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Show [ 64 ] Chann' d the blue fifierhood with playful wiles, Lifp' d her fweet tones, and tried her tender f1niles. Then, on her beryl throne by 1;ritons borne, Bright rofe the Goddefs like the Star of morn ; When with foft fires the milky dawn He leads, And wakes to life and love the laughing meads;With rofy fingers, as uncurl' d they hung Round her fair brow, her golden locks ihe wrung; 0' er the ftnooth furge on iilver fandals fl:ood., And look' d enchantlnent on the dazzled flood. The bright drops, rolling fr01n her lifted anns, In flow meanders wander o'er her channs , Seek round her fnowy neck their lucid track, Pearl her white .lhoulders, gem her ivory back, Round her fine waifi and fwellino- bofom fwitn b ' And fiar with glittering brine each cryfial limb. 5o 55 6o be_ of ~rea~ ant_iquity before the in~r~duEtion of fi ne talte into the world. It is probable that this b~auti:lll_all egC' ry was on?1t1ally an hieroglyphic piCture (before t!Ie invention of letters) rl_Lf~npuve of the format10n of the earth from the ocean, which fcems to have been :tn op11110n of many of the molt antient philofophers. [ 6s J -The immortal forn1 enamour'd Nature hail'd, And Beauty blazed to heaven and eartb, unvail'd. III. " You! who then, kindling after many an age, Saw with new fires the firfi VoLCANO rage, 0' er fmouldering heaps of livid fulphur [well At Earth's firm centre, and diflend her !hell, 'Tbe Jirfl volcano. I. 68. As the earth before the exiltcnce of earthquakes was nearly level, and the greatelt part of it covered with fea; when the firl1 great fires began deep in the internal parts of it, thofe parts would become much expanded; this expa11fion would be gradually extended, a~ th<! heat increafed, through the whole terraqueous globe of 7000 miles diameter; the crul1 would thence in many places open into fiOi.1rcs, which by admitting the fea to flow in upon the fire, woulJ produce not only a quantity of fieam beyond calculation by its expanfion, but woulLI alfo by its decompofition produce inflammable air and vital air in quantities beyond conception, fuOlcient to efFect thofe violent explo~ons, the vefliges of which all over the world excite our admiration and our fl:ucly ; the difficulty of undcrl1anding how fubterraneous fires could exil1 without the pre fence of air has eli [appeared fince Dr. Priel11ey 's difcove_ry ~f fuch ~rcat q~antities of pun: air which conltitute all the acids, and confequently extl1In all falme bodies, as feafalt, nitre, lime flonc, and in all calciform ores, asmanganefe, calamy, ochre, and other mineral fubfbncc· . See an ingenious trcatife on earthquakes by Mr. Michel in the Philo[. Tranf. In the firfl tremendous ignitions of the globe, as the continents were heaved up, the \'allies, which now hold the fea, were formed by the earth fubfiding into the cavities made by the rifing mountains; as the l1eam, which raifed them condenfed; whic~1 would thence not have any caverns of great extent remain beneath them, as fome phllo_fophers have imlgined. The earthquakes of modern days are of very fmJll extent indeed comp~red to thofe ofantient times, and are ingeniouOy compared byM. De Luc to the operations of a mole-hill, where from a fmall cavity arc raifed from time to time fm all quantities of lava or pumice !lone. Monthly Re\iew, Junf', 1790. · PART I. K |
