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Show [ 6 J Pleafed GNoMEs, afcending from their earthy beds, Play roun~ her graceful footil:eps, as ilie treads ; Gay SYLPHS attendant beat the fragrant air 7 5 On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair ; Blue NYMPHS emerging leave their fparkling ftreams, And FIERY FoRMs alight from orient beams; Muik'd in the rofe's lap freili dews they ilied, Or breathe celefiiallufires round her head. Firfi the fine Forms her dulcet voice requires, Which bathe or baik in elemental fires ; 8o From each bright gem of Day's refulgent car, From the pale fphere of every twinkling fiar, From each nic~ pore of ocean, earth, and air, With eye of flame the fparkling hofis repair, Bs Pleajed Gnomes. I. 73· The Roflcrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs~ N ymphs, and Salamanders affords proper machinery for a philofophic poem ; as It IS prob~1b le that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures of the Elements, or of G enii prefiding over their operations. The Fairies of more modern days fccm to ha ·e been Je ... rived from them, and to have inherited their powers. The Gnomes and Sylphs, as being more nearly allied to modern Fairies, are rcprefcntcd as either male or fliP" e, which difiinguil11es the latter from the Aura: of the Latin Poets, which w:: nly female; except the winds, as Zephyrus and Aufier, may be fuppofcd to have been their bufbands. r 7 J Mix their gay hues, In changeful circles play, Like motes, that tenant the meridian ray.So the clear Lens collects with magic power The countlefs glories of the midnight hour; Stars after .fiars with quivering lu:ll:re fall, And twinkling glide along the whiten' d wall.Pleafed, as they pafs, ilie counts the glittering bands, And frills their murmur with her waving hands ; Each li.fiening tribe with fond expettance burns, And now to thefe, and now to thofe, fhe turns. 95 I. "NYMPHs OF PRIMEVAL FIRE! YOUR vefial train Hung with gold-treffes o'er the vafi inane, Nymphs if primeval fire. J. 97. The Ruid matter of heat is perhaps the moil ex tenfive clement in nature; all other bodies are immerfed in it, and are prcferved in their prelent fiate of fol idity or fluidity by the attraction of their particles to the matter of heat. Since all known bodies are contractible into lefs fp~ce by depriving them of fomc portion of their heat, and as there is no part of nature totally deprived of heat, there is rcafon to believe that the particles of bodies do not touch, but are held towards each • other by their [elf-attraction, and recede from each other by their attraction to the mafs of heat which furrounds t:1em ; and thus exiil in an equilibrium between thefe two powers. If more of the matter of heat be applierl to them, they recede farther from each other, and become fluid ; i'f flill more be applied, they take an aerial form, and are termed Gaffes by the modern chemifis. Thus when water is heated to a certain degree, it would inilantly affume the form of ficam, but for the preffure of the atmofphere, which prevents this change from taking place fo eafily; the fame is true of |
