"Now his hard hands on Mona's rifted creft, Bofom'd in rock, her azure ores arreft; With iron lips his rapid rollers seize The lengthening bars, in thin expansion squeeze; 280 285 And with quick fall his maffy hammers stamp. The Harp, the Lily and the Lion join, And GEORGE and BRITAIN guard the fterling coin. "Soon fhall thy arm, Unconquer'd Steam! afar Drag the flow barge, or drive the rapid car; 296 Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move; 295. "So mighty HERCULES o'er many a clime Waved his vaft mace in Virtue's caufe fublime, mankind upon them all, would appear to be a lefs perfect part of the economy of nature than those before mentioned, as contributing lefs to the fum of general happiness. Mona's rifted creft. 1. 279. Alluding to the very valuable copper-mines in the isle of Anglefey, the property of the Earl of Uxbridge. With iron lips. 1. 281. Mr. Boulton has lately constructed at Soho, near Birmingham, a moft magnificent apparatus for Coining, which has cost him fome thousand pounds; the whole machinery is moved by an improved fteam-engine, which rolls the copper for half-pence finer than copper has before been rolled for the purpose of making money;-it works the coupoirs, or fcrew-preffes for cutting out the circular pieces of copper, and coins both the faces and edges of the money, at the same time, with such superior excellence, and cheapnefs of workmanfhip, as well as with marks of fuch powerful machinery, as muft totally prevent clandeftine imitation, and, in confequence, fave many lives froni the hand of the executioner; a circumftance worthy the attention of a great minifter. If a civic crown was given in Rome for preferving the life of one citizen, Mr. Boulton should be covered with garlands of oak! By this machinery four boys, of ten or twelve years old, are capable of ftriking thirty thousand guineas in an hour, and the machine itself keeps an unerring account of the pieces ftruck. So mighty Hercules. 1. 297. The ftory of Hercules feems of great antiquity, as appears from the fimplicity of his dress and armour, a lion's skin Unmeasured ftrength with early art combined, 300 And fhrieks of fair attendants trembling round, Their gafping throats with clenching hands he holds; 305 Next in red torrents from her fevenfold heads Fell HYDRA's blood on Lerna's lake he fheds; "Then where Nemea's howling forefts wave, He drives the Lion to his dusky cave; 310 and a club; and from the nature of many of his exploits, the deftruction of wild beasts and robbers. This part of the hiftory of Hercules seems to have related to times before the invention of the bow and arrow, or of spinning flax. Other stories of Hercules are perhaps of later date, and appear to be allegorical, as his conquering the river-god Achelous, and bringing Cerberus up to day-light; the former might refer to his turning the course of a river, and draining a morafs, and the latter to his expofing a part of the fuperftition of the times. The ftrangling the lion, and tearing his jaws afunder, are described from a ftatue in the Museum Florentinum, and from an antique gem; and the grasping Anteus to death in his arms, as he lifts him from the earth, is defcribed from another ancient cameo. The famous pillars of Hercules have been variously explained. Pliny afferts that the natives of Spain and of Africa believed that the mountains of Abyla and Calpe, on each side of the straits of Gibraltar, were the pillars of Hercules; and that they were reared by the hands of that god, and the fea admitted between them. Plin. Hift. Nat. p. 46. Edit. Manut. Venet. 1609. If the paffage between the two continents was opened by an earthquake in ancient times, as this allegorical story would seem to countenance, there must have been an immenfe current of water at firft run into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic; fince there is at present a strong stream sets always from thence into the Mediterranean. Whatever may be the cause, which now conftantly operates, so as to make the furface of the Mediterranean lower than that of the Atlantic, it must have kept it very much lower before a paffage for the water through the ftraits was opened. It is probable, before fuch an event took place, the coafts and islands of the Mediterranean extended much further into that fea, and were then, for a great extent of country, destroyed by the floods occafioned by the new rife of water, and have fince remained beneath the fea. Might not this give rife to the flood of Deucalion? See note Caflia, Vol. II. of this work, Seized by the throat, the growling fiend disarms, 315 320 "Laft with wide arms the folid earth He tears, -- 325 330 VII. 1. Nymphs! your fine hands ethereal floods amafs From the warm cushion, and the whirling glass; 336 Beard the bright cylinder with golden wire, And circumfufe the gravitating fire. Cold from each point cerulean luftres gleam, Or fhoot in air the fcintillating ftream. 349 Ethereal foods amafs. 1. 335. The theory of the accumulation of the electric fluid, by means of the glafs globe and cushion, is difficult to comprehend. Dr. Franklin's idea of the pores of the glass being opened by the friction, and thence rendered capable of attracting more electric fluid, which it again parts with, as the pores contract again, feems analogous, in fome measure, to the heat produced by the vibration, or condensation of bodies, as when a nail is hammered or filed till it becomes hot, as mentioned in additional notes, No. VII. Some philofophers have endeavoured to account for this phenomenon, by supposing the existence of two electric fluids, which may be called the vitreous and refinous ones, inftead of the plus and minus of the fame ether. But its accumulation on the rubbed glass bears great analogy to its accumulation on the furface of the Leyden bottle, and cannot, perhaps, be explained from any known mechanical or chemical principle. See note on Gymnotus, 1. 202 of this Canto. Cold from each point. 1. 339. See additional notes, No. XIII. So, borne on brazen talons, watch'd of old "You bid gold-leaves, in cryftal lantherns held, "You croud in coated jars the denfer fire, Pierce the thin glass, and fuse the blazing wire; 345 350 355 360 You bid gold-leaves. 1. 345. Alluding to the very fenfible electrometer improved by Mr. Bennett: it confifts of two flips of gold-leaf suspended from a tin cap in a glass cylinder, which has a partial coating without, communicating with the wooden pedestal. If a stick of fealing-wax be rubbed for a moment on a dry cloth, and then held in the air, at the diftance of two or three feet from the cap of this inftrument, the gold leaves feparate, fuch is its astonishing fenfibility to electric influence! (See Bennett on electricity. Johnson. Lond.) The nerves of sense of animal bodies do not seem to be affected by lefs quantities of light or heat. The holy Halo. 1. 358. I believe it is not known with certainty at what time the painters first introduced the luminous circle round the head, to import a Saint or holy perfon. It is now become a part of the fymbolic language of painting, and it is much to be wished that this kind of hieroglyphic character was more frequent in that art, as it is much wanted to render hiftoric pictures both more intelligible and more fublime; and why should not painting, as well as poetry, express itself in metaphor, or in diftinct allegory? A truly great modern painter lately endeavoured to enlarge the fphere of pictorial language, by putting a demon behind the pillow of a wicked man on his death-bed. Which, unfortunately for the fcientific part of painting, the cold criticism of the prefent day has depreciated, and thus barred, perhaps, the only road to the further improvement in this science. Or dart the red flash through the circling band eyes. 2. Nymphs! on that day Ye fhed from lucid 365 370 With new fenfation thrill'd. 1. 365. There is probably a fyftem of nerves in animal bodies for the purpose of perceiving heat; fince the degree of this fluid is fo neceffary to health, that we become presently injured, either by its excefs or defect; and because almost every part of our bodies is fupplied with branches from different pairs of nerves, which would not feem neceffary for their motion alone. It is therefore probable, that our fenfation of electricity is only of its violence in paffing through our system, by its fuddenly diftending the muscles, like any other mechanical violence; and that it is general pain alone that we feel, and not any fenfation analogous to the fpecific quality of the object. Nature may feem to have been niggardly to mankind in bestowing upon them fo few fenses; fince a fenfe to have perceived electricity, and another to have perceived magnetism, might have been of great service to them, many ages before these fluids were discovered by accidental experiment; but it is poffible an increased number of senses might have incommoded us by adding to the size of our bodies. Palfy's cold hands. 1. 367. Paralytic limbs are in general only incapable of being stimulated into action by the power of the will; fince the pulfe continues to beat, and the fluids to be abforbed in them; and it commonly happens, when paralytic people yawn and stretch themselves (which is not a voluntary motion,) that the affected limb moves at the fame time. The temporary motion of a paralytic limb is likewife caufed by paffing the electric fhock through it; which would seem to indicate fome analogy between the electric fluid and the nervous fluid, which is feparated from the blood by the brain, and thence diffused along the nerves, for the purposes of motion and fenfation. It probably destroys life, by its fudden expanfion of the nerves, or fibres of the brain, in the fame manner as it fufes metals, and fplinters wood or ftone, and removes the atmosphere when it paffes from one object to another in a dense state. Prints the Fairy-rings. 1. 370. See additional notes, No. XIII. Dr. Richman, Professor of Natural Philofophy at Petersburgh, about the year 1763, elevated an infulated metallic rod to collect the aërial electricity, as Dr. Franklin had previously done at |