OCR Text |
Show 8 ] Pierced with your Gi ver {hafts the throne of Night, 99 And chann' d young Nature , s openi· ng ey es with light; \Vhen LovE D rvrN:rE , with brooding wings unfurl' d, Call' d froln the rude abyfs the living world. . d d f crha()S all other bod·i eS ·Il.l N a 1u n:'• they would firfl qnickfill'er, dwmon s, an ° P . d d . of hea t. On the contrary, d I · fo .111 by 311propnatc egrecs become fluid, an t len aen 1 . • clature of the Fr~ nch . f I t ned Calonqllc 111 the new nomen this elafilc matter o Jeat, en r I' I -d . f, If ·nits combinations with fume . . . ]" ble tO become COniO l l ate It e I }\ cadetnJCians, IS Ja ' 1 . b n·blc bodies as [ulphur and cha r- . h . . t and probab y 111 com tuu bodies, as per aps Ill m re, f 1 . C to Modern philofophers h:lVe not yet be(·J1 able I See note on l 232, o t 11S an . [ ft . I co~ · . · · 1 b d·a:- . t fl uids vr modifications of the ame utl' to decide whether light and 1eat e lnCien ' 68 f I . C · to a they have many properti·e S m· common. See note on 1. 4 o t us an · l:·r,r no en L ove Dt' vm · e. 1· 101 · From having obferved the gradual evolutido n of the · 1 plant from its egg 0 r feed ; and afterwards its fucceffive a vances to voung amma or r h · · ed :I ts more pe.nr en 11.ate or maturity· philofophers of all ages 1eem to ave 1magw , L.l IL , , • f: . • that the great world itfelf had likewife its infancy and 1ts grad~al progre s to matunty , this feems to have given origin to the very antient and fubli.me alleg~ry of Eros, _or Divine Love, producing the world from the egg of Night, as 1t floated 111 Chaos. See I. 419. of this Canto. . . . The external cruft of the earth, as far as it has been expofed to our v1ew m mwes or mountains, countenances this •opinion ; fince thefe have evidently for the moll: part had their origin from the fhells of fi llies, the decompofttion of vegetables, and the recrements of other animal materials, and mull: therefore have been formed progreilively from fmall beginnings. There are likewife fome apparently ufelefs or incomplete appendages to plants and animals, which feem to fhew they have gradually undergo~e chan?e from their original fiate ; fuch as the ftamens without anthers, and fiyles :"'1thout fl:1 gmas of feveral plants, as mentioned in the note on C urcuma, Vol. I I. of tlus work. Such as the hal tcres, or rudiments of wings of fome two-winged infeets ; and the paps of male animals· thus [wi ne have four toes, but two of them are imperfcelly formed , and not lung en~ugh for ufe. T he allantoide in fome animals feems to have become exti nCt; in others is above tenfold the fize, which would feem neceffary for its purpofe. Buffon du Cochon. T . 6. p. 257 · Perhaps all the fuppofed monfirous births of Nature are remains of their habi ts of produttion in their fo rme1· lefs perfeCt fiatc, or attempts towards greater perfect ion. [ 9. ] -LET THERE BE LIGHT!" proclaim'd the ALMIGHTY LORDJ All:oniih' d Chaos heard the potent word ; Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs, And the mafs fl:arts into a million funs ; Earths round each fun with quick exploiions burfl:, And fecond planets iffue from the firfi ; 105 Through all his realms. 1. xes. Mr. Herfchel has given a very fublime and curious account of the confl:ruttion of the heavens with his difcovery of fome thoufand nebulre, or clouds of fl:ars ; many of which are much larger colleCtions of ftars, than all thofe put together, which are viflble to our naked eyes, added to thofe which form the galaxy~ or milky zone, which furrounds us. He obferves that in the vicinity of thefe cluctersof fl:ars there are proportionally fewer fiars than in other parts of the heavens, and hence he concludes, that they have attratted each other, on the fuppofition that infinite fpace was at firfl: equally fprinkled with .them; as if it had at the beginning been filled with a fluid mafs, which had coagulated. Mr. Herfchel has further !hewn, that the whole firlereal fyfiem is gradually moving round fome centre, which may be an opake mafs of matter, Philo[. Tranf. Vol. LXXIV. If all thefe Suns are moving round fome great central body~ they mufi have had a projettile force, as well as a centripetal one; and may thence be fuppofed to have emerged or been projeCted from the material, where they were produced. We can have no idea of a natural power, which could projett a Sun out of Chaos, except by comparing it to the explofions or earthquakes owing to the fudden evolution of aqueous or of other more elaflic vapours ; of the power of whkh under immeafurable degrees of heat, and compreffion, we are yet ignorant. It may be objetled, that if the fiars had been projeeted from a Chaos by explofions, they mufi have returned again into it from the known laws of gravitation; this however would not happen, if the whole of Chaos, like grains of gunpowder, was exploded at the fame time, and difperfed through infinite fpace at once, or in quick fu cceffion, in every poffible direction . . The fame obj ettion may be fiated again it the poffibility of the planets having been thrown from the fun by explofions; and the fecondary planets from the primary ones; which will be fpok en of more at large in the fecond Canto, but it the planets are fuppofed to llave been projeeted from their funs, and the fecondary from the PART I. c |