descending nods and seems to shake the spheres. 

 [Footnote: _Mark'd the figur'd sand_, l. 242. The ancient orators seem to have spoken disrespectfully of the mechanic philosophers. Cicero mentioning Archimedes, calls him Homunculus e pulvere et radio, alluding to the custom of drawing problems on the sand with a staff. ]

 [Footnote: _So Savery guided_, l. 249. Captain Savery first applied the pressure of the atmosphere to raise water in consequence of a vacuum previously produced by the condensation of steam, though the Marquis of Worcester had before proposed to use for this purpose the expansive power of steam; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto I. L. 253. Note. ]

 "Led by VOLITION on the banks of Nile Where bloom'd the waving flax on Delta's isle, Pleased ISIS taught the fibrous stems to bind, And part with hammers from the adhesive rind; With locks of flax to deck the distaff-pole, And whirl with graceful bend the dancing spole. In level lines the length of woof to spread, And dart the shuttle through the parting thread. 260 So ARKWRIGHT taught from Cotton-pods to cull, And stretch in lines the vegetable wool; With teeth of steel its fibre-knots unfurl'd, And with the silver tissue clothed the world. 

 [Footnote: _The waving flax_, l. 254. Flax is said to have been first discovered on the banks of the Nile, and Isis to have been the inventress of spinning and weaving. ]

 [Footnote: _So Arkwright taught_, l. 261. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Canto II. L. 87, Note. ]

 "Ages remote by thee, VOLITION, taught Chain'd down in characters the winged thought; With silent language mark'd the letter'd ground, And gave to sight the evanescent sound. Now, happier lot! enlighten'd realms possess The learned labours of the immortal Press; 270 Nursed on whose lap the births of science thrive, And rising Arts the wrecks of Time survive. 

 [Footnote: _The immortal Press_, l. 270. The discovery of the art of printing has had so great influence on human affairs, that from thence may be dated a new æra in the history of mankind. As by the diffusion of general knowledge, both of the arts of taste and of useful sciences, the public mind has become improved to so great a degree, that though new impositions have been perpetually produced, the arts of detecting them have improved with greater rapidity. Hence since the introduction of printing, superstition has been much lessened by the reformation of religion; and necromancy, astrology, chiromancy, witchcraft, and vampyrism, have vanished from all classes of society; though some are still so weak in the present enlightened times as to believe in the prodigies of animal magnetism, and of metallic tractors; by this general diffusion of knowledge, if the liberty of the press be preserved, mankind will not be liable in this part of the world to sink into such abject slavery as exists at this day in China. ]

 "Ye patriot heroes! in the glorious cause Of Justice, Mercy, Liberty, and Laws, Who call to Virtue's shrine the British youth, And shake the senate with the voice of Truth; Rouse the dull ear, the hoodwink'd eye unbind, And give to energy the public mind; While rival realms with blood unsated wage Wide-wasting war with fell demoniac rage; 280 In every clime while army army meets, And oceans groan beneath contending fleets; Oh save, oh save, in this eventful hour The tree of knowledge from the axe of power; With fostering peace the suffering nations bless, And guard the freedom of the immortal Press! So shall your deathless fame from age to age Survive recorded in the historic page; And future bards with voice inspired prolong Your sacred names immortalized in song. 290

 "Thy power ASSOCIATION next affords Ideal trains annex'd to volant words, Conveys to listening ears the thought superb, And gives to Language her expressive verb; Which in one changeful sound suggests the fact At once to be, to suffer, or to act; And marks on rapid wing o'er every clime The viewless flight of evanescent Time. 

 [Footnote: _Her expressive verb_, l. 294. The verb, or the word, has been so called from its being the most expressive term in all languages; as it suggests the ideas of existence, action or suffering, and of time; see the Note on Canto III. L. 371, of this work. ]

 "Call'd by thy voice contiguous thoughts embrace In endless streams arranged by Time or Place; 300 The Muse historic hence in every age Gives to the world her _interesting_ page; While in bright landscape from her moving pen Rise the fine tints of manners and of men. 

 [Footnote: _Call'd by thy voice_, l. 299. The numerous trains of associated ideas are divided by Mr. Hume into three classes, which he has termed contiguity, causation, and resemblance. Nor should we wonder to find them thus connected together, since it is the business of our lives to dispose them into these three classes; and we become valuable to ourselves and our friends as we succeed in it. Those who have combined an extensive class of ideas by the contiguity of time or place, are men learned in the history of mankind, and of the sciences they have cultivated. Those who have connected a great class of ideas of resemblances, possess the source of the ornaments of poetry and oratory, and of all rational analogy. While those who have connected great classes of ideas of causation, are furnished with the powers of producing effects. These are the men of active wisdom who lead armies to victory, and kingdoms to prosperity; or discover and improve the sciences which meliorate and adorn the condition of humanity. ]

 "Call'd by thy voice Resemblance next describes Her sister-thoughts in lucid trains or tribes; Whence pleased Imagination oft combines By loose analogies her fair designs; Each winning grace of polish'd wit bestows To deck the Nymphs of Poetry and Prose. 310

 [Footnote: _Polish'd wit bestows_, l. 309. Mr. Locke defines wit to consist of an assemblage of ideas, brought together with quickness and variety, wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy. To which Mr. Addison adds, that these must occasion surprise as well as delight; Spectator, Vol. I. No. LXII. See Note on Canto III. L. 145. And Additional Note, VII. 3. Perhaps wit in the extended use of the word may mean to express all kinds of fine writing, as the word Taste is applied to all agreeable visible objects, and thus wit may mean descriptive sublimity, beauty, the pathetic, or ridiculous, but when used in the confined sense, as by Mr. Locke and Mr. Addison as above, it may probably be better defined a combination of ideas with agreeable novelty, as this may be effected by opposition as well as by resemblance. ]

 "Last, at thy potent nod, Effect and Cause Walk hand in hand accordant to thy laws; Rise at Volition's call, in groups combined, Amuse, delight, instruct, and serve Mankind; Bid raised in air the ponderous structure stand, Or pour obedient rivers through the land; With cars unnumber'd crowd the living streets, Or people oceans with triumphant fleets. 

 "Thy magic touch imagined forms supplies From colour'd light, the language of the eyes; 320 On Memory's page departed hours inscribes, Sweet scenes of youth, and Pleasure's vanish'd tribes. By thee ANTINOUS leads the dance sublime On wavy step, and moves in measured time; Charm'd round the Youth successive Graces throng, And Ease conducts him, as he moves along; Unbreathing crowds the floating form admire, And Vestal bosoms feel forbidden fire. 

 "When rapp'd CECILIA breathes her matin vow, And lifts to Heaven her fair adoring brow; 330 From her sweet lips, and rising bosom part Impassion'd notes, that thrill the melting heart; Tuned by thy hand the dulcet harp she rings, And sounds responsive echo from the strings; Bright scenes of bliss in trains suggested move, And charm the world with melody and love. 

 III. "SOON the fair forms with vital being bless'd, Time's feeble children, lose the boon possess'd; The goaded fibre ceases to obey, And sense deserts the uncontractile clay; 340 While births unnumber'd, ere the parents die, The hourly waste of lovely life supply; And thus, alternating with death, fulfil The silent mandates of the Almighty Will; Whose hand unseen the works of nature dooms By laws unknown--WHO GIVES, AND WHO RESUMES. 

 [Footnote: _The goaded fibre_, l. 339. Old age consists in the inaptitude to motion from the inirritability of the system, and the consequent want of fibrous contraction; see Additional Note VII. ]

 "Each pregnant Oak ten thousand acorns forms Profusely scatter'd by autumnal storms; Ten thousand seeds each pregnant poppy sheds Profusely scatter'd from its waving heads; 350 The countless Aphides, prolific tribe, With greedy trunks the honey'd sap imbibe; Swarm on each leaf with eggs or embryons big, And pendent nations tenant every twig. Amorous with double sex, the snail and worm, Scoop'd in the soil, their cradling caverns form; Heap their white eggs, secure from frost and floods, And crowd their nurseries with uncounted broods. Ere yet with wavy tail the tadpole swims, Breathes with new lungs, or tries his nascent limbs; 360 Her countless shoals the amphibious frog forsakes, And living islands float upon the lakes. The migrant herring steers her myriad bands From seas of ice to visit warmer strands; Unfathom'd depths and climes unknown explores, And covers with her spawn unmeasured shores. --All these, increasing by successive birth, Would each o'erpeople ocean, air, and earth. 

 [Footnote: _Ten thousand seeds_, l. 349. The fertility of plants in respect to seeds is often remarkable; from one root in one summer the seeds of zea, maize, amount to 2000; of inula, elecampane, to 3000; of helianthus, sunflower, to 4000; of papaver, poppy, 32000; of nicotiana, tobacco, to 40320; to this must be added the perennial roots, and the buds. Buds, which are so many herbs, in one tree, the trunk of which does not exceed a span in thickness, frequently amount to 10000; Lin. Phil. Bot. P. 86. ]

 [Footnote: _The countless Aphides_, l. 351. The aphises, pucerons, or vine-fretters, are hatched from an egg in the early spring, and are all called females, as they produce a living offspring about once in a fortnight to the ninth generation, which are also all of them females; then males are also produced, and by their intercourse the females become oviparous, and deposite their eggs on the branches, or in the bark to be hatched in the ensuing spring. 

 This double mode of reproduction, so exactly resembling the buds and seeds of trees, accounts for the wonderful increase of this insect, which, according to Dr. Richardson, consists of ten generations, and of fifty at an average in each generation; so that the sum of fifty multiplied by fifty, and that product again multiplied by fifty nine times, would give the product of one egg only in countless millions; to which must be added the innumerable eggs laid by the tenth generation for the renovation of their progeny in the ensuing spring. ]

 [Footnote: _The honey'd sap_, l. 352. The aphis punctures with its fine proboscis the sap-vessels of vegetables without any visible wound, and thus drinks the sap-juice, or vegetable chyle, as it ascends. Hence on the twigs of trees they stand with their heads downwards, as I have observed, to acquire this ascending sap-juice with greater facility. The honey-dew on the upper surface of leaves is evacuated by these insects, as they hang on the underside of the leaves above; when they take too much of this saccharine juice during the vernal or midsummer sap-flow of most vegetables; the black powder on leaves is also their excrement at other times. The vegetable world seems to have escaped total destruction from this insect by the number of flies, which in their larva state prey upon them; and by the ichneumon fly, which deposits its eggs in them. Some vegetables put forth stiff bristles with points round their young shoots, as the moss-rose, apparently to prevent the depredation of these insects, so injurious to them by robbing them of their chyle or nourishment. ]

 [Footnote: _The tadpole swims_, l. 359. The progress of a tadpole from a fish to a quadruped by his gradually putting forth his limbs, and at length leaving the water, and breathing the dry air, is a subject of great curiosity, as it resembles so much the incipient state of all other quadrupeds, and men, who are aquatic animals in the uterus, and become aerial ones at their birth. ]

 "So human progenies, if unrestrain'd, By climate friended, and by food sustain'd, 370 O'er seas and soils, prolific hordes! would spread Erelong, and deluge their terraqueous bed; But war, and pestilence, disease, and dearth, Sweep the superfluous myriads from the earth. Thus while new forms reviving tribes acquire Each passing moment, as the old expire; Like insects swarming in the noontide bower, Rise into being, and exist an hour; The births and deaths contend with equal strife, And every pore of Nature teems with Life; 380 Which buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles, And Earth's vast surface kindles, as it rolls!

 [Footnote: _Which buds or breathes_, l. 381. Organic bodies, besides the carbon, hydrogen, azote, and the oxygen and heat, which are combined with them, require to be also immersed in loose heat and loose oxygen to preserve their mutable existence; and hence life only exists on or near the surface of the earth; see Botan. Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. L. 419. L'organisation, le sentiment, le movement spontané, la vie, n'existent qu'à la surface de la terre, et dans les lieux exposés à la lumière. Traité de Chimie par M. Lavoisier, Tom. I. P. 202. ]

 "HENCE when a Monarch or a mushroom dies, Awhile extinct the organic matter lies; But, as a few short hours or years revolve, Alchemic powers the changing mass dissolve; Born to new life unnumber'd insects pant, New buds surround the microscopic plant; Whose embryon senses, and unwearied frames, Feel finer goads, and blush with purer flames; 390 Renascent joys from irritation spring, Stretch the long root, or wave the aurelian wing. 

 [Footnote: _Born to new life_, l. 387. From the innumerable births of the larger insects, and the spontaneous productions of the microscopic ones, every part of organic matter from the recrements of dead vegetable or animal bodies, on or near the surface of the earth, becomes again presently reanimated; which by increasing the number and quantity of living organizations, though many of them exist but for a short time, adds to the sum total of terrestrial happiness. ]

 "When thus a squadron or an army yields, And festering carnage loads the waves or fields; When few from famines or from plagues survive, Or earthquakes swallow half a realm alive;-- While Nature sinks in Time's destructive storms, The wrecks of Death are but a change of forms; Emerging matter from the grave returns, Feels new desires, with new sensations burns; 400 With youth's first bloom a finer sense acquires, And Loves and Pleasures fan the rising fires. -- Thus sainted PAUL, 'O Death!' exulting cries, 'Where is thy sting? O Grave! thy victories?'

 [Footnote: _Thus sainted Paul_, l. 403. The doctrine of St. Paul teaches the resurrection of the body in an incorruptible and glorified state, with consciousness of its previous existence; he therefore justly exults over the sting of death, and the victory of the grave. ]

 "Immortal Happiness from realms deceased Wakes, as from sleep, unlessen'd or increased; Calls to the wise in accents loud and clear, Sooths with sweet tones the sympathetic ear; Informs and fires the revivescent clay, And lights the dawn of Life's returning day. 410

 [Footnote: _And lights the dawn_, l. 410. The sum total of the happiness of organized nature is probably increased rather than diminished, when one large old animal dies, and is converted into many thousand young ones; which are produced or supported with their numerous progeny by the same organic matter. Linneus asserts, that three of the flies, called musca vomitoria, will consume the body of a dead horse, as soon as a lion can; Syst. Nat. ]

 "So when Arabia's Bird, by age oppress'd, Consumes delighted on his spicy nest; A filial Phoenix from his ashes springs, Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings; Ascends exulting from his funeral flame, And soars and shines, another and the same. 

 [Footnote: _So when Arabia's bird_, l. 411. The story of the Phoenix rising from its own ashes with a star upon its head seems to have been an hieroglyphic emblem of the destruction and resuscitation of all things; see Botan. Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. L. 389. ]

 "So erst the Sage with scientific truth In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth; With ceaseless change how restless atoms pass From life to life, a transmigrating mass; 420 How the same organs, which to day compose The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose, May with to morrow's sun new forms compile, Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile. Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage the moral plan, That man should ever be the friend of man; Should eye with tenderness all living forms, His brother-emmets, and his sister-worms. 

 [Footnote: _So erst the Sage_, l. 417. It is probable, that the perpetual transmigration of matter from one body to another, of all vegetables and animals, during their lives, as well as after their deaths, was observed by Pythagoras; which he afterwards applied to the soul, or spirit of animation, and taught, that it passed from one animal to another as a punishment for evil deeds, though without consciousness of its previous existence; and from this doctrine he inculcated a system of morality and benevolence, as all creatures thus became related to each other. ]

 "HEAR, O ye Sons of Time! your final doom, And read the characters, that mark your tomb: 430 The marble mountain, and the sparry steep, Were built by myriad nations of the deep, -- Age after age, who form'd their spiral shells, Their sea-fan gardens and their coral cells; Till central fires with unextinguished sway Raised the primeval islands into day;-- The sand-fill'd strata stretch'd from pole to pole; Unmeasured beds of clay, and marl, and coal, Black ore of manganese, the zinky stone, And dusky steel on his magnetic throne, 440 In deep morass, or eminence superb, Rose from the wrecks of animal or herb; These from their elements by Life combined, Form'd by digestion, and in glands refined, Gave by their just excitement of the sense The Bliss of Being to the vital Ens. 

 [Footnote: _The marble mountain_, l. 431. From the increased knowledge in Geology during the present century, owing to the greater attention of philosophers to the situations of the different materials, which compose the strata of the earth, as well as to their chemical properties, it seems clearly to appear, that the nucleus of the globe beneath the ocean consisted of granite; and that on this the great beds of limestone were formed from the shells of marine animals during the innumerable primeval ages of the world; and that whatever strata lie on these beds of limestone, or on the granite, where the limestone does not cover it, were formed after the elevation of islands and continents above the surface of the sea by the recrements of vegetables and of terrestrial animals; see on this subject Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Note XXIV. ]

 "Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the lands, Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands, Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight, ARE MIGHTY MONUMENTS OF PAST DELIGHT; 450 Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives With vanquish'd Death, --and Happiness survives; How Life increasing peoples every clime, And young renascent Nature conquers Time; --And high in golden characters record The immense munificence of NATURE'S LORD!--

 [Footnote: _Are mighty monuments_, l. 450. The reader is referred to a few pages on this subject in Phytologia, Sect. XIX. 7. 1, where the felicity of organic life is considered more at large; but it is probable that the most certain way to estimate the happiness and misery of organic beings; as it depends on the actions of the organs of sense, which constitute ideas; or of the muscular fibres which perform locomotion; would be to consider those actions, as they are produced or excited by the four sensorial powers of irritation, sensation, volition, and association. A small volume on this subject by some ingenious writer, might not only amuse, as an object of curiosity; but by showing the world the immediate sources of their pains and pleasures might teach the means to avoid the one, and to procure the other, and thus contribute both ways to increase the sum total of organic happiness. ]

 [Footnote: _How Life increasing_, l. 453. Not only the vast calcareous provinces, which form so great a part of the terraqueous globe, and also whatever rests upon them, as clay, marl, sand, and coal, were formed from the fluid elements of heat, oxygen, azote, and hydrogen along with carbon, phosphorus, and perhaps a few other substances, which the science of chemistry has not yet decomposed; and gave the pleasure of life to the animals and vegetables, which formed them; and thus constitute monuments of the past happiness of those organized beings. But as those remains of former life are not again totally decomposed, or converted into their original elements, they supply more copious food to the succession of new animal or vegetable beings on their surface; which consists of materials convertible into nutriment with less labour or activity of the digestive powers; and hence the quantity or number of organized bodies, and their improvement in size, as well as their happiness, has been continually increasing, along with the solid parts of the globe; and will probably continue to increase, till the whole terraqueous sphere, and all that inhabit it shall dissolve by a general conflagration, and be again reduced to their elements. 

 Thus all the suns, and the planets, which circle round them, may again sink into one central chaos; and may again by explosions produce a new world; which in process of time may resemble the present one, and at length again undergo the same catastrophe! these great events may be the result of the immutable laws impressed on matter by the Great Cause of Causes, Parent of Parents, Ens Entium!]

 "He gives and guides the sun's attractive force, And steers the planets in their silver course; With heat and light revives the golden day, And breathes his spirit on organic clay; 460 With hand unseen directs the general cause By firm immutable immortal laws. "

 Charm'd with her words the Muse astonish'd stands, The Nymphs enraptured clasp their velvet hands; Applausive thunder from the fane recoils, And holy echoes peal along the ailes; O'er NATURE'S shrine celestial lustres glow, And lambent glories circle round her brow. 

 IV. Now sinks the golden sun, --the vesper song Demands the tribute of URANIA'S tongue; 470 Onward she steps, her fair associates calls From leaf-wove avenues, and vaulted halls. Fair virgin trains in bright procession move, Trail their long robes, and whiten all the grove; Pair after pair to Nature's temple sweep, Thread the broad arch, ascend the winding steep; Through brazen gates along susurrant ailes Stream round their GODDESS the successive files; Curve above curve to golden seats retire, And star with beauty the refulgent quire. 480

 AND first to HEAVEN the consecrated throng With chant alternate pour the adoring song, Swell the full hymn, now high, and now profound, With sweet responsive symphony of sound. Seen through their wiry harps, below, above, Nods the fair brow, the twinkling fingers move; Soft-warbling flutes the ruby lip commands, And cymbals ring with high uplifted hands. 

 TO CHAOS next the notes melodious pass, How suns exploded from the kindling mass, 490 Waved o'er the vast inane their tresses bright, And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light. Next from each sun how spheres reluctant burst, And second planets issued from the first. And then to EARTH descends the moral strain, How isles, emerging from the shoreless main, With sparkling streams and fruitful groves began, And form'd a Paradise for mortal man. 

 [Footnote: _To Chaos next_, l. 489. 

 Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta Semina terrarumque, animæque, marisque fuissent; Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis. VIRG. EC. VI. L. 31. ]

 Sublimer notes record CELESTIAL LOVE, And high rewards in brighter climes above; 500 How Virtue's beams with mental charm engage Youth's raptured eye, and warm the frost of age, Gild with soft lustre Death's tremendous gloom, And light the dreary chambers of the tomb. How fell Remorse shall strike with venom'd dart, Though mail'd in adamant, the guilty heart; Fierce furies drag to pains and realms unknown The blood-stain'd tyrant from his tottering throne. 

 By hands unseen are struck aerial wires, And Angel-tongues are heard amid the quires; 510 From aile to aile the trembling concord floats, And the wide roof returns the mingled notes, Through each fine nerve the keen vibrations dart, Pierce the charm'd ear, and thrill the echoing heart. --

 MUTE the sweet voice, and still the quivering strings, Now Silence hovers on unmoving wings. -- --Slow to the altar fair URANIA bends Her graceful march, the sacred steps ascends, High in the midst with blazing censer stands, And scatters incense with illumined hands: 520 Thrice to the GODDESS bows with solemn pause, With trembling awe the mystic veil withdraws, And, meekly kneeling on the gorgeous shrine, Lifts her ecstatic eyes to TRUTH DIVINE! 524

END OF CANTO IV. 

CONTENTS OF THE NOTES. 

CANTO I. 

 Line. 

 36 Origin of European Nations. 76 Early use of Painting and Hieroglyphics. 83 Proteus represents Time. 126 Cave of Trophonius. 137 Eleusinian Mysteries. 176 Antiquity of Statuary, casting Figures, and Carving. 224 Infancy of the present World. 235 Of Heat. 239 Of Attraction. 245 Of Contraction. 259 Arteries not conical. 262 Venous Absorption. 268 Decrease of the Ocean. 270 Sensation and Volition. 283 Mucor, Vibrio. 295 Animals are first aquatic. 315 Sea, originally was not Salt. 327 Animals from the Sea. 335 Aquatic Plants. 343 Frogs. 363 Rainbow in Northern Latitudes. 372 Venus rising from the Sea. 392 The Fetus in the Womb. 417 Animals from the Mud of the Nile. 

CANTO II. 

 1 Shortness of Life. 3 Old Age surprising. 39 Organic and chemical Properties. 43 Immortality of Matter. 47 Adonis emblem of Life. 71 The Truffle, Lycoperdon. 83 Volvox. 85 Polypus. 87 Tænia. 89 Oysters. 90 Coral-Insect. 114 Female Sex produced. 118 Power of Imagination. 122 Mankind were formerly Hermaphrodites and Quadrupeds. 167 Hereditary Diseases of Vegetables. 223 Psyche and Cupid. 268 Some Honey poisonous. 271 Appetency and Propensity. 280 Vallisneria. 288 Lampyris. 302 Insects from Anthers and Stigmas. 321 Horns of Stags, and Tusks of Boars, Spurs of Cocks. 351 Chick in the Egg. 356 Songs of Birds. 373 How Fish swim. 375 How Birds fly. 434 Of Smiles, and of Laughter. 

CANTO III. 

 13 Oxygen, and Hydrogen, and Azote. 21 Two electric Ethers. 64 Irritation. 72 Sensation. 73 Volition, Memory. 81 Intuitive Analogy. 91 Association. 103 Armour of Brutes. 122 Of the Human Hand. 125 Perception of Figure. 144 Sight the Language of the Touch. 145 Surprise, Novelty, Curiosity. 152 The Lips an Organ of Touch. 176 Ideal Beauty. 178 Two Deities of Love. 207 Idea of Beauty from the Female Bosom. 230 Taste for Sublimity. 237 Poetic Melancholy. 246 Taste for Tragedy. 258 Taste for uncultivated Nature. 270 Accumulation of sensorial Power. 294 Imitation described. 303 Imitation of one Sense by another. 319 Mimickry or Resemblance. 334 The Parts of the System imitate each other. 342 External Signs of Passions. 371 Theory of Language. 398 Ideas so called are parts of a train of Actions. 401 Of Reason. 411 Reasoning of Insects. 435 Volition distinguishes Mankind. 456 If Knowledge produces Happiness. 466 Sympathy the source of Virtue. 485 Maxim of Socrates. 

CANTO IV. 

 29 Oestrus or Gadfly. 33 Ichneumon fly. 37 Libellula. 39 Bees. 57 Shark. 59 Crocodile 66 Animals prey on Vegetables. 71 Defect of Stimulus. 87 Theatric Preachers. 93 Pleasure of Life, Ennui. 94 Of Tooth-edge. 119 Epidemic Complaints. 130 Compassion may be too great. 147 Doctrine of Atoms. 160 Pleasure of viewing a Landscape. 178 Pleasure from Music. 242 Ancient Orators spoke disrespectfully of the mechanic Philosophers. 270 Influence of Printing. 299 Associated ideas of three Classes. 309 Wit defined. 349 Surprising number of Seeds. 351 Of the Aphis, its Numbers. 352 Aphis drinks the Sap-juice. 359 The Mutation of the Tadpole. 387 Animation near the Surface of the Earth. 387 All dead animal and vegetable Bodies become animated. 403 Doctrine of St. Paul. 411 Happiness increased. 417 Doctrine of Pythagoras. 431 Geology. 450 Method of investigation of Organic happiness. 453 Organic Life increases. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

SPONTANEOUS VITALITY OF MICROSCOPIC ANIMALS. 

 Hence without parent by spontaneous birth Rise the first specks of animated earth. CANTO I. L. 227. 

_Prejudices against this doctrine. _

I. From the misconception of the ignorant or superstitious, it hasbeen thought somewhat profane to speak in favour of spontaneous vitalproduction, as if it contradicted holy writ; which says, that Godcreated animals and vegetables. They do not recollect that God createdall things which exist, and that these have been from the beginning ina perpetual state of improvement; which appears from the globe itself, as well as from the animals and vegetables, which possess it. Andlastly, that there is more dignity in our idea of the supreme authorof all things, when we conceive him to be the cause of causes, thanthe cause simply of the events, which we see; if there can be anydifference in infinity of power!

Another prejudice which has prevailed against the spontaneous productionof vitality, seems to have arisen from the misrepresentation of thisdoctrine, as if the larger animals had been thus produced; as Ovidsupposes after the deluge of Deucalion, that lions were seen rising outof the mud of the Nile, and struggling to disentangle their hinderparts. It was not considered, that animals and vegetables have beenperpetually improving by reproduction; and that spontaneous vitality wasonly to be looked for in the simplest organic beings, as in the smallestmicroscopic animalcules; which perpetually, perhaps hourly, enlargethemselves by reproduction, like the roots of tulips from seed, or thebuds of seedling trees, which die annually, leaving others by solitaryreproduction rather more perfect than themselves for many successiveyears, till at length they acquire sexual organs or flowers. 

A third prejudice against the existence of spontaneous vitalproductions has been the supposed want of analogy; this has alsoarisen from the expectation, that the larger or more complicatedanimals should be thus produced; which have acquired their presentperfection by successive generations during an uncounted series ofages. Add to this, that the want of analogy opposes the credibility ofall new discoveries, as of the magnetic needle, and coated electricjar, and Galvanic pile; which should therefore certainly be wellweighed and nicely investigated before distinct credence is giventhem; but then the want of analogy must at length yield to repeatedocular demonstration. 

_Preliminary observations. _

II. Concerning the spontaneous production of the smallest microscopicanimals it should be first observed, that the power of reproductiondistinguishes organic being, whether vegetable or animal, frominanimate nature. The circulation of fluids in vessels may exist inhydraulic machines, but the power of reproduction belongs alone tolife. This reproduction of plants and of animals is of two kinds, which may be termed solitary and sexual. The former of these, as inthe reproduction of the buds of trees, and of the bulbs of tulips, andof the polypus, and aphis, appears to be the first or most simple modeof generation, as many of these organic beings afterwards acquiresexual organs, as the flowers of seedling trees, and of seedlingtulips, and the autumnal progeny of the aphis. See Phytologia. 

Secondly, it should be observed, that by reproduction organic beingsare gradually enlarged and improved; which may perhaps more rapidlyand uniformly occur in the simplest modes of animated being; butoccasionally also in the more complicated and perfect kinds. Thus thebuds of a seedling tree, or the bulbs of seedling tulips, becomelarger and stronger in the second year than the first, and thusimprove till they acquire flowers or sexes; and the aphis, I believe, increases in bulk to the eighth or ninth generation, and then producesa sexual progeny. Hence the existence of spontaneous vitality is onlyto be expected to be found in the simplest modes of animation, as thecomplex ones have been formed by many successive reproductions. 

_Experimental facts. _

III. By the experiments of Buffon, Reaumur, Ellis, Ingenhouz, andothers, microscopic animals are produced in three or four days, according to the warmth of the season, in the infusions of allvegetable or animal matter. One or more of these gentlemen put someboiling veal broth into a phial previously heated in the fire, andsealing it up hermetically or with melted wax, observed it to bereplete with animalcules in three or four days. 

These microscopic animals are believed to possess a power ofgenerating others like themselves by solitary reproduction withoutsex; and these gradually enlarging and improving for innumerablesuccessive generations. Mr. Ellis in Phil. Transact. V. LIX. Givesdrawings of six kinds of animalcula infusoria, which increase bydividing across the middle into two distinct animals. Thus in pastecomposed of flour and water, which has been suffered to becomeacescent, the animalcules called eels, vibrio anguillula, are seen ingreat abundance; their motions are rapid and strong; they areviviparous, and produce at intervals a numerous progeny: animalssimilar to these are also found in vinegar; Naturalist's Miscellany byShaw and Nodder, Vol. II. These eels were probably at first as minuteas other microscopic animalcules; but by frequent, perhaps hourlyreproduction, have gradually become the large animals above described, possessing wonderful strength and activity. 

To suppose the eggs of the former microscopic animals to float in theatmosphere, and pass through the sealed glass phial, is so contrary toapparent nature, as to be totally incredible! and as the latter areviviparous, it is equally absurd to suppose, that their parents floatuniversally in the atmosphere to lay their young in paste or vinegar!

Not only microscopic animals appear to be produced by a spontaneousvital process, and then quickly improve by solitary generation likethe buds of trees, or like the polypus and aphis, but there is onevegetable body, which appears to be produced by a spontaneous vitalprocess, and is believed to be propagated and enlarged in so short atime by solitary generation as to become visible to the naked eye; Imean the green matter first attended to by Dr. Priestley, and calledby him conferva fontinalis. The proofs, that this material is avegetable, are from its giving up so much oxygen, when exposed to thesunshine, as it grows in water, and from its green colour. 

Dr. Ingenhouz asserts, that by filling a bottle with well-water, andinverting it immediately into a basin of well-water, this greenvegetable is formed in great quantity; and he believes, that the wateritself, or some substance contained in the water, is converted intothis kind of vegetation, which then quickly propagates itself. 

M. Girtanner asserts, that this green vegetable matter is not producedby water and heat alone, but requires the sun's light for thispurpose, as he observed by many experiments, and thinks it arises fromdecomposing water deprived of a part of its oxygen, and laughs at Dr. Priestley for believing that the seeds of this conferva, and theparents of microscopic animals, exist universally in the atmosphere, and penetrate the sides of glass jars; Philos. Magazine for May 1800. 

Besides this green vegetable matter of Dr. Priestley, there is anothervegetable, the minute beginnings of the growth of which Mr. Ellisobserved by his microscope near the surface of all putrefyingvegetable or animal matter, which is the mucor or mouldiness; thevegetation of which was amazingly quick so as to be almost seen, andsoon became so large as to be visible to the naked eye. It isdifficult to conceive how the seeds of this mucor can float souniversally in the atmosphere as to fix itself on all putrid matter inall places. 

_Theory of Spontaneous Vitality. _

IV. In animal nutrition the organic matter of the bodies of deadanimals, or vegetables, is taken into the stomach, and there suffersdecompositions and new combinations by a chemical process. Some partsof it are however absorbed by the lacteals as fast as they areproduced by this process of digestion; in which circumstance thisprocess differs from common chemical operations. 

In vegetable nutrition the organic matter of dead animals, orvegetables, undergoes chemical decompositions and new combinations onor beneath the surface of the earth; and parts of it, as they areproduced, are perpetually absorbed by the roots of the plants incontact with it; in which this also differs from common chemicalprocesses. 

Hence the particles which are produced from dead organic matter bychemical decompositions or new consequent combinations, are foundproper for the purposes of the nutrition of living vegetable andanimal bodies, whether these decompositions and new combinations areperformed in the stomach or beneath the soil. 

For the purposes of nutrition these digested or decomposed recrementsof dead animal or vegetable matter are absorbed by the lacteals of thestomachs of animals or of the roots of vegetables, and carried intothe circulation of their blood, and these compose new organic parts toreplace others which are destroyed, or to increase the growth of theplant or animal. 

It is probable, that as in inanimate or chemical combinations, one ofthe composing materials must possess a power of attraction, and theother an aptitude to be attracted; so in organic or animatedcompositions there must be particles with appetencies to unite, andother particles with propensities to be united with them. 

Thus in the generation of the buds of trees, it is probable that twokinds of vegetable matter, as they are separated from the solidsystem, and float in the circulation, become arrested by two kinds ofvegetable glands, and are then deposed beneath the cuticle of thetree, and there join together forming a new vegetable, the caudex ofwhich extends from the plumula at the summit to the radicles beneaththe soil, and constitutes a single fibre of the bark. 

These particles appear to be of two kinds; one of them possessing anappetency to unite with the other, and the latter a propensity to beunited with the former; and they are probably separated from thevegetable blood by two kinds of glands, one representing those of theanthers, and the others those of the stigmas, in the sexual organs ofvegetables; which is spoken of at large in Phytologia, Sect. VII. Andin Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXXIX. 8. Of the third edition, in octavo;where it is likewise shown, that none of these parts which aredeposited beneath the cuticle of the tree, is in itself a completevegetable embryon, but that they form one by their reciprocalconjunction. 

So in the sexual reproduction of animals, certain parts separated fromthe living organs, and floating in the blood, are arrested by thesexual glands of the female, and others by those of the male. Of thesenone are complete embryon animals, but form an embryon by theirreciprocal conjunction. 

There hence appears to be an analogy between generation and nutrition, as one is the production of new organization, and the other therestoration of that which previously existed; and which may thereforebe supposed to require materials somewhat similar. Now the food takenup by animal lacteals is previously prepared by the chemical processof digestion in the stomach; but that which is taken up by vegetablelacteals, is prepared by chemical dissolution of organic matterbeneath the surface of the earth. Thus the particles, which formgenerated animal embryons, are prepared from dead organic matter bythe chemico-animal processes of sanguification and of secretion; whilethose which form spontaneous microscopic animals or microscopicvegetables are prepared by chemical dissolutions and new combinationsof organic matter in watery fluids with sufficient warmth. 

It may be here added, that the production and properties of some kindsof inanimate matter, are almost as difficult to comprehend as those ofthe simplest degrees of animation. Thus the elastic gum, orcaoutchouc, and some fossile bitumens, when drawn out to a greatlength, contract themselves by their elasticity, like an animal fibreby stimulus. The laws of action of these, and all other elasticbodies, are not yet understood; as the laws of the attraction ofcohesion, to produce these effects, must be very different from thoseof general attraction, since the farther the particles of elasticbodies are drawn from each other till they separate, the stronger theyseem to attract; and the nearer they are pressed together, the morethey seem to repel; as in bending a spring, or in extending a piece ofelastic gum; which is the reverse to what occurs in the attractionsof disunited bodies; and much wants further investigation. So thespontaneous production of alcohol or of vinegar, by the vinous andacetous fermentations, as well as the production of a mucus byputrefaction which will contract when extended, seems almost asdifficult to understand as the spontaneous production of a fibre fromdecomposing animal or vegetable substances, which will contract whenstimulated, and thus constitutes the primordium of life. 

Some of the microscopic animals are said to remain dead for many daysor weeks, when the fluid in which they existed is dried up, andquickly to recover life and motion by the fresh addition of water andwarmth. Thus the chaos redivivum of Linnæus dwells in vinegar and inbookbinders paste: it revives by water after having been dried foryears, and is both oviparous and viviparous; Syst. Nat. Thus thevorticella or wheel animal, which is found in rain water that hasstood some days in leaden gutters, or in hollows of lead on the topsof houses, or in the slime or sediment left by such water, though itdiscovers no sign of life except when in the water, yet it is capableof continuing alive for many months though kept in a dry state. Inthis state it is of a globulous shape, exceeds not the bigness of agrain of sand, and no signs of life appear; but being put into water, in the space of half an hour a languid motion begins, the globuleturns itself about, lengthens itself by slow degrees, assumes the formof a lively maggot, and most commonly in a few minutes afterwards putsout its wheels, swimming vigorously through the water as if in searchof food; or else, fixing itself by the tail, works the wheels in sucha manner as to bring its food to its mouth; English Encyclopedia, Art. Animalcule. 

Thus some shell-snails in the cabinets of the curious have been keptin a dry state for ten years or longer, and have revived on beingmoistened with warmish water; Philos. Transact. So eggs and seedsafter many months torpor, are revived by warmth and moisture; hence itmay be concluded, that even the organic particles of dead animals may, when exposed to a due degree of warmth and moisture, regain somedegree of vitality, since this is done by more complicate animalorgans in the instances above mentioned. 

The hydra of Linnæus, which dwells in the rivers of Europe underaquatic plants, has been observed by the curious of the present time, to revive after it has been dried, to be restored after beingmutilated, to multiply by being divided, to be propagated from smallportions, to live after being inverted; all which would be bestexplained by the doctrine of spontaneous reproduction from organicparticles not yet completely decomposed. 

To this should be added, that these microscopic animals are found inall solutions of vegetable or animal matter in water; as black peppersteeped in water, hay suffered to become putrid in water, and thewater of dunghills, afford animalcules in astonishing numbers. See Mr. Ellis's curious account of Animalcules produced from an infusion ofPotatoes and Hempseed; Philos. Transact. Vol. LIX. From all which itwould appear, that organic particles of dead vegetables and animalsduring their usual chemical changes into putridity or acidity, do notlose all their organization or vitality, but retain so much of it asto unite with the parts of living animals in the process of nutrition, or unite and produce new complicate animals by secretion as ingeneration, or produce very simple microscopic animals or microscopicvegetables, by their new combinations in warmth and moisture. 

And finally, that these microscopic organic bodies are multiplied andenlarged by solitary reproduction without sexual intercourse till theyacquire greater perfection or new properties. Lewenhoek observed inrain-water which had stood a few days, the smallest scarcely visiblemicroscopic animalcules, and in a few more days he observed otherseight times as large; English Encyclop. Art. Animalcule. 

_Conclusion. _

There is therefore no absurdity in believing that the most simpleanimals and vegetables may be produced by the congress of the parts ofdecomposing organic matter, without what can properly be termedgeneration, as the genus did not previously exist; which accounts forthe endless varieties, as well as for the immense numbers ofmicroscopic animals. 

The green vegetable matter of Dr. Priestley, which is universallyproduced in stagnant water, and the mucor, or mouldiness, which isseen on the surface of all putrid vegetable and animal matter, haveprobably no parents, but a spontaneous origin from the congress of thedecomposing organic particles, and afterwards propagate themselves. Some other fungi, as those growing in close wine-vaults, or otherswhich arise from decaying trees, or rotten timber, may perhaps beowing to a similar spontaneous production, and not previously exist asperfect organic beings in the juices of the wood, as some havesupposed. In the same manner it would seem, that the common esculentmushroom is produced from horse dung at any time and in any place, asis the common practice of many gardeners; Kennedy on Gardening. 

_Appendix. _

The knowledge of microscopic animals is still in its infancy: thosealready known are arranged by Mr. Muller into the following classes;but it is probable, that many more classes, as well as innumerableindividuals, may be discovered by improvements of the microscope, asMr. Herschell has discovered so many thousand stars, which were beforeinvisible, by improvements of the telescope. 

Mr. Muller's classes consist of

I. _Such as have no External Organs. _

 1. Monas: Punctiformis. A mere point. 2. Proteus: Mutabilis. Mutable. 3. Volvox: Sphæricum. Spherical. 4. Enchelis: Cylindracea. Cylindrical. 5. Vibrio: Elongatum. Long. 

 *Membranaceous. 

 6. Cyclidium: Ovale. Oval. 7. Paramecium: Oblongum. Oblong. 8. Kolpoda: Sinuatum. Sinuous. 9. Gonium: Angulatum. With angles. 10. Bursaria. Hollow like a purse. 

II. _Those that have External Organs. _

 *Naked, or not enclosed in a shell. 

 1. Cercaria: Caudatum. With a tail. 2. Trichoda: Crinitum. Hairy. 3. Kerona: Corniculatum. With horns. 4. Himantopus: Cirratum. Cirrated. 5. Leucophra: Ciliatum undique. Every part ciliated. 6. Vorticella: Ciliatum apice. The apex ciliated. 

 *Covered with a shell. 

 7. Brachionus: Ciliatum apice. The apex ciliated. 

1. These animalcules are discovered in two or three days in alldecompositions of organic matter, whether vegetable or animal, inmoderate degrees of warmth with sufficient moisture. 

2. They appear to enlarge in a few days, and some to change theirform; which are probably converted from more simple into morecomplicate animalcules by repeated reproductions. See Note VIII. 

3. In their early state they seem to multiply by viviparous solitaryreproduction, either by external division, as the smaller ones, or byan internal progeny, as the eels in paste or vinegar; and lastly, intheir more mature state, the larger ones are said to appear to havesexual connexion. Engl. Encyclop. 

4. Those animalcules discovered in pustules of the itch, in the fecesof dysenteric patients, and in semine masculino, I suppose to beproduced by the stagnation and incipient decomposition of thosematerials in their receptacles, and not to exist in the living bloodor recent secretions; as none, I believe, have been discovered inblood when first drawn from the arm, or in fluids newly secreted fromthe glands, which have not previously stagnated in their reservoirs. 

5. They are observed to move in all directions with ease and rapidity, and to avoid obstacles, and not to interfere with each other in theirmotions. When the water is in part evaporated, they are seen to flocktowards the remaining part, and show great agitation. They sustain agreat degree of cold, as some insects, and perish in much the samedegree of heat as destroys insects; all which evince that they areliving animals. 

And it is probable, that other or similar animalcules may be producedin the air, or near the surface of the earth, but it is not so easy toview them as in water; which as it is transparent, the creaturesproduced in it can easily be observed by applying a drop to amicroscope. I hope that microscopic researches may again excite theattention of philosophers, as unforeseen advantages may probably bederived from them, like the discovery of a new world. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. II. 

THE FACULTIES OF THE SENSORIUM. 

 Next the long nerves unite their silver train, And young Sensation permeates the brain. CANT. I. L. 250. 

I. The fibres, which constitute the muscles and organs of sense, possess a power of contraction. The circumstances attending theexertion of this power of contraction constitute the laws of animalmotion, as the circumstances attending the exertion of the power ofattraction constitute the laws of motion of inanimate matter. 

II. The spirit of animation is the immediate cause of the contractionof animal fibres, it resides in the brain and nerves, and is liable togeneral or partial diminution or accumulation. 

III. The stimulus of bodies external to the moving organ is the remotecause of the original contractions of animal fibres. 

IV. A certain quantity of stimulus produces irritation, which is anexertion of the spirit of animation exciting the fibres intocontraction. 

V. A certain quantity of contraction of animal fibres, if it beperceived at all, produces pleasure; a greater or less quantity ofcontraction, if it be perceived at all, produces pain; theseconstitute sensation. 

VI. A certain quantity of sensation produces desire or aversion; theseconstitute volition. 

VII. All animal motions which have occurred at the same time, or inimmediate succession, become so connected, that when one of them isreproduced, the other has a tendency to accompany or succeed it. Whenfibrous contractions succeed or accompany other fibrous contractions, the connexion is termed association; when fibrous contractions succeedsensorial motions, the connexion is termed causation; when fibrous andsensorial motions reciprocally introduce each other, it is termedcatenation of animal motions. 

VIII. These four faculties of the sensorium during their inactivestate are termed irritability, sensibility, voluntarily, andassociability; in their active state they are termed as aboveirritation, sensation, volition, association. 

Irritation is an exertion or change of some extreme part of thesensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense, in consequenceof the appulses of external bodies. 

Sensation is an exertion or change of the central parts of thesensorium, or of the whole of it, beginning at some of those extremeparts of it, which reside in the muscles or organs of sense. 

Volition is an exertion or change of the central parts of thesensorium, or of the whole of it, terminating in some of those extremeparts of it, which reside in the muscles or organs of sense. 

Association is an exertion or change of some extreme part of thesensorium residing in the muscles or organs of sense, in consequenceof some antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. 

The word sensorium is used to express not only the medullary part ofthe brain, spinal marrow, nerves, organs of sense and muscles, butalso at the same time that living principle, or spirit of animation, which resides throughout the body, without being cognizable to oursenses except by its effects. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. III. 

 Next when imprison'd fires in central caves Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves. CANTO I. L. 302. 

The great and repeated explosions of volcanoes are shown by Mr. Mitchell in the Philosoph. Transact. To arise from their communicationwith the sea, or with rivers, or inundations; and that after a chinkor crack is made, the water rushing into an immense burning cavern, and falling on boiling lava, is instantly expanded into steam, andproduces irresistible explosions. 

As the first volcanic fires had no previous vent, and were probablymore central, and larger in quantity, before they burst the crust ofthe earth then intire, and as the sea covered the whole, it mustrapidly sink down into every opening chink; whence these primevalearthquakes were of much greater extent, and of much greater force, than those which occur in the present era. 

It should be added, that there may be other elastic vapours producedby great heat from whatever will evaporate, as mercury, and evendiamonds; which may be more elastic, and consequently exert greaterforce than the steam of water even though heated red hot. Which maythence exert a sufficient power to raise islands and continents, andeven to throw the moon from the earth. 

If the moon be supposed to have been thus thrown out of the greatcavity which now contains the South Sea, the immense quantity of waterflowing in from the primeval ocean, which then covered the earth, would much contribute to leave the continents and islands, which mightbe raised at the same time above the surface of the water. In laterdays there are accounts of large stones falling from the sky, whichmay have been thus thrown by explosion from some distant earthquake, without sufficient force to cause them to circulate round the earth, and thus produce numerous small moons or satellites. 

Mr. Mitchell observes, that the agitations of the earth from the greatearthquake at Lisbon were felt in this country about the same timeafter the shock, as sound would have taken in passing from Lisbonhither; and thence ascribes these agitations to the vibrations of thesolid earth, and not to subterraneous caverns of communication;Philos. Transact. But from the existence of warm springs at Bath andBuxton, there must certainly be unceasing subterraneous fires at somegreat depth beneath those parts of this island; see on this subjectBotanic Garden, Vol. II. Canto IV. L. 79, note. For an account of thenoxious vapours emitted from volcanoes, see Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Cant. IV. L. 328, note. For the milder effects of central fires, seeBotanic Garden, Vol. I. Cant. I. L. 139, and Additional Note VI. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. IV. 

 So from deep lakes the dread musquito springs, Drinks the soft breeze, and dries his tender wings. CANTO I. L. 327. 

The gnat, or musquito, culex pipiens. The larva of this insect liveschiefly in water, and the pupa moves with great agility. It is fishedfor by ducks; and, when it becomes a fly, is the food of the young ofpartridges, quails, sparrows, swallows, and other small birds. Thefemales wound us, and leave a red point; and in India their bite ismore venomous. The male has its antennæ and feelers feathered, andseldom bites or sucks blood; Lin. Syst. Nat. 

It may be driven away by smoke, especially by that from inulahelenium, elecampane; and by that of cannabis, hemp. Kalm. It is saidthat a light in a chamber will prevent their attack on sleepingpersons. 

The gnats of this country are produced in greater numbers in someyears than others, and are then seen in swarms for many evenings nearthe lakes or rivers whence they arise; and, I suppose, emigrate toupland situations, where fewer of them are produced. About thirtyyears ago such a swarm was observed by Mr. Whitehurst for a day or twoabout the lofty tower of Derby church, as to give a suspicion of thefabric being on fire. 

Many other kinds of flies have their origin in the water, as perhapsthe whole class of neuroptera. Thus the libellula, dragon fly: thelarva of which hurries amid the water, and is the cruel crocodile ofaquatic insects. After they become flies, they prey principally on theclass of insects termed lepidoptera, and diptera of Linneus. Theephemera is another of this order, which rises from the lakes in suchquantities in some countries, that the rustics have carried cart-loadsof them to manure their corn lands; the larva swims in the water: inits fly-state the pleasures of life are of short duration, as itsmarriage, production of its progeny, and funeral, are oftencelebrated in one day. The phryganea is another fly of this order; thelarva lies concealed under the water in moveable cylindrical tubes oftheir own making. In the fly-state they institute evening dances inthe air in swarms, and are fished for by the swallows. 

Many other flies, who do not leave their eggs in water, contrive tolay them in moist places, as the oestros bovis; the larvæ of whichexist in the bodies of cattle, where they are nourished during thewinter, and are occasionally extracted by a bird of the crow-kindcalled buphaga. These larvæ are also found in the stomachs of horses, whom they sometimes destroy; another species of them adhere to theanus of horses, and creep into the lowest bowel, and are called botts;and another species enters the frontal sinus of sheep, occasioning avertigo called the turn. The musca pendula lives in stagnant water;the larva is suspended by a thread-form respiratory tube; of the muscachamæleon, the larva lives in fountains, and the fly occasionallywalks upon the water. The musca vomitoria is produced in carcases;three of these flies consume the dead body of a horse as soon as alion. Lin. Syst. Nat. 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. V. 

AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. 

 So still the Diodons, amphibious tribe, With twofold lungs the sea and air imbibe. CANT. I. L. 331. 

D. D. Garden dissected the amphibious creature called diodon byLinneus, and was amazed to find that it possessed both external gillsand internal lungs, which he described and prepared and sent toLinneus; who thence put this animal into the order nantes of his classamphibia. He adds also, in his account of polymorpha before the classamphibia, that some of this class breathe by lungs only, and others byboth lungs and gills. 

Some amphibious quadrupeds, as the beaver, water rat, and otter, aresaid to have the foramen ovale of the heart open, which communicatesfrom one cavity of it to the other; and that, during their continuanceunder water, the blood can thus for a time circulate without passingthrough the lungs; but as it cannot by these means acquire oxygeneither from the air or water, these creatures find it frequentlynecessary to rise to the surface to respire. As this foramen ovale isalways open in the foetus of quadrupeds, till after its birth that itbegins to respire, it has been proposed by some to keep young puppiesthree or four times a day for a minute or two under warm water toprevent this communication from one cavity of the heart to the otherfrom growing up; whence it has been thought such dogs might becomeamphibious. It is also believed that this circumstance has existed insome divers for pearl; whose children are said to have been thus keptunder water in their early infancy to enable them afterwards tosucceed in their employment. 

But the most frequent distinction of the amphibious animals, that livemuch in the water, is, that their heart consists but of one cell; andas they are pale creatures with but little blood, and that colder anddarker coloured, as frogs and lizards, they require less oxygen thanthe warmer animals with a greater quantity and more scarlet blood; andthence, though they have only lungs, they can stay long under waterwithout great inconvenience; but are all of them, like frogs, andcrocodiles, and whales, necessitated frequently to rise above thesurface for air. 

In this circumstance of their possessing a one-celled heart, andcolder and darker blood, they approach to the state of fish; whichthus appear not to acquire so much oxygen by their gills from thewater as terrestrial animals do by their lungs from the atmosphere;whence it may be concluded that the gills of fish do not decompose thewater which passes through them, and which contains so much moreoxygen than the air, but that they only procure a small quantity ofoxygen from the air which is diffused in the water; which also isfurther confirmed by an experiment with the air-pump, as fish soon diewhen put in a glass of water into the exhausted receiver, which theywould not do if their gills had power to decompose the water andobtain the oxygen from it. 

The lamprey, petromyzon, is put by Linneus amongst the nantes, whichare defined to possess both gills and lungs. It has seven spiracula, or breathing holes, on each side of the neck, and by its more perfectlungs approaches to the serpent kind; Syst. Nat. The means by which itadheres to stones, even in rapid streams, is probably owing to apartial vacuum made by its respiring organs like sucking, and may becompared to the ingenious method by which boys are seen to lift largestones in the street, by applying to them a piece of strong moistleather with a string through the centre of it; which, when it isforcibly drawn upwards, produces a partial vacuum under it, and thusthe stone is supported by the pressure of the atmosphere. 

The leech, hirudo, and the remora, echeneis, adhere strongly toobjects probably by a similar method. I once saw ten or twelve leechesadhere to each foot of an old horse a little above his hoofs, who wasgrazing in a morass, and which did not lose their hold when he movedabout. The bare-legged travellers in Ceylon are said to be muchinfested by leeches; and the sea-leech, hirudo muricata, is said toadhere to fish, and the remora is said to adhere to ships in suchnumbers as to retard their progress. 

The respiratory organ of the whale, I suppose, is pulmonary in part, as he is obliged to come frequently to the surface, whence he can bepursued after he is struck with the harpoon; and may nevertheless bein part like the gills of other fish, as he seems to draw in waterwhen he is below the surface, and emits it again when he rises aboveit. 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. VI. 

HIEROGLYPHIC CHARACTERS. 

 So erst as Egypt's rude designs explain. CANTO I. L. 351. 

The outlines of animal bodies, which gave names to the constellations, as well as the characters used in chemistry for the metals, and inastronomy for the planets, were originally hieroglyphic figures, usedby the magi of Egypt before the invention of letters, to record theirdiscoveries in those sciences. 

Other hieroglyphic figures seem to have been designed to perpetuatethe events of history, the discoveries in other arts, and the opinionsof those ancient philosophers on other subjects. Thus their figures ofVenus for beauty, Minerva for wisdom, Mars and Bellona for war, Hercules for strength, and many others, became afterwards the deitiesof Greece and Rome; and together with the figures of Time, Death, andFame, constitute the language of the painters to this day. 

From the similarity of the characters which designate the metals inchemistry, and the planets in astronomy, it may be concluded thatthese parts of science were then believed to be connected; whenceastrology seems to have been a very early superstition. These, so far, constitute an universal visible language in those sciences. 

So the glory, or halo, round the head is a part of the universallanguage of the eye, designating a holy person; wings on the shouldersdenote a good angel; and a tail and hoof denote the figure of an evildemon; to which may be added the cap of liberty and the tiara ofpopedom. It is to be wished that many other universal characters couldbe introduced into practice, which might either constitute a morecomprehensive language for painters, or for other arts; as those ofciphers and signs have done for arithmetic and algebra, and crotchetsfor music, and the alphabets for articulate sounds; so a zigzag linemade on white paper by a black-lead pencil, which communicates withthe surface of the mercury in the barometer, as the paper itself ismade constantly to move laterally by a clock, and daily to descendthrough the space necessary, has ingeniously produced a most accuratevisible account of the rise and fall of the mercury in the barometerevery hour in the year. 

Mr. Grey's Memoria Technica was designed as an artificial language toremember numbers, as of the eras, or dates of history. This was doneby substituting one consonant and one vowel for each figure of the tencyphers used in arithmetic, and by composing words of these letters;which words Mr. Grey makes into hexameter verses, and produces anaudible jargon, which is to be committed to memory, and occasionallyanalysed into numbers when required. An ingenious French botanist, Monsieur Bergeret, has proposed to apply this idea of Mr. Grey to abotanical nomenclature, by making the name of each plant to consist ofletters, which, when analysed, were to signify the number of theclass, order, genus, and species, with a description also of someparticular part of the plant, which was designed to be both an audibleand visible language. 

Bishop Wilkins in his elaborate "Essay towards a Real Character and aPhilosophical Language, " has endeavoured to produce, with the greatestsimplicity, and accuracy, and conciseness, an universal language bothto be written and spoken, for the purpose of the communication of allour ideas with greater exactness and less labour than is done incommon languages, as they are now spoken and written. But we have tolament that the progress of general science is yet too limited bothfor his purpose, and for that even of a nomenclature for botany; andthat the science of grammar, and even the number and manner of thepronunciation of the letters of the alphabet, are not yet determinedwith such accuracy as would be necessary to constitute BishopWilkins's grand design of an universal language, which mightfacilitate the acquirement of knowledge, and thus add to the power andhappiness of mankind. 

ADDITIONAL NOTE. VII. 

OLD AGE AND DEATH. 

 The age-worn fibres goaded to contract By repetition palsied, cease to act. CANTO II. L. 4

I. _Effects of Age. _

The immediate cause of the infirmities of age, or of the progress oflife to death, has not yet been well ascertained. The answer to thequestion, why animals become feeble and diseased after a time, thoughnourished with the same food which increased their growth frominfancy, and afterwards supported them for many years in unimpairedhealth and strength, must be sought for from the laws of animalexcitability, which, though at first increased, is afterwardsdiminished by frequent repetitions of its adapted stimulus, and atlength ceases to obey it. 

1. There are four kinds of stimulus which induce the fibres tocontract, which constitute the muscles or the organs of sense; as, first, The application of external bodies, which excites into actionthe sensorial power of irritation; 2dly, Pleasure and pain, whichexcite into action the sensorial power of sensation; 3dly, Desire andaversion, which excite into action the power of volition; and lastly, The fibrous contractions, which precede association, which is anothersensorial power; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. II. 13. 

Many of the motions of the organic system, which are necessary tolife, are excited by more than one of these stimuli at the same time, and some of them occasionally by them all. Thus respiration isgenerally caused by the stimulus of blood in the lungs, or by thesensation of the want of oxygen; but is also occasionally voluntary. The actions of the heart also, though generally owing to the stimulusof the blood, are also inflamed by the association of its motions withthose of the stomach, whence sometimes arises an inequality of thepulse, and with other parts of the system, as with the capillaries, whence heat of the skin in fevers with a feeble pulse, see Zoonomia. They are also occasionally influenced by sensation, as is seen in thepaleness occasioned by fear, or the blush of shame and anger; andlastly the motions of the heart are sometimes assisted by volition;thus in those who are much weakened by fevers, the pulse is liable tostop during their sleep, and to induce great distress; which is owingat that time to the total suspension of voluntary power; the sameoccurs during sleep in some asthmatic patients. 

2. The debility of approaching age appears to be induced by theinactivity of many parts of the system, or their disobedience to theirusual kinds and quantities of stimulus: thus the pallid appearance ofthe skin of old age is owing to the inactivity of the heart, whichceases to obey the irritation caused by the stimulus of the blood, orits association with other moving organs with its former energy;whence the capillary arteries are not sufficiently distended in theirdiastole, and consequently contract by their elasticity, so as toclose the canal, and their sides gradually coalesce. Of these, thosewhich are most distant from the heart, and of the smallest diameters, will soonest close, and become impervious; hence the hard pulse ofaged patients is occasioned by the coalescence of the sides of thevasa vasorum, or capillary arteries of the coats of the otherarteries. 

The veins of elderly people become turgid or distended with blood, andstand prominent on the skin; for as these do not possess theelasticity of the arteries, they become distended with accumulation ofblood; when the heart by its lessened excitability does not contractsufficiently forcibly, or frequently, to receive, as fast as usual, the returning blood; and their apparent prominence on the skin isoccasioned by the deficient secretion of fat or mucus in the cellularmembrane; and also to the contraction and coalescence and consequentless bulk of many capillary arteries. 

3. Not only the muscular fibres lose their degree of excitability fromage, as in the above examples; and as may be observed in the tremuloushands and feeble step of elderly persons; but the organs of sensebecome less excitable by the stimulus of external objects; whence thesight and hearing become defective; the stimulus of the sensorialpower of sensation also less affects the aged, who grieve less for theloss of friends or for other disappointments; it should neverthelessbe observed, that when the sensorial power of irritation is muchexhausted, or its production much diminished; the sensorial power ofsensation appears for a time to be increased; as in intoxication thereexists a kind of delirium and quick flow of ideas, and yet the personbecomes so weak as to totter as he walks; but this delirium is owingto the defect of voluntary power to correct the streams of ideas byintuitive analogy, as in dreams: see Zoonomia: and thus also those whoare enfeebled by habits of much vinous potation, or even by age alone, are liable to weep at shaking hands with a friend, whom they have notlately seen; which is owing to defect of voluntary power to correcttheir trains of ideas caused by sensation, and not to the increasedquantity of sensation, as I formerly supposed. 

The same want of voluntary power to keep the trains of sensitive ideasconsistent, and to compare them by intuitive analogy with the order ofnature, is the occasion of the starting at the clapping to of a door, or the fall of a key, which occasions violent surprise with fear andsometimes convulsions, in very feeble hysterical patients, and is notowing I believe (as I formerly supposed) to increased sensation; asthey are less sensible to small stimuli than when in health. 

Old people are less able also to perform the voluntary exertions ofexercise or of reasoning, and lastly the association of their ideasbecomes more imperfect, as they are forgetful of the names of personsand places; the associations of which are less permanent, than thoseof the other words of a language, which are more frequently repeated. 

4. This disobedience of the fibres of age to their usual stimuli, hasgenerally been ascribed to repetition or habit, as those who live neara large clock, or a mill, or a waterfall, soon cease to attend to theperpetual noise of it in the day, and sleep dining the nightundisturbed. Thus all medicines, if repeated too frequently, graduallylose their effect; as wine and opium cease to intoxicate: somedisagreeable tastes as tobacco, by frequent repetition cease to bedisagreeable; grief and pain gradually diminish and at length ceasealtogether; and hence life itself becomes tolerable. 

This diminished power of contraction of the fibres of the muscles ororgans of sense, which constitutes permanent debility or old age, mayarise from a deficient secretion of sensorial power in the brain, aswell as from the disobedience of the muscles and organs of sense totheir usual stimuli; but this less production of sensorial power mustdepend on the inactivity of the glands, which compose the brain, andare believed to separate it perpetually from the blood; and is thenceowing to a similar cause with the inaction of the fibres of the otherparts of the system. 

It is finally easy to understand how the fibres may cease to act bythe usual quantity of stimulus after having been previously exposed toa greater quantity of stimulus, or to one too long continued; becausethe expenditure of sensorial power has then been greater than itsproduction; but it is not easy to explain why the repetition offibrous contractions, which during the meridian of life did not expendthe sensorial power faster than it was produced; or only in such adegree as was daily restored by rest and sleep, should at length inthe advance of life expend too much of it; or otherwise, that less ofit should be produced in the brain; or reside in the nerves; lastlythat the fibres should become less excitable by the usual quantity ofit. 

5. But these facts would seem to show, that all parts of the systemare not changed as we advance in life, as some have supposed; as inthat case it might have preserved for ever its excitability; and itmight then perhaps have been easier for nature to have continued heranimals and vegetables for ever in their mature state, thanperpetually by a complicate apparatus to have produced new ones, andsuffer the old ones to perish; for a further account of stimulus andthe consequent animal exertion, see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. 12. 

II. _Means of preventing old age. _

The means of preventing the approach of age must therefore consist inpreventing the inexcitability of the fibres, or the diminution of theproduction of sensorial power. 

1. As animal motion cannot be performed without the fluid matter ofheat, in which all things are immersed, and without a sufficientquantity of moisture to prevent rigidity: nothing seems so welladapted to both these purposes as the use of the warm bath; andespecially in those, who become thin or emaciated with age, and whohave a hard and dry skin, with hardness of the coat of the arteries;which feels under the finger like a cord; the patient should sit inwarm water for half an hour every day, or alternate days, or twice aweek; the heat should be about ninety-eight degrees on Fahrenheit'sscale, or of such a warmth, as may be most agreeable to his sensation;but on leaving the bath he should always be kept so cool, whether hegoes into bed, or continues up, as not sensibly to perspire. 

There is a popular prejudice, that the warm bath relaxes people, andthat the cold bath braces them; which are mechanical terms belongingto drums and fiddle-strings, but not applicable except metaphoricallyto animal bodies, and then commonly mean weakness and strength: duringthe continuance in the bath the patient does not lose weight, unlesshe goes in after a full meal, but generally weighs heavier as theabsorption is greater than the perspiration; but if he suffers himselfto sweat on his leaving the bath, he will undoubtedly be weakened bythe increased action of the system, and its exhaustion: the sameoccurs to those who are heated by exercise, or by wine, or spice, butnot during their continuance in the warm bath: whence we may conclude, that the warm bath is the most harmless of all those stimuli, whichare greater than our natural habits have accustomed us to; and that itparticularly counteracts the approach of old age in emaciated peoplewith dry skins. 

It may be here observed in favour of bathing, that some fish arebelieved to continue to a great age, and continually to enlarge insize, as they advance in life; and that long after their state ofpuberty. I have seen perch full of spawn, which were less than twoinches long; and it is known, that they will grow to six or eighttimes that size; it is said, that the whales, which have been caughtof late years, are much less in size than those, which were caught, when first the whale-fishery was established; as the large ones, whichwere supposed to have been some hundred years old, are believed to bealready destroyed. 

All cold-blooded amphibious animals more slowly waste their sensorialpower; as they are accustomed to less stimulus from their respiringless oxygen; and their movements in water are slower than those ofaerial animals from the greater resistance of the element. Therebesides seems to be no obstacle to the growth of aquatic animals; asby means of the air-bladder, they can make their specific gravity thesame as that of the water in which they swim. And the moisture of theelement seems well adapted to counteract the rigidity of their fibres;and as their exertions in locomotion, and the pressure of some partson others, are so much less than in the bodies of land animals. 

2. But as all excessive stimuli exhaust the sensorial power, andrender the system less excitable for a time till the quantity ofsensorial power is restored by sleep, or by the diminution or absenceof stimulus; which is seen by the weakness of inebriates for a day atleast after intoxication. And as the frequent repetition of this greatand unnatural stimulus of fermented liquors produces a permanentdebility, or disobedience of the system to the usual and natural kindsand quantities of stimulus, as occurs in those who have long beenaddicted to the ingurgitation of fermented liquors. 

And as, secondly, the too great deficiency of the quantity of naturalstimuli, as of food, and warmth, or of fresh air, produces alsodiseases; as is often seen in the children of the poor in large towns, who become scrofulous from want of due nourishment, and from cold, damp, unairy lodgings. 

The great and principal means to prevent the approach of old age anddeath, must consist in the due management of the quantity of everykind of stimulus, but particularly of that from objects external tothe moving organ; which may excite into action too great or too smalla quantity of the sensorial power of irritation, which principallyactuates the vital organs. Whence the use of much wine, or opium, orspice, or of much salt, by their unnatural stimulus induces consequentdebility, and shortens life, on the one hand, by the exhaustion ofsensorial power; so on the other hand, the want of heat, food, andfresh air, induces debility from defect of stimulus, and a consequentaccumulation of sensorial power, and a general debility of the system. Whence arise the pains of cold and hunger, and those which are callednervous; and which are the cause of hysteric, epileptic, and perhapsof asthmatic paroxysms, and of the cold fits of fever. 

3. Though all excesses of increase and decrease of stimulus should beavoided, yet a certain variation of stimulus seems to prolong theexcitability of the system; as during any diminution of the usualquantity of stimulus, an accumulation of sensorial power is produced;and in consequence the excitability, which was lessened by the actionof habitual stimulus, becomes restored. Thus those, who are uniformlyhabituated to much artificial heat, as in warm parlours in the wintermonths, lose their irritability in some degree, and become feeble likehot-house plants; but by frequently going for a time into the coldair, the sensorial power of irritability is accumulated and theybecome stronger. 

Whence it may be deduced, that the variations of the cold and heat ofthis climate contribute to strengthen its inhabitants, who are moreactive and vigorous, and live longer, than those of either much warmeror much colder latitudes. 

This accumulation of sensorial power from diminution of stimulus anyone may observe, who in severe weather may sit by the fire-side tillhe is chill and uneasy with the sensation of cold; but if he walksinto the frosty air for a few minutes, an accumulation of sensorialpower is produced by diminution of the stimulus of heat, and on hisreturning into the room where he was chill before, his whole skin willnow glow with warmth. 

Hence it may be concluded, that the variations of the quantity ofstimuli within certain limits contribute to our health; and that thosehouses which are kept too uniformly warm, are less wholesome thanwhere the inhabitants are occasionally exposed to cold air in passingfrom one room to another. 

Nevertheless to those weak habits with pale skins and large pupils ofthe eyes, whose degree of irritability is less than health requires, as in scrofulous, hysterical, and some consumptive constitutions, aclimate warmer than our own may be of service, as a greater stimulusof heat may be wanted to excite their less irritability. And also amore uniform quantity of heat may be serviceable to consumptivepatients than is met with in this country, as the lungs cannot beclothed like the external skin, and are therefore subject to greaterextremes of heat and cold in passing in winter from a warm room intothe frosty air. 

4. It should nevertheless be observed, that there is one kind ofstimulus, which though it be employed in quantity beyond its usualstate, seems to increase the production of sensorial power beyond theexpenditure of it (unless its excess is great indeed) and thence togive permanent strength and energy to the system; I mean that ofvolition. This appears not only from the temporary strength of angryor insane people, but because insanity even cures some diseases ofdebility, as I have seen in dropsy, and in some fevers; but it is alsoobservable, that many who have exerted much voluntary effort duringtheir whole lives, have continued active to great age. This howevermay be conceived to arise from these great exertions being performedprincipally by the organs of sense, that is by exciting and comparingideas; as in those who have invented sciences, or have governednations, and which did not therefore exhaust the sensorial power ofthose organs which are necessary to life, but perhaps rather preventedthem from being sooner impaired, their sensorial power not having beenso frequently exhausted by great activity, for very violent exerciseof the body, long continued, forwards old age; as is seen inpost-horses that are cruelly treated, and in many of the poor, whowith difficulty support their families by incessant labour. 

III. _Theory of the Approach of Age. _

The critical reader is perhaps by this time become so far interestedin this subject as to excuse a more prolix elucidation of it. 

In early life the repetition of animal actions occasions them to beperformed with greater facility, whether those repetitions areproduced by volition, sensation, or irritation; because they soonbecome associated together, if as much sensorial power is producedbetween every reiteration of action, as is expended by it. 

But if a stimulus be repeated at uniform intervals of time, theaction, whether of our muscles or organs of sense, is performed withstill greater facility and energy; because the sensorial power ofassociation mentioned above, is combined with the sensorial power ofirritation, and forms part of the diurnal chain of animal motions;that is, in common language, the acquired habit assists the power ofthe stimulus; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 2. And Sect. XII. 3. 3. 

On this circumstance depends the easy motions of the fingers inperforming music, and of the feet and arms in dancing and fencing, andof the hands in the use of tools in mechanic arts, as well as all thevital motions which animate and nourish organic bodies. 

On the contrary, many animal motions by perpetual repetition areperformed with less energy; as those who live near a waterfall, or asmith's forge, after a time, cease to hear them. And in thoseinfectious diseases which are attended with fever, as the small-poxand measles, violent motions of the system are excited, which atlength cease, and cannot again be produced by application of the samestimulating material; as when those are inoculated for the small-pox, who have before undergone that malady. Hence the repetition, whichoccasions animal actions for a time to be performed with greaterenergy, occasions them at length to become feeble, or to ceaseentirely. 

To explain this difficult problem we must more minutely consider thecatenations of animal motions, as described in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVII. The vital motions, as suppose of the heart and arterial system, commence from the irritation occasioned by the stimulus of the blood, and then have this irritation assisted by the power of association; atthe same time an agreeable sensation is produced by the due actions ofthe fibres, as in the secretions of the glands, which constitutes thepleasure of existence; this agreeable sensation is intermixed betweenevery link of this diurnal chain of actions, and contributes toproduce it by what is termed animal causation. But there is also adegree of the power of volition excited in consequence of this vitalpleasure, which is also intermixed between the links of the chain offibrous actions; and thus also contributes to its uniform easy andperpetual production. 

The effects of surprise and novelty must now be considered by thepatient reader, as they affect the catenations of action; and, I hope, the curiosity of the subject will excuse the prolixity of this accountof it. When any violent stimulus breaks the passing current orcatenation of our ideas, surprise is produced, which is accompaniedwith pain or pleasure, and consequent volition to examine the objectof it, as explained in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVIII. 17, and whichnever affects us in sleep. In our waking hours whenever an idea ofimagination occurs, which is incongruous to our former experience, wefeel another kind of surprise, and instantly dissever the train ofimagination by the power of volition, and compare the incongruous ideawith our previous knowledge of nature, and reject it by an act ofreasoning, of which we are unconscious, termed in Zoonomia, "IntuitiveAnalogy, " Vol. I Sect. XVII. 7. 

The novelty of any idea may be considered as affecting us with anotherkind of surprise, or incongruity, as it differs from the usual trainof our ideas, and forms a new link in this perpetual chain; which, asit thus differs from the ordinary course of nature, we instantlyexamine by the voluntary efforts of intuitive analogy; or byreasoning, which we attend to; and compare it with the usualappearances of nature. 

These ideas which affect us with surprise, or incongruity, or novelty, are attended with painful or pleasurable sensation; which we mentionedbefore as intermixing with all catenations of animal actions, andcontributing to strengthen their perpetual and energetic production;and also exciting in some degree the power of volition, which alsointermixes with the links of the chain of animal actions, andcontributes to produce it. 

Now by frequent repetition the surprise, incongruity, or noveltyceases; and, in consequence, the pleasure or pain which accompaniedit, and also the degree of volition which was excited by thatsensation of pain or pleasure; and thus the sensorial power ofsensation and of volition are subducted from the catenation of vitalactions, and they are in consequence produced much weaker, and atlength cease entirely. Whence we learn why contagious matters inducetheir effects on the circulation but once; and why, in process oftime, the vital movements are performed with less energy, and atlength cease; whence the debilities of age, and consequent death. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. VIII. 

REPRODUCTION. 

 But Reproduction with ethereal fires New life rekindles, ere the first expires. CANTO II. L. 13. 

I. The reproduction or generation of living organized bodies, is thegreat criterion or characteristic which distinguishes animation frommechanism. Fluids may circulate in hydraulic machines, or simply movein them, as mercury in the barometer or thermometer, but the power ofproducing an embryon which shall gradually acquire similitude to itsparent, distinguishes artificial from natural organization. 

The reproduction of plants and animals appears to be of two kinds, solitary and sexual; the former occurs in the formation of the buds oftrees, and the bulbs of tulips; which for several successions generateother buds, and other bulbs, nearly similar to the parent, butconstantly approaching to greater perfection, so as finally to producesexual organs, or flowers, and consequent seeds. 

The same occurs in some inferior kinds of animals; as the aphises inthe spring and summer are viviparous for eight or nine generations, which successively produce living descendants without sexualintercourse, and are themselves, I suppose, without sex; at length inthe autumn they propagate males and females, which copulate and layeggs, which lie dormant during the winter, and are hatched by thevernal sun; while the truffle, and perhaps mushrooms amongstvegetables, and the polypus and tænia amongst insects, perpetuallypropagate themselves by solitary reproduction, and have not yetacquired male and female organs. 

Philosophers have thought these viviparous aphides, and the tænia, andvolvox, to be females; and have supposed them to have been impregnatedlong before their nativity within each other; so the tænia and volvoxstill continue to produce their offspring without sexual intercourse. One extremity of the tænia, is said by Linneus to grow old, whilst atthe other end new ones are generated proceeding to infinity like theroots of grass. The volvox globator is transparent, and carries withinitself children and grandchildren to the fifth generation like theaphides; so that the tænia produces children and grandchildrenlongitudinally in a chain-like series, and the volvox propagates anoffspring included within itself to the fifth generation; Syst. Nat. 

Many microscopic animals, and some larger ones, as the hydra orpolypus, are propagated by splitting or dividing; and some stilllarger animals, as oysters, and perhaps eels, have not yet acquiredsexual organs, but produce a paternal progeny, which requires nomother to supply it with a nidus, or with nutriment and oxygenation;and, therefore, very accurately resemble the production of the buds oftrees, and the wires of some herbaceous plants, as of knot-grass andof strawberries, and the bulbs of other plants, as of onions andpotatoes; which is further treated of in Phytologia, Sect. VII. 

The manner in which I suspect the solitary reproduction of the buds oftrees to be effected, may also be applied to the solitary generationof the insects mentioned above, and probably of many others, perhapsof all the microscopic ones. It should be previously observed, thatmany insects are hermaphrodite, possessing both male and female organsof reproduction, as shell-snails and dew-worms; but that these areseen reciprocally to copulate with each other, and are believed not tobe able to impregnate themselves; which belongs, therefore, to sexualgeneration, and not to the solitary reproduction of which I am nowspeaking. 

As in the chemical production of any new combination of matter, twokinds of particles appear to be necessary; one of which must possessthe power of attraction, and the other the aptitude to be attracted, as a magnet and a piece of iron; so in vegetable or animalcombinations, whether for the purpose of nutrition or forreproduction, there must exist also two kinds of organic matter; onepossessing the appetency to unite, and the other the propensity to beunited; (see Zoonomia, octavo edition, Sect. XXXIX. 8. ) Hence in thegeneration of the buds of trees, there are probably two kinds ofglands, which acquire from the vegetable blood, and deposite beneaththe cuticle of the tree two kinds of formative organic matter, whichunite and form parts of the new vegetable embryon; which again unitingwith other such organizations form the caudex, or the plumula, or theradicle, of a new vegetable bud. 

A similar mode of reproduction by the secretion of two kinds oforganic particles from the blood, and by depositing them eitherinternally as in the vernal and summer aphis or volvox, or externallyas in the polypus and tænia, probably obtains in those animals; whichare thence propagated by the father only, not requiring a cradle, ornutriment, or oxygenation from a mother; and that the fivegenerations, said to be seen in the transparent volvox globator withineach other, are perhaps the successive progeny to be delivered atdifferent periods of time from the father, and erroneously supposed tobe mothers impregnated before their nativity. 

II. Sexual as well as solitary reproduction appears to be effected bytwo kinds of glands; one of which collects or secretes from the bloodformative organic particles with appetencies to unite, and the otherformative organic particles with propensities to be united. Theseprobably undergo some change by a kind of digestion in theirrespective glands; but could not otherwise unite previously in themass of blood from its perpetual motion. 

The first mode of sexual reproduction seems to have been by theformation of males into hermaphrodites; that is, when the numerousformative glands, which existed in the caudex of the bud of a tree, oron the surface of a polypus, became so united as to form but twoglands; which might then be called male and female organs. But theystill collect and secrete their adapted particles from the same massof blood as in snails and dew-worms, but do not seem to be so placedas to produce an embryon by the mixture of their secreted fluids, butto require the mutual assistance of two hermaphrodites for thatpurpose. 

From this view-of the subject, it would appear that vegetables andanimals were at first propagated by solitary generation, andafterwards by hermaphrodite sexual generation; because most vegetablespossess at this day both male and female organs in the same flower, which Linneus has thence well called hermaphrodite flowers; and thatthis hermaphrodite mode of reproduction still exists in many insects, as in snails and worms; and, finally, because all the male quadrupeds, as well as men, possess at this day some remains of the femaleapparatus, as the breasts with nipples, which still at their nativityare said to be replete with a kind of milk, and the nipples swell ontitillation. 

Afterwards the sexes seem to have been formed in vegetables as inflowers, in addition to the power of solitary reproduction by buds. Soin animals the aphis is propagated both by solitary reproduction as inspring, or by sexual generation as in autumn; then the vegetable sexesbegan to exist in separate plants, as in the classes monoecia anddioecia, or both of them in the same plant also, as in the classpolygamia; but the larger and more perfect animals are now propagatedby sexual reproduction only, which seems to have been thechef-d'oeuvre, or capital work of nature; as appears by the wonderfultransformations of leaf-eating caterpillars into honey-eating mothsand butterflies, apparently for the sole purpose of the formation ofsexual organs, as in the silk-worm, which takes no food after itstransformation, but propagates its species and dies. 

III. _Recapitulation. _

The microscopic productions of spontaneous vitality, and the next mostinferior kinds of vegetables and animals, propagate by solitarygeneration only; as the buds and bulbs raised immediately from seeds, the lycoperdon tuber, with probably many other fungi, and the polypus, volvox, and tænia. Those of the next order propagate both by solitaryand sexual reproduction, as those buds and bulbs which produce flowersas well as other buds or bulbs; and the aphis, and probably many otherinsects. Whence it appears, that many of those vegetables and animals, which are produced by solitary generation, gradually become moreperfect, and at length produce a sexual progeny. 

A third order of organic nature consists of hermaphrodite vegetablesand animals, as in those flowers which have anthers and stigmas in thesame corol; and in many insects, as leeches, snails, and worms; andperhaps all those reptiles which have no bones, according to theobservation of M. Poupart, who thinks, that the number ofhermaphrodite animals exceeds that of those which are divided intosexes; Mém. De l'Acad. Des Sciences. These hermaphrodite insects Isuspect _to_ be incapable of impregnating themselves for reasonsmentioned in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 6. 2. 

And, lastly, the most perfect orders of animals are propagated bysexual intercourse only; which, however, does not extend tovegetables, as all those raised from seed produce some generations ofbuds or bulbs, previous to their producing flowers, as occurs not onlyin trees, but also in the annual plants. Thus three or four joints ofwheat grow upon each other, before that which produces a flower; whichjoints are all separate plants growing over each other, like the budsof trees, previous to the uppermost; though this happens in a fewmonths in annual plants, which requires as many years in thesuccessive buds of trees; as is further explained in Phytologia, Sect. IX. 3. 1. 

IV. _Conclusion. _

Where climate is favourable, and salubrious food plentiful, there isreason to believe, that the races of animals perpetually improve byreproduction. The smallest microscopic animals become larger ones in ashort time, probably by successive reproductions, as is so distinctlyseen in the buds of seedling apple-trees, and in the bulbs of tulipsraised from seed; both which die annually, and leave behind them oneor many, which are more perfect than themselves, till they produce asexual progeny, or flowers. To which may be added, the rapidimprovement of our domesticated dogs, horses, rabbits, pigeons, whichimprove in size, or in swiftness, or in the sagacity of the sense ofsmell, or in colour, or other properties, by sexual reproduction. 

The great Linneus having perceived the changes produced in thevegetable world by sexual reproduction, has supposed that not morethan about sixty plants were at first created, and that all the othershave been formed by their solitary or sexual reproductions; and adds, Suadent hæc Creatoris leges a simplicibus ad composita; Gen. Plant. Preface to the natural orders, and Amenit. Acad. VI. 279. This modeof reasoning may be extended to the most simple productions ofspontaneous vitality. 

There is one curious circumstance of animal life analogous in somedegree to this wonderful power of reproduction; which is seen in thepropagation of some contagious diseases. Thus one grain of variolousmatter, inserted by inoculation, shall in about seven days stimulatethe system into unnatural action; which in about seven days moreproduces ten thousand times the quantity of a similar material thrownout on the skin in pustules!

The mystery of reproduction, which alone distinguishes organic lifefrom mechanic or chemic action, is yet wrapt in darkness. During thedecomposition of organic bodies, where there exists a due degree ofwarmth with moisture, new microscopic animals of the most minute kindare produced; and these possess the wonderful power of reproduction, or of producing animals similar to themselves in their generalstructure, but with frequent additional improvements; which thepreceding parent might in some measure have acquired by his habits oflife or accidental situation. 

But it may appear too bold in the present state of our knowledge onthis subject, to suppose that all vegetables and animals now existingwere originally derived from the smallest microscopic ones, formed byspontaneous vitality? and that they have by innumerable reproductions, during innumerable centuries of time, gradually acquired the size, strength, and excellence of form and faculties, which they nowpossess? and that such amazing powers were originally impressed onmatter and spirit by the great Parent of Parents! Cause of Causes! EnsEntium!

ADDITIONAL NOTES. IX. 

STORGE. 

 And Heaven-born STORGE weaves the social chain. CANTO II. L. 92. 

The Greek word Storge is used for the affection of parents tochildren; which was also visibly represented by the Stork or Pelicanfeeding her young with blood taken from her own wounded bosom. Anumber of Pelicans form a semicircle in shallow parts of the sea nearthe coast, standing on their long legs; and thus including a shoal ofsmall fish, they gradually approach the shore; and seizing the fish asthey advance, receive them into a pouch under their throats; andbringing them to land regurgitate them for the use of their young, orfor their future support. Adanson, Voyage to Senegal. In this countrythe parent Pigeons both male and female swallow the grain or otherseeds, which they collect for their young, and bring it up mixed witha kind of milk from their stomachs, with their bills inserted into themouths of the young doves. J. Hunter's works. 

The affection of the parent to the young in experienced mothers may bein part owing to their having been relieved by them from the burden oftheir milk; but it is difficult to understand, how this affectioncommences in those mothers of the bestial world, who have notexperienced this relief from the sucking of their offspring; and stillmore so to understand how female birds were at first induced toincubate their eggs for many weeks; and lastly how caterpillars, as ofthe silk-worm, are induced to cover themselves with a well-woven houseof silk before their transformation. 

These as well as many other animal facts, which are difficult toaccount for, have been referred to an inexplicable instinct; which issupposed to preclude any further investigation: but as animals seem tohave undergone great changes, as well as the inanimate parts of theearth, and are probably still in a state of gradual improvement; it isnot unreasonable to conclude, that some of these actions both of largeanimals and of insects, may have been acquired in a state precedingtheir present one; and have been derived from the parents to theiroffspring by imitation, or other kind of tradition; thus the eggs ofthe crocodile are at this day hatched by the warmth of the sun inEgypt; and the eggs of innumerable insects, and the spawn of fish, andof frogs, in this climate are hatched by the vernal warmth: this mightbe the case of birds in warm climates, in their early state ofexistence; and experience might have taught them to incubate theireggs, as they became more perfect animals, or removed themselves intocolder climates: thus the ostrich is said to sit upon its eggs only inthe night in warm situations, and both day and night in colder ones. 

This love of the mother in quadrupeds to the offspring, whom she licksand cleans, is so allied to the pleasure of the taste or palate, thatnature seems to have had a great escape in the parent quadruped notdevouring her offspring. Bitches, and cats, and sows, eat theplacenta; and if a dead offspring occurs, I am told, that also issometimes eaten, and yet the living offspring is spared; and by thatnice distinction the progenies of those animals are saved fromdestruction!

"Certior factus sum a viro rebus antiquissimis docto, quod legitur inBerosi operibus homines ante diluvium mulierum puerperarum placentamedidisse, quasi cibum delicatum in epulis luxuriosis; et quod hocnefandissimo crimine movebatur Deus diluvio submergere terrarumincolas. " ANON. 

It may be finally concluded, that this affection from the parent tothe progeny existed before animals were divided into sexes, andproduced the beginning of sympathetic society, the source of which mayperhaps be thus well accounted for; whenever the glandular system isstimulated into greater natural action within certain limits, anaddition of pleasure is produced along with the increased secretion;this pleasure arising from the activity of the system is supposed toconstitute the happiness of existence, in contradistinction to theennui or tædium vitæ; as shown in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIII. 1. 

Hence the secretion of nutritious juices occasioned by the stimulus ofan embryon or egg in the womb gives pleasure to the parent for alength of time; whence by association a similar pleasure may beoccasioned to the parent by seeing and touching the egg or fetus afterits birth; and in lactescent animals an additional pleasure isproduced by the new secretion of milk, as well as by its emission intothe sucking lips of the infant. This appears to be one of the greatsecrets of Nature, one of those fine, almost invisible cords, whichhave bound one animal to another. 

The females of lactiferous animals have thus a passion or inlet ofpleasure in their systems more than the males, from their power ofgiving suck to their offspring; the want of the object of thispassion, either owing to the death of the progeny, or to the unnaturalfashion of their situation in life, not only deprives them of thisinnocent and virtuous source of pleasure; but has occasioned diseases, which have been fatal to many of them. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. X. 

EVE FROM ADAM'S RIB. 

 Form'd a new sex, the mother of mankind. CANTO II. L. 140. 

The mosaic history of Paradise and of Adam and Eve has been thought bysome to be a sacred allegory, designed to teach obedience to divinecommands, and to account for the origin of evil, like Jotham's fableof the trees; Judges ix. 8. Or Nathan's fable of the poor man and hislamb; 2 Sam. Xii. 1. Or like the parables in the New Testament; asotherwise knowledge could not be said to grow upon one tree, and lifeupon another, or a serpent to converse; and lastly that this accountoriginated with the magi or philosophers of Egypt, with whom Moses waseducated, and that this part of the history, where Eve is said to havebeen made from a rib of Adam might have been an hieroglyphic design ofthe Egyptian philosophers, showing their opinion that Mankind wasoriginally of both sexes united, and was afterwards divided into malesand females: an opinion in later times held by Plato, and I believe byAristotle, and which must have arisen from profound inquiries into theoriginal state of animal existence. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XI. 

HEREDITARY DISEASES. 

 The feeble births acquired diseases chase, Till Death extinguish the degenerate race. CANTO II. L. 165. 

As all the families both of plants and animals appear in a state ofperpetual improvement or degeneracy, it becomes a subject ofimportance to detect the causes of these mutations. 

The insects, which are not propagated by sexual intercourse, are sofew or so small, that no observations have been made on theirdiseases; but hereditary diseases are believed more to affect theoffspring of solitary than of sexual generation in respect tovegetables; as those fruit trees, which have for more than a centurybeen propagated only by ingrafting, and not from seeds, have beenobserved by Mr. Knight to be at this time so liable to canker, as notto be worth cultivation. From the same cause I suspect the degeneracyof some potatoes and of some strawberries to have arisen; where thecurled leaf has appeared in the former, and barren flowers in thelatter. 

This may arise from the progeny by solitary reproduction so much moreexactly resembling the parent, as is well seen in grafted treescompared with seedling ones; the fruit of the former always resemblingthat of the parent tree, but not so of the latter. The grafted scionalso accords with the branch of the tree from whence it was taken, inthe time of its bearing fruit; for if a scion be taken from a bearingbranch of a pear or apple tree, I believe, it will produce fruit eventhe next year, or that succeeding; that is, in the same time that itwould have produced fruit, if it had continued growing on the parenttree; but if the parent pear or apple tree has been cut down orheaded, and scions are then, taken from the young shoots of the stem, and ingrafted; I believe those grafted trees will continue to grow forten or twelve years, before they bear fruit, almost as long asseedling trees, that is they will require as much time, as those newshoots from the lopped trunk would require, before they produce fruit. It should thence be inquired, when grafted fruit trees are purchased, whether the scions were taken from bearing branches, or from the youngshoots of a lopped trunk; as the latter, I believe, are generallysold, as they appear stronger plants. This greater similitude of theprogeny to the parent in solitary reproduction must certainly makethem more liable to hereditary diseases, if such have been acquired bythe parent from unfriendly climate or bad nourishment, or accidentalinjury. 

In respect to the sexual progeny of vegetables it has long beenthought, that a change of seed or of situation is in process of timenecessary to prevent their degeneracy; but it is now believed, that itis only changing for seed of a superior quality, that will better theproduct. At the same time it may be probably useful occasionally tointermix seeds from different situations together; as the anther-dustis liable to pass from one plant to another in its vicinity; and bythese means the new seeds or plants may be amended, like the marriagesof animals into different families. 

As the sexual progeny of vegetables are thus less liable to hereditarydiseases than the solitary progenies; so it is reasonable to conclude, that the sexual progenies of animals may be less liable to hereditarydiseases, if the marriages are into different families, than if intothe same family; this has long been supposed to be true, by those whobreed animals for sale; since if the male and female be of differenttemperaments, as these are extremes of the animal system, they maycounteract each other; and certainly where both parents are offamilies, which are afflicted with the same hereditary disease, it ismore likely to descend to their posterity. 

The hereditary diseases of this country have many of them been theconsequence of drinking much fermented or spirituous liquor; as thegout always, most kinds of dropsy, and, I believe, epilepsy, andinsanity. But another material, which is liable to produce diseases inits immoderate use, I believe to be common salt; the sea-scurvy isevidently caused by it in long voyages; and I suspect the scrofula, and consumption, to arise in the young progeny from the debility ofthe lymphatic and venous absorption produced in the parent by thisinnutritious fossile stimulus. The petechiæ and vibices in thesea-scurvy and occasional hæmorrhages evince the defect of venousabsorption; the occasional hæmoptoe at the commencement of pulmonaryconsumption, seems also to arise from defect of venous absorption; andthe scrofula, which arises from the inactivity of the lymphaticabsorbent system, frequently exists along with pulmonary as well aswith mesenteric consumption. A tendency to these diseases is certainlyhereditary, though perhaps not the diseases themselves; thus a lessquantity of ale, cyder, wine, or spirit, will induce the gout anddropsy in those constitutions, whose parents have been intemperate inthe use of those liquors; as I have more than once had occasion toobserve. 

Finally the art to improve the sexual progeny of either vegetables oranimals must consist in choosing the most perfect of both sexes, thatis the most beautiful in respect to the body, and the most ingeniousin respect to the mind; but where one sex is given, whether male orfemale, to improve a progeny from that person may consist in choosinga partner of a contrary temperament. 

As many families become gradually extinct by hereditary diseases, asby scrofula, consumption, epilepsy, mania, it is often hazardous tomarry an heiress, as she is not unfrequently the last of a diseasedfamily. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XII. 

CHEMICAL THEORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 

 Then mark how two electric streams conspire To form the resinous and vitreous fire. CANTO III. L. 21. 

I. _Of Attraction and Repulsion. _

The motions, which accomplish the combinations and decompositions ofbodies, depend on the peculiar attractions and repulsions of theparticles of those bodies, or of the sides and angles of them; whilethe motions of the sun and planets, of the air and ocean, and of allbodies approaching to a general centre or retreating from it, dependon the general attraction or repulsion of those masses of matter. Thepeculiar attractions above mentioned are termed chemical affinities, and the general attraction is termed gravitation; but the peculiarrepulsions of the particles of bodies, or the general repulsion of themasses of matter, have obtained no specific names, nor have beensufficiently considered; though they appear to be as powerful agentsas the attractions. 

The motions of ethereal fluids, as of magnetism and electricity, areyet imperfectly understood, and seem to depend both on chemicalaffinity, and on gravitation; and also on the peculiar repulsions ofthe particles of bodies, and on the general repulsion of the masses ofmatter. 

In what manner attraction and repulsion are produced has not yet beenattempted to be explained by modern philosophers; but as nothing canact, where it does not exist, all distant attraction of the particlesof bodies, as well as general gravitation, must be ascribed to somestill finer ethereal fluid; which fills up all space between the sunsand their planets, as well as the interstices of coherent matter. Repulsion in the same manner must consist of some finer etherealfluid; which at first projected the planets from the sun, and Isuppose prevents their return to it; and which occasionallyvolatilizes or decomposes solid bodies into fluid or aerial ones, andperhaps into ethereal ones. 

May not the ethereal matter which constitutes repulsion, be the sameas the matter of heat in its diffused state; which in its quiescentstate is combined with various bodies, as appears from many chemicalexplosions, in which so much heat is set at liberty? The etherealmatter, which constitutes attraction, we are less acquainted with; butit may also exist combined with bodies, as well as in its diffusedstate; since the specific gravities of some metallic mixtures are saidnot to accord with what ought to result from the combination of theirspecific gravities, which existed before their mixture; but theirabsolute gravities have not been attended to sufficiently; as thesehave always been supposed to depend on their quantity of matter, andsituation in respect to the centre of the earth. 

The ethereal fluids, which constitute peculiar repulsions andattractions, appear to gravitate round the particles of bodies mixedtogether; as those, which constitute the general repulsion orattraction, appear to gravitate round the greater masses of mattermixed together; but that which constitutes attraction seems to existin a denser state next to the particles or masses of matter; and thatwhich constitutes repulsion to exist more powerfully in a spherefurther from them; whence many bodies attract at one distance, andrepel at another. This may be observed by approaching to each othertwo electric atmospheres round insulated cork-balls; or by pressingglobules of mercury, which roll on the surface, till they unite withit; or by pressing the drops of water, ' which stand on a cabbage leaf, till they unite with it, and hence light is reflected from the surfaceof a mirror without touching it. 

Thus the peculiar attractions and repulsions of the particles ofbodies, and the general ones of the masses of matter, perpetuallyoppose and counteract each other; whence if the power of attractionshould cease to act, all matter would be dissipated by the power ofrepulsion into boundless space; and if heat, or the power ofrepulsion, should cease to act, the whole world would become one solidmass, condensed into a point. 

II. _Preliminary Propositions. _

The following propositions concerning Electricity and Galvanism willeither be proved by direct experiments, or will be rendered probableby their tending to explain or connect the variety of electric facts, to which they will be applied. 

1. There are two kinds of electric ether, which exist eitherseparately or in combination. That which is accumulated on the surfaceof smooth glass, when it is rubbed with a cushion, is here termedvitreous ether; and that which is accumulated on the surface of resinor sealing-wax, when it is rubbed with a cushion, is here termedresinous ether; and a combination of them, as in their usual state, may be termed neutral electric ethers. 

2. Atmospheres of vitreous or of resinous or of neutral electricitysurround all separate bodies, are attracted by them, and permeatethose, which are called conductors, as metallic and aqueous andcarbonic ones; but will not permeate those, which are termednonconductors, as air, glass, silk, resin, sulphur. 

3. The particles of vitreous electric ether strongly repel each otheras they surround other bodies; but strongly attract the particles ofresinous electric ether: in similar manner the particles of theresinous ether powerfully repel each other, and as powerfully attractthose of the vitreous ether. Hence in their separate state they appearto occupy much greater space, as they, gravitate round insulatedbodies, and are then only cognizable by our senses or experiments. They rush violently together through conducting substances, and thenprobably possess much less space in this their combined state. Theythus resemble oxygen gas and nitrous gas; which rush violentlytogether when in contact; and occupy less space when united, thaneither of them possessed separately before their union. When the twoelectric ethers thus unite, a chemical explosion occurs, like anignited train of gunpowder; as they give out light and heat; and rendor fuse the bodies they occupy; which cannot be accounted for on themechanical theory of Dr. Franklin. 

4. Glass holds within it in combination much resinous electric ether, which constitutes a part of it, and which more forcibly attractsvitreous electric ether from surrounding bodies, which stands on itmixed with a less proportion of resinous ether like an atmosphere, butcannot unite with the resinous ether, which is combined with theglass; and resin, on the contrary, holds within it in combination muchvitreous electric ether, which constitutes a part of it, and whichmore forcibly attracts resinous electric ether from surroundingbodies, which stands on it mixed with a less proportion of vitreousether like an atmosphere, but cannot unite with the vitreous ether, which is combined with the resin. 

As in the production of vitrification, those materials are necessarywhich contain much oxygen, as minium, and manganese; there is probablymuch oxygen combined with glass, which may thence be esteemed a solidacid, as water may be esteemed a fluid one. It is hence notimprobable, that one kind of electric ether may also be combined withit, as it seems to affect the oxygen of water in the Galvanicexperiments. The combination of the other kind of electric ether withwax or sulphur, is countenanced from those bodies, when heated ormelted, being said to part with much electricity as they cool, and asit appears to affect the hydrogen in the decomposition of water byGalvanism. 

5. Hence the nonconductors of electricity are of two kinds; such asare combined with vitreous ether, as resin, and sulphur; and such asare combined with resinous ether, as glass, air, silk. But both thesekinds of nonconductors are impervious to either of the electricethers; as those ethers being already combined with other bodies willnot unite with each other, or be removed from their situations by eachother. Whereas the perfect conducting bodies, as metals, water, charcoal, though surrounded with electric atmospheres, as they haveneither of the electric ethers combined with them, suffer them topermeate and pass through them, whether separately or in their neutralstate of reciprocal combination. 

But it is probable, that imperfect conductors may possess more or lessof either the vitreous or resinous ether combined with them, sincetheir natural atmospheres are dissimilar as mentioned below; and thatthis makes them more or less imperfect conductors. 

6. Those bodies which are perfect conductors, have probably neutralelectric atmospheres gravitating round them consisting of an equal orsaturated mixture of the two electric ethers, whereas the atmospheresround the nonconducting bodies probably consist of an unequal mixtureof the electric ethers, as more of the vitreous one round glass, andmore of the resinous one round resin; and, it is probable, that thesemixed atmospheres, which surround imperfect conducting bodies, consistalso of different proportions of the vitreous and resinous ethers, according to their being more or less perfect conductors. These minutedegrees of the difference of these electric atmospheres are evinced byMr. Bennet's Doubler of Electricity, as shown in his work, and aretermed by him Adhesive Electric Atmospheres, to distinguish them fromthose accumulated by art; thus the natural adhesive electricity ofsilver is more of the vitreous kind compared with that of zinc, whichconsists of a greater proportion of the resinous; that is, in hislanguage, silver is positive and zinc negative. This experiment I havesuccessfully repeated with Mr. Bennet's Doubler along with Mr. Swanwick. 

7. Great accumulation or condensation of the separate electric ethersattract each other so strongly, that they will break a passage throughnonconducting bodies, as through a plate of glass, or of air, and willrend bodies which are less perfect conductors, and give out light andheat like the explosion of a train of gunpowder; whence, when a strongelectric shock is passed through a quire of paper, a bur, or elevationof the sheets, is seen on both sides of it occasioned by theexplosion. Whence trees and stone walls are burst by lightning, andwires are fused, and inflammable bodies burnt, by the heat given outalong with the flash of light, which cannot be explained by themechanic theory. 

8. When artificial or natural accumulations of these separate ethersare very minute in quantity or intensity, they pass slowly and withdifficulty from one body to another, and require the best conductorsfor this purpose; whence many of the phenomena of the torpedo orgymnotus, and of Galvanism. Thus after having discharged a coatedjar, if the communicating wire has been quickly withdrawn, a secondsmall shock may be taken after the principal discharge, and thisrepeatedly two or three times. 

Hence the charge of the Galvanic pile being very minute in quantity orintensity, will not readily pass through the dry cuticle of the hands, though it so easily passes through animal flesh or nerves, as thiscombination of charcoal with water seems to constitute the mostperfect conductor yet known. 

9. As light is reflected from the surface of a mirror before itactually touches it, and as drops of water are repelled from cabbageleaves without touching them, and as oil lies on water withouttouching it, and also as a fine needle may be made to lie on waterwithout touching it, as shown by Mr. Melville in the Literary Essaysof Edinburgh; there is reason to believe, that the vitreous andresinous electric ethers are repelled by, or will not pass through, the surfaces of glass or resin, to which they are applied. But thoughneither of these electric ethers passes through the surfaces of glassor resin, yet their attractive or repulsive powers pass through them:as the attractive or repulsive power of the magnet to iron passesthrough the atmosphere, and all other bodies which exist between them. So an insulated cork-ball, when electrised either with vitreous orresinous ether, repels another insulated cork-ball electrised with thesame kind of ether, through half an inch of common air, though theseelectric atmospheres do not unite. 

Whence it may be concluded, that the general attractive and repulsiveethers accompany the electric ethers as well as they accompany allother bodies; and that the electric ethers do not themselves attractor repel through glass or resin, as they cannot pass through them, butstrongly attract each other when they come into contact, rushtogether, and produce an explosion of the sudden liberation of heatand light. 

III. _Effect of Metallic Points. _

1. When a pointed wire is presented by a person standing on the groundto an insulated conductor, on which either vitreous or resinouselectricity is accumulated, the accumulated electricity will pass offat a much greater distance than if a metallic knob be fixed on thewire and presented in its stead. 

2. The same occurs if the metallic point be fixed on the electrisedconductor, and the finger of a person standing on the ground bepresented to it, the accumulated electricity will pass off at a muchgreater distance, and indeed will soon discharge itself bycommunicating the accumulated electricity to the atmosphere. 

3. If a metallic point be fixed on the prime conductor, and the flameof a candle be presented to it, on electrising the conductor eitherwith vitreous or resinous ether, the flame of the candle is blown fromthe point, which must be owing to the electric fluid in its passagefrom the point carrying along with it a stream of atmospheric air. 

The manner in which the accumulated electricity so readily passes offby a metallic point may be thus understood; when a metallic pointstands erect from an electrised metallic plane, the accumulatedelectricity which exists on the extremity of the point, is attractedless than that on the other parts of the electrised surface. For theparticle of electric matter immediately over the point is attracted bythat point only, whereas the particles of electric matter over everyother part of the electrised plane, is not only attracted by the partsof the plane immediately under them, but also laterally by thecircumjacent parts of it; whence the accumulated electric fluid ispushed off at this point by that over the other parts being morestrongly attracted to the plane. 

Thus if a light insulated horizontal fly be constructed of wire withpoints fixed as tangents to the circle, it will revolve the waycontrary to the direction of the points as long as it continues to beelectrised. For the same reason as when a circle of cork, with a pointof the cork standing from it like a tangent, is smeared with oil, andthrown upon a lake, it will continue to revolve backwards in respectto the direction of the point till all the oil is dispersed upon thelake, as first observed by Dr. Franklin; for the oil being attractedto all the other parts of the cork-circle more than towards thepointed tangent, that part over the point is pushed off and diffusesitself on the water, over which it passes without touching, andconsequently without friction; and thus the cork revolves in thecontrary direction. 

As the flame of a candle is blown from a point fixed on an electrisedconductor, whether vitreous or resinous electricity is accumulated onit, it shows that in both cases electricity passes from the point, which is a forcible argument against the mechanical theory of positiveand negative electricity; because then the flame should be blowntowards the point in one case, and from it in the other. 

So the electric fly, as it turns horizontally, recedes from thedirection of the points of the tangents, whether it be electrised withvitreous or resinous electricity; whereas if it was supposed toreceive electricity, when electrised by resin, and to part with itwhen electrised by glass, it ought to revolve different ways; whichalso forcibly opposes the theory of positive and negative electricity. 

As an electrised point with either kind of electricity causes a streamof air to pass from it in the direction of the point, it seems toaffect the air much in the same manner as the fluid matter of heataffects it; that is, it will not readily pass through it, but willadhere to the particles of air, and is thus carried away with them. 

From this it will also appear, that points do not attract electricity, properly speaking, but suffer it to depart from them; as it is thereless attracted to the body which it surrounds, than by any other partof the surface. 

And as a point presented to an electrised conductor facilitates thedischarge of it, and blows the flame of a candle towards theconductor, whether vitreous or resinous electricity be accumulatedupon it; it follows, that in both cases some electric matter passesfrom the point to the conductor, and that hence there are two electricethers; and that they combine or explode when they meet together, andgive out light and heat, and occupy less space in this their combinedstate, like the union of nitrous gas with oxygen gas. 

IV. _Accumulation of Electric Ethers by Contact. _

The electric ethers may be separately accumulated by contact ofconductors with nonconductors, by vicinity of the two ethers, by heat, and by decomposition. 

Glass is believed to consist in part of consolidated resinous ether, and thence to attract an electric atmosphere round it, which consistsof a greater proportion of vitreous ether compared to the quantity ofthe resinous, as mentioned in Proposition No. 4. This atmosphere maystand off a line from the surface of the glass, though its attractiveor repulsive power may extend to a much greater distance; and a moreequally mixed electric atmosphere may stand off about the samedistance from the surface of a cushion. 

Now when a cushion is forcibly pressed upon the surface of a glasscylinder or plane, the atmosphere of the cushion is forced within thatof the glass, and consequently the vitreous part of it is broughtwithin the sphere of the attraction of the resinous ether combinedwith the glass, and therefore becomes attracted by it in addition tothe vitreous part of the spontaneous atmosphere of the glass; and theresinous part of the atmosphere of the cushion is at the same timerepelled by its vicinity to the combined resinous ether of the glass. From both which circumstances a vitreous ether alone surrounds thepart of the glass on which the cushion is forcibly pressed; which doesnot, nevertheless, resemble an electrised coated jar; as thisaccumulation of vitreous ether on one side of the glass is not soviolently condensed, or so forcibly attracted to the glass by theloose resinous ether on the other side of it, as occurs in the chargedcoated jar. 

Hence as weak differences of the kinds or quantities of electricity donot very rapidly change place, if the cushion be suddenly withdrawn, with or without friction, I suppose an accumulation of vitreouselectric ether will be left on the surface of the glass, which willdiffuse itself on an insulated conductor by the assistance of points, or will gradually be dissipated in the air, probably like odours bythe repulsion of its own particles, or may be conducted away by thesurrounding air as it is repelled from it, or by the moisture or otherimpurities of the atmosphere. And hence I do not suppose the frictionof the glass-globe to be necessary, except for the purpose of moreeasily removing the parts of the surface from the pressure of thecushion to the points of the prime conductor, and to bring them moreeasily into reciprocal contact. 

When sealing wax or sulphur is rubbed by a cushion, exactly the samecircumstance occurs, but with the different ethers; as the resinousether of the spontaneous atmosphere of the cushion, when it is pressedwithin the spontaneous atmosphere of the sealing wax, is attracted bythe solid vitreous ether, which is combined with it; and at the sametime the vitreous ether of the cushion is repelled by it; and hence anatmosphere of resinous ether alone exists between the sealing wax andthe cushion thus pressed together. It is nevertheless possible, thatfriction on both sealing wax and glass may add some facility to theaccumulations of their opposite ethers by the warmth which itoccasions. As most electric machines succeed best after being warmed, I think even in dry frosty seasons. 

Though when a cushion is applied to a smooth surfaced glass, so as tointermix their electric atmospheres, the vitreous ether of the cushionis attracted by the resinous ether combined with the glass; but doesnot intermix with it, but only adheres to it: and as the glass turnsround, the vitreous electric atmosphere stands on the solid resinouselectric ether combined with the glass; and is taken away by themetallic points of the prime conductor. 

Yet if the surface of the glass be roughened by scratching it with adiamond or with hard sand, a new event occurs; which is, that thevitreous ether attracted from the cushion by the resinous ethercombined with the glass becomes adhesive to it; and stands upon theroughened glass, and will not quit the glass to go to the primeconductor; whence the surface of the glass having a vitreous electricatmosphere united, as it were, to its inequalities, becomes similar toresin; and will now attract resinous electric ether, like a stick ofsealing wax, without combining with it. Whence this curious andotherwise unintelligible phenomenon, that smooth surfaced glass willgive vitreous electric ether to an insulated conductor, and glass witha roughened surface will give resinous ether to it. 

V. _Accumulation of electric ethers by vicinity. _

Though the contact of a cushion on the whirling glass is the easiestmethod yet in use for the accumulation of the vitreous electric etheron an insulated conductor; yet there are other methods of effectingthis, as by the vicinity of the two electric ethers with anonconductor between them. 

Thus I believe a great quantity of both vitreous and resinous electricether may be accumulated in the following manner. Let a glass jar becoated within in the usual manner; but let it have a loose externalcoating, which can easily be withdrawn by an insulating handle. Thencharge the jar, as highly as it may be, by throwing into it vitreouselectric ether; and in this state hermetically seal it, ifpracticable, otherwise close it with a glass stopple and wax. When theexternal coating is drawn off by an insulating handle, havingpreviously had a communication with the earth, it will possess anaccumulation of resinous electric ether; and then touching it withyour finger, a spark will be seen, and there will cease to be anyaccumulated ether. 

Thus by alternately replacing this loose coating, and withdrawing itfrom the sealed charged jar, by means of an insulating handle; and byapplying it to one insulated conductor, when it is in the vicinity ofthe jar; and to another insulated conductor, when it is withdrawn;vitreous electric ether may be accumulated on one of them, andresinous on the other; and thus I suspect an immense quantity of bothethers may be produced without friction or much labour, if a largeelectric battery was so contrived; and that it might be applied tomany mechanical purposes, where other explosions are now used, as inthe place of steam engines, or to rend rocks, or timber, or destroyinvading armies!

The principle of this mode of accumulating the two electric ethers insome measure resembles that of Volta's Electrophorus and Bennet'sDoubler. 

VI. _Accumulation of electric ethers by heat and by decomposition. _

When glass or amber is heated by the fire in a dry season, I suspectthat it becomes in some degree electric; as either of the electricethers which is combined with them may have its combination with thosematerials loosened by the application of heat; and that on thisaccount they may more forcibly attract the opposite one from the airin their vicinity. 

It has long been known, that a siliceous stone called the tourmalin, when its surfaces are polished, if it be laid down before the fire, will become electrified with vitreous, or what is called positiveelectricity on its upper surface; and resinous, or what is callednegative electricity on its under surface; which I suppose lay incontact with somewhat which supported it near the fire. 

In this experiment I suppose the tourmalin to be naturally combinedwith resinous electric ether like glass; which on one side nexttowards the fire by the increase of its attractive power, owing to theheat having loosened its combination with the earth of the stone, morestrongly attracts vitreous electric ether from the atmosphere; whichnow stands on its surface: and then as the lower surface of the stonelies in contact with the hearth, the less quantity of vitreous etheris there repelled by the greater quantity of it on the upper surface;while the resinous ether is attracted by it: and the stone is thuscharged like a coated jar with vitreous electric ether condensed onone side of it, and resinous on the other. 

So cats, as they lie by the fire in a frosty day, become so electricas frequently to give a perceptible spark to one's finger from theirears without friction. 

A fourth method of separating the two ethers would seem to be by thedecomposition of metallic bodies, as in the experiment with Volta'sGalvanic pile; which is said by Mr. Davy to act so much morepowerfully, when an acid is added to the water used in the experiment;as will be spoken of below. 

From experiments made by M. Saussure on the electricity of evaporatedwater from hot metallic vessels, and from those of china and glass, hefound when the vessel was calcined or made rusty by the evaporatingwater, that the electricity of it was positive (or vitreous), and thatfrom china or glass was negative (or resinous), Encyclop. Britan. Art. Elect. No. 206, which seems also to show, that vitreous electric etherwas given out or produced by the corrosion of metals, and resinousether from the evaporation of water. 

VII. _The spark from the conductor, and of electric light. _

When either the vitreous or resinous electric ether is accumulated onan insulated conductor, and an uninsulated conductor, as the finger ofan attendant, is applied nearly in contact with it, what happens? Theattractive and repulsive powers of the accumulated electric ether passthrough the nonconducting plate of air, and if it be of the vitreouskind, it attracts the resinous electric ether of the finger towardsit, and repels the vitreous electric ether of the finger from it. 

Hence there exists for an instant a charged plate of air between thefinger and the prime conductor, with an accumulation of vitreous etheron one side of it, and of resinous ether on the other side of it; andlastly these two kinds of electric ethers suddenly unite by theirpowerful attraction of each other, explode, and give out heat andlight, and rupture the plate of nonconducting air, which separatedthem. 

The rupture or disjunction of the plate of air is known by the soundof the spark, as of thunder; which shows that a vacuum of air waspreviously produced by the explosion of the electric fluids, and avibration of the air in consequence of the sudden joining again of thesides of the vacuum. 

The light which attends electric sparks and shocks, is not accountedfor by the Theory of Dr. Franklin. I suspect that it is owing to thecombination of the two electric ethers, from which as from allchemical explosions both light and heat are set at liberty, andbecause a smell is said to be perceptible from electric sparks, andeven a taste which must be deduced from new combinations, ordecompositions, as in other explosions: add to this that the samething occurs, when electric shocks are passed through eggs in thedark, or through water, a luminous line is seen like the explosion ofa train of gunpowder; lastly, whether light is really produced in thepassage of the Galvanic electricity through the eyes, or that thesensation alone of light is perceived by its stimulating the opticnerve, has not yet been investigated; but I suspect the former, as itemits light from its explosion even in passing through eggs andthrough water, as mentioned above. 

VIII. _The shock from the coated jar, and of electric condensation. _

1. When a glass jar is coated on both sides, and either vitreous orresinous electricity is thrown upon the coating on one side, and thereis a communication to the earth from the other side, the same thinghappens as in the plate of air between the finger and prime conductorabove described; that is, the accumulated electricity, if it be of thevitreous kind, on one coating of the glass jar will attract theresinous part of the electricity, which surrounds or penetrates thecoating on the other side of the jar, and also repel the vitreous partof it; but this occurs on a much more extensive surface than in theinstance of the plate of air between the finger and prime conductor. 

The difference between electric sparks and shocks consists in thiscircumstance, that in the former the insulating medium, whether ofair, or of thin glass, is ruptured in one part, and thus acommunication is made between the vitreous and resinous ethers, andthey unite immediately, like globules of quicksilver, when pressedforcibly together: but in the electric shock a communication is madeby some conducting body applied to the other extremities of thevitreous, and of the resinous atmospheres, through which they pass andunite, whether both sides of the coated jar are insulated, or only oneside of it. 

And in this line, as they reciprocally meet, they appear to explodeand give out light and heat, and a new combination of the two ethersis produced, as a residuum after the explosion, which probablyoccupies much less space than either the vitreous or resinous ethersdid separately before. At the same time there may be anotherunrestrainable ethereal fluid yet unobserved, given out from thisexplosion, which rends oak trees, bursts stone-walls, lightsinflammable substances, and fuses metals, or dissipates them in acalciform smoak, along with which great light and much heat areemitted, or these effects are produced by the heat and light only thusset at liberty by their synchronous and sudden evolution. 

2. The curious circumstance of electric condensation appears from theviolence of the shock of the coated jar compared with the strongestspark from an insulated conductor, though the latter possesses a muchgreater surface; when vitreous electric ether is thrown on one side ofa coated jar, it attracts the resinous electric ether of the otherside of the coated jar; and the same occurs, when resinous ether isthrown on one side of it, it attracts the vitreous ether of the otherside of it, and thus the vitreous electric ether on one side of thejar, and the resinous ether on the other side of it become condensed, that is accumulated in less space, by their reciprocal attraction ofeach other. 

This condensation of the two electric ethers owing to their reciprocalattraction appears from another curious event, that the thinner theglass jar is, the stronger will the charge be on the same quantity ofsurface, as then the two ethers approaching nearer without theirintermixing attract each other stronger, and consequently condenseeach other more. And when the glass jar is very thin the reciprocalattractive powers of the vitreous and resinous ether attract eachother so violently as at length to pass through the glass by rupturingit, in the same manner as a less forcible attraction of them rupturesand passes through the plate of air in the production of sparks fromthe prime conductor. 

As these two ethers on each side of a charged coated jar so powerfullyattract each other, when a communication is made between them by someconducting substance as in the common mode of discharging anelectrised coated jar, they reciprocally pass to each other for thepurpose of combining, as some chemical fluids are known to do; as whennitrous gas and oxygen gas are mixed together; whence as these fluidspass both ways to intermix with each other, and then explode; a burappears on each side of a quire of paper well pressed together, when astrong electric shock is passed through it; which is occasioned bytheir explosion, like a train of gunpowder, and consequent emission ofsome other ethereal fluid, either those of heat and light or of somenew one not yet observed. Whence it becomes difficult to explain, according to the theory of Dr. Franklin, which way the electric fluidpassed; and which side of the coated jar contained positive and whichthe negative charge according to that doctrine. 

But the theory of the ingenious Dr. Franklin failed also in explainingother phenomena of the coated jar; since if the positive electricityaccumulated on one side of the jar repelled the electricity from thecoating on the other side of it, so as to produce an electric vacuum;why should it be so eager, when a communication is made by someconducting body, to run into that vacuum by its attraction orgravitation, which has been made by its repulsion; as thus it seems tobe violently attracted by the vacuum, from which it had previouslyrepelled a fluid similar to itself, which is not easily to becomprehended. 

3. There is another mode by which either vitreous or resinous electricether is capable of condensation; which consists in contracting thevolume, so as to diminish the surface of the electrised body; as wasingeniously shown by Dr. Franklin's experiment of electrising a silvertankard with a length of chain rolled up within it; and then drawingup the chain by a silk string, which weakened the electric attractionof the tankard; which was strengthened again by returning the chaininto it; thus the condensation of an electrised cloud is believed tocondense the electric ether, which it contains, and thus to occasionthe lightning passing from one cloud to another, or from a cloud intothe earth. 

This experiment of the chain and tankard is said to succeed as well withwhat is termed negative electricity in the theory of Dr. Franklin, aswith what is termed positive electricity; but in that theory thenegative electricity means a less quantity or total deprivation orvacuity of that fluid; now to condense negative electricity by loweringthe suspended chain into the tankard ought to make it less negative;whereas in this experiment I am told it becomes more so, as appears byits stronger repulsion of cork balls suspended on silk strings, andpreviously electrised by rubbed sealing wax: and if the negativeelectricity be believed to be a perfect vacuum of it, the condensationof a vacuum of electricity is totally incomprehensible; and thisexperiment alone seems to demonstrate the existence of two electricethers. 

IX. _Of Galvanic Electricity. _

1. The conductors of electricity, as well as the nonconductors of it, have probably a portion of the vitreous and resinous ethers combinedwith them, and have also another portion of these ethers diffusedround them, which forms their natural or spontaneous adhesiveatmospheres; and which exists in different proportions round themcorrespondent in quantity to those which are combined with them, butopposite in kind. 

These adhesive spontaneous atmospheres of electricity are shown toconsist of different proportions or quantities of the electric ethersby Mr. Bennet's Doubler of Electricity, as mentioned in his workcalled New Experiments on Electricity, sold by Johnson. In this work, p. 91, the blade of a steel knife was evidently, in his language, positive, compared to a soft iron wire which was comparativelynegative; so the adhesive electricity of gold, silver, copper, brass, bismuth, mercury, and various kinds of wood and stone, were what heterms positive or vitreous; and that of tin and zinc, what he termsnegative or resinous. 

Where these spontaneous atmospheres of diffused electricitysurrounding two conducting bodies, as two pieces of silver, areperfectly similar, they probably do not intermix when brought into thevicinity of each other; but if these spontaneous atmospheres ofdiffused electricity are different in respect to the proportion of thetwo ethers, or perhaps in respect to their quantity, in however smalldegree either of these circumstances exists, they may be made to unitebut with some difficulty; as the two metallic plates, suppose one ofsilver, and another of zinc, which they surround, must be brought intoabsolute or adhesive contact; or otherwise these atmospheres may beforced together so as to be much flattened, and compress each otherwhere they meet, like small globules of quicksilver when pressedtogether, but without uniting. 

This curious phenomenon may be seen in more dense electric atmospheresaccumulated by art, as in the following experiment ascribed to Mr. Canton. Lay a wooden skewer the size of a goose-quill across a drywine-glass, and another across another wine-glass; let the ends ofthem touch each other, as they lie in a horizontal line; call them Xand Y; approach a rubbed glass-tube near the external end of theskewer X, but not so as to touch it; then separate the two skewers byremoving the wine-glasses further from each other; and lastly, withdraw the rubbed glass-tube, and the skewer X will now be found topossess resinous electricity, which has been generally called negativeor minus electricity; and the skewer Y will be found to possessvitreous, or what is generally termed positive or plus electricity. 

The same phenomenon will occur if rubbed sealing wax be applied nearto, but not in contact with, the skewer X, as the skewer X will thenbe left with an atmosphere of vitreous ether, and the skewer Y withone of resinous ether. These experiments also evince the existence oftwo electric fluids, as they cannot be understood from an idea of onebeing a greater or less quantity of the same material; as a vacuum ofelectric ether, brought near to one end of the skewer, cannot beconceived so to attract the ether as to produce a vacuum at the otherend. 

In this experiment the electric atmospheres, which are nearly ofsimilar kinds, do not seem to touch, as there may remain a thin plateof air between them, in the same manner as small globules of mercurymay be pressed together so as to compress each other, long before theyintermix; or as plates of lead or brass require strongly to be pressedtogether before they acquire the attraction of cohesion; that is, before they come into real contact. 

2. It is probable, that all bodies are more or less perfectconductors, as they have less or more of either of the electric etherscombined with them; as mentioned in Preliminary Proposition, No. VI. As they may then less resist the passage of either of the ethersthrough them. Whence some conducting bodies admit the junction ofthese spontaneous electric atmospheres, in which the proportions orquantities of the two ethers are not very different, with greaterfacility than others. 

Thus in the common experiments, where the vitreous or resinous etheris accumulated by art, metallic bodies have been esteemed the bestconductors, and next to these water, and all other moist bodies; butit was lately discovered, that dry charcoal, recently burnt, was amore perfect conductor than metals; and it appears from theexperiments discovered by Galvani, which have thence the name ofGalvanism, that animal flesh, and particularly perhaps the nerves ofanimals, both which are composed of much carbon and water, are themost perfect conductors yet discovered; that is, that they give theleast resistance to the junction of the spontaneous electricatmospheres, which exist round metallic bodies, and which differ verylittle in respect to the proportions of their vitreous and resinousingredients. 

Thus also, though where the accumulated electricities are dense, as incharging a coated glass-jar, the glass, which intervenes, may be ofconsiderable thickness, and may still become charged by the strongerattraction of the secondary electric ethers; but where the spontaneousadhesive electric atmospheres are employed to charge plates of air, asin the Galvanic pile, or probably to charge thin animal membranes orcuticles, as perhaps in the shock given by the torpedo or gymnotus, itseems necessary that the intervening nonconducting plate must beextremely thin, that it may become charged by the weaker attraction ofthese small quantities or difference of the spontaneous electricatmospheres; and in this circumstance only, I suppose, the shocks fromthe Galvanic pile, and from the torpedo and gymnotus, differ fromthose of the coated jar. 

3. When atmospheres of electricity, which do not differ much in thequantity or proportion of their vitreous and resinous ethers, approacheach other, they are not easily or rapidly united; but the predominantvitreous or resinous ether of one of them repels the similar ether ofthe opposed atmosphere, and attracts the contrary kind of ether. 

The slowness or difficulty with, which atmospheres, which differ butlittle in kind or in density, unite with each other, appears not onlyfrom the experiment of Mr. Canton above related, but also from therepeated smaller shocks, which may be taken from a charged coated jarafter the first or principal discharge, if the conducting medium hasnot been quickly removed, as is also mentioned above. 

Hence those atmospheres of either kind of electric matter, whichdiffer but very little from each other in kind or quantity, requirethe most perfect conductors to cause them to unite. Thus it appears byMr. Bennet's doubler, as mentioned in the Preliminary Proposition, No. VI. That the natural adhesive atmosphere round silver contains morevitreous electricity than that naturally round zinc; but when thinplates of these metals, each about an ounce in weight, are laid oneach other, or moderately pressed together, their atmospheres do notunite. For metallic plates, which when laid on each other, do notadhere, cannot be said to be in real contact, of which their notadhering is a proof; and in consequence a thin plate of air, or oftheir own repulsive ethers exists between them. 

Hence when two plates of zinc and silver are thus brought in to thevicinity of each other, the plate of air between them, as they are notin adhesive contact, becomes like a charged coated jar; and if thesetwo metallic plates are touched by your dry hands, they do not unitetheir electricities, as the dry cuticle is not a sufficiently goodconductor; but if one of the metals be put above, and another underthe tongue, the saliva and moist mucous membrane, muscular fibres, andnerves, supply so good a conductor, that this very minute electricshock is produced, and a kind of pungent taste is perceived. 

When a plate or pencil of silver is put between the upper lip and thegum, and a plate or pencil of zinc under the tongue, a sensation oflight is perceived in the eyes, as often as the exterior extremitiesof these metals are brought into contact; which is owing in likemanner to the discharge of a very minute electric shock, which wouldnot have been produced but by the intervention of such good conductorsas moist membranes, muscular fibres, and nerves. 

In this situation, a sensation of light is produced in the eyes; whichseems to show, that these ethers pass through nerves more easily, thanthrough muscular flesh simply; since the passage of them through theretina of the eyes from the upper gum to the parts beneath the tongueis a more distant one, than would otherwise appear necessary. It isnot so easy to give the sensation of light in the eyes by passing asmall shock of artificially accumulated electricity through, the eyes(though this may, I believe, be done) because this artificialaccumulated electricity, as it passes with greater velocity than thespontaneous accumulations of it, will readily permeate the muscles orother moist parts of animal bodies; whereas the spontaneousaccumulations of electricity seem to require the best of allconductors, as animal nerves, to facilitate their passage. 

4. In the Galvanic pile of Volta this electric shock becomes so muchincreased, as to pass by less perfect conductors, and to give shocksto the arms of the conducting person, if the cuticle of his hands bemoistened, and even to show sparks like the coated jar; which appearsto be effected in this manner. When a plate of silver is laidhorizontally on a plate of zinc, the plate of air between them becomescharged like a coated jar; as the silver, naturally possessing morevitreous electric ether, repels the vitreous ether, which the zincpossesses in less quantity, and attracts the resinous ether of thezinc. Whence the inferior surface of the plate of zinc abounds nowwith vitreous ether, and its upper surface with resinous ether. Beneath this pair of plates lay a cloth moistened with water, or withsome better conductor, as salt and water, or a slight acid mixed withwater, or volatile alcali of ammoniac mixed with water, and thisvitreous electric ether on the lower surface of the zinc plate will begiven to the second silver plate which lies beneath it; and thus thissecond silver plate will possess not only its own natural vitreousatmosphere, which was denser or in greater quantity than that of thezinc plate next beneath it, but now acquires an addition of vitreousether from the zinc plate above it, conducted to it through the moistcloth. 

This then will repel more vitreous ether from the second zinc plateinto the third silver one; and so on till the plates of air betweenthe zincs and silvers are all charged, and each stronger and stronger, as they descend in the pile. 

If the reader still prefers the Franklinian theory of positive andnegative electricity, he will please to put the word positive forvitreous, and negative for resinous, and he will find the theory ofthe Galvanic pile equally thus accounted for. 

5. When a Galvanic pile is thus placed, and a communication betweenthe two ends of it is made by wires, so that the electric shocks passthrough water, the water becomes decomposed in some measure, andoxygen is liberated from it at the point of one wire, and hydrogen atthe point of the other; and this though a syphon of water beinterposed between them. This curious circumstance seems to evince theexistence of two electric ethers, which enter the water at differentends of the syphon, and have chemical affinities to the componentparts of it; the resinous ether sets at liberty the hydrogen at oneend, and the vitreous ether the oxygen at the other end of theconducting medium. 

Hence it must appear, that the longer the Galvanic pile, or thegreater the number of the alternate pieces of silver and zinc that itconsists of, the stronger will be the Galvanic shock; but there isanother circumstance, difficult to explain, which is the perpetualdecomposition of water by the Galvanic pile; when water is made theconducting medium between the two extremities of the pile. 

As no conductors of electricity are absolutely perfect, there must beproduced a certain accumulation of vitreous ether on one side of eachcharged plate of the Galvanic pile, and of resinous ether on the otherside of it, before the discharge takes place, even though theconducting medium be in apparent contact. When the discharge does takeplace, the whole of the accumulated electricity explodes and vanishes;and then an instant of time is required for the silver and zinc againto attract from the air, or other bodies in their vicinity, theirspontaneous natural atmospheres, and then another discharge ensues;and so repeatedly and perpetually till the surface of one of themetallic plates becomes so much oxydated or calcined, that it ceasesto act. 

Hence a perpetual motion may be said to be produced, with an incessantdecomposition of water into the two gasses of oxygen and hydrogen;which must probably be constantly proceeding on all moist Surfaces, where a chain of electric conductors exists, surrounded with differentproportions of the two electric ethers. Whence the ceaselessliberation of oxygen from the water has oxydated or calcined the oresof metals near the surface of the earth, as of manganese, of zinc intolapis calaminaris, of iron into various ochres, and other calciformores. From this source also the corrosion of some metals may betraced, when they are immersed in water in the vicinity of eachother, as when the copper sheathing of ships was held on by ironnails. And hence another great operation of nature is probablyproduced, I mean the restoration of oxygen to the atmosphere from thesurface of the earth in dewy mornings, as well as from theperspiration of vegetable leaves; which atmospheric oxygen is hourlydestructible by the respiration of animals and plants, by combustion, and by other oxydations. 

6. The combination of the electric ethers with metallic bodies, beforementioned appears from the Galvanic pile; since, according to theexperiments of Mr. Davy, when an acid is mixed with the water placedbetween the alternate pairs of silver and zinc plates, a much greaterelectric shock is produced by the same pile; and an anonymous writerin the Phil. Magaz. No. 36, for May 1801, asserts, that when theintervening cloths or papers are moistened with pure alcali, as asolution of pure ammonia, the effect is greater than by any othermaterial. It must here be observed, that both the acid and thealcaline solution, or common salt and water, and even water alone, inthese experiments much erodes the plates of zinc, and somewhattarnishes those of silver. Whence it would appear, that as by therepeated explosions of the two electric ethers in the conductingwater, both oxygen and hydrogen are liberated; the oxygen erodes thezinc plates, and thus increases the Galvanic shock by liberating theircombined electric ethers: and that this erosion is much increased by amixture either of acid or of volatile alcali with the water. Furtherexperiments are wanting on this subject to show whether metallicbodies emit either or both of the electric ethers at the time of theirsolution or erosion in acids or in alcalies. 

X. _Of the two Magnetic Ethers. _

1. Magnetism coincides with electricity in so many important points, that the existence of two magnetic ethers, as well as of two electricones, becomes highly probable. We shall suppose, that in a common barof iron or steel the two magnetic ethers exist intermixed or in theirneutral state; which for the greater ease of speaking of them may becalled arctic ether and antarctic ether; and in this state like thetwo electric fluids they are not cognizable by our senses ofexperiments. 

When these two magnetic ethers are separated from each other, and thearctic ether is accumulated on one end of an iron or steel bar, whichis then called the north pole of the magnet, and the antarctic etheris accumulated on the other end of the bar, and is then termed thesouth pole of the magnet; they become capable of attracting otherpieces of iron or steel, and are thus cognizable by experiments. 

It seems probable, that it is not the magnetic ether itself whichattracts or repels particles of iron, but that an attractive andrepulsive ether attends the magnetic ethers, as was shown to attendthe electric ones in No. II. 9. Of this Note; because magnetism doesnot pass through other bodies, as it does not escape from magnetisedsteel when in contact with other bodies; just as the electric fluidsdo not pass through glass, but the attractive and repellent ethers, which attend both the magnetic and electric ethers, pass through allbodies. 

2. The prominent articles of analogical coincidence between magnetismand electricity are first, that when one end of an iron bar possessesan accumulation of arctic magnetic ether, or northern polarity; theother end possesses an accumulation of antarctic magnetic ether, orsouthern polarity; in the same manner as when vitreous electric etheris accumulated on one side of a coated glass jar, resinous electricether becomes accumulated on the other side of it; as the vitreous andresinous ethers strongly attract each other, and strongly repel theethers of the same denomination, but are prevented from intermixing bythe glass plane between them; so the arctic and antarctic ethersattract each other, and repel those of similar denomination, but areprevented from intermixing by the iron or steel being a bad conductorof them; they will, nevertheless, sooner combine, when the bar is ofsoft iron, than when it is of hardened steel; and then they slowlycombine without explosion, that is, without emitting heat and lightlike the electric ethers, and therefore resemble a mixture of oxygenand pure ammonia; which unite silently producing a neutral fluidwithout emitting any other fluids previously combined with them. 

Secondly, If the north pole of a magnetic bar be approached near tothe eye of a sewing needle, the arctic ether of the magnet attractsthe antarctic ether, which resides in the needle towards the eye ofit, and repels the arctic ether, which resides in the needle towardsthe point, precisely in the same manner as occurs in presenting anelectrised, glass tube, or a rubbed stick of sealing wax to oneextremity of two skewers insulated horizontally on wine-glasses in theexperiment ascribed to Mr. Canton, and described in No. IX. 1, of thisAdditional Note, and also so exactly resembles the method of producinga separation and consequent accumulation of the two electric ethers bypressing a cushion on glass or on sealing wax, described in No. 4 ofthis Note, that their analogy is evidently apparent. 

Thirdly, When much accumulated electricity is approached to one end ofa long glass tube by a charged prime conductor, there will exist manydivisions of the vitreous and resinous electricity alternately; as thevitreous ether attracts the resinous ether from a certain distance onthe surface of the glass tube, and repels the vitreous ether; but, asthis surface is a bad conductor, these reciprocal attractions andrepulsions do not extend very far along it, but cease and recur invarious parts of it. Exactly similar to this, when a magnetic bar isapproximated to the end of a common bar of iron or steel, as describedin Mr. Cavallo's valuable Treatise on Magnetism; the arctic ether ofthe north pole of the magnetic bar attracts the antarctic ether of thebar of common iron towards the end in contact, and repels the arcticether; but, as iron and steel are as bad conductors of magnetism, asglass is of electricity, this accumulation of arctic ether extends buta little way, and then there exists an accumulation of antarcticether; and thus reciprocally in three or four divisions of the bar, which now becomes magnetised, as the glass tube became electrised. 

Another striking feature, which shows the sisterhood of electricityand magnetism, consists in the origin of both of them from the earth, or common mass of matter. The eduction of electricity from the earthis shown by an insulated cushion soon ceasing to supply either thevitreous or resinous ether to the whirling globe of glass or ofsulphur; the eduction of magnetism from the earth appears from thefollowing experiment: if a bar of iron be set upright on the earth inthis part of the world, it becomes in a short time magnetical; thelower end possessing northern polarity, or arctic ether, and thehigher end in consequence possessing southern polarity or antarcticether; which may be well explained, if we suppose with Mr. Cavallo, that the earth itself is one great magnet, with its southern polarityor antarctic ether at the northern end of its axis; and, inconsequence, that it attracts the arctic ether of the iron bar intothat end of it which touches the earth, and repels the antarctic etherof the iron bar to the other end of it, exactly the same as when thesouthern pole of an artificial magnet is brought into contact with oneend of a sewing needle. 

3. The magnetic and electric ethers agree in the characters abovementioned, and perhaps in many others, but differ in the followingones. The electric ethers pass readily through metallic, aqueous, andcarbonic bodies, but do not permeate vitreous or resinous ones; thoughon the surfaces of these they are capable of adhering, and of beingaccumulated by the approach or contact of other bodies; while themagnetic ethers will not permeate any bodies, and are capable of beingaccumulated only on iron and steel by the approach or contact ofnatural or artificial magnets, or of the earth; at the same time theattractive and repulsive powers both of the magnetic and electricethers will act through all bodies, like those of gravitation andheat. 

Secondly, The two electric ethers rush into combination, when they canapproach each other, after having been separated and condensed, andproduce a violent explosion emitting the heat and light, which werepreviously combined with them; whereas the two magnetic ethers slowlycombine, after having been separated and accumulated on the oppositeends of a soft iron bar, and without emitting heat and light produce aneutral mixture, which, like the electric combination, ceases to becognizable by our senses or experiments. 

Thirdly, The wonderful property of the magnetic ethers, whenseparately accumulated on the ends of a needle, endeavouring toapproach the two opposite poles of the earth; nothing similar to whichhas been observed in the electric ethers. 

From these strict analogies between electricity and magnetism, we mayconclude that the latter consists of two ethers as well as the former;and that they both, when separated by art or nature, combine bychemical affinity when they approach, the one exploding, and thenconsisting of a residuum after having emitted heat and light; and theother producing simply a neutralised fluid by their union. 

XI. _Conclusion. _

1. When two fluids are diffused together without undergoing any changeof their chemical properties, they are said simply to be mixed, andnot combined; as milk and water when poured together, or as oxygen andazote in the common atmosphere. So when salt or sugar is diffused inwater, it is termed solution, and not combination; as no change oftheir chemical properties succeeds. 

But when an acid is mixed with a pure alcali a combination isproduced, and the mixture is said to become neutral, as it does notpossess the chemical properties which either of the two ingredientspossessed in their separate state, and is therefore similar to neitherof them. But when a carbonated alcali, as mild salt of tartar, ismixed with a mineral acid, they presently combine as above, but nowthe carbonic acid flies forcibly away in the form of gas; this, therefore, may be termed a kind of explosion, but cannot properly beso called, as the ethereal fluids of heat and light are notprincipally emitted, but an aerial one or gas; which may probablyacquire a small quantity of heat from the combining matters. 

But when strong acid of nitre is poured upon charcoal in fine powder, or upon oil of cloves, a violent explosion ensues, and the etherealmatters of heat and light are emitted in great abundance, and aredissipated; while in the former instance the oxygen of the nitrousacid unites with the carbone forming carbonic acid gas, and the azoteescapes in its gaseous form; which may be termed a residuum after theexplosion, and may be confined in a proper apparatus, which the heatand light cannot; for the former, if its production be great andsudden, bursts the vessels, or otherwise it passes slowly throughthem; and the latter passes through transparent bodies, and combineswith opake ones. 

But where ethers only are concerned in an explosion, as the twoelectric ones, which are previously difficult to confine in vessels;the repulsive ethers of heat and light are given out; and what remainsis a combination of the two electric ethers; which in this state areattracted by all bodies, and form atmospheres round them. 

These combined electric atmospheres must possess less heat and lightafter their explosion; which they seem afterwards to acquire at thetime they are again separated from each other, probably from thecombined heat and combined light of the cushion and glass, or of thecushion and resin; by the contact of which they are separated; and notfrom the diffused heat of them; but no experiments have yet been madeto ascertain this fact, this combination of the vitreous and resinousethers may be esteemed the residuum after their explosion. 

2. Hence the essence of explosion consists in two bodies, which arepreviously united with heat and light, so strongly attracting eachother, as to set at liberty those two repulsive ethers; but ithappens, that these explosive materials cannot generally be broughtinto each other's vicinity in a state of sufficient density; unlessthey are also previously combined with some other material beside thelight and heat above spoken of: as in the nitrous acid, the oxygen ispreviously combined with azote; and is thus in a condensed state, before it is brought into the contact or vicinity of the carbone;there are however bodies which will slowly explode; or give out heatand light, without being previously combined with other bodies; asphosphorus in the common atmosphere, some dead fish in a certaindegree of putridity, and some living insects probably by theirrespiration in transparent lungs, which is a kind of combustion. 

But the two electric ethers are condensed by being brought intovicinity with each other with a nonconductor between them; and thusexplode, violently as soon as they communicate, either by rupturingthe interposed nonconductor, or by a metallic communication. Thiscurious method of a previous condensation of the two explodingmatters, without either of them being combined with any othermaterial except with the ethers of heat and light, distinguishes, thisethereal explosion from that of most other bodies; and seems to havebeen the cause, which prevented the ingenious Dr. Franklin, and otherssince his time, from ascribing the powerful effects of the electricbattery, and of lightning in bursting trees, inflaming combustiblematerials, and fusing metals, to chemical explosion; which itresembles in every other circumstance, but in the manner of theprevious condensation of the materials, so as violently to attracteach other, and suddenly set at liberty the heat and light, with whichone or both of them were combined. 

3. This combination of vitreous and resinous electric ethers is againdestroyed or weakened by the attractions of other bodies; as theyseparate intirely, or exist in different proportions, formingatmospheres round conducting and nonconducting bodies; and in thisthey resemble other combinations of matters; as oxygen and azote, whenunited in the production of nitrous acid, are again separated bycarbone; which attracts the oxygen more powerfully, than that attractsthe azote, with which it is combined. 

This mode of again separating the combined electric ethers by pressingthem, as they surround bodies in different proportions, into eachother's atmospheres, as by the glass and cushion, has not beenobserved respecting the decomposition of other bodies; when theirminute particles are brought so near together as to decompose eachother; which has thence probably contributed to prevent thisdecomposition of the two combined electric ethers from being ascribedto chemical laws; but, as far as we know, the attractive and repulsiveatmospheres round the minute particles of bodies in chemicaloperations may act in a similar manner; as the attractive andrepulsive atmospheres, which accompany the electric ethers surroundingthe larger masses of matter, and that hence both the electric and thechemical explosions are subject to the same laws, and also thedecomposition again of those particles, which were combined in the actof explosion. 

4. It is probable that this theory of electric and magneticattractions and repulsions, which so visibly exist in atmospheresround larger masses of matter, may be applied to explain the invisibleattractions and repulsions of the minute particles of bodies inchemical combinations and decompositions, and also to give a clearidea of the attractions of the great masses of matter, which form thegravitations of the universe. 

We are so accustomed to see bodies attract each other, when they arein absolute contact, as dew drops or particles of quicksilver formingthemselves into spheres, as water rising in capillary tubes, thesolution of salts and sugar in water, and the cohesion with which allhard bodies are held together, that we are not surprised at theattractions of bodies in contact with each other, but ascribe them toa law affecting all matter. In similar manner when two bodies inapparent contact repel each other, as oil thrown on water; or whenheat converts ice into water and water into steam; or when one hardbody in motion pushes another hard body out of its place; we feel nosurprise, as these events so perpetually occur to us, but ascribe themas well as the attractions of bodies in contact with each other, to ageneral law of nature. 

But when distant bodies appear to attract or repel each other, as webelieve that nothing can act where it does not exist, we are struckwith astonishment; which is owing to our not seeing the intermediateethers, the existence of which is ascertained by the electric andmagnetic facts above related. 

From the facts and observations above mentioned electricity andmagnetism consist each of them of two ethers, as the vitreous andresinous electric ethers, and the arctic and antarctic magneticethers. But as neither of the electric ethers will pass through glassor resin; and as neither of the magnetic ethers will pass through anybodies except iron; and yet the attractive and repulsive powersaccompanying all these ethers permeate bodies of all kinds; itfollows, that ethers more subtile than either the electric or magneticones attend those ethers forming atmospheres round them; as thoseelectric and magnetic ethers themselves form atmospheres round otherbodies. 

This secondary atmosphere of the electric one appears to consist oftwo ethers, like the electric one which it surrounds: but these ethersare probably more subtile as they permeate all bodies; and when theyunite by the reciprocal approach of the bodies, which they surround, they do not appear to emit heat and light, as the primary electricatmospheres do; and therefore they are simpler fluids, as they are notpreviously combined with heat and light. The secondary magneticatmospheres are also probably more subtile or simple than the primaryones. 

Hence we may suppose, that not only all the larger insulated masses ofmatter, but all the minute particles also, which constitute thosemasses, are surrounded by two ethereal fluids; which like the electricand magnetic ones attract each other forcibly, and as forcibly repelthose of the same denomination; and at the same time strongly adhereto the bodies, which they surround. Secondly that these ethers are ofthe finer kind, like those secondary ones, which surround the primaryelectric and magnetic ethers; and that therefore they do not explodegiving out heat and light when they unite, but simply combine, andbecome neutral; and lastly, that they surround different bodies indifferent proportions, as the vitreous and resinous electric etherswere shown to surround silver and zinc and many other metals indifferent proportions in No. IX. Of this note. 

5. For the greater ease of conversing on this subject, we shall callthese two ethers, with which all bodies are surrounded, the masculineand the feminine ethers; and suppose them to possess the propertiesabove mentioned. We should here however previously observe, that inchemical processes it is necessary, that the bodies, which are tocombine or unite with each other, should be in a fluid state, and theparticles in contact with each other; thus when salt is dissolving inwater, the particles of salt unite with those of the water, whichtouch them; these particles of water become saturated, and thenceattract some of the saline particles with less force; which aretherefore attracted from them by those behind; and the first particlesof water are again saturated from the solid salt; or in some similarprocesses the saturated combinations may subside or evaporate, as inthe union of the two electric ethers, or in the explosion ofgunpowder, and thus those in their vicinity may approach each other. This necessity of a liquid form for the purpose of combinationappears in the lighting of gunpowder, as well as in all othercombustion, the spark of fire applied dissolves the sulphur, andliquifies the combined heat; and by these means a fluidity succeeds, and the consequent attractions and repulsions, which form theexplosion. 

The whole mixed mass of matter, of which the earth is composed, wesuppose to be surrounded and penetrated by the two ethers, but with agreater proportion of the masculine ether than of the feminine. When astone is elevated above the surface of the earth, we suppose it alsoto be surrounded with an atmosphere of the two ethers, but with agreater proportion of the feminine than of the masculine, and thatthese ethers adhere strongly by cohesion both to the earth and to thestone elevated above it. Now the greater quantity of the masculineether of the earth becomes in contact with the greater quantity of thefeminine ether of the stone above it; which it powerfully attracts, and at the same time repels the less quantity of the masculine etherof the stone. The reciprocal attractions of these two fluids, if notrestrained by counter attractions, bring them together as in chemicalcombination, and thus they bring together the solid bodies, which theyreciprocally adhere to; if they be not immovable; which solid bodies, when brought into contact, cohere by their own reciprocal attractions, and hence the mysterious affair of distant attraction or gravitationbecomes intelligible, and consonant to the chemical combinations offluids. 

To further elucidate these various attractions, if the patient readerbe not already tired, he will please to attend to the followingexperiment: let a bit of sponge suspended on a silk line be moistenedwith a solution of pure alcali, and another similar piece of sponge bemoistened with a weak acid, and suspended near the former; electrizeone of them with vitreous ether, and the other with resinous ether; asthey hang with a thin plate of glass between them: now as these twoelectric ethers appear to attract each other without intermixing; asneither of them can pass through glass; they must be themselvessurrounded with secondary ethers, which pass through the glass, andattract each other, as they become in contact; as these secondaryethers adhere to the primary vitreous and resinous ethers, theseprimary ones are drawn by them into each other's vicinity by theattraction of cohesion, and become condensed on each side of the glassplane; and then when the glass plane is withdrawn, the two electricethers being now in contact rush violently together, and draw alongwith them the pieces of moistened sponge, to which they adhere; andfinally the acid and alcaline liquids being now brought into contactcombine by their chemical affinity. 

The repulsions of distant bodies are also explicable by this idea oftheir being surrounded with two ethers, which we have termed masculineand feminine for the ease of conversing about them; and have comparedthem to vitreous and resinous electricity, and to arctic and antarcticmagnetism. As when two particles of matter, or two larger masses ofit, are surrounded both with their masculine ethers, these ethersrepel each other or refuse to intermix; and in consequence the bodiesto which they adhere, recede from each other; as two cork-ballssuspended near each other, and electrised both with vitreous or bothwith resinous ether, repel each other; or as the extremities of twoneedles magnetised both with arctic, or both with antarctic ether, repel each other; or as oil and water surrounded both with theirmasculine, or both with their feminine ethers, repel each otherwithout touching; so light is believed to be reflected from a mirrorwithout touching its surface, and to be bent towards the edge of aknife, or refracted by its approach from a rarer medium into a denserone, by the repulsive ether of the mirror, and the attractive ones ofthe knife-edge, and of the denser medium. Thus a polished tea-cupslips on the polished saucer probably without their actual contactwith each other, till a few drops of water are interposed between themby capillary attraction, and prevent its sliding by their tenacity. And so, lastly, one hard body in motion pushes another hard body outof its place by their repulsive ethers without being in contact; asappears from their not adhering to each other, which all bodies inreal contact are believed to do. Whence also may be inferred thereason why bodies have been supposed to repel at one distance andattract at another, because they attract when their particles are incontact with each other, and either attract or repel when at adistance by the intervention of their attractive or repulsive ethers. 

Thus have I endeavoured to take one step further back into the mysteryof the gravitation and repulsion of bodies, which appeared to bedistant from each other, as of the sun and planets, as I beforeendeavoured to take one step further back into the mysteries ofgeneration in my account of the production of the buds of vegetablesin Phytologia. With what success these have been attended I now leaveto the judgment of philosophical readers, from which I can make noappeal. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XIII. 

ANALYSIS OF TASTE. 

 Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine, And Taste sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine. CANTO III. L. 221. 

The word Taste in its extensive application may express the pleasuresreceived by any of our senses, when excited into action by thestimulus of external objects; as when odours stimulate the nostrils, or flavours the palate; or when smoothness, or softness, are perceivedby the touch, or warmth by its adapted organ of sense. The word Tasteis also used to signify the pleasurable trains of ideas suggested bylanguage, as in the compositions of poetry and oratory. But thepleasures, consequent to the exertions of our sense of vision only, are designed here to be treated of, with occasional references tothose of the ear, when they elucidate each other. 

When any of our organs of sense are excited into their due quantity ofaction, a pleasurable sensation succeeds, as shown in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. IV. These are simply the pleasures attending perception, andnot those which are termed the pleasures of Taste; which consist ofadditional pleasures arising from the peculiar forms or colours ofobjects, or of their peculiar combinations or successions, or fromother agreeable trains of ideas previously associated with them. 

There are four sources of pleasure attendant on the excitation of thenerves of vision by light and colours, besides that simply ofperception above mentioned; the first is derived from a degree ofnovelty of the forms, colours, numbers, combinations, or successions, and visible objects. The second is derived from a degree of repetitionof their forms, colours, numbers, combinations, or successions. Wherethese two circumstances exist united in certain quantities, andcompose the principal part of a landscape, it is termed picturesque bymodern writers. The third source of pleasure from the perception ofthe visible world may be termed the melody of colours, which will beshown to coincide with melody of sounds: this circumstance may alsoaccompany the picturesque, and will add to the pleasure it affords. The fourth source of pleasure from the perception of visible objectsis derived from the previous association of other pleasurable trainsof ideas with certain forms, colours, combinations, or successions ofthem. Whence the beautiful, sublime, romantic, melancholic, and otheremotions, which have not acquired names to express them. We may add, that all these four sources of pleasure from perceptions are equallyapplicable to those of sounds as of sights. 

I. _Novelty or infrequency of visible objects. _

The first circumstance, which suggests an additional pleasure in thecontemplation of visible objects, besides that of simple perception, arises from their novelty or infrequency; that is from the unusualcombinations or successions of their forms or colours. From thissource is derived the perpetual cheerfulness of youth, and the want ofit is liable to add a gloom to the countenance of age. It is thiswhich produces variety in landscape compared with the common course ofnature, an intricacy which incites investigation, and a curiositywhich leads to explore the works of nature. Those who travel intoforeign regions instigated by curiosity, or who examine and unfold theintricacies of sciences at home, are led by novelty; which not onlysupplies ornament to beauty or to grandeur, but adds agreeablesurprise to the point of the epigram, and to the double meaning of thepun, and is courted alike by poets and philosophers. 

It should be here premised, that the word Novelty, as used in thesepages, admits of degrees or quantities, some objects, or the ideasexcited by them, possessing more or less novelty, as they are more orless unusual. Which the reader will please to attend to, as we haveused the word Infrequency of objects, or of the ideas excited by them, to express the degrees or quantities of their novelty. 

The source, from which is derived the pleasure of novelty, is ametaphysical inquiry of great curiosity, and will on that accountexcuse my here introducing it. In our waking hours whenever an ideaoccurs, which is incongruous to our former experience, we instantlydissever the train of imagination by the power of volition; andcompare the incongruous idea with our previous knowledge of nature, and reject it. This operation of the mind has not yet acquired aspecific name, though it is exerted every minute of our waking hours, unless it may be termed INTUITIVE ANALOGY. It is an act of reasoningof which we are unconscious except by its effects in preserving thecongruity of our ideas; Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVII. 5. 7. 

In our sleep as the power of volition is suspended, and consequentlythat of reason, when any incongruous ideas occur in the trains ofimagination, which compose our dreams; we cannot compare them with ourprevious knowledge of nature and reject them; whence arises theperpetual inconsistency of our sleeping trains of ideas; and whence inour dreams we never feel the sentiment of novelty; however differentthe ideas, which present themselves, may be from the usual course ofnature. 

But in our waking hours, whenever any object occurs which does notaccord with the usual course of nature, we immediately andunconsciously exert our voluntary power, and examine it by intuitiveanalogy, comparing it with our previous knowledge of nature. Thisexertion of our volition excites many other ideas, and is attendedwith pleasurable sensation; which constitutes the sentiment ofnovelty. But when the object of novelty stimulates us so forcibly assuddenly to disunite our passing trains of ideas, as if a pistol beunexpectedly discharged, the emotion of surprise is experienced; whichby exciting violent irritation and violent sensation, employs for atime the whole sensorial energy, and thus dissevers the passing trainsof ideas; before the power of volition has time to compare them withthe usual phenomena of nature; but as the painful emotion of fear isthen generally added to that of surprise, as every one experiences, who hears a noise in the dark, which he cannot immediately accountfor; this great degree of novelty, when it produces much surprise, generally ceases to be pleasurable, and does not then belong toobjects of taste. 

In its less degree surprise is generally agreeable, as it simplyexpresses the sentiment occasioned by the novelty of our ideas; as incommon language we say, we are agreeably surprised at the unexpectedmeeting with a friend, which not only expresses the sentiment ofnovelty, but also the pleasure from other agreeable ideas associatedwith the object of it. 

It must appear from hence, that different persons must be affectedmore or less agreeably by different degrees or quantities of noveltyin the objects of taste; according to their previous knowledge ofnature, or their previous habits or opportunities of attending to thefine arts. Thus before its nativity the fetus experiences theperceptions of heat and cold, of hardness and softness, of motion andrest, with those perhaps of hunger and repletion, sleeping and waking, pain and pleasure; and perhaps some other perceptions, which may atthis early time of its existence have occasioned perpetual trains ofideas. On its arrival into the world the perceptions of light andsound must by their novelty at first dissever its usual trains ofideas and occasion great surprise; which after a few repetitions willcease to be disagreeable, and only excite the emotion from novelty, which has not acquired a separate name, but is in reality a lessdegree of surprise; and by further experience the sentiment ofnovelty, or any degree of surprise, will cease to be excited by thesounds or sights, which at first excited perhaps a painful quantity ofsurprise. 

It should here be observed, that as the pleasure of novelty isproduced by the exertion of our voluntary power in comparing uncommonobjects with those which are more usually exhibited; this sentiment ofnovelty is less perceived by those who do not readily use the facultyof volition, or who have little previous knowledge of nature, as byvery ignorant or very stupid people, or by brute animals; and thattherefore to be affected with this circumstance of the objects ofTaste requires some previous knowledge of-such kinds of objects, andsome degree of mental exertion. 

Hence when a greater variety of objects than usual is presented to theeye, or when some intricacy of forms, colours, or reciprocal localitymore than usual accompanies them, it is termed novelty if it onlyexcites the exertion of intuitive comparison with the usual order ofnature, and affects us with pleasurable sensation; but is termedsurprise, if it suddenly dissevers our accustomed habits of motion, and is then more generally attended with disagreeable sensation. Tothis circumstance attending objects of taste is to be referred what istermed wild and irregular in landscapes, in contradistinction to therepetition of parts or uniformity spoken of below. We may add, thatnovelty of notes and tones in music, or of their combinations orsuccessions, are equally agreeable to the ear, as the novelty of formsand colours, and of their combinations or successions are to the eye;but that the greater quantity or degree of novelty, the sentiment ofwhich is generally termed Surprise, is more frequently excited byunusual or unexpected sounds; which are liable to alarm us with fear, as well as surprise us with novelty. 

II. _Repetition of visible objects. _

The repeated excitement of the same or similar ideas with certainintervals of time, or distances of space between them, is attendedwith agreeable sensations, besides that simply of perception; and, though it appears to be diametrically opposite to the pleasure arisingfrom the novelty of objects above treated of, enters into thecompositions of all the agreeable arts. 

The pleasure arising from the repetition of similar ideas with certainintervals of time or distances of space between them is a subject ofgreat metaphysical curiosity, as well as the source of the pleasurederived from novelty, which will I hope excuse its introduction inthis place. 

The repetitions of motions may be at first produced either byvolition, or by sensation, or by irritation, but they soon becomeeasier to perform than any other kinds of action, because they soonbecome associated together; and thus their frequency of repetition, ifas much sensorial power be produced during every reiteration, as isexpended, adds to the facility of their production. 

If a stimulus be repeated at uniform intervals of time, the action, whether of our muscles or organs of sense, is produced with stillgreater facility or energy; because the sensorial power ofassociation, mentioned above, is combined with the sensorial power ofirritation; that is in common language, the acquired habit assists thepower of the stimulus. 

This not only obtains in the annual, lunar, and diurnal catenations ofanimal motions, as explained in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXVI. Which are thusperformed with great facility and energy; but in every less circle ofactions or ideas, as in the burden of a song, or the reiterations of adance. To the facility and distinctness, with which we hear sounds atrepeated intervals, we owe the pleasure, which we receive from musicaltime, and from poetic time, as described in Botanic Garden, V. II. Interlude III. And to this the pleasure we receive from the rhimes andalliterations of modern versification; the source of which withoutthis key would be difficult to discover. 

There is no variety of notes referable to the gamut in the beating ofa drum, yet if it be performed in musical time, it is agreeable to ourears; and therefore this pleasurable sensation must be owing to therepetition of the divisions of the sounds at certain intervals oftime, or musical bars. Whether these times or bars are distinguishedby a pause, or by an emphasis, or accent, certain it is, that thisdistinction is perpetually repeated; otherwise the ear could notdetermine instantly, whether the successions of sound were in commonor in triple time. 

But besides these little circles of musical time, there are thegreater returning periods, and the still more distinct choruses;which, like the rhimes at the end of verses, owe their beauty torepetition; that is, to the facility and distinctness with which weperceive sounds, which we expect to perceive or have perceived before;or in the language of this work, to the greater ease and energy withwhich our organ is excited by the combined sensorial powers ofassociation and irritation, than by the latter singly. 

This kind of pleasure arising from repetition, that is from thefacility and distinctness with which we perceive and understandrepeated sensations, enters into all the agreeable arts; and when itis carried to excess is termed formality. The art of dancing like thatof music depends for a great part of the pleasure, it affords, onrepetition; architecture, especially the Grecian, consists of one partbeing a repetition of another, and hence the beauty of the pyramidaloutline in landscape-painting; where one side of the picture may besaid in some measure to balance the other. So universally doesrepetition contribute to our pleasure in the fine arts, that beautyitself has been defined by some writers to consist in a duecombination of uniformity and variety: Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 2. 1. 

Where these repetitions of form, and reiterations of colour, areproduced in a picture or a natural landscape, in an agreeablequantity, it is termed simplicity, or unity of character; where therepetition principally is seen in the disposition or locality of thedivisions, it is called symmetry, proportion, or grouping the separateparts; where this repetition is most conspicuous in the forms ofvisible objects, it is called regularity or uniformity; and where itaffects the colouring principally, the artists call it breadth ofcolour. 

There is nevertheless, an excess of the repetition of the same orsimilar ideas, which ceases to please, and must therefore be excludedfrom compositions of Taste in painted landscapes, or in ornamentedgardens; which is then called formality, monotony, or insipidity. Whythe excitation of ideas should give additional pleasure by thefacility and distinctness of their production for a certain time, andthen cease to give additional pleasure; and gradually to give lesspleasure than that, which attends simple exertion of them; is anothercurious metaphysical problem, and deserves investigation. 

In our waking hours a perpetual voluntary exertion, of which we areunconscious, attends all our new trains of ideas, whether those ofimagination or of perception; which by comparing them with our formerexperience preserves the consistency of the former, by rejecting suchas are incongruous; and adds to the credibility of the latter, bytheir analogy to objects of our previous knowledge: and this exertionis attended with pleasurable sensation. After very frequent repetitionthese trains of ideas do not excite the exertion of this intuitiveanalogy, and in consequence are not attended with additional pleasureto that simply of perception; and by continued repetition they atlength lose even the pleasure simply of perception, and thence finallycease to be excited; whence one cause of the torpor of old age, and ofdeath, as spoken of in Additional Note, No. VII. 3. Of this work. 

When there exists in any landscape a certain number and diversity offorms and colours, or of their combinations or successions, so as toproduce a degree of novelty; and that with a certain repetition, orarrangement of parts, so as to render them gradually comprehensible oreasily compared with the usual course of nature; if this agreeablecombination of visible objects be on a moderate scale, in respect tomagnitude, and form the principal part of the landscape, it is termedPICTURESQUE by modern artists; and when such a combination of formsand colours contains many easy flowing curves and smooth surfaces, thedelightful sentiment of BEAUTY becomes added to the pleasure of thePicturesque. 

If the above agreeable combination of novelty and repetition exists ona larger scale with more projecting rocks, and deeper dells, andperhaps with a somewhat greater proportion of novelty than repetition, the landscape assumes the name of ROMANTIC; and if some of these formsor combinations are much above the usual magnitude of similar objects, the more interesting sentiment of SUBLIMITY becomes mixed with thepleasure of the romantic. 

III. _Melody of Colours. _

A third source of pleasure arising from the inspection of visibleobjects, besides that of simple perception, arises from what may betermed melody of colours, as certain colours are more agreeable, whenthey succeed each other; or when they are disposed in each other'svicinity, so as successively to affect the organ of vision. 

In a paper on the colours seen in the eye after looking for some timeon luminous objects, published by Dr. Darwin of Shrewsbury in thePhilos. Trans. Vol. 76, it is evidently shown, that we see certaincolours not only with greater ease and distinctness, but with reliefand pleasure, after having for some time inspected other certaincolours; as green after red, or red after green; orange after blue, orblue after orange; yellow after violet, or violet after yellow; this, he shows, arises from the ocular spectrum of the colour last viewedcoinciding with the irritation of the colour now under contemplation. 

Thus if you make a dot with ink in the centre of a circle of red silkthe size of a letter-wafer, and place it on a sheet of white paper, and look on it for a minute without moving your eyes; and then gentlyturn them on the white paper in its vicinity, or gently close them, and hold one hand an inch or two before them, to prevent too muchlight from passing through the eyelids, a circular spot of pale greenwill be seen on the white paper, or in the closed eye; which is calledthe ocular spectrum of the red silk, and is formed as Dr. Darwin showsby the pandiculation or stretching of the fine fibrils, whichconstitute the extremities of the optic nerve, in a direction contraryto that, in which they have been excited by previously looking at aluminous object, till they become fatigued; like the yawning orstretching of the larger muscles after acting long in one direction. 

If at this time the eye, fatigued by looking long at the centre of thered silk, be turned on paper previously coloured with pale green; thecircular spot or ocular spectrum will appear of a much darker green;as now the irritation from the pale green paper coincides with thepale green spectrum remaining in the eye, and thus excites thosefibres of the retina into stronger action; on this account somecolours are seen more distinctly, and consequently more agreeablyafter others; or when placed in the vicinity of others; thus iforange-coloured letters are painted on a blue ground, they may be readat as great distance as black on white, perhaps at a greater. 

The colours, which are thus more distinct when seen in succession arecalled opposite colours by Sir Isaac Newton in his optics, Book I. Part 2, and may be easily discovered by any one, by the method abovedescribed; that is by laying a coloured circle of paper or silk on asheet of white paper, and inspecting it some time with steady eyes, and then either gently closing them, or removing them on another partof the white paper, and the ocular spectrum or opposite colour becomesvisible in the eye. 

Sir Isaac Newton has observed, that the breadths of the seven primarycolours in the sun's image refracted by a prism, are proportioned tothe seven musical notes of the gamut; or to the intervals of the eightsounds contained in an octave. 

From this curious coincidence, it has been proposed to produce aluminous music, consisting of successions or combinations of colours, analogous to a tune in respect to the proportions above mentioned. This might be performed by a strong light, made by means of Mr. Argand's lamps, passing through coloured glasses, and falling on adefined part of the wall, with moveable blinds before them, whichmight communicate with the keys of a harpsichord, and thus produce atthe same time visible and audible music in unison with each other. 

Now as the pleasure we receive from the sensation of melodious notes, independent of musical time, and of the previous associations ofagreeable ideas with them, must arise from our hearing someproportions of sounds after others more easily, distinctly, oragreeably; and as there is a coincidence between the proportions ofthe primary colours, and the primary sounds, if they may be so called;the same laws must probably govern the sensations of both. In thiscircumstance therefore consists the sisterhood of Music and Painting;and hence they claim a right to borrow metaphors from each other:musicians to speak of the brilliancy of sounds, and the light andshade of a concerto; and painters of the harmony of colours, and thetone of a picture. 

This source of pleasure received from the melodious succession ofcolours or of sounds must not be confounded with the pleasure receivedfrom the repetition of them explained above, though the repetition, ordivision of musical notes into bars, so as to produce common or tripletime, contributes much to the pleasure of music; but in viewing afixed landscape nothing like musical time exists; and the pleasurereceived therefore from certain successions of colours must dependonly on the more easy or distinct action of the retina in perceivingsome colours after others, or in their vicinity, like the facility oreven pleasure with which we act with contrary muscles in yawning orstretching after having been fatigued with a long previous exertion inthe contrary direction. 

Hence where colours are required to be distinct, those which areopposite to each other, should be brought into succession or vicinity;as red and green, orange and blue, yellow and violet; but wherecolours are required to intermix imperceptibly, or slide into eachother, these should not be chosen; as they might by contrast appeartoo glaring or tawdry. These gradations and contrasts of colours havebeen practically employed both by the painters of landscape, and bythe planters of ornamental gardens; though the theory of this part ofthe pleasure derived from visible objects was not explained before thepublication of the paper on ocular spectra above mentioned; which isreprinted at the end of the first part of Zoonomia, and has throwngreat light on the actions of the nerves of sense in consequence ofthe stimulus of external bodies. 

IV. _Association of agreeable sentiments with visible objects. _

Besides the pleasure experienced simply by the perception of visibleobjects, it has been already shown, that there is an additionalpleasure arising from the inspection of those, which possess novelty, or some degree of it; a second additional pleasure from those, whichpossess in some degree a repetition of their parts; and a third fromthose, which possess a succession of particular colours, which eithercontrast or slide into each other, and which we have termed melody ofcolours. 

We now step forward to the fourth source of the pleasures arising fromthe contemplation of visible objects besides that simply ofperception, which consists in our previous association of someagreeable sentiment with certain forms or combinations of them. Thesefour kinds of pleasure singly or in combination constitute what isgenerally understood by the word Taste in respect to the visibleworld; and by parity of reasoning it is probable, that the pleasurableideas received by the other senses, or which are associated withlanguage, may be traced to similar sources. 

It has been shown by Bishop Berkeley in his ingenious essay on vision, that the eye only acquaints us with the perception of light andcolours; and that our idea of the solidity of the bodies, whichreflect them, is learnt by the organ of touch: he therefore calls ourvision the language of touch, observing that certain gradations of theshades of colour, by our previous experience of having examinedsimilar bodies by our hands or lips, suggest our ideas of solidity, and of the forms of solid bodies; as when we view a tree, it wouldotherwise appear to us a flat green surface, but by association ofideas we know it to be a cylindrical stem with round branches. Thisassociation of the ideas acquired by the sense of touch with those ofvision, we do not allude to in the following observations, but to theagreeable trains or tribes of ideas and sentiments connected withcertain kinds of visible objects. 

V. _Sentiment of Beauty. _

Of these catenations of sentiments with visible objects, the first isthe sentiment of Beauty or Loveliness; which is suggested byeasy-flowing curvatures of surface, with smoothness; as is so wellillustrated in Mr. Burke's Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, and inMr. Hogarth's analysis of Beauty; a new edition of which is muchwanted separate from his other works. 

The sentiment of Beauty appears to be attached from our cradles to theeasy curvatures of lines, and smooth surfaces of visible objects, andto have been derived from the form of the female bosom; as spoken ofin Zoonomia, Vol. I. Section XVI. On Instinct. 

Sentimental love, as distinguished from the animal passion of thatname, with which it is frequently accompanied, consists in the desireor sensation of beholding, embracing, and saluting, a beautifulobject. 

The characteristic of beauty therefore is that it is the object oflove; and though many other objects are in common language calledbeautiful, yet they are only called so metaphorically, and ought to betermed agreeable. A Grecian temple may give us the pleasurable idea ofsublimity; a Gothic temple may give us the pleasurable idea ofvariety; and a modern house the pleasurable idea of utility; music andpoetry may inspire our love by association of ideas; but none ofthese, except metaphorically, can be termed beautiful; as we have nowish to embrace or salute them. 

Our perception of beauty consists in our recognition by the sense ofvision of those objects, first which have before inspired our love bythe pleasure, which they have afforded to many of our senses: as toour sense of warmth, of touch, of smell, of taste, hunger and thirst;and secondly, which bear any analogy of form to such objects. 

When the babe, soon after it is born into this cold world, is appliedto its mother's bosom, its sense of perceiving warmth is firstagreeably affected; next its sense of smell is delighted with theodour of her milk; then its taste is gratified by the flavour of it, afterwards the appetites of hunger and of thirst afford pleasure bythe possession of their objects, and by the subsequent digestion ofthe aliment; and lastly, the sense of touch is delighted by thesoftness and smoothness of the milky fountain, the source of suchvariety of happiness. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XIV. 

THE THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE

 Next to each thought associate sound accords, And forms the dulcet symphony of words. CANTO III. L. 365. 

Ideas consist of synchronous motions or configurations of theextremities of the organs of sense; these when repeated by sensation, volition, or association, are either simple or complex, as they werefirst excited by irritation; or have afterwards some parts abstractedfrom them, or some parts added to them. Language consists of words, which are the names or symbols of ideas. Words are therefore properlyall of them nouns or names of things. 

Little had been done in the investigation of the theory of languagefrom the time of Aristotle to the present æra, till Mr. Horne Tooke, the ingenious and learned author of the Diversions of Purley, explained those undeclined words of all languages, which had puzzledthe grammarians, and evinced from their etymology, that they wereabbreviations of other modes of expression. Mr. Tooke observes, thatthe first aim of language was to communicate our thoughts, and thesecond to do it with dispatch; and hence he divides words into those, which were necessary to express our thoughts, and those which areabbreviations of the former; which he ingeniously styles the wings ofHermes. 

For the greater dispatch of conversation many words suggest more thanone idea; I shall therefore arrange them according to the number andkinds of ideas, which they suggest; and am induced to do this, as anew distribution of the objects of any science may advance theknowledge of it by developing another analogy of its constituentparts. And in thus endeavouring to analyze the theory of language Imean to speak primarily of the English, and occasionally to add whatmay occur concerning the structure of the Greek and Latin. 

I. _Conjunctions and Prepositions. _

The first class of words consists of those, which suggest but oneidea, and suffer no change of termination; which have been termed bygrammarians CONJUNCTIONS and PREPOSITIONS; the former of which connectsentences, and the latter words. Both which have been ingeniouslyexplained by Mr. Horne Tooke from their etymology to be abbreviationsof other modes of expression. 

1. Thus the conjunction _if_ and _an_, are shown by Mr. Tooke to bederived from the imperative mood of the verbs to give and to grant;but both of these conjunctions by long use appear to have become thename of a more abstracted idea, than the words give or grant suggest, as they do not now express any ideas of person, or of number, or oftime; all which are generally attendant upon the meaning of a verb;and perhaps all the words of this class are the names of ideas muchabstracted, which has caused the difficulty of explaining them. 

2. The number of Prepositions is very great in the English language, as they are used before the cases of nouns, and the infinitive mood ofverbs, instead of the numerous changes of termination of the nouns andverbs of the Greek and Latin; which gives greater simplicity to ourlanguage, and greater facility of acquiring it. 

The prepositions, as well as the preceding conjunctions, have beenwell explained by Mr. Horne Tooke; who has developed the etymology ofmany of them. As the greatest number of the ideas, we receive fromexternal objects, are complex ones, the names of these constitute agreat part of language, as the proper names of persons and places;which are complex terms. Now as these complex terms do not alwaysexactly suggest the quantity of combined ideas we mean to express, some of the prepositions are prefixed to them to add or to deductsomething, or to limit their general meaning; as a house with a partywall, or a house without a roof. These words are also derived by Mr. Tooke, as abbreviations of the imperative moods of verbs; but whichappear now to suggest ideas further abstracted than those generallysuggested by verbs, and are all of them properly nouns, or names ofideas. 

II. _Nouns Substantive. _

The second class of words consists of those, which in their simpleststate suggest but one idea, as the word man; but which by two changesof termination in our language suggest one secondary idea of number, as the word men; or another secondary idea of the genitive case, asman's mind, or the mind of man. These words by other changes oftermination in the Greek and Latin languages suggest many othersecondary ideas, as of gender, as well as of number, and of all theother cases described in their grammars; which in English areexpressed by prepositions. 

This class of words includes the NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE, or names ofthings, of common grammars, and may be conveniently divided into threekinds. 1. Those which suggest the ideas of things believed to possesshardness and figure, as a house or a horse. 2. Those which suggest theideas of things, which are not supposed to possess hardness andfigure, except metaphorically, as virtue, wisdom; which have thereforebeen termed abstracted ideas. 3. Those which have been called bymetaphysical writers reflex ideas, and mean those of the operations ofthe mind, as sensation, volition, association. 

Another convenient division of these nouns substantive or names ofthings may be first into general terms, or the names of classes ofideas, as man, quadruped, bird, fish, animal. 2. Into the names ofcomplex ideas, as this house, that dog. 3. Into the names of simpleideas, as whiteness, sweetness. 

A third convenient division of the names of things may be into thenames of intire things, whether of real or imaginary being; these arethe nouns substantive of grammars. 2. Into the names of the qualitiesor properties of the former; these are the nouns adjective ofgrammars. 3. The names of more abstracted ideas as the conjunctionsand prepositions of grammarians. 

These nouns substantive, or names of intire things, suggest but oneidea in their simplest form, as in the nominative case singular ofgrammars. As the word a stag is the name of a single complex idea; butthe word stags by a change of termination adds to this a secondaryidea of number; and the word stag's, with a comma before the final s, suggests, in English, another secondary idea of something appertainingto the stag, as a stag's horn; which is, however, in our language, asfrequently expressed by the preposition _of_, as the horn of a stag. 

In the Greek and Latin languages an idea of gender is joined with thenames of intire things, as well as of number; but in the Englishlanguage the nouns, which express inanimate objects, have no gendersexcept metaphorically; and even the sexes of many animals have namesso totally different from each other, that they rather give an idea ofthe individual creature than of the sex, as bull and cow, horse andmare, boar and sow, dog and bitch. This constitutes anothercircumstance, which renders our language more simple, and more easy toacquire; and at the same time contributes to the poetic excellence ofit; as by adding a masculine or feminine pronoun, as he, or she, othernouns substantive are so readily personified. 

In the Latin language there are five cases besides the nominative, ororiginal word, and in the Greek four. Whence the original nounsubstantive by change of its termination suggests a secondary ideaeither corresponding with the genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, or ablative cases, besides the secondary ideas of number and genderabove mentioned. The ideas suggested by these changes of termination, which are termed cases, are explained in the grammars of theselanguages, and are expressed in ours by prepositions, which are calledthe signs of those cases. 

Thus the word Domini, of the Lord, suggests beside the primary idea asecondary one of something appertaining to it, as templum domini, thetemple of the Lord, or the Lord's temple; which in English is eithereffected by an addition of the letter s, with a comma before it, or bythe preposition _of_. This genitive case is said to be expressed inthe Hebrew language simply by the locality of the words in successionto each other; which must so far add to the conciseness of thatlanguage. 

Thus the word Domino, in the dative case, to the Lord, suggestsbesides the primary idea a secondary one of something being added tothe primary one; which is effected in English by the preposition _to_. 

The accusative case, or Dominum, besides the primary idea impliessomething having acted upon the object of that primary idea; as felisedit murem, the cat eats the mouse. This is thus effected in the Greekand Latin by a change of termination of the noun acted upon, but ismanaged in a more concise way in our language by its situation in thesentence, as it follows the verb. Thus if the mouse in the abovesentence was placed before the verb, and the cat after it, in Englishthe sense would be inverted, but not so in Latin; this necessity ofgenerally placing the accusative case after the verb is inconvenientin poetry; though it adds to the conciseness and simplicity of ourlanguage, as it saves the intervention of a preposition, or of achange of termination. 

The vocative case of the Latin language, or Domine, besides theprimary idea suggests a secondary one of appeal, or address; which inour language is either marked by its situation in the sentence, or bythe preposition O preceding it. Whence this interjection O conveys theidea of appeal joined to the subsequent noun, and is thereforeproperly another noun, or name of an idea, preceding the principal onelike other prepositions. 

The ablative case in the Latin language, as Domino, suggests asecondary idea of something being deducted from or by the primary one. Which is perhaps more distinctly expressed by one of thoseprepositions in our language; which, as it suggests somewhatconcerning the adjoined noun, is properly another noun, or name of anidea, preceding the principal one. 

When to these variations of the termination of nouns in the singularnumber are added those equally numerous of the plural, and the greatvariety of these terminations correspondent to the three genders, itis evident that the prepositions of our own and other modern languagesinstead of the changes of termination add to the simplicity of theselanguages, and to the facility of acquiring them. 

Hence in the Latin language, besides the original or primary ideasuggested by each noun substantive, or name of an entire thing, thereattends an additional idea of number, another of gender, and anothersuggested by each change of termination, which constitutes the cases;so that in this language four ideas are suggested at the same time byone word; as the primary idea, its gender, number, and case; thelatter of which has also four or five varieties. These nounstherefore may properly be termed the abbreviation of sentences; as theconjunctions and prepositions are termed by Mr. Tooke the abbreviationof words; and if the latter are called the wings affixed to the feetof Hermes, the former may be called the wings affixed to his cap. 

III. _Adjectives, Articles, Participles, Adverbs. _

1. The third class of words consists of those, which in their simplestform suggest two ideas; one of them is an abstracted idea of thequality of an object, but not of the object itself; and the other isan abstracted idea of its appertaining to some other noun called asubstantive, or a name of an entire thing. 

These words are termed ADJECTIVES, are undeclined in our language inrespect to cases, number, or gender; but by three changes oftermination they suggest the secondary ideas of greater, greatest, andof less; as the word sweet changes into sweeter, sweetest, andsweetish; which may be termed three degrees of comparison besides thepositive meaning of the word; which terminations of _er_ and _est_ areseldom added to words of more than two syllables; as those degrees arethen most frequently denoted by the prepositions more and most. 

Adjectives seem originally to have been derived from nounssubstantive, of which they express a quality, as a musky rose, abeautiful lady, a stormy day. Some of them are formed from thecorrespondent substantive by adding the syllable _ly_, or _like_, as alovely child, a warlike countenance; and in our language it isfrequently only necessary to put a hyphen between two nounssubstantive for the purpose of converting the former one into anadjective, as an eagle-eye, a Mayday. And many of our adjectives aresubstantives unchanged, and only known by their situation in asentence, as a German, or a German gentleman. Adjectives therefore arenames of qualities, or parts of things; as substantives are the namesof entire things. 

In the Latin and Greek languages these adjectives possess a greatvariety of terminations; which suggest occasionally the ideas ofnumber, gender, and the various cases, agreeing in all these with thesubstantive, to which they belong; besides the two original orprimary ideas of quality, and of their appertaining to some otherword, which must be adjoined to make them sense. Insomuch that some ofthese adjectives, when declined through all their cases, and genders, and numbers, in their positive, comparative, and superlative degrees, enumerate fifty or sixty terminations. All which to one, who wishes tolearn these languages, are so many new words, and add much to thedifficulty of acquiring them. 

Though the English adjectives are undeclined, having neither case, gender, nor number; and with this simplicity of form possess a degreeof comparison by the additional termination of ish, more than thegenerality of Latin or Greek adjectives, yet are they less adapted topoetic measure, as they must accompany their correspondingsubstantives; from which they are perpetually separated in Greek andLatin poetry. 

2. There is a second kind of adjectives, which abound in our language, and in the Greek, but not in the Latin, which are called ARTICLES bythe writers of grammar, as the letter _a_, and the word _the_. These, like the adjectives above described, suggest two primary ideas, andsuffer no change of termination in our language, and therefore suggestno secondary ideas. 

Mr. Locke observes, that languages consist principally of generalterms; as it would have been impossible to give a name to everyindividual object, so as to communicate an idea of it to others; itwould be like reciting the name of every individual soldier of anarmy, instead of using the general term, army. Now the use of thearticle _a_, and _the_ in English, and _o_ in Greek, converts generalterms into particular ones; this idea of particularity as a quality, or property of a noun, is one of the primary ideas suggested by thesearticles; and the other is, that of its appertaining to someparticular noun substantive, without which it is not intelligible. Inboth these respects these articles correspond with adjectives; towhich may be added, that our article _a_ may be expressed by theadjective one or any; and that the Greek article _o_ is declined likeother adjectives. 

The perpetual use of the article, besides its converting general termsinto particular ones, contributes much to the force and beauty of ourlanguage from another circumstance, that abstracted ideas become soreadily personified simply by the omission of it; which perhapsrenders the English language better adapted to poetry than any otherancient or modern: the following prosopopoeia from Shakspeare is thusbeautiful. 

 She let Concealment like a worm i' th' bud Feed on her damask cheek. 

And the following line, translated from Juvenal by Dr. Johnson, ismuch superior to the original, owing to the easy personification ofWorth and Poverty, and to the consequent conciseness of it. 

 Difficile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi. Slow rises Worth by Poverty depress'd. 

3. A third class of adjectives includes what are termed PARTICIPLES, which are allied to the infinitive moods of verbs, and are formed inour language by the addition only of the syllable _ing_ or _ed_; andare of two kinds, active and passive, as loving, loved, from the verbto love. The verbs suggest an idea of the noun, or thing spoken of;and also of its manner of existence, whether at rest, in action, or inbeing acted upon; as I lie still, or I whip, or I am whipped; and, lastly, another idea of the time of resting, acting, or suffering; butthese adjectives called participles, suggest only two primary ideas, one of the noun, or thing spoken of, and another of the mode ofexistence, but not a third idea of time; and in this respectparticiples differ from the verbs, from which they originate, or whichoriginated from them, except in their infinitive moods. 

Nor do they resemble adjectives only in their suggesting but twoprimary ideas; but in the Latin and Greek languages they are declinedthrough all the cases, genders, and numbers, like other adjectives;and change their terminations in the degrees of comparison. 

In our language the participle passive, joined to the verb _to be_, for the purpose of adding to it the idea of time, forms the whole ofthe passive voice; and is frequently used in a similar manner in theLatin language, as I am loved is expressed either by amor, or amatussum. The construction of the whole passive voice from the verb _to be_and the participles passive of other verbs, contributes much to thesimplicity of our language, and the ease of acquiring it; but rendersit less concise than perhaps it might have been by some simplevariations of termination, as in the active voice of it. 

4. A fourth kind of adjective is called by the grammarians an ADVERB;which has generally been formed from the first kind of adjectives, asthese were frequently formed from correspondent substantives; or ithas been formed from the third kind of adjectives, called participles;and this is effected in both cases by the addition, of the syllable_ly_, as wisely, charmingly. 

This kind of adjective suggests two primary ideas, like theadjectives, and participles, from which they are derived; but differfrom them in this curious circumstance, that the other adjectivesrelate to substantives, and are declined like them in the Latin andGreek languages, as a lovely boy, a warlike countenance; but theserelate to verbs, and are therefore undeclined, as to act boldly, tosuffer patiently. 

IV. _Verbs. _

The fourth class of words consists of those which are termed VERBS, and which in their simplest state suggest three ideas; first an ideaof the noun, or name of the thing spoken of, as a whip. 2. An idea ofits mode of existence, whether at rest, or in action, or in beingacted upon. 3. An idea of the time of its existence. Thus "the beadlewhipped the beggar, " in prolix language might be expressed, the beadlewith a whip struck in time past the beggar. Which three ideas aresuggested by the one word whipped. 

Verbs are therefore nouns, or names of intire ideas, with theadditional ideas of their mode of existence and of time; but theparticiples suggest only the noun, and the mode of existence, withoutany idea of time; as whipping, or whipped. The infinitive moods ofverbs correspond in their signification with the participles; as theyalso suggest only the noun, or name of the thing spoken of, and anidea of its mode of existence, excluding the idea of time; which isexpressed by all the other moods and tenses; whence it appears, thatthe infinitive mood, as well as the participle, is not truly a part ofthe verb; but as the participle resembles the adjective in itsconstruction; so the infinitive mood may be said to resemble thesubstantive, and it is often used as a nominative case to anotherverb. 

Thus in the words "a charming lady with a smiling countenance, " theparticiple acts as an adjective; and in the words "to talk wellcommands attention, " the infinitive mood acts as the nominative caseof a noun substantive; and their respective significations are alsovery similar, as whipping, or to whip, mean the existence of a personacting with a whip. 

In the Latin language the verb in its simplest form, except theinfinitive mood, and the participle, both which we mean to excludefrom complete verbs, suggests four primary ideas, as amo, suggests thepronoun I, the noun love, its existence in its active state, and thepresent time; which verbs in the Greek and Latin undergo an uncountedvariation of termination, suggesting so many different ideas inaddition to the four primary ones. 

We do not mean to assert, that all verbs are literally derived fromnouns in any language; because all languages have in process of timeundergone such great variation; many nouns having become obsolete orhave perished, and new verbs have been imported from foreignlanguages, or transplanted from ancient ones; but that this hasoriginally been the construction of all verbs, as well as those towhip and to love above mentioned, and innumerable others. 

Thus there may appear some difficulty in analyzing from what nounsubstantive were formed the verbs to stand or to lie; because we havenot properly the name of the abstract ideas from which these verbsarose, except we use the same word for the participle and the nounsubstantive, as standing, lying. But the verbs, to sit, and to walk, are less difficult to trace to their origin; as we have names for thenouns substantive, a seat, and a walk. 

But there is another verb of great consequence in all languages, whichwould appear, in its simplest form in our language to suggest but twoprimary ideas, as the verb _to be_, but that it suggests three primaryideas like other verbs maybe understood, if we use the synonymous termto exist instead of to be. Thus "I exist" suggests first the abstractidea of existence, not including the mode of existence, whether atrest, or in action, or in suffering; secondly it adds to thatabstracted idea of existence its real state, or actual resting, acting, or suffering, existence; and thirdly the idea of the presenttime: thus the infinitive mood _to be_, and the participle, _being_, suggest both the abstract idea of existence, and the actual state ofit, but not the time. 

The verb _to be_ is also used irregularly to designate the parts oftime and actual existence; and is then applied to either the active orpassive participles of other verbs, and called an auxiliary verb;while the mode of existence, whether at rest, or in action, or beingacted upon, is expressed by the participle, as "I am loving" is nearlythe same as "I love, " amo; and "I am loved, " amatus sum, is nearly thesame as amor. This mode of application of the verb _to be_ is used inFrench as well as in English, and in the passive voice of the Latin, and perhaps in many other languages; and is by its perpetual use inconversation rendered irregular in them all, as I am, thou art, he is, would not seem to belong to the infinitive mood _to be_, any more thansum, fui, sunt, fuerunt, appear to belong to esse. 

The verb _to have_ affords another instance of irregular application;the word means in its regular sense to possess, and then suggeststhree ideas like the above verb of existence: first the abstractedidea of the thing spoken of, or possession; secondly, the actualexistence of possession, and lastly the time, as I have or possess. This verb _to have_ like the verb _to be_ is also used irregularly todenote parts of past time, and is then joined to the passiveparticiples alone, as I have eaten; or it is accompanied with thepassive participle of the verb _to be_, and then with the activeparticiple of another verb, as I have been eating. 

There is another word _will_ used in the same irregular manner todenote the parts of future time, which is derived from the verb _towill_; which in its regular use signifies to exert our volition. Thereare other words used to express other circumstances attending uponverbs, as may, can, shall, all which are probably the remains ofverbs otherwise obsolete. Lastly, when we recollect, that in the moodsand tenses of verbs one word expresses never less than three ideas inour language, and many more in the Greek and Latin; as besides thosethree primary ideas the idea of person, and of number, are alwaysexpressed in the indicative mood, and other ideas suggested in theother moods, we cannot but admire what excellent abbreviations oflanguage are thus achieved; and when we observe the wonderfulintricacy and multiplicity of sounds in those languages, especially inthe Greek verbs, which change both the beginning and ending of theoriginal word through three voices, and three numbers, with uncountedvariations of dialect; we cannot but admire the simplicity of modernlanguages compared to these ancient ones; and must finally perceive, that all language consists simply of nouns, or names of ideas, disposed in succession or in combination, all of which are expressedby separate words, or by various terminations of the same word. 

_Conclusion. _

The theory of the progressive production of language in the earlytimes of society, and its gradual improvements in the more civilizedones, may be readily induced from the preceding pages. In thecommencement of Society the names of the ideas of entire things, which, it was necessary most frequently to communicate, would first beinvented, as the names of individual persons, or places, fire, water, this berry, that root; as it was necessary perpetually to announce, whether one or many of such external things existed, it was soon foundmore convenient to add this idea of number by a change of terminationof the word, than by the addition of another word. 

As many of these nouns soon became general terms, as bird, beast, fish, animal; it was next convenient to distinguish them when used foran individual, from the same word used as a general term; whence thetwo articles _a_ and _the_, in our language, derive their origin. 

Next to these names of the ideas of entire things, the words mostperpetually wanted in conversation would probably consist of thenames of the ideas of the parts or properties of things; which mightbe derived from the names of some things, and applied to others whichin these respects resembled them; these are termed adjectives, as rosycheek, manly voice, beastly action; and seem at first to have beenformed simply by a change of termination of their correspondentsubstantives. The comparative degrees of greater and less were foundso frequently necessary to be suggested, that a change of terminationeven in our language for this purpose was produced; and is asfrequently used as an additional word, as wiser or more wise. 

The expression of general similitude, as well as partial similitude, becomes so frequently used in conversation, that another kind ofadjective, called an adverb, was expressed by a change of termination, or addition of the syllable ly or like; and as adjectives of theformer kind are applied to substantives, and express a partialsimilitude, these are applied to verbs and express a generalsimilitude, as to act heroically, to speak boldly, to think freely. 

The perpetual chain of causes and effects, which constitute themotions, or changing configurations, of the universe, are soconveniently divided into active and passive, for expressing theexertions or purposes of common life, that it became particularlyconvenient in all languages to substitute changes of termination, instead of additional nouns, to express, whether the thing spoken ofwas in a state of acting or of being acted upon. This change oftermination betokening action or suffering constitutes the participle, as loving, loved; which, as it expresses a property of bodies, isclassed amongst adjectives in the preceding pages. 

Besides the perpetual allusions to the active or passive state ofthings, the comparative times of these motions, or changes, were alsoperpetually required to be expressed; it was therefore foundconvenient in all languages to suggest them by changes of terminationsin preference to doing it by additional nouns. At the same time theactual or real existence of the thing spoken of was perpetuallyrequired, as well as the times of their existence, and the active orpassive state of that existence. And as no conversation could becarried on without unceasingly alluding to these circumstances, theybecame in all languages suggested by changes of termination; which aretermed moods and tenses in grammars, and convert the participle abovementioned into a verb; as that participle had originally been formedby adding a termination to a noun, as chaining, and chained, fromchain. 

The great variety of changes of termination in all languages consiststherefore of abbreviations used instead of additional words; and addsmuch to the conciseness of language, and the quickness with which weare enabled to communicate our ideas; and may be said to addunnumbered wings to every limb of the God of Eloquence. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XV. 

ANALYSIS OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 

 The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat With soft vibration modulates the note. CANTO III. L. 367. 

Having explained in the preceding account of the theory of languagethat it consists solely of nouns, or the names of ideas, disposed insuccession or combination; I shall now attempt to investigate thenumber of the articulate sounds, which constitute those names of ideasby their successions and combinations; and to show by what parts ofthe organs of speech they are modulated and articulated; whence may bededuced the precise number of letters or symbols necessary to suggestthose sounds, and form an alphabet, which may spell with accuracy thewords of all languages. 

I. _Imperfections of the present Alphabet. _

It is much to be lamented, that the alphabet, which has produced andpreserved almost all the improvements in other arts and sciences, should have itself received no improvement in modern times; which haveadded so much elucidation to almost every branch of knowledge, thatcan meliorate the condition of humanity. Thus in our present alphabetsmany letters are redundant, others are wanted; some simple articulatesounds have two letters to suggest them; and in other instances twoarticulate sounds are suggested by one letter. Some of theseimperfections in the alphabet of our own language shall be enumerated. 

X. Thus the letter x is compounded of ks, or of gz, as in the wordsexcellent, example: eksellent, egzample. 

C. Is sometimes k, at other times s, as in the word access. 

G. Is a single letter in go; and suggests the letters d and the FrenchJ in pigeon. 

Qu is kw, as quality is kwality. 

NG in the words long and in king is a simple sound like the French n, and wants a new character. 

SH is a simple sound, and wants a new character. 

TH is either sibilant as in thigh; or semivocal as in thee; both ofwhich are simple sounds, and want two new characters. 

J French exists in our words confu_si_on, and conclusion, judge, pigeon, and wants a character. 

J consonant, in our language, expresses the letters d, and the Frenchj conjoined, as in John, Djon. 

CH is either k as in Arch-angel, or is used for a sound compounded ofTsh, as in Children, Tshildren. 

GL is dl, as Glove is pronounced by polite people dlove. 

CL is tl, as Cloe is pronounced by polite speakers Tloe. 

The spelling of our language in respect to the pronunciation is alsowonderfully defective, though perhaps less so than that of the French;as the words slaughter and laughter are pronounced totally different, though spelt alike. The word sough, now pronounced suff, was formerlycalled sow; whence the iron fused and received into a sough acquiredthe name of sowmetal; and that received into less soughs from theformer one obtained the name of pigs of iron or of lead; from the punon the word sough, into sow and pigs. Our word jealousies contains allthe vowels, though three of them only were necessary; nevertheless inthe two words abstemiously and facetiously the vowels exist all ofthem in their usual order, and are pronounced in their most usualmanner. 

Some of the vowels of our language are diphthongs, and consist of twovocal sounds, or vowels, pronounced in quick succession; thesediphthongs are discovered by prolonging the sound, and observing, ifthe ending of it be different from the beginning; thus the vowel i inin our language, as in the word high, if drawn put ends in the soundof the letter e as used in English; which is expressed by the letter iin most other languages: and the sound of this vowel i begins with ah, and consists therefore of ah and ee. Whilst the diphthong on in ourlanguage, as in the word how, begins with ah also and ends in oo, andthe vowel u of our language, as in the word use, is likewise adiphthong; which begins with e and ends with oo, as eoo. The French uis also a diphthong compounded of a and oo, as aoo. And many otherdefects and redundancies in our alphabet will be seen by perusing thesubsequent structure of a more perfect one. 

II. _Production of Sounds. _

By our organ of hearing we perceive the vibrations of the air; whichvibrations are performed in more or in less time, which constituteshigh or low notes in respect to the gammut; but the tone depends onthe kind of instrument which produces them. In speaking of articulatesounds they may be conveniently divided first into clear continuedsounds, expressed by the letters called vowels; secondly, Into hissingsounds, expressed by the letters called sibilants; thirdly, Intosemivocal sounds, which consist of a mixture of the two former; and, lastly, Into interrupted sounds, represented by the letters properlytermed consonants. 

The clear continued sounds are produced by the streams of air passingfrom the lungs in respiration through the larynx; which is furnishedwith many small muscles, which by their action give a proper tensionto the extremity of this tube; and the sounds, I suppose, are producedby the opening and closing of its aperture; something like the trumpetstop of an organ, as may be observed by blowing through the wind-pipeof a dead goose. 

These sounds would all be nearly similar except in their being anoctave or two higher or lower; but they are modulated again, oracquire various tones, in their passage through the mouth; which thusconverts them into eight vowels, as will be explained below. 

The hissing sounds are produced by air forcibly pushed through certainpassages of the mouth without being previously rendered sonorous bythe larynx; and obtain their sibilancy from their slower vibrations, occasioned by the mucous membrane, which lines those apertures orpassages, being less tense than that of the larynx. I suppose thestream of air is in both cases frequently interrupted by the closingof the sides or mouth of the passages or aperture; but that this isperformed much slower in the production of sibilant sounds, than inthe production of clear ones. 

The semivocal sounds are produced by the stream of air having receivedquick vibrations, or clear sound, in passing through the larynx, or inthe cavity of the mouth; but apart of it, as the outsides of thissonorous current of air, afterwards receives slower vibrations, orhissing sound, from some other passages of the lips or mouth, throughwhich it then flows. Lastly the stops, or consonants, impede thecurrent of air, whether sonorous or sibilant, for a perceptible time;and probably produce some change of tone in the act of opening andclosing their apertures. 

There are other clear sounds besides those formed by the larynx; someof them are formed in the mouth, as may be heard previous to theenunciation of the letters b, and d, and ga; or during thepronunciation of the semivocal letters, v. Z. J. And others insounding the liquid letters r and l; these sounds we shall termorisonance. The other clear sounds are formed in the nostrils, as inpronouncing the liquid letters m, n, and ng, these we shall termnarisonance. 

Thus the clear sounds, except those above mentioned, are formed in thelarynx along with the musical height or lowness of note; but receiveafterward a variation of tone from the various passages of the mouth:add to these that as the sibilant sounds consist of vibrations slowerthan those formed by the larynx, so a whistling through the lipsconsists of vibrations quicker than those formed by the larynx. 

As all sound consists in the vibrations of the air, it may not bedisagreeable to the reader to attend to the immediate causes of thosevibrations. When any sudden impulse is given to an elastic fluid likethe air, it acquires a progressive motion of the whole, and acondensation of the constituent particles, which first receive theimpulse; on this account the currents of the atmosphere in stormyseasons are never regular, but blow and cease to blow by intervals; asa part of the moving stream is condensed by the projectile force; andthe succeeding part, being consequently rarefied, requires some timeto recover its density, and to follow the former part: this elasticityof the air is likewise the cause of innumerable eddies in it; whichare much more frequent than in streams of water; as when it isimpelled against any oblique plane, it results with its elastic forceadded to its progressive one. 

Hence when a vacuum is formed in the atmosphere, the sides of thecavity forcibly rush together both by the general pressure of thesuperincumbent air, and by the expansion of the elastic particles ofit; and thus produce a vibration of the atmosphere to a considerabledistance: this occurs, whether this vacuity of air be occasioned bythe discharge of cannon, in which the air is displaced by the suddenevolution of heat, which as suddenly vanishes; or whether the vacuitybe left by a vibrating string, as it returns from each side of thearc, in which it vibrates; or whether it be left under the lid of thevalve in the trumpet stop of an organ, or of a child's play trumpet, which continues perpetually to open and close, when air is blownthrough it; which is caused by the elasticity of the currents, as itoccasions the pausing gusts of wind mentioned above. 

Hence when a quick current of air is suddenly broken by anyintervening body, a vacuum is produced by the momentum of theproceeding current, between it and the intervening body; as beneaththe valve of the trumpet-stop above mentioned; and a vibration is inconsequence produced; which with the great facility, which elasticfluids possess of forming eddies, may explain the production of soundsby blowing through a fissure upon a sharp edge in a common organ-pipeor child's whistle; which has always appeared difficult to resolve;for the less vibration an organ-pipe itself possesses, the moreagreeable, I am informed, is the tone; as the tone is produced by thevibration of the air in the organ pipe, and not by that of the sidesof it; though the latter, when it exists, may alter the tone though, not the note, like the belly of a harpsichord, or violin. 

When a stream of air is blown on the edge of the aperture of anorgan-pipe about two thirds of it are believed to pass on the outsideof this edge, and one third to pass on the inside of it; but thiscurrent of air on the inside forms an eddy, whether the bottom of thepipe be closed or not; which eddy returns upwards, and strikes byquick intervals against the original stream of air, as it falls on theedge of the aperture, and forces outwards this current of air withquick repetitions, so as to make more than two thirds of it, and lessthan two thirds alternately pass on the outside; whence a part of thisstream of air, on each side of the edge of the aperture is perpetuallystopped by that edge; and thus a vacuum and vibration in consequence, are reciprocally produced on each side of the edge of the aperture. 

The quickness or slowness of these vibrations constitute the higherand lower notes of music, but they all of them are propagated todistant places in the same time; as the low notes of a distant ring ofbells are heard in equal times with the higher ones: hence in speakingat a distance from the auditors, the clear sounds produced in thelarynx by the quick vibrations of its aperture, which form the vowels;the tremulous sounds of the L. R. M. N. NG. Which are owing tovibrations of certain apertures of the mouth and nose, and are soslow, that the intervals between them are perceived; the sibilantsounds, which I suppose are occasioned by the air not rushing into acomplete vacuum, whence the vibrations produced are defective invelocity; and lastly the very high notes made by the quickestvibrations of the lips in whistling; are all heard in due successionwithout confusion; as the progressive motions of all sounds I believetravel with equal velocity, notwithstanding the greater or lessquickness of their vibrations. 

III. STRUCTURE OF THE ALPHABET. 

_Mute and antesonant Consonants, and nasal Liquids. _

P. If the lips be pressed close together and some air be condensed inthe mouth behind them, on opening the lips the mute consonant P beginsa syllable; if the lips be closed suddenly during the passage of acurrent of air through them, the air becomes condensed in the mouthbehind them, and the mute consonant P terminates a syllable. 

B. If in the above situation of the lips a sound is previouslyproduced in the mouth, which may be termed orisonance, the semisonantconsonant B is produced, which like the letter P above described maybegin or terminate a syllable. 

M. In the above situation of the lips, if a sound is produced throughthe nostrils, which sound is termed narisonance, the nasal letter M isformed; the sound of which may be lengthened in pronunciation likethose of the vowels. 

T. If the point of the tongue be applied to the forepart of thepalate, at the roots of the upper teeth, and some air condensed in themouth behind, on withdrawing the tongue downwards the mute consonant Tis formed; which may begin or terminate a syllable. 

D. If the tongue be placed as above described, and a sound bepreviously produced in the mouth, the semisonant consonant D isformed, which may begin or terminate a syllable. 

N. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound beproduced through the nostrils, the nasal letter N is formed, the soundof which may be elongated like those of the vowels. 

K. If the point of the tongue be retracted, and applied to the middlepart of the palate; and some air condensed in the mouth behind; onwithdrawing the tongue downwards the mute consonant K is produced, which may begin or terminate a syllable. 

Ga. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound bepreviously produced in the mouth behind, the semisonant consonant G isformed, as pronounced in the word go, and may begin or terminate asyllable. 

NG. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound beproduced through the nostrils; the nasal letter ng is produced, as inking and throng; which is the french n, the sound of which may beelongated like a vowel; and should have an appropriated character, asthus _v_. 

Three of these letters, P, T, K, are stops to the stream of vocal air, and are called mutes by grammarians; three, B, D, Ga, are preceded bya little orisonance; and three, M, N, NG, possess continuednarisonance, and have been called liquids by grammarians. 

_Sibilants and Sonisibilants. _

W. Of the Germans; if the lips be appressed together, as informing theletter P; and air from the mouth be forced between them; the Wsibilant is produced, as pronounced by the Germans, and by some of theinferiour people of London, and ought to have an appropriatedcharacter as thus M. [TN: Upside down W. ]

W. If in the above situation of the lips a sound be produced in themouth, as in the letter B, and the sonorous air be forced betweenthem; the sonisibilant letter W is produced; which is the common W ofour language. 

F. If the lower lip be appressed to the edges of the upper teeth, andair from the mouth be forced between them, the sibilant letter F isformed. 

V. If in the above situation of the lip and teeth a sound be producedin the mouth, and the sonorous air be forced between them, thesonisibilant letter V is formed. 

Th. Sibilant. If the point of the tongue be placed between the teeth, and air from the mouth be forced between them, the Th sibilant isproduced, as in thigh, and should have a proper character, as [TN: Lookslike the Greek 'phi']. 

Th. Sonisibilant. If in the above situation of the tongue and teeth asound be produced in the mouth, and the sonorous air be forced betweenthem, the sonisibilant Th is formed, as in Thee; and should have anappropriated character as [TN: Looks like the Greek 'theta']. 

S. If the point of the tongue be appressed to the forepart of thepalate, as in forming the letter T, and air from the mouth be forcedbetween them, the sibilant letter S is produced. 

Z. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a sound beproduced in the mouth, as in the letter D, and the sonorous air beforced between them, the sonisibilant letter Z is formed. 

SH. If the point of the tongue be retracted and applied to the middlepart of the palate, as in forming the letter K, and air from the mouthbe forced between them, the letter Sh is produced, which is a simplesound and ought to have a single character, thus [TN: Looks like theGreek 'lambda']. 

J. French. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a soundbe produced in the mouth, as in the letter Ga; and the sonorous airbe forced between them; the J consonant of the French is formed; whichis a sonisibilant letter, as in the word conclusion, confusion, pigeon; it should be called Je, and should have a different characterfrom the vowel i, with which it has an analogy, as thus _V_. 

H. If the back part of the tongue be appressed to the pendulouscurtain of the palate and uvula; and air from behind be forced betweenthem; the sibilant letter H is produced. 

Ch Spanish. If in the above situation of the tongue and palate a soundbe produced behind; and the sonorous air be forced between them; theCh Spanish is formed; which is a sonisibilant letter, the same as theCh Scotch in the words Bu_ch_anan and lo_ch_: it is also perhaps theWelsh guttural expressed by their double L as in Lloyd, Lluellen; itis a simple sound, and ought to have a single character as [TN: Lookslike an H on its side]. 

The sibilant and sonisibilant letters may be elongated inpronunciation like the vowels; the sibilancy is probably occasioned bythe vibrations of the air being slower than those of the lowestmusical notes. I have preferred the word sonisibilants to the wordsemivocal sibilants; as the sounds of these sonisibilants are formedin different apertures of the mouth, and not in the larynx like thevowels. 

_Orisonant Liquids. _

R. If the point of the tongue be appressed to the forepart of thepalate, as in forming the letters T, D, N, S, Z, and air be pushedbetween them so as to produce continued sound, the letter R is formed. 

L. If the retracted tongue be appressed to the middle of the palate, as in forming the letters K, Ga, NG, Sh, J French, and air be pushedover its edges so as to produce continued sound, the letter L isformed. 

The nasal letters m, n, and ng, are clear tremulous sounds like R andL, and have all of them been called liquids by grammarians. Besidesthe R and L, above described, there is another orisonant soundproduced by the lips in whistling; which is not used in this countryas a part of language, and has therefore obtained no character, but isanalogous to the R and L; it is also possible, that another orisonantletter may be formed by the back part of the tongue and back part ofthe palate, as in pronouncing H and Ch, which may perhaps be the WelchLl in Lloyd, Lluellin. 

_Four pairs of Vowels. _

A pronounced like au, as in the word call. If the aperture, made byapproximating the back part of the tongue to the uvula and pendulouscurtain of the palate, as in forming the sibilant letter H, and thesonisibilant letter Ch Spanish, be enlarged just so much as to preventsibilancy; and a continued sound produced by the larynx be modulatedin passing through it; the letter A is formed, as in ball, wall, whichis sounded like aw in the word awkward; and is the most usual sound ofthe letter A in foreign languages; and to distinguish it from thesucceeding A might be called A micron; as the aperture of the fauces, where it is produced, is less than in the next A. 

A pronounced like ah, as in the word hazard. If the aperture of thefauces above described, between the back part of the tongue and theback part of the palate, be enlarged as much as convenient, and acontinued sound, produced in the larynx, be modulated in passingthrough it; the letter A is formed, as in animal, army, and ought tohave an appropriated character in our language, as thus [TN: Looks likean A on its head]. As this letter A is formed by a larger aperture thanthe former one, it may be called A mega. 

A pronounced as in the words cake, ale. If the retracted tongue byapproximation to the middle part of the palate, as in forming theletters R, Ga, NG, Sh, J French, L, leaves an aperture just so largeas to prevent sibilancy, and sonorous air from the larynx be modulatedin passing through it; the letter A is produced, as pronounced in thewords whale, sale, and ought to have an appropriated character in ourlanguage, as thus [TN: Looks like a handwritten 9]; this is expressed bythe letter E in some modern languages, and might be termed E micron;as it is formed by a less aperture of the mouth than the succeeding E. 

E pronounced like the vowel a, when short, as in the words emblem, dwelling. If the aperture above described between the retracted tongueand the middle of the palate be enlarged as much as convenient, andsonorous air from the larynx be modulated in passing through it, theletter E is formed, as in the words egg, herring; and as it ispronounced in most foreign languages, and might be called E mega todistinguish it from the preceding E. 

I pronounced like e in keel. If the point of the tongue byapproximation to the forepart of the palate, as in forming the lettersT, D, N, S, Z, R, leaves an aperture just so large as to preventsibilancy, and sonorous air from the larynx be modulated in passingthrough it; the vowel I is produced, which is in our languagegenerally represented by e when long, as in the word keel; and by iwhen, short, as in the word it, which is the sound of this letter inmost foreign languages; and may be called E micron to distinguish itfrom the succeeding E or Y. 

Y, when it begins a word, as in youth. If the aperture above describedbetween the point of the tongue, and the forepart of the palate beenlarged as much as convenient, and sonorous air from the larynx bemodulated in passing through it, the letter Y is formed; which, whenit begins a word, has been called Y consonant by some, and by othershas been thought only a quick pronunciation of our e, or the i offoreign languages; as in the word year, yellow; and may be termed Emega, as it is formed by a larger aperture than the preceding e or i. 

O pronounced like oo, as in the word fool. If the lips byapproximation to each other, as in forming the letters P, B, M, Wsibilant, W sonisibilant, leave an aperture just so wide as to preventsibilancy; and sonorous air from the larynx be modulated in passingthrough it; the letter O is formed, as in the words cool, school, andought to have an appropriated character as thus [TN: Looks like theinfinity symbol], and may be termed o micron to distinguish it fromthe succeeding o. 

O pronounced as in the word cold. If the aperture above describedbetween the approximated lips be enlarged as much as convenient; andsonorous air from the larynx be modulated in passing through it, theletter o is formed, as in sole, coal, which may be termed o mega, asit is formed in a larger aperture than the preceding one. 

_Conclusion. _

The alphabet appears from this analysis of it to consist of thirty-oneletters, which spell all European languages. 

Three mute consonants, P, T, K. 

Three antesonant consonants, B, D, Ga. 

Three narisonant liquids, M, N, NG. 

Six sibilants, W German, F, Th, S, Sh, H. 

Six sonisibilants, W, V, Th, Z, J French, Ch Spanish. 

Two orisonant liquids, R, L. 

Eight vowels, Aw, ah, a, e, i, y, oo, o. 

To these thirty-one characters might perhaps be added one for theWelsh L, and another for whistling with the lips; and it is possible, that some savage nations, whose languages are said to abound withgutturals, may pronounce a mute consonant, as well as an antesonantone, and perhaps another narisonant letter, by appressing the backpart of the tongue to the back part of the palate, as in pronouncingthe H, and Ch Spanish. 

The philosophical reader will perceive that these thirty-one soundsmight be expressed by fewer characters referring to the manner oftheir production. As suppose one character was to express theantesonance of B, D, Ga; another the orisonance of R, L; another thesibilance of W, S, Sh, H; another the sonisibilance of W, Z, J French, Ch Spanish; another to express the more open vowels; another the lessopen vowels; for which the word micron is here used, and for which theword mega is here used. 

Then the following characters only might be necessary to express themall; P alone, or with antesonance B; with narisonance M; withsibilance W German; with sonisibilance W; with vocality, termed micronOO; with vocality, termed mega O. 

T alone, or with the above characters added to it, would in the samemanner suggest D, N, S, Z, EE, Y, and R with a mark for orisonance. 

K alone, or with the additional characters, would suggest Ga, NG, Sh, J French, A, E, and L, with a mark for orisonance. 

F alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, V. 

Th alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, Th. 

H alone, or with a mark for sonisibilance, Ch Spanish, and with a markfor less open vocality, aw, with another for more open vocality ah. 

Whence it appears that six single characters, for the letters P, T, K, F, Th, H, with seven additional marks joined to them for antesonance, narisonance, orisonance, sibilance, sonisibilance, less open vocality, and more open vocality; being in all but thirteen characters, mayspell all the European languages. 

I have found more difficulty in analyzing the vowels than the otherletters; as the apertures, through which they are modulated, do notclose; and it was therefore less easy to ascertain exactly, in whatpart of the mouth they were modulated; but recollecting that thoseparts of the mouth must be more ready to use for the purpose offorming the vowels, which were in the habit of being exerted informing the other letters; I rolled up some tin foil into cylindersabout the size of my finger; and speaking the vowels separatelythrough them, found by the impressions made on them, in what part ofthe mouth each of the vowels was formed with somewhat greateraccuracy, but not so as perfectly to satisfy myself. 

The parts of the mouth appeared to me to be those in which the lettersP, I, K, and H, are produced; as those, where the letters F and Th areformed, do not suit the production of mute or antesonant consonants;as the interstices of the teeth would occasion some sibilance; andthese apertures are not adapted to the formation of vowels on the sameaccount. 

The two first vowels aw and ah being modulated in the back part of themouth, it is necessary to open wide the lips and other passages of themouth in pronouncing them; that those passages may not again altertheir tone; and that more so in pronouncing ah, than aw; as theaperture of the fauces is opened wider, where it is formed, and fromthe greater or less size of these apertures used in forming the vowelsby different persons, the tone of all of them may be somewhat alteredas spoken by different orators. 

I have treated with greater confidence on the formation of articulatesounds, as I many years ago gave considerable attention to thissubject for the purpose of improving shorthand; at that time Icontrived a wooden mouth with lips of soft leather, and with a valveover the back part of it for nostrils, both which could be quicklyopened or closed by the pressure of the fingers, the vocality wasgiven by a silk ribbon about an inch long and a quarter of an inchwide stretched between two bits of smooth wood a little hollowed; sothat when a gentle current of air from bellows was blown on the edgeof the ribbon, it gave an agreeable tone, as it vibrated between thewooden sides, much like a human voice. This head pronounced the p, b, m, and the vowel a, with so great nicety as to deceive all who heardit unseen, when it pronounced the words mama, papa, map, and pam; andhad a most plaintive tone, when the lips were gradually closed. Myother occupations prevented me from proceeding in the furtherconstruction of this machine; which might have required but thirteenmovements, as shown in the above analysis, unless some variety ofmusical note was to be added to the vocality produced in the larynx;all of which movements might communicate with the keys of aharpsichord or forte piano, and perform the song as well as theaccompaniment; or which if built in a gigantic form, might speak soloud as to command an army or instruct a crowd. 

I conclude this with an agreeable hope, that now war is ceased, theactive and ingenious of all nations will attend again to thosesciences, which better the condition of human nature; and that thealphabet will undergo a perfect reformation, which may indeed make itmore difficult to trace the etymologies of words, but will muchfacilitate the acquisition of modern languages; which as scienceimproves and becomes more generally diffused, will gradually becomemore distinct and accurate than the ancient ones; as metaphors willcease to be necessary in conversation, and only be used as theornaments of poetry. 

THE END. 

CONTENTS OF THE ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

NOTE I. SPONTANEOUS VITALITY OF MICROSCOPIC ANIMALS. 

I. Spontaneous vital production not contrary to scripture; to belooked for only in the simplest organic beings; supposed want ofanalogy no argument against it, as this equally applies to all newdiscoveries. II. The power of reproduction distinguishes organicbeings; which are gradually enlarged and improved by it. III. Microscopic animals produced from all vegetable and animal infusions;generate others like themselves by solitary reproduction; not producedfrom eggs; conferva fontinalis; mucor. IV. Theory of spontaneousvitality. Animal nutrition; vegetable; some organic particles haveappetencies to unite, others propensities to be united; buds of trees;sexual reproduction: analogy between generation and nutrition; laws ofelasticity not understood; dead animalcules recover life by heat andmoisture; chaos redivivum; vorticella; shell-snails; eggs and seeds:hydra. Classes of microscopic animals; general remarks. 

NOTE II. FACULTIES OF THE SENSORIUM. 

Fibres possess a power of contraction; spirit of animation immediatecause of their contracting; stimulus of external bodies the remotecause; stimulus produces irritation; due contraction occasionspleasure; too much, or too little, pain; sensation produces desire oraversion, which constitute volition: associated motions; irritation;sensation; volition; association; sensorium. 

NOTE III. VOLCANOES. 

Their explosions occasioned by water falling on boiling lava; primevalearthquakes of great extent; more elastic vapours might raise islandsand continents, or even throw the moon from the earth; stones fallingfrom the sky; earthquake at, Lisbon; subterraneous fires under thisisland. 

NOTE IV. MUSQUITO. 

The larva lives chiefly in water; it may be driven away by smoke;gnats; libelulla; æstros bovis; bolts: musca chamæleon; vomitoria. 

NOTE V. AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. 

Diodon has both lungs and gills; some amphibious quadrupeds have theforamen ovale open; perhaps it may be kept open in dogs by frequentimmersion so as to render them amphibious; pearl divers; distinctionsof amphibious animals; lamprey, leech; remora; whale. 

NOTE VI. HIEROGLYPHIC CHARACTERS. 

Used by the magi of Egypt to record discoveries in science, andhistorical events; astrology an early superstition; universalcharacters desirable; Grey's Memoria Technica; Bergeret's BotanicalNomenclature; Bishop Wilkins's Real Character and PhilosophicalLanguage. 

NOTE VII. OLD AGE AND DEATH. 

I. Immediate cause of the infirmities of age not yet well ascertained;must be sought in the laws of animal excitability; debility induced byinactivity of many parts of the system; organs of sense become lessexcitable; this ascribed to habit; may arise from deficient secretionof sensorial power; all parts of the system not changed as we advancein life. II. Means of preventing old age; warm bath; fishes;cold-blooded amphibious animals; fermented liquors injurious; alsowant of heat, food, and fresh air; variation of stimuli; volition;activity. III. Theory of the approach of age; surprise: novelty; whycontagious diseases affect a person but once; debility; death. 

NOTE VIII. REPRODUCTION. 

I. Distinguishes animation from mechanism; solitary and sexual; budsand bulbs; aphises; tenia; volvox; polypus; oyster; eel;hermaphrodites. II. Sexual. III. Inferior vegetables and animalspropagate by solitary generation only; next order by both; superior bysexual generation alone. IV. Animals are improved by reproduction;contagious diseases; reproduction a mystery. 

NOTE IX. STORGE. 

Pelicans; pigeons; instincts of animals acquired by a previous state, and transmitted by tradition; parental love originates from pleasure. 

NOTE X. EVE FROM ADAM'S RIB. 

Mosaic history of Paradise supposed by some to be an allegory;Egyptian philosophers, and others, supposed mankind to have beenoriginally of both sexes united. 

NOTE XI. HEREDITARY DISEASES. 

Most affect the offspring of solitary reproduction: grafted trees, strawberries, potatoes; changing seed; intermarriages; hereditarydiseases owing to indulgence in fermented liquors; immoderate use ofcommon salt; improvement of progeny; hazardous to marry an heiress. 

NOTE XII. CHEMICAL THEORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 

I. Attraction and repulsion. II. Two kinds of electric ether;atmospheres of electricity surround all separate bodies; atmospheresof similar kinds repel, of different kinds attract each otherstrongly; explode on uniting; nonconductors; imperfect conductors;perfect conductors; torpedo, gymnotus, galvanism. III. Effect ofmetallic points. IV. Accumulation of electric ethers by contact. V. Byvicinity; Volta's electrophorus and Rennet's doubler. VI. By heat andby decomposition; the tourmalin; cats; galvanic pile; evaporation ofwater. VII. The spark from the conductor; electric light; notaccounted for by Franklin's theory. VIII. Shock from a coated jar;perhaps an unrestrainable ethereal fluid yet unobserved; electriccondensation. IX. Galvanic electricity. X. Two magnetic ethers;analogy between magnetism and electricity; differences between them. XI. Conclusion. 

NOTE XIII. ANALYSIS OF TASTE. 

Taste may signify the pleasures received by any of the senses, but notthose which simply attend perception; four sources of pleasure invision. I. Novelty or infrequency of visible objects; surprise. II. Repetition; beating of a drum; dancing; architecture; landscapes;picturesque; beautiful; romantic; sublime. III. Melody of colours. IV. Association of agreeable sentiments with visible objects; vision thelanguage of touch; sentiment of beauty. 

NOTE XIV. THEORY AND STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE. 

Ideas; words the names or symbols of ideas. I. Conjunctions andprepositions; abbreviations of other words. II. Nouns substantive. III. Adjectives, articles; participles, adverbs. IV. Verbs;progressive production of language. 

NOTE XV. ANALYSIS OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 

I. Imperfections of the present alphabet; of our orthography. II. Production of sounds. III. Structure of the alphabet; mute andantesonant consonants, and nasal liquids; sibilants and sonisibilants;orisonant liquids; four pairs of vowels; alphabet consists ofthirty-one letters; speaking figure. 

ERRATUM. 

Additional Notes, p. 43, l. 3, for Canto II, l. 129, read Canto II, l. 165. 

T. Bensley, Printer, Bolt Court; Fleet Street, London.