How Planes, their substance with their motion grown, Form the huge Cube, the Cylinder, the Cone. Lo! where the chimney's sooty tube ascends, 45 The fair TROCHAIS from the corner bends! Her coal-black eyes upturn'd incessant mark The eddying smoke, quick flame, and volant spark; Mark with quick ken, where flashing in between, Her much loved Smoke-Jack glimmers through the scene; 50 Point to one purpose,-in one object end: 55 of fire, with our present and hitherto imperfect system of Society. In the mean while, the Fuci and Alga, with the Corallines and Madrepores, would transform themselves into fish, and would gradually populate all the submarine portion of the globe. Ver. 46. Trochais-The Nymph of the Wheel, supposed to be in love with Smoke-Jack. Ver. 56. The conscious fire-The Sylphs and Genii of the different Elements have a variety of innocent occupations assigned them; those of fire are supposed to divert themselves with writing Kunkel in phosphorus.-See ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. "Or mark, with shining letters, Kunkel's name "In the slow phosphor's self-consuming flame." S So youthful Horner roll'd the roguish eye, Cull'd the dark plum from out his Christmas pie, And cried, in self-applause-" How good a boy am I.” 60 So she, sad victim of domestic spite, Fair Cinderella, past the wintry night In the lone chimney's darksome nook immured, 65 Lifts the charm'd rod, and chants the mystic rite. And feels new ear-rings deck her listening ears; While midst her towering tresses, aptly set, Shines bright, with quivering glance, the smart aigrette ; 70 Brocaded silks the splendid dress complete, And the Glass Slipper grasps her fairy feet. Ver. 68. Listening ears—Listening, and therefore peculiarly suited to a pair of diamond ear-rings. See the description of Nebuchadnezzar, in his transformed state. Nor flattery's self can pierce his pendent ears. In poetical diction, a person is said to breathe the BLUE air,' and to drink the HOARSE wave!'-not that the colour of the sky, or the noise of the water, has any reference to drinking or breathing, but because the Poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject under a double relation, in the same manner in which material objects presents themselves to our different senses at the same time. Six cock-tail'd mice transport her to the ball, Ver. 73. Cock-tail'd mice-coctilibus muris.-Ovid. There is reason to believe, that the murine, or mouse species, were anciently much more numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the line, that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of these animals. Dicitur altam Coctilibus Muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the end, whether of ornament or defence, which they could be supposed to answer. I should be inclined to believe, that in this instance the mice were dead, and that so vast a collection of them must have been furnished by way of tribute, to free the country from these destructive animals. This superabundance of the murine race, must have been owing to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction of the feline species. The traces of this disproportion are to be found in the early history of every country.-The ancient laws of Wales estimate a Cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufficient to cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with her fore-feet touching the ground.-See Howel Dha.-In Germany, it is recorded that an army of rats, a larger animal of the mus tribe, were employed as the Ministers of Divine vengeance against a feudal Tyrant; and the commercial legend of our own Whittington, might probably be traced to an equally authentic origin. For three bright nymphs the wily wizard burns ; Three bright-eyed nymphs requite his flame by turns. With Plato's science and Menecmus' lore. 80 Ver. 76. Rectangle-" A figure which has one Angle, or more, of ninety degrees." -Johnson's Dictionary. It here means a right-angled Triangle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one Angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our Author's Prosopopaia, be supposed to be in love with Three, or any greater number of Nymphs. Ver. 80. Plato's and Menecmus' lore-Proclus attributes the discovery of the Conic Sections to Plato, but obscurely. Eratosthenes seems to adjudge it to Menecmus." Neque Menecmeos necesse erit in Cono secare ternarios."-Vide Montucla. In Afric's schools, amid those sultry sands, High on its base where Pompey's pillar stands, GINS-black and huge! who in Dom-Daniel's cave Writhe your scorch'd limbs on sulphur's azure wave, Or, shivering, yell amidst eternal snows, 85 Where cloud-capp'd Caf protrudes his granite toes; 90 From Greece they were carried to Alexandria, where (according to our Author's beautiful fiction) Rectangle either did or might learn magic. Ver. 86. Zatanai-Supposed to be the same with Satan.-Vide the New Arabian Nights, translated by Cazotte, author of " Le Diable amoreux." Ver. 87. Gins-the Eastern name for Genii.-Vide Tales of ditto. Ditto, Dom-Daniel—a submarine palace near Tunis, where Zatanai usually held his court.-Vide New Arabian Nights. Ver. 88. Sulphur-A substance which, when cold, reflects the yellow rays, and is therefore said to be yellow. When raised to a temperature at which it attracts oxygene (a process usually called burning), it emits a blue flame. This may be beautifully exemplied, and at a moderate expence, by igniting those fasciculi of brimstone matches, frequently sold (so frequently, indeed, as to form one of the * London cries) by women of an advanced age, in this metropolis. They will be found to yield an azure, or blue light. Ver. 90. Caf-the Indian Caucasus.-Vide Bailly's Lettres sur l'Atlantide, in which he proves that this was the native country of Gog and Magog (now resident in Guildhall), as well as of the Peris, or fairies, of the Asiatic Romances. |