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Show [ 106 ] Ray'd frotn his lucid vefi, and halo'd brow 0' er the dark roof celefiialluftres glow, " PETER, arife !'' with cheering voice He calls, And founds feraphic echo roWld the walls ; Locks, bolts, and chains his potent to1:1ch obey, And plea fed he leads the exulting Sage to day .. soo XII. " You ! w hofe- fine £ngers fiJI the organic cet!s,. With virgin earth, of woods and bones and fhells; s6& Mould with retraCtile glue their fpongy beds, And ftretch and firengthen all their fibre-threads.Late when the mafs obeys its changeful domn, And finks to earth, its cradle and its tomb ' i'4ould with rttraRill' , J11e 1 s6 Tl n· t l I ~ . . 7· le con ltuent parts of animal fibres are bel' d o Je eart 1 and glute Th fc 1 1eve ' The earth then efferv;fces wi~1 :~~!;10~:~parate ~xcept by long putrefaction or by fire •. force of fire. The gluten has co t.' d ca~ ocln y ?e converted into glafs by the greatell n lllllC l1111tC With th · h f h b ye:us in Egyptian mummies. but b e. eatt o _t e ones above 2ooo leaves only the earth. Henc~ bo yllongbex_rolfure to air or mmfl:ure it difTolves and nes ong unec, when expofed t h · br . ture and crumble into powder· Pl "I T r o t e air, a wrb motf- . 11 . ran1. No 4-?S Tl n·b"l ' of the animal fibre depends o th I . . le retraw I t~y or elaflicity n e g utcn ; and of thefe fib branes, mufcles, and bones Hall Ph r. res are compofed the mem- F · cr. yuol. Tom. I p 2 'or the chemical decompofition of an imal d • • . . work of Lavoifi cr, Traite de Chimie T ' an vegetable bodies fee the ingenious . ' om. I. P· 132 who rt'rol 11 h . . ncnt parts 1nto oxygene h d . · · ·11 ve~ ~1 t etr compo-b . , y rogene, carbone and azot I h dong pnncip;.Jlly to veaetable and tl I fl: ' •. e, t 1e t rce former of which 0 ' le a to am mal matter. [ 107 ] GNoMEs ! with nice eye the flow folution watch, With fofiering hand the parting atoms catch, Join in new forms, combine ·with life and fenfe, And guide and guard the tranftnigrating Ens. " So when on Lebanon's fequefter'd hight The fair AnoNrs left the realms of light, 575 The lranfmigrating Ens. 1. 574· The perpetual circulation of matter in the growth and diffolution of vegetable and animal bodies feems to have given Pythagoras his idea of the metempfycofis or tranfmigration of fpirit ; which was afterwards dreffed out or ridiculed in variety of amufing fables. Other philofophers have fuppofed, that there are two different materials or efTences) which fill the univerfe. One of thefe, which has the power of commencing or producing motion, is called fpirit; the other, which has the power of receiving and of communicating motion, but not of beginning it, is called matter. The former of thefe is fuppofed to be diffufed through all fpace, filling up the interftices of the funs and planets, and con!l:ituting the gravitations of the fidereal bodies, the attraB:ions of chemiil:ry, with the fpirit of vegetation, and of animation. The latter" occupies comparatively but fmall fpace, conil:ituting the {olid parts of the fun and planets, and their atmofpheres. Hence thefe philofophers have fuppofed, that both matter and fpirit are equally immortal and unperilhable; and that on the difTolution of vegetable or animal organization, the matter returns to the general mafs of matter; and the fpirit to the general mafs of fpirit, to enter again into new combinations, according to the original idea of Pythagoras. The fmall apparent 'luantity of matter that cxiil:s in the univerfe compared to that of fpirit, and the fhort time in which the recrements of animal or vegetable bodies become ;lgain vivified in the forms of vegetable mucor or microfcopic infeB::s, feems to have given rife to another curious fable of antiquity. That Jupiter threw down a large handful of fbuls upon the earth, and left them to fcramble for the few bodies which were to be had. .Adonis. 1. 576. The very antient ftory of the beautiful Adonis paffing one ~alf of the year with Venm, and the other with Profcrpine alternately, has had vanety of P2 |
