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Show [ 34 ] Bright beam' d his fcales, his eye-balls blazed with ire, And his wide nofl:rils breath' d in chanted fire. " You bid gold-leaves, in cryfl:al lantherns held, Approach attraB:ed, and recede repell'd; 346 While paper-nymphs infiinB: with motion rife, And dancing fauns the admiring Sage furprize. OR, if on wax fotne fearlefs Beauty fiand, And touch the fparkling rod with graceful hand; 350 Through her fine li1nbs the mimic lightnings dart, And Barnes innocuous eddy round her heart; 0' er her fair brow the kindling lufl:res glare, Blue rays diverging from her brifl:ling hair ; While fome fond Youth the kifs etherealflps, 355· And foft £res iffue from their meeting lips. You bid gold leaves. J. 345· Alluding to the very fenfible eleCl:rometer improved by Mr. Bennet. It confifl:s of two flips of gold-leaf fufpended from a tin cap in a glafs cylinder, which has a partial coating without, communi<;ating with the wooden pedefl:al. If a fl:ick of fealing wax be rubbed for a moment on a dry cloth, and then held in the air at the rlifiance of two or three feet from the cap of this infl:rument, the gold leaves feparate, fuch is its afl:onifhing fcnfibility to eletlric influence! (See Bennet on eletlricity, J ohnfon, Lon d.) The nen•es of fenfe of animal bodie!' do not feem to be affetlcd by lcfs ~uantities of light or heat ! [ 35 1 So round the virgin Saint in :Giver fireams The holy Halo £hoots it's arrowy beams. " You.crowd in coated jars the denfer fire, • Pierce the thin glafs, and fufe the blazjng wire ; Or dart the red flaili through t"he circling band Of youths and titnorous damfcls, hand in hand. -Starts the quick Ether through the fibre-trains Of dancing arteries, and of tingling veins, Goads each fine nerve, with new fenfation thrill' d, 3 6 5 Bends the reluB:ant litnbs with power unwill' cl ; The holy Halo. 1. 358. I believe it is not know" with certainty at what time the ·J?ainters firfl: introduced the luminous circle round the head to i_m~ort a Sai~1t. or holy perfon. It is now become a part of the fymbolic hmgu:-~gc of pa111tmg, and It 1s muc_h to be wifhcd that this kind of hieroglyphic charaCler \\'<IS more frequent in that art; as It is much wanted to render hifl:oric piClures both more intelligible, and more fublime; and why fhould not painting as well as poetry exprefs itfelf in a metaphor, or in indiftinB: allegory? A truly great mo'Oern painter lately endeavoured to e~1large the fphe~e of piCloriallanguage, by putting a demon behind the pillow of a w1cked man _o~ _hill death bee!. Which unfortunately for the fcicntific part of painting, the cold cntiCifm of the prefent day has depreciated; and thus barred perhaps the only road to the farther improvement ,jn this fcience. With new Jenfation thrill'd. I. 365. There is probably a fyftem of nerves in animal bodies for the purpofe of perceiving heat; fince the degree of this fluid is fo necerr:'lry to .health that we become prefently injured either by its accefs or defce1; and becaufe a! moll: ,e.very pact of our bodies is fupplied with branches from different pairs of nerves~ whicu F2 |