HI Mm
OX THE
BEAUTIES, HARMONIES, AND SUBLIMITIES
OF
NATURE.
Ni
ON THE
BEAUTIES, HARMONIES, AND SUBLIMITIES
OF
NATURE;
Notes, Commentaries, antr illustrations;
OCCASIONAL REMARKS ON THE LAWS, CUSTOMS, HABITS, AND
MANNERS, OF VARIOUS NATIONS.
The sounding Cataract
Haunted me like a passion ; the tall Rook,
The Mountain and the deep and gloomy Wood,
Their colours and their forms, have been to me
An appetite. WORDSWORTH.
BY CHARLES BUCKE.
AUTHOR OF " THE BOOK OF HUMAN CHARACTER/*
v
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
A NEW EDITION, GREATLY ENLARGED.
LONDON :
PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG AND SON,
73, CHEAPSIDE.
1837.
LONDON :
BRADBURY AND F.VANS, PRINTERS, WPIITEFRUIIS.
ON THE
BEAUTIES, HARMONIES, AND SUBLIMITIES
NATURE.
CHAPTER II.
ANTS.
WITH bees we may associate ANTS, so variously treated of
by Lewenhoek, Swammerdam, Linnaeus, Geoffrey de Geer,
Bonnet, Latreille, and Huber. ANTS, like bees, are divided
into males, females, and neuter ; or rather females, who,
being barren, from their sexual organs not being developed,
are labourers for the benefit of the entire community. Like
those of bees, the males and females of ants seem to have no
other duties, than just to live and to procreate. The barren
ones provide food, construct the habitations, nurture the
young, and guard the citadel.
In building they exhibit much ingenuity; every one seem
ing " to follow his own fancy." Both the male and the
female have wings ; and when the heat has arisen to a cer
tain height, they issue from their habitations, escorted by
the labourers, who offer them food during the first stage of
2 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
their emigration. Then the males and females take flight %
during which the act of fecundation is frequently performing.
When the females are impregnated, the males are left to
themselves ; and being unprovided with food, and incapable
of procuring it, they soon die of want; while the females
pursue their course to some little distance, and seek out
habitations ; where, finding themselves destitute of labourers,
they begin to work, in order to procure food for them
selves.
Those few females, which remain behind in the immediate
neighbourhood, having been impregnated in their nests, are
forcibly taken back by the labourers, who deprive them of
their wings, feed them, and attend them till they have depo
sited their eggs. Ants are totally unacquainted with the
economy of hoarding. They are almost entirely carnivorous ;
living upon other insects, and portions of other animal sub
stances ; and on the nutritious juices of gall insects and
kermes ; also on exudations from several species of the aphis,
which the labourers take home for the males and females,
that do not work. This secretion of the aphis is supposed to
be destined, not only for its own subsistence, but for that of
ants : for the aphis is always in the neighbourhood of ant
colonies; and they become torpid precisely at the same tem
perature. Some species of ants even collect the eggs of the
aphis, and bestow upon them the same care, they do upon
those of their own species. They also construct habitations
for them, at a small distance from their own nests ; where
they go to them, and rob them of their secretions, whenever
they are in want. These secretions the aphis yields with the
same willingness and docility, that sheep and cows give down
their milk.
A nts have parental and filial affections ; friendly disposi
tions and social sympathies ; and when any of the impreg-
The flights of ants are sometimes very wonderful : De Foe records one
over his. lands and neighbourhood, vol. iv. .Ml. ;?"!).
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 3
nated females die, they lick their bodies for several days, and
pay them all manner of attention, as if they thought they
could restore them to life. But to balance these moral per
fections, they wage war not only against other insects, but
small quadrupeds ; and, like bees, against communities of
their own species. Some species of ants even carry on war
for the sake of making slaves of their enemies. These ants,
whom Huber. calls Amazons, live in nests ; in which also
reside an inferior species of ant, who do for them all the
domestic services they require. At a certain season of the
year these Amazons quit their nests in great numbers, in
search of those nests, which contain that species of ant,
which they have left behind. When they find, a battle
ensues. The Amazons almost always conquer ; when they
enter the nests of those they have subdued, rob them of all
their eggs and larvae, which they take to their own habita
tions, and breed up to maturity ; when they become slaves,
as it were, to the other ants, who never work ; performing,
as before observed, every species of domestic service; viz.
that of building, nourishing the young ones, and providing
food. In one important particular these slaves are singularly
fortunate. They perform all their duties with the greatest
willingness and activity ; and appear to love their masters, as
if they were ants of their own species.
This description of the manners of ants, so curious in
itself, and so opposed to the generally-received opinion 11 , that,
like bees, they hoard up for the winter, is founded on the
patient researches of Mons. Huber b , of Geneva. In respect
to the aphis, it is curious to remark, that though females
are produced every season, males are produced only once in
ten years. Both of them are found on stems, leaves, and
Parvula magni formica laboris
Ore trahit quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo
Quern struit, baud ignara ac non incauta futuri. Hor. Sat. i. 1. 33.
b Vide Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis indigenes, par P. Huber.
Paris, 1810.
B 2
4 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
roots of trees and plants ; and the females are exceedingly
prolific. When the males arrive at full maturity, they copu
late with the females ; which copulation, as Trembley sug
gested, many years since, has been found by Bonnet a and
Richardson b to last for ten seasons. On the tenth season a
few males are produced ; and these males, copulating with
the females, lay the foundation for a new series. Gnats pro
pagate five seasons, without any communication with the
male. At the sixth they require impregnation again.
Huber conceives that ants chiefly communicate with each
other by signs and the sense of touch c . Fallow ants emi
grate in a curious manner : for they are led by a guide, w r ho
takes precedence, carrying an ant in its mouth. When it
has fixed upon a spot it likes, both ants return to the nest,
when each takes up an ant, and returns to the selected spot.
Then all four revisit the parent nest; and return in a similar
manner. So that in a short time the whole, or that part of
the nest, which purposes emigration, remove into the spot,
selected by the first guide.
a " M. Bonnet received a vine-fretter at the time of its birth, and reared it
alone. It produced young without having had any opportunity of connexion
with another of its species ; and one of the young, being sequestered in like
manner, produced a new generation ; so that Bonnet obtained no less than five
successive generations, without the aid of a male, in the short space of five
weeks. He went on, and got a seventh, and even a ninth, generation in the
course of the summer. He concluded that these successive generations were
produced in the first mother by the male, which had impregnated in autumn
the egg, from which she came forth in the following spring : for it is very
remarkable, that the vine-fretter, which is viviparous in summer, becomes
oviparous in autumn." St. Pierre, Harmonies, ii. 167.
b Vide Philo. Trans, vol. xi. art. 22.
c The younger Huber gives ants a species of language ; and he thinks that
the Aphides and Gall insects, upon which the ants depend for a considerable
portion of their food, understand the antennal language as well as themselves.
How curiously does this agree with what Origen says in his discourse against
Celsus! Lib. iv. 181.
" When they meet one another, they converse together ; hence it is they
never lose their way. They are endowed with reason in all its degrees ; they
have the use of speech, and the knowledge of accidental things."
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 5
Such are the manners of the common ant in Europe. In
Sweden ants erect structures, which Dr. Clarke esteems far
more wonderful than the pyramids of Egypt. Malouet
describes black-ant hills in Guiana twenty feet high; and
Smeathman and Vaillant white-ant hills in Africa of an equal
size. Whether these ants bear much affinity, in respect to
habits and manners, with those of Europe, a sufficient datum
has not yet been furnished to prove. But of their destruc
tive powers we have many well-authenticated accounts ; and
of these powers we may have no very inadequate idea
when we are assured, that " no anatomist can strip a skeleton
so completely as they ; and that no animal, however strong,
when they have once seized upon it, has power to resist
them a ." In Surat the Hindoos 5 frequently feed them with
flour, out of charity; placing a handful, whenever they
appear.
Upon the banks of the Amazon, SPIDERS, which are soli
tary in Europe and Asia, live in congregated societies of
several thousands. Taking possession of a tree, they unite
in forming a net entirely over it. When this net is com
pleted, they take their separate stations: each secures its
own prey without disturbance ; each labours for itself ; but
in case of damage to their net, they labour to repair it for
the general good. Don Felix d Azara first described these
remarkable insects ; and gives a lively description of their
manners, properties, and instincts c .
CORALLINA.
You, my friend, surrounded by all the luxuries of po-
a Buffon, vol. ii. 370. b Thevenot, Trav. in Indies, Part iii. p. 26.
c " In his," says Pliny, " tarn parvis tamque fere nullis quse ratio ! quanta
vis ! quam inexorabilis perfectio !"
6 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
lished life, in the midst of a circle, the chief praise of which,
in my estimation, is the esteem it entertains for you, may,
possibly, smile at the enthusiasm, I have always expressed
for ants, and that royal and illustrious insect, which fed St.
John the Baptist in the wilderness. And yet, let me remind
you of the pleasure, you derived from the picture of Domen-
ichino, which represented Samson offering the honey-comb ;
as well as of the three cars, you saw among the ruins of
Herculaneum : One drawn by a parrot, having a grasshop
per for its charioteer ; the second by Sirens ; and the third
by two bees, guided by a butterfly.
When, too, I remind you of the fine system of morals
they exhibit ; of the instances they afford of industry and
perseverance; of fidelity and obedience; of sagacity and
ingenuity ; and when I remind you, that, like the beaver, they
" build like an architect, and rule like a citizen," you will at
least not hesitate in joining with me, in admiring the great
ness and wisdom of that awful Power, whoso strength is as
conspicuously observed in the smallest, as in the most gigan
tic of his wondrous works. Those insects indicate the most
astonishing proofs of mind a ; while the genus in zoology,
known by the name of the CORALLINA, endowed, as some one
has remarked, with sensation scarcely sufficient to distinguish
them from plants, from the bottom of immeasurable seas,
elevate to the surface of the water the coral rocks of the vast
Pacific !
These insects exhibit one of the greatest miracles in Na
ture. It is one of the feeblest and most imperfect of ani
mated beings. Yet Nature avails herself of them to construct
a Huber relates, that once, when all the worker-brood was removed from a
hive, and only the male-brood left, the bees appeared in a state of extreme
despondency. They assembled in clusters upon their combs, and lost all their
activity. The queen dropt all her eggs at random ; and instead of the usual
active hum, a dead silence reigned in the hive. JCirby, i. 390.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 7
some of the most durable of her edifices a . From the bottom
of vast oceans they build rocks, extending even with the sur
face ; where, by increasing their dominion, they increase
their numbers beyond all power of calculation. Of these
insects some resemble snails ; others are like small lobsters :
they are of various shapes, sizes, and lengths ; some as fine as
thread, and several feet long. The most common are formed
like stars, with arms from four to six inches, which they move
about with great rapidity ; in order, it is supposed, to catch
food. Some are sluggish ; others exceedingly active. Some
are of -a dark colour ; some are blue ; and others of bright
yellow : those of the Mediterranean are more frequently red,
white, or vermilion. On the coast of Austral Asia, where
their numbers are prodigious, Captain Flinders b saw them
of all colours ; glowing with vivid tints of every shade ;
equalling in beauty the best flower-garden in Europe.
These insects Nature has employed to form islands, and
to build marine continents. Nature has, therefore, been
detected in one of her deeds of creation ; though the sub
stance with which the corallina forms its cell has not been
ascertained. Possibly, like the honey of the bee, and the
nest of the edible swallow, with its own calcareous secretions.
Compared with this amazing edifice,
Raised by the -weakest creatures in existence,
What are the works of intellectual man c ?
a Omnipotence wrought in them, with them, by them.
Hence what Omnipotence alone could do
Worms did.
I saw the living pile ascend,
The mausoleum of its architects,
Still dying upwards as their labours closed :
Slime the material ; but the slime was turn d
To adamant, by their petrific touch.
Frail was their frames, ephemeral their lives,
Their masonry imperishable. MONTGOMERY.
b Voy. to Terra Australis. ii. p. 88.
c Captain Kotzebue, the Russian navigator, who visited these regions during
his voyage of discovery, (1815 and 1818,) indulges in the following reflections
upon the works which he witnessed. " The spot on which I stood filled me
8 ON THE BEAUTJES, HARMONIES,
Coral ceases to grow when the worm, that forms it, is not
exposed to the washing of the sea. Coral rocks, therefore,
never exceed the highest tide ; when the tide subsides, they
appear firm and compact, exceedingly hard and rugged. But
no sooner does the water return, than these insects are observed
peeping out of holes, which were before invisible ; and their
reefs rise perpendicularly from the very bed of the ocean to
the surface a .
The nature of corals and corallines was first discovered by
Mr. Ellis. " Your discoveries," said Linnaeus, in a letter
from Upsal, to that philosopher b , " may be said to vie with
with astonishment, and I adored in silent admiration the omnipotence of God,
who had given even to these minute animals the power to construct such a
work. My thoughts were confounded, when I considered the immense series of
years that must elapse, before such an island can rise from the fathomless
abyss of the ocean, and become visible on the surface. At a future period they
will assume another shape ; all the islands will join, and form a circular slip of
earth, with a pond or lake in the circle ; and this form will again change, as
these animals continue building, till they reach the surface, and then the water
will one day vanish, and only one great island be visible. It is a strange feel
ing, to walk about on a living island, where all below is actively at work. And
to what corner of the earth can we penetrate, where human beings are not
already to be found ? In the remotest regions of the north, amidst mountains
of ice ; under the burning sun of the equator ; nay, even in the middle of the
ocean, on islands which have been formed by animals, they are met with ! "
a The coral islands of the Pacific rise from the 30th parallel of south latitude,
to 30th of north latitude. " Of the rapidity with which the coral grows, we
are not in possession of sufficient information, on which to form a correct judg
ment. Osnaburg Island is supposed to have been only a reef of rocks, when
the Matilda was wrecked there, in 1792 ; it is now an island, fourteen miles in
length, and covered on one side with tall trees, and the lagoon in the centre is
dotted with columns. The coral, therefore, has, probably, made a rapid growth
since 1792, although Captain Beechey found two anchors, of a ton weight each,
and a kedge anchor, which he supposes belonged to the Matilda, thrown upon
the sunken reef of live coral, and around these anchors the coral had made no
progress in growing, while some large shell-fish, adhering to the same rock,
were so overgrown with coral, as to have only space enough left to open about
an inch. It is probable, however, that the oxide proceeding from the anchors
may have been prejudicial, as far as its effects extended, to the coral insect, and
thus have prevented its growth. All navigators, who have visited these seas,
state that no charts or maps are of any service after a few years, owing to the
number of fresh rocks and reefs which are continually rising to the surface ; and
it is perfectly accordant with the instincts of animals, to continue working
without intermission, until their labours are consummated, or their lives are
extinct." Anon b ^ ov g ; 1759
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 9
those of Columbus. He found out America, or a new India,
in the west ; you have laid open hitherto unknown Indies in
the depths of the ocean."
VEGETABLE PROGRESSION.
MANY vegetables are so attached to climates and soils,
that, if transplanted without peculiar attention to their rela
tive economy, they die a . In this they associate with certain
animals. But when they have once become habituated to the
change, both plants and subjugated animals improve under the
care and industry of man ; sometimes even more than under
the influence of soil or climate. How much cultivation will
effect is evident from the circumstance, that (in 1820) a cow
slip grew in a garden, at Heytesbury, the stem of which rose to
the height of a foot ; and, measuring an inch round, contained
150 pips. There was, also, a beautiful auricula, growing in
May, 1821, in the garden of Mr. Tanby of Bath, having
eight distinct stalks, combined in one flat stem, completely
incorporated together ; and bearing a calyx, containing 107
petals. In a field, belonging to Mr. Oakley of Halford, near
Ludlow, a pea produced 105 pods ; and a grain of oats hav
ing accidentally fallen on a quantity of burnt clay in a field,
belonging to Mr. Juckes of Cocknage, produced 19 stems,
and the astonishing number of 2,345 grains b .
a M. Humboldt has observed, that " certain forms become more common
from the equator to the pole ; like ferns, glumacese, and rhododendrons, c.
Other forms increase from the poles to the equator ; as the rubiacese, malvaceae,
and the composite plants ; others attain their maximum in the temperate zone,
and diminish both towards the poles and the equator; as the amentacese, cru-
ciferse, and umbelliferse." A highly interesting work might be written on the
subject of in what manner the European, Asiatic, African, and American
mountains harmonize or differ in respect to their minerals, plants, insects,
reptiles, fishes, birds, and quadrupeds.
b In the year 1827, there grew on the farm of Bents, parish of Kirkmi-
chael, Dumfriesshire, a root of rye, size of a Portugal onion, from which sprung
sixty-six stalks, each provided with a well-filled head. It was allowed to ripen,
and when pulled up, the grains were counted, and found to amount to the
amazing number of four tliousand and ninety-six pickles perhaps the greatest
10 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
At the seat of Sir William Folkes, a snake-melon grew to so
large a size as to measure 8 feet 6 inches ; and near Lord Glas-
tonburyX at Shillington, there was a mushroom, the circumfer
ence of which was 2^ feet ; diameter, 10 inches ; depth, 3
inches ; stalk, 6-jL round ; and its length 6 inches. Another
mushroom was gathered near Brigg, the weight of which was
29 ounces. Mr. Martell, of Southsea, Hants, cut a cucumber,
5 feet in length ; Sir Mark Wood pulled a St. Germain pear,
which measured 16f inches by 15 ; and weighed two pounds!
Mr. Pleasance brought an apple to perfection, which weighed
one pound one ounce, measuring 12 inches; and a currant
has been reared in Cambridgeshire, the fruit of which was so
large, that a single berry weighed 61 grains ; measuring two
inches and a half. A pumpkin was seen in the shop of Mr.
Warne, Dean Street, Red Lion Square, which measured 7
feet 10 inches round; and another was grown in the garden
of Mr. Hoare of Luscombe, which measured 9 feet 3^ inches.
In the garden of the poor-house, at Heligoland, w r as a horse-
bean, having 126 pods, containing 399 good beans. The
Honourable F. G. Howard had a bunch of grapes, weighing
15 pounds; and at Hampton Court Palace, a vine in a grape-
house produced in one year 2,200 bunches of grapes, averaging
one pound each. This wonderful produce reminds us of a
tradition of St. John, recorded by Irenseus, where Christ is
made to say, " The days shall come, in which there shall be
vines, which shall have each 10,000 branches ; and every
of those branches shall have 10,000 lesser branches ; and every
of these 10,000 twigs; and every of these twigs 10,000 clus
ters of grapes ; and every one of these grapes shall yield 275
gallons of wine a ."
Many islands have lost years of strength and labour from
not sufficiently attending to the adaptation of plant to climate,
quantity ever produced from one grain of rye. Mr. Crow discovered the plant
early in the season, and many witnessed the phenomenon when growing. Anon.
a Irenseus. B. v. c. 33.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 11
soil, and phenomena. Thus, had St. Jago been planted with
indigo, the fan-palm, and other exotics, it might, probably,
have escaped the effects of many storms, to which it has been
so fatally subjected. Previous to Lord Macartney ""s visit,
little rain had fallen for three years ; and the island, rendered
almost as barren as a rock, was reduced to great privation
and distress. In the midst of this devastation, palm-trees
flourished in the sand ; indigo plants were healthy ; and the
sugar maple in perfect verdure. The Asclepias gigantea was
in luxuriant flower ; the physic nut, the Adansonia, and the
great fan-palm, also, flourished vigorously. The negligence
in this particular is the less to be excused, since, poor as this
island is in native productions, it has successfully adopted
every plant, that has been introduced into it.
The laurel and the bay a were supposed to be exempt from
injury by storms. Pliny b even says of the former, that it has
a virtuous property against the effects of pestilence and veno
mous animals. Be these as they may, it is certain, that syca
mores will grow by the sea-shore, where other trees have
failed : and it is no less certain, that camphor-trees generally
outlive the most violent hurricanes. In 1773, there was a
violent monsoon in the Isle of France, when Mr. Poiare, who
had the care of the botanic garden, observed, that though
every other tree was rooted up, a young camphor was left,
not only uninjured, but apparently untouched. This tree is
indigenous in China and Japan ; and is found in those coun
tries to be little affected either by winds or monsoons c .
VEGETABLE EMIGRATIONS.
THE first patron of vegetable importation in Europe was
a " Neyther falling sicknesse, neyther dryll infest or hurt one in that place
where a bay-tree is." Luptori s Syxt Sooke of Notable Things.
b Nat. Hist. lib. ix.
c This tree is not the Sumatra camphor- tree, which is peculiar to that island
and Borneo. It affords camphor in a concrete as well as oily state; and it is
found in crystallised masses in the fissures and cavities of the tree.
12 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Cosmo I. of Tuscany. The cork-tree, unknown in Italy in the
time of Pliny, had previously been introduced from Barbary :
but he imported a multitude of exotics from America,
Africa, and the ILevant ; from whose collection many of the
botanic gardens of European princes were afterwards enriched.
All the more valuable productions of the West Indies came
originally from the East. The olive was known in the time
of Moses round Mount Ararat : but now it is found in no
country less distant than from three to four hundred miles.
The Morea abounds in this plant. In ancient times it was
dedicated to Minerva ; because, producing oil of the best
flavour, it was esteemed an act of wisdom to preserve it not
only for domestic uses, but as a staple for exportation. In
the time of Evander it was introduced into Italy a . The
Spaniards b planted the olive in South America. They
then interdicted its culture c ; but afterwards rescinded the
regulation. They also introduced many European fruits
and plants. Labat says, that a Spaniard seldom eats
fruit in a wood, but he plants in return a stone or a pip.
The vine being planted in Chili, its seeds were abundantly
propagated by birds d . When the rose was first planted in
Peru, it shot so luxuriantly, that it would not blossom 8 .
Being, however, accidentally burnt to the ground, new shoots
sprang up and succeeded. From Peru this exotic was trans
planted to Chili, where it grows upon the hills, and flourishes
without thorns f .
M. D Ogeron planted the cocoa in the French settlement of
St. Domingo, in 1656. This had increased, in 1715, to
* Jefferson introduced it into the United States.
b Antonio de Ribera. c Brackenbridge, Voy. i. p. 263.
d For the progress of the vine from the time of Homer, see Gibbon, i. 85.
e No author, previous to Herodotus, mentions the double rose. These, with
sixty leaves, and more than common fragrance, were in the gardens of Midas,
in Macedonia. But Herodotus speaks of it as a rarity. Lib. viii.
f The prickles of the rose-plant proceed from the bark ; but thorns proceed
from the wood, as in the hawthorn.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 13
20,000, when they all perished. Being replanted, how
ever, their number amounted, in 1754, to 98,946. At
that time, there were also not less than six millions of
banana trees.
The Portuguese introduced the tobacco into Japan a . The
culture of this plant has lately been checked in China by
royal edict, on the plea, that it is not necessary to human
life. The sugar-cane was found by the Crusaders near
Tripoli b , where it was cultivated with great care. It was
afterwards planted in Madeira, whence it was carried to
the Brazils, where, for some time, it was used only as a
medicine. The quince, the apple, and the cherry, on being
taken to that country, flourished so abundantly, that entire
hedges are formed of them.
The only indigenous fruits at the Cape of Good Hope are
the wild plum, the chestnut, and the wild almond. All others
have been introduced at different times, by different persons.
The camphor tree, from the East Indies ; strawberries from
Holland ; and vines, mulberries, and peaches from France.
The last of these fruits is indigenous in Japan. From Persia
it emigrated through Asia Minor to Rhodes : and in the
time of Claudius it was first planted in Italy.
The Emperor Bauber planted the first cherry-tree c , and
Thunberg, vol. Hi. p. 85. b Albert, p. 270.
Bougainville introduced the Otaheitan cane from that island to the Isle of
France, in his return from a voyage round the world ; whence, in 1788, it was
introduced to Cayenne and Martinico. Lavayse seems to suppose, that it
might be cultivated in Europe, where the grounds could be irrigated in dry
seasons. Of the emigration of sugar-canes, vid. Journal de Pharmacie, 387.
1816. Of its transplantation into Caraccas, vid. Humboldt, Tableaux de la
Nature, i. 74. Of its introduction into the Canaries, vid. Notice sur la Culture
du Sucre, &c., par Von Buck.
d May 7, 1821, cherries were sold, by a gardener in the vicinity of London,
for 42s. a pound ; strawberries and raspberries at 2s. 6d. per ounce ; and grapes
at 18s. per pound. In 1822, cherries were sold at Sydney for ninepence a
dozen. In a few years they will, perhaps, be sold for less than ninepence a
bushel.
14 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the first sugar-cane in Caubul. The former is now par
ticularly abundant. Peter the Great introduced the vine to
Astrakhan : and the Tartars the mulberry near Olavato
Yerik ; where it bears fruit of a white, black, and pale violet
colour ; and is found growing among poplars, alders, dwarf
elms, and plane trees. Hence some travellers have supposed
it to be indigenous. Among the Caucasus wild fruit trees are
abundantly scattered among shrubs and forest trees. Indeed,
some believe the Caucasus to have been the original country
of all the plants and animals, which Europe and Asia have in
common ; since all the separate climates and soils are com
bined there a .
Hercules brought the orange into Spain b ; the Moors the
pistachio, the banana, and many other tropical plants. Indigo
was naturalised in the municipality of Lille, in the depart
ment of Vaucluse, by M. Icard de Bataglini. Jussieu
intrusted Deslieux, in 1720, with a young coffee tree, which
he planted in Martinique ; and that one plant became the
parent of all those now in the West Indies. Mons. Louis
Dupoy, a colonist of St. Domingo, introduced seeds of the
cotton plant : and near Dax they came to maturity. Baudin
brought New Zealand flax c from Norfolk Island. Cook had
previously discovered it ; and it is peculiarly valuable, since
it unites the useful qualities of both flax and hemp.
FRANCE furnished England with almost all her apples and
pears, if not with vines d . In the reign of Henry VII. apples
Harpalus, Alexander s governor of Babylon, introduced many Greek trees
and shrubs into that province ; all of which succeeded well, except the ivy,
which would not grow. Vid. Plut. in Vit. Alex.
b Some suppose that the Spaniards introduced oranges and lemons into the
new world ; but Humboldt thinks they were there before. Vid. Ess. Politique
sur I" Isle de Cuba, t. i. 68. <= Phormium texile (tenax).
d Tacitus says, in Vit. Agricol. c. 12 -.The British soil and climate were
adapted to all kinds of fruit-trees, except the olive and vine. The latter was
introduced in the reign of Probus Script. August. Hist. p. 942, The Ger
mans had no fruit-trees in the time of Tacitus.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 15
were from one to two shillings apiece ; and eight and six
pence were given for a few strawberries.
Two of the most active introducers of foreign seeds and
plants, in England, were the excellent Peter Collinson, and
Sir Joseph Banks. But even in England the adoption of
plants, till of late years, was comparatively slow a . The Jeru
salem artichoke, a native of Brazil b , has a valuable root, and
is well worthy an extensive propagation. It was introduced
to England in 1617 : and yet it is even now more known by
name than in use. In respect to pines, of those most known in
Great Britain, the Scotch alone is indigenous. The common
larch came from the Alps in ] 629 c ; and from America the
balm of Gilead in 1696; the Weymouth in 1705 ; and the
frankincense in 1736. The Aleppo came from the Levant in
1732 : the spruce from Norway ; and the silver pine from
the Alps in 1739 ; while the Jersey came from North Ame
rica even so lately as 1748. In respect to the relative value
of these woods, it is only within these few years, that the
larch has been known to be almost equal to the oak for inter
nal uses.
The lichen is, says an author, whose name we have neg-
a The number of exotics in this country, previous to the time of Elizabeth,
was 2112
Introduced in her reign 578
James I. ..... 44
William III 298
Anne 230
George I. . -. ... 182
George II. . .... . 1770
George III. . . . . 6756
Total, in 1819 . N . . . . , . 11,970
b Vid. Hortus Vindobonensis, 161.
c The two first larches ever seen in Scotland are still alive at Dunkeld, in
the park of his Grace the Duke of Athol. They were brought in two garden
flower-pots from Switzerland, and put into a greenhouse. They were afterwards
transplanted into the park. From these two patriarchs, introduced in 1738,
have sprung all the larches now in Scotland. The first fig-trees (1562) are said
to be still at Lambeth ; the first lime-trees at Dartford ; and the first mul-
berry-trees (159G) at Sion House, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland.
16 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
lected to note, " the first plant, that vegetates on naked
rocks, covering them with a kind of tapestry, and drawing its
nourishment, perhaps, chiefly from the air. After it perishes,
earth enough is left for other mosses to root themselves ; and
after some ages, a soil is produced, sufficient for the growth
of more succulent vegetables. In this manner, perhaps, the
whole earth has been gradually covered with vegetation, after
it was raised out of the primeval ocean, by subterranean fires."
This plant (the lichen) grows, I believe, in all cold countries.
It graces a thousand rocks, and gives elegance to a thousand
castles, and monastic ruins. The last time I saw it was on
the rocks of Snowdon ; and I could not behold it without
remembering lines ; not, perhaps, to be surpassed in the
entire range of British descriptive poetry. Even Lucretius
has nothing superior to them.
Where frowning Snowdou bends his dizzy brow,
O er Conway, listening to the surge below ;
Retiring LICHEN climbs the topmost stone,
And drinks the aerial solitude alone.
Bright shine the stars, unnumber d, o er her head,
And the cold moon-beams gild her flinty bed ;
While round the rifted rocks hoarse whirlwinds breathe,
And, dark with thunder, sail the clouds beneath.
DARWIN, Loves of the Plants.
Every soil would produce plants, if those, peculiar to their
natures, were planted in it. Even the white sand of Eastern
Louisiana produces cedars, pines, and ever-green oaks. The
Tartarian box-thorn will grow in soils, replete with nitre;
and sycamores among rocks on sea coasts, where most other
trees wither and perish. In the great desert of Arabia,
too, are found stalks of rosemary and lavender, shedding an
agreeable perfume over a dreary wilderness, which the wild
palm renders comparatively rich.
In Chili there are many medicinal plants which are natural
to France and Spain. Trefoil, mallows, and mint are, also,
indigenous. In many parts of that country, the fruits of
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 17
Europe flourish so well, that Frazier assures us they are in
bud, in flower, green, and ripe, at the same time. In the
Chilian deserts, white strawberries are as large as walnuts ;
and minerals have no effect whatever upon the life of vege
tables. The plant, which most impoverishes the soil in South
America, is the indigo.
One of the most fragrant shrubs of the East, one of the
most elegantly formed, too, Limonia pentaphylla, grows on
the uncultivated lands of the Coromandel coast. It flowers
all the year. " The whole plant,"" says Dr. Roxburgh 11 ,
" when lying in the shade, diffuses a pleasant fragrant scent,
which I cannot describe. The flowers are exquisitely fra
grant."
The Madhuca has very peculiar flowers. They resemble
berries, which look more like fruits than flowers. They hang
in clusters, and never expand. Their seeds are replete with
a thick oil, of the consistence of butter. The tree grows in
barren soils, and seems to destroy all the brushwood and small
trees near it. The fruit and flower are, nevertheless, of great
use to the poor ; and as it yields equally in a dry season, as
in a wet one b , it ought to be planted throughout the whole
continent of Asia.
How come Mangoes, which grow in America; grapes,
that luxuriate in Europe ; parrots, that people the woods of
Madagascar ; and green turtle, that visit the shores of the
West Indies, to be found in the isles of Condore, on the
a Plants of the Coast of Coromandel, vol. i. 59. fol.
b Mr. Hamilton, speaking of this tree in the neighbourhood of Chatra Ramga,
observes, " Notwithstanding its utility, I have never observed, nor can I find
any of my acquaintance who have ever remarked, one single tree in this neigh
bourhood, in its infant state. We can see, every where, full-grown trees in
great abundance ; but we never meet with any young plants : and we are all at a
loss to know how they came here. This sufficiently marks the character of the
lower orders in their supine indolence. As to the Zemindar, speaking to one
of that order, one day, upon the subject, he replied, It is the food of poor
people; how then should I know any thing about it ! " Asiatic Researches,
vol. i. p. 304, 305.
VOL. II. c
18 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
coast of Cochin-China 2 and why, since they have thus bor
rowed from the four quarters of the world, have these islands
not repaid the obligation, by propagating a tree they possess,
which exudes a juice, that, if boiled, becomes tar, and if boiled
long, becomes pitch ?
Many valuable trees might be introduced to this country.
Active as we have been to naturalise flowers and shrubs, for
their beauty and variety, we have been remiss in this. Had
our forefathers been equally so, we should have been destitute
of some of our best fruits, and one of our best timber trees ;
the larch. The laburnum is scarcely known, except for orna
ment : and yet so highly is it prized by cabinet-makers, that
a considerable quantity was sold at Brechin Castle a , at half-
a-guinea a foot. Many trees from Van Diemen s Land, New
Holland, and Terra del Fuego, might, doubtless, be intro
duced with advantage.
At the limits of the Arctic circle there is a breed of cows
so small, as not to be larger than sucking calves. Their milk
is almost all cream ; sweet and delicious : and so thick, that
it draws out in strings. This goodness in milk arises from
the plant on which the cows feed, viz. the lichen rangeferinus.
This lichen has a slight flavour of turpentine : it eats some
thing like a lettuce ; and its inward part resembles endive,
bleached as white as snow. It flourishes best where trees
have been conflagrated b . The rein-deer dig for it in the
snow ; it being so highly nutritive and agreeable to their
palate c , that it is both meat and drink to them. This plant
might, doubtless, be cultivated in other climates besides those
immediately in the arctic circle.
Cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs cl should be introduced to
" November 1819. Sang s Planter s Calendar, p. 91.
b Flora Lapponica, p. 332. " The grasses of regions in the Arctic Circle
retain their seeds all the winter, and furnish nourishment for birds, which
arrive upon the melting of the snow." Richardson s Suppl. to Parry s Second
Voy., p. 344. 4to. c Clarke, Scandinavia, p. 566. 4to.
d Brackenbridge, Voy. to South Americ. i. 154.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. ly
the Brazils ; and the farinaceous palm of the Nicobar Islands,
which yields a highly nutritive fruit, and weighs from 17 to
241bs., might be easily naturalized in the Caribbees and
Antilles. St. Lucia, one of the former, had, when first dis
covered, neither canes, cocoas, nor coffee -trees : but in 1772
it had 978 pieces of land in the cultivation of the cane ; 367
plots of coffee ; 1,321,600 cocoa plants ; and 5,595,889 coffee
trees.
The green orange of Arcot, unknown in Europe, and but
partially distributed in India, should be planted in every part
of that continent. But of all trees, the Mungustan a deserves
the most assiduous attention, in respect to propagation.
The fruit of this tree is acknowledged by all persons b , who
have tasted it, let their partialities and antipathies, in other
respects, be what they may, to be the most exquisite of all
fruits : and yet it has been but little propagated. Indeed,
it seems to resist almost every attempt of the kind. It was
introduced into the Isle of France in 1754 ; but with little
success. It was brought from Bantam to Java ; and
hence it has been particularly known and described. It bears
fruit and blossoms at the same time. The fruit is round ;
purple ; resting in a green calyx ; and its top bears a corona.
Its flavour has a little sweetness, with a mixture of acid : and
it melts in the mouth like whipped cream.
If some plants ought to be largely propagated for their
uses, others ought to be so for their beauty. In India, there
are several flowers, that should be cultivated in every prac
ticable region of the earth. Of these may be distinguished the
Pichula, and the Camalata. The former blossoms during the
rainy season ; and, with the Asclepias winding round it, forms
one of the most lovely botanical pictures in all India. The
latter is so beautiful in its colour and form, and has a scent
a Garcinia Mangostana.
b Dampier, Voy. vol. iii. 124. Crawford, Hist. Ind. Archipel. vol. i. 417.
c 2
20 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
so exquisite, that the eastern poets fable it to have scented
paradise. The same compliment should be paid to the
Alimucta a , the Capitt ha b , the D urva c , and the Cusa d .
The cocoa tree of Brazil droops when planted in a rich
soil. The red star flower, one of the finest of African
plants, grows luxuriantly among rocks and sand e ; and
Scandinavian moss, which is scarcely susceptible of being
burnt, grows frequently even on stones. The Bread-fruit tree,
once introduced in a favourable soil and climate, springs up so
abundantly from roots of old ones, that it is not only never
This was the favourite plant of Sacontala, which she very justly called the
delight of the woods ; for the beauty and fragrance of its flowers give it a
title to all the praises, which Ca lidas and Jayadeva bestow upon it. It is a
gigantic climber ; but when it meets with nothing to grasp, it assumes the form
of a sturdy tree, the highest branches of which display, however, in the air,
their natural flexibility and inclination to climb Asiatic Researches,vol. iv. 291 .
b Of this plant Sir William Jones says, " I cannot help mentioning a singular
fact, which may indeed have been purely accidental : not a single flower, out of
hundreds examined by me, had both perfect germs, and anthers visibly fertile ;
while others, on the same tree, and at the same time, had their anthers pro
fusely covered with pollen, but scarce any styles, and germs to all appearance
abortive."
c The flowers of this plant, in their perfect state, are among the loveliest
objects in the vegetable world, and appear through a lens like minute rubies and
emeralds in a constant motion from the least breath of air. It is the sweetest
and most nutritious pasture for cattle ; and its usefulness, added to its beauty,
induced the Hindus, in their ages, to believe that it was the mansion of a
benevolent nymph. Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 252.
d Every law-book, and almost every poem in Sanschrit, are said to contain
allusions to this plant.
e Many plants have the greater virtue from the want of fluidical nourishment.
There is a vine, producing in Persia what is called the Royal Grape. It is of
a gold-colour; transparent ; and about the size of an olive. Chardin. It makes
the best wine in that country ; aud yet it is never watered : and it grows only
upon the young branches.
Few annual roots possess medicinal properties ; and it is curious, that the
most effective of drugs are natives of hot countries. Some plants in arid soils
have apparently sterile branches, with green leaves. The stems are brittle and
dried up ; but their leaves imbibe moisture from the dews at night. The pal-
lassia has for its appropriate soil loose and drifted sand. It grows in Peru.
Molina. And is known in some parts of Russia. Pallas.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 21
planted in Otaheite, but requires weeding, as it were. The
Pimento, on the other hand, seems to mock all the labours
of man to extend, or even to improve its growth.
The best mode of introducing tropical plants into more
temperate climates, is to transplant them by degrees : so
that the grandchild of an original plant may live and flourish,
where the mother would have languished, and the grand
mother have died. With this view, the Marquis de Vil-
lanueva del Prado formed a botanical establishment at
Teneriffe, in order to habituate the plants of Lower Africa,
New Holland, Mexico, and other tropical regions, to the
cooler temperature of the south of Europe. Suit the plant to
the soil, rather than the soil to the plant, should be the motto
of every husbandman : but the botanist must vary his
methods as circumstances require.
M. Lavayse formed the plan of introducing tropical plants
to the South of Europe, by planting them first in the Azores
or Canaries ; whence, after a few years, they might be trans
planted to Italy, Sicily, and Spain. Duchesme raised plants
with a view of ascertaining their primitive species ; and
Volney, in his observations on the climate and soil of the
United States, informs us, that, foreseeing the consequences
of. the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the French West
India Islands, he conceived the plan of introducing some of
the products of the Tropics into Corsica ; the soil and climate
of which he conceived to be adapted for the successful culture
of the orange, the date, cotton, coffee, and sugar-cane. With
this view he cultivated the Domain of Confina, near Ajaccio ;
but the subsequent troubles of the Island, the ambition of
Paoli, and its possession by England induced him to sell his
estate ; and it passing into the hands of Cardinal Fesch, the
experiment was abandoned.
An English Gardener manages to have good fruit at St.
Petersburg, notwithstanding the hardest winter ; and this he
manages by training his trees so near the ground, that during
22 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the whole winter they are covered with snow. Even the
deserts of Africa might be gradually brought under the
empire of man, where he to plant detached portions of them
with roots of the long creeping vegetables, which are found
here and there in those regions.
Some plants are common to equinoctial Asia, Africa, and
America : others only to equinoctial America and Africa ;
some only to equinoctial Africa and India; some only to
America and Asia ; and others only to America and Africa a :
while others are equally common to Europe and New Holland.
To account for these singularities would perhaps be an
impossible labour ; but it may present no unprofitable result
to the imagination, if we collect and contrast a few of these
remarkable phenomena. The lily root, so common in Europe,
is found in Newfoundland, the north-west coast of America,
and in Kamschatka, as well as in the warmer parts of south
ern Asia. Heath, on the other hand, is not only unknown
in the European latitudes of America, but throughout the
whole of that continent ; a circumstance the more remark
able, since it is common in the opposite peninsula of Kams
chatka. The papyrus, scarcely known except in Egypt, in
Sicily, on the Congo, and in Madagascar, has never taken
root on the opposite coasts : and of the thirteen species of
African palm, the alfonsia oleifera is the only one, that has
yet been discovered in America. And here we may allude to
a very remarkable circumstance : The cusso-tree does not
extend beyond the limits of a disorder, which the leaves seem
expressly intended to cure ; viz. that arising from the worms,
to which the natives of Abyssinia are peculiarly subject.
The blue-berried honeysuckle of Switzerland, Austria, and
a Humboldt, in a paper submitted to the French Institute, says, that " the
oak, pines, yevrs, ranunculi, &c. of the Peruvian and Mexican Andes have
nearly the same physiognomy with the species of the same genera of North
America, Siberia, and Europe. But all alpine plants of the Cordilleras differ
specifically from the analogous species of the temperate zone of the old
continent."
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 23
Siberia is found in some of the American islands ; and the
Pyrenean honeysuckle, introduced to England (1739) from
the garden of the Due d Ayen, at St. Germains, is not only a
native of the Pyrenees, but of Canada. The rhododendron is
also found on the top of the Andes ; as well as on the Cau
casus. On the Alps it grows so luxuriantly as sometimes to
smother the grass. The Greenland saxifrage is found in Ice
land, among the Pyrenees, and La Perouse a discovered it on
a mountain of the Pacific, 1600 toises above the sea.
The Pallasia Halimifolia grows in Russia, and it is known
also in Peru. In North America is found the lilium superbum
of Japan ; and in a glen near Hudson s Bay b , auriculas, with
leaves of a fine green, and flowers of purple. They have, how
ever, no mealiness; but in other respects they differ little
from those of Switzerland and Norway c . Labradore, which
exhibits, in the midst of its winds and storms, many fine
scenes of natural grandeur, has mosses, equal to any in point
of beauty seen in any other quarter of the world : and there,
also, grow wild currants, gooseberries, cranberries d , and the
raspberries and strawberries of Europe.
The mountains of Spitzbergen, however barren they may
appear in the distance, afford moss, and other small plants,
such as poppies, scurvy grass, and ranunculi e . The spurred
violet f , though not a native of Britain, is indigenous in Ice
land and in Switzerland ; and yet Iceland plants are almost
all British. In what manner could this violet become indi
genous in Iceland, when Britain, lying between the two
countries, knows it only as a guest ?
a Hooker, ii. 323.
b M Keevor s Voy. p. 69. c Integrifolia. Flora Danica. 188.
d Chappel s Newfoundland and Labradore, 138.
e The same as in Lapland. " Caule unifolio et unifloro, foliis tripartitis."
Flora Lapponica. Ranunculi, taken at Spitzbergen, and subject to pressure
between paper and boards, during the voyage, vegetated in that position, and
were living, when opened in England in the month of December See Parry s
Narrative. Append, p. 208. 4to. f Viola calcarata.
24 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Among the rocks of Sweden wild roses and geraniums add
interest and splendour to one of the finest cataracts in that
country a ; while the elegant pyrola uniflora, having a
fragrance equal to that of the lily of the valley, blossoms
not only in Sweden and the Hebrides, but in the south of
France, and north of Italy. In Sweden, too, grows the
rare plant, cypripedium bulbosum b , which is a native of
North America. It is seen in no part of Europe but near
Kiemi ; and to that town the professors of Upsal c send for
specimens. Near Christiana the salix herbacea grows ; but
so diminutively, that Dr. Clarke compressed twenty of them
into two pages of a duodecimo volume. It is the smallest of
trees.
How came ranunculi to grow on an island in the Polar
regions, at the mouth of Waygafs Strait, where there are
no species of vegetation but moss, sorrel, and scurvy grass ?
Whence does it arise, that the paper mulberry is found in
the island of Lefooga, and in scarcely any other of the Paci
fic islands ? Why is not the nutmeg, so abundant in the
Malaccas, found in the other Indian islands ? Why is
the tea-tree, which grows so abundantly in Java and its
dependent islands to the east, denied to Sumatra and the
peninsula of Malabar ? And why is the anana of Hindustan,
the flavour of which seems to be compounded of sugar,
strawberries, claret, and rose-water, and therefore so pecu
liarly worthy of transplantation, almost entirely confined to
that country ?
The Portuguese introduced the papaw into the Malay
Islands 1 , and yet they have neglected to introduce many
fruits into Portugal, which would flourish as well in that
country as in any of their tropical settlements.
The Alfonsia has a large trunk, but its height is only six
a Kaardisen nivas. Clarke, Scandinavia, p. 324.
b Acerbi, p. :<J. 4to. c Clarke, p. 476. 4to.
d Rumphius, Herb. Amboin. i. p. 147.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 25
feet ; it produces, however, sometimes not less than 600,000
flowers at the same time. The Adansonia tree is found in
Senegal. It is forty feet in circumference. " Stripped of its
foliage," says Mollien% "it resembles an immense wooden
tower. This majestic mass is the only monument of anti
quity to be met with in Africa."
The soil, climate, and cultivation of Africa, and its
islands, present many curious vegetable phenomena. Pine
apples, long supposed to be foreign to that continent,
were found by Tuckey on the plains, where Europeans had
never previously been. At the mouth of the Gambia, Park
saw the orange and banana of the West Indies : and yet
not a single indigenous species, or any of the principal genera
of plants, at St. Helena, are found in any part of the coast
of Congo. Nor does the vegetation of that coast bear any
resemblance to that of more Southern Africa; while the
plants of Egypt and Abyssinia bear as little affinity to those
of the Gambia, the Formosa, and the Senegal.
Chief of the plants, hitherto discovered on the Congo, are
found to exist in the equinoctial parts of New Holland ; in
Van Diemen s Land ; the South of Europe ; and the North
of Africa b . Some few, however, there are, which have else
where been found only in Equinoctial America. The best
plants on this coast are natives of other continents. From
Asia c came the orange, the cane, the tamarind, and the
plantain : from America the capsicum, the maize, the papaw,
the tobacco, the cassava, and the pine-apple. Some plants,
however, as the begoniacse, are found in the Isles of France,
Bourbon, Johanna, and Madagascar; and yet no research d
has discovered them on the neighbouring continent ; nor are
there any of the laurinse e , though they are found in Tene-
a Trav. in Africa, p. 41. 4to.
b Tuckey, p. 423. 4to. c Ibid. 469. cl A.D. 1818.
e Brown s Observations on Prof. Smith s Collection from Congo. Tuckey,
p. 464. Appendix. 4to.
26 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
riffe and Madeira. All this may be regarded as being very
extraordinary.
The maize and the pine-apple, the papaw and the tobacco
of Africa, are said to have come originally from America ;
and the tamarind and sugar-cane from Asia. But in what
manner they were introduced no probable conjecture has
been formed. The Cinnamon, too, is very remarkable in its
emigrations. This tree is found in Ceylon, Malabar, Suma
tra, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Caubul, Borneo, Timor, the
Loo-choo Archipelago, Floris, Tobago, and the Philippine
Islands. It grows, also, in the Isles of Bourbon and Mau
ritius ; in the Brazils ; the Sichelle Islands ; Jamaica and
Guadaloupe. In 1772 it was introduced from the Isle of
France into Guiana ; and since that time into the Antilles.
Now it is not very difficult to account for the appearance of
this tree in so many longitudes ; since, besides those, in which
man is known to have had a share, birds might propagate its
seed into some regions ; and the tides might navigate its
roots, and even its trunk, to the shores of others. But why
has heath been denied to the western continents ? For, with
the exception of a dwarf species found in Baffin s Bay, it is
totally unknown, as a native, in both. We shall be told, by
some botanists, that there is no soil adapted for its culture ;
and by some naturalists, that there is no animal to feed upon
its leaves. The traveller, however, will inform us, that
there is, in America, not only the very climate, but the soil,
in which it is accustomed to vegetate ; and abundance of
animals, that would delight in its herbage.
European science has searched the civilized world ; but
only a small portion of savage plants, if so they may be
called, are yet known ; for even the numerous species, grow
ing in the new world, examined by Bonpland a and Huniboldt,
a Vide Nova Genera et Species Plantarum, quas in peregrinatione orbis novi
collegerunt. Amat. Bonpland et Alex, de Humboldt, 1815. Parisiis.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 27
form but a small portion of the vegetable wealth of that
magnificent continent.
The coasts of New South Wales have yet been but super
ficially explored: the interior still less. But its vegetable
wealth may, in some measure, be conceived from the circum
stance, that it affords even to a superficial survey twelve spe
cies of the pultenea ; fourteen of the eucalyptus ; seventeen
of the hakea ; twenty-one of the banksia ; and thirty-one of
the melaleuca. While the Cape of Good Hope affords not
only forty-nine species of aloe, and fifty-five of the oxalis ;
but seventy-four of the protea ; and not less than 304 species
of heath.
In 1763, Linnseus reckoned 7,500 species of plants. In
1784, Murray, 9,000. In 1806, Person, 27,000. In 1809,
there were reckoned 44,000. In 1816, M. Decandolle sup
posed them to amount to 50,000 : and as Spain, Dalma-
tia, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, the north-west coast of Ame
rica, the centre of Africa, New Holland, Thibet, China,
Cochin China, and other countries have been but imper
fectly examined, he supposes the number to exceed even
100,000.
Humboldt calculated vegetables at 44,000: of which 6,000
are without sexual organs: in Europe 7,000 ; in Africa 3,000 ;
in New Holland and the South Sea Islands 5000 ; in the
temperate zone of Asia 1500 ; in the torrid zone of Asia
4500; in the two temperate zones of America 4000; and in
the torrid zone of that continent 13,000. Here are very
curious results. In New Holland, almost unpeopled, and
the South-Sea Islands, evidently of a comparatively recent
formation, we find nearly as many species of plants as there
are in all Europe ; more than in all Africa, and nearly as
many as in all Asia. How strikingly do the celebrated lines
of Gray recur to our imagination !
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its fragrance on the desert air.
28 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
And not incurious is it to observe the vast profusion of
vegetable beings, that receive life and sustenance in the tor
rid zone of America. We may extend our surprise, too,
to the curious circumstance, that in Lapland there are so
many species of rare plants, that when Linnseus visited that
country, he was struck with astonishment. The plant, which
grows highest in Lapland is the umblicated lyclien ; and the
only bird, which flies over it, is the Emberiza rivalis
(the Snow-bunting).
Some plants are exceedingly scarce; and others are known
only in particular places. The sea- weed, fucus ramentaceus,
is found scarcely any where but in Iceland ; though the waves
might waft it from one pole to another. Schomberg found in
Caffraria a species of spotted ixia a , which bears a cluster of
green flowers, something like an ear of corn. Dr. Reynhaut,
of Elmina Castle, found in the Aqiiapun country a new spe
cies of aloe, of which the natives make thread : a citron
with indented leaves : and a tree of a new genus, bearing
flowers like tulips. He found also many unknown trees and
shrubs ; and he expresses a belief, that not one twentieth of
the native plants are to be found in any other part of the
African coast.
Pallas discovered a nondescript daffodil, having broad
leaves, winged capsules, and a plurality of flowers, on the top
of the mountainous ridge near Arsagar. Dr. Davy saw a
tree, of the rhododendron genus, upon the peak of Adam,
which is seen in no other part of the world. Upon the high
mountains of. the Caraccas, also, grows an extremely scarce
and magnificent plant. It was named after the German poet,
Freyherr Von der Luke. It is esteemed sacred ; and no one
is permitted to take even a specimen of it. The Malabar
camphor-tree b is found only in the islands of Borneo and
Sumatra ; and Rumphius e observed, that those trees, which
a Maculata.
b Dryobalanops camphora. Crawford s Indian Archipelago, vol. i. 516.
r Herbarium Amboinense, torn. ii. p. 6<>.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 29
yield cassia, cinnamon, and clove bark, are seldom, if ever,
found in the same countries.
Logwood is a native of the East and West Indies ; but it
grows no where so abundantly as in the Bay of Campeachy.
The mahogany-tree, also, though entirely unknown to the
ancients, is a native of the two Indian hemispheres. There
are two species ; the mahogani, and the febrifuga a ; the
former peculiar to the West ; the latter to the East : and
it would be difficult to ascertain with precision, which is the
parent ; though probability assigns that honour to the for
mer.
The introduction of wheat into New Spain is traced to
three or four grains, which a negro servant of Cortez picked
out among the stores of rice, that had been sent from Europe,
for subsisting the troops : and the monks of Quito still pre
serve, as a precious relic, the earthen jar, in which Father
Rixi of Ghent, gathered the first crop, from a spot of ground
cleared away in front of the convent.
In Mexico there is a tree, the flower of which, before it has
expanded, resembles the closed hand of a monkey ; when
unfolded, the open hand. From this circumstance it derived
its name of chiranthodeadron. Not long since there existed
only one specimen of this tree in the known world. It grows,
and has flourished, for many ages, in Toluca, a city of Mexico;
where it is esteemed sacred ; and whither persons travel from
great distances in order to procure its flowers. This tree has
been fully described by Larretequi, a Mexican physician,
whose work, written in Spanish, has been translated into
French by Mons. Lescallier. Previous to the year 1787 this
was the only tree of its genus known to be in existence : but
some botanists having visited Toluca in that year, they took
slips, and planted them in the royal garden in Mexico, where
one of them took root, and had grown in 1804 to the height
of forty-five feet. Humboldt and his friend Bonpland visited
* Roxburgh s Plants of the Coast of Coromandel, 17.
30 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the parent tree. They knew of no other but that in Mexico ;
yet from some indistinct accounts, they thought it probable,
that it might exist in some of the distant provinces of that
country.
If you inquire of a naturalist, why the turnip of Sweden
should be indigenous to that country, he will answer, " because
it is peculiarly adapted to the climate and the soil." If you
inquire of him, why it was not originally planted by Nature
on the continent of New South Wales, he will reply, " the
soil is too arid and the climate too intense." But if you
inquire of the cultivator of this very plant, at New South
Wales, where it has recently been introduced, whether the
seed has sprung up and prospered, he will inform you, that it
has not only sprung up, but that its top grows to the height
of six feet a ; and that its root has even arrived to the weight
of thirty pounds. Thus we find, that some plants improve by
being transplanted to a country and climate, which would
appear to be naturally and decidedly unfitted for them.
It is curious, that New South Wales should be so abun
dant in native vegetative beings ; and Van Diemen^s Land,
its neighbour, so indigent of them. This island is so healthy
that, at Hobart s town, sixteen months have been known to
pass away without a single funeral. It has streams and
extensive tracts, free from timber ; exotic corn and fruits
flourish abundantly ; and yet not one native edible fruit or
vegetable has been ever found in it b .
* Sydney Gazette, April, 1816.
b Since this was written a very remarkable discovery has been made.
"During the year 1834, 100,215 quarters of wheat were imported into this
country from Van Diemen s Land, being, with one exception, the largest quan
tity imported from any one country. Within these few months an indigenous
species of wheat is stated to have been discovered. Of this discovery the fol
lowing account has been given in the local papers : " Mr. Foster, of the
Macquarie River, has recently completed a tour of the northern and eastern
coast of the island, exploring the several rivers from fifteen to twenty miles up
their stream. What we look upon as the most interesting result of the journey
is the discovery of an indigenous species of wheat, which grows in various parts
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 31
In that part of New Holland, which has been recently
colonized, viz. the Swan River department, has been found a
curious plant, no where else, I believe, known. The flower
of it, when warmed by the rays of the sun, gives out a smoke,
similar to that, exhaled by persons, who smoke. When the
discoverer first saw it at a distance, he was greatly alarmed ;
for he thought he had fallen into an ambuscade of savages.
In Nootka Sound, Cook saw wild rose-bushes, rasp-berries,
straw -berries, and wild gooseberries ; all natives of Europe :
and though so common in South Africa, yet it would be, as
I have before said, in vain to search through the whole conti
nent of America for a heath ; and not only not the rock-
rose, which blossoms for a day, and has its leaves of so many
different figures and shades, and petals of so many opposite
colours; but not a single native rose tree has been found
in the whole of South America*. Nor is there a native honey
suckle in all Africa ; though both the European rose and the
American jasmine flourish on the Congo.
Shall we now return to our own country ? The great
round-headed garlick b grows wild only in one spot in Great
Britain : viz. the Flat-Holmes, in the British Channel ; and
Cornish lovage c is said to be found in no part of the world
but Cornwall.
It is curious to observe how distant the various species of
the same genus vegetate from each other. A few instances
near the coast to the north of St. Patrick s Head. It was unfortunately only in
bloom when Mr. Foster saw it, and no ripe grains could be found from which
it could be propagated, which, however, will, we hope, be the case by some
future traveller, who may visit that part of the country when the grain is ripe.
As this is the first of the cereal order of plants that has been found in Van
Diemen s Land, its discovery is well deserving a place in the annals of the
colony. Unlike the common sorts of wheat, it seems to delight in poor soils,
growing luxuriantly in banks of sand and shells."
* The Jesuits describe the Paramo de las Rosas in South America, as being
covered not only with rosemary but with the red and white roses of Europe.
Humboldt describes them as of the species Rosa centifolia ; but he is diffident in
respect to them. Vid. Per. Na rrative, iii. 487. iv. 248.
b Allium ampeloprasum. c Liquoticum Cornubiense.
32 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
will sufficiently illustrate this reflection. There are fourteen
species of the psoralea at the Cape ; one at Madeira ; one in
Peru ; one in Italy ; and one in the Levant. Of the eighteen
species of elichrysum, only one vegetates in New Holland ;
but of the starwort there are four ; seven at the Cape ; one
among the Alps ; one in Mount Caucasus ; one respectively
in France, Italy, and China ; and not less than fifty-nine in
America. Of the mesembryanthemum it is equally curious
to observe, that, while one species has been found in Greece,
and three in New Holland, only one should have been found
peculiar to the North of Africa (Egypt) ; while there are no
less than 170 peculiar to the South.
Some plants will naturalize in a primitive manner ; that is,
without culture; only in peculiar temperatures. But the
lopezia, the scarlet-flowered justicia, the pellucid pepper-plant,
the tuberous commelina, and the purple shrub nycterum, indi
genous to Mexico, will no more grow in Siberia, than the
lily-leaved bell-flower, and the creeping gypsophila of Siberia,
will blossom at the Cape. The auricula of the Alps, and the
rose-bay of Mount Caucasus, are never seen among the Andes
or Corderillas ; any more than the crenated convolvulus, the
trailing cherry, and the golden pancratium of Peru, are wit
nessed in Kamschatka.
POISONOUS PLANTS.
IN respect to poisonous plants. These vegetables emigrate
with great difficulty. It has been asserted, that no animal
will eat food, that, in its natural state, is injurious to it.
Instinct, they say, if not disrelish, will teach the animal to
avoid it. In Europe, however, we see frequent intances to the
contrary. In Africa the fact is still more evident ; for the
cattle, north of the Cape, are extremely partial to the
Amaryllis disticha, which almost infallibly kills them. With
the bulb of this plant the Bushmen poison their arrows.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. .
There, also, is a plant, called the Euphorbia, which is of such
a poisonous nature, that if some branches are thrown into the
fountains, where the animals on the Orange River drink, it
has so powerful an effect upon them, that they die in less than
an hour afterwards. It is succulent, and grows to the height
of fifteen feet. With this plant, also, the Hottentots poison
their arrows ; its juice being mixed up with a species of
caterpillar, that grows upon another plant. It is curious that
the flesh of those animals, which die of this poison, is not in
the smallest degree injured.
In Java there are several vegetable poisons. From the
sap of the Oopas is prepared a substance, equal to the strong
est animal poisons. There have been many fables relative to
this tree. That it exists is certain ; but shrubs and plants
grow round it ; and no barrenness is observed in its neigh
bourhood. When it is felled, there is, certainly, an effluvia
from its juices, which mix with the atmosphere, and produce
cutaneous eruptions ; but the Dutch account is fabulous a .
The most poisonous of all trees, however, is the Tshettik of
the same island. It is far more fatal in its effects than the
oopas b . It grows in deep black mould, in the midst of almost
inaccessible forests. Neither of these trees have found an
opportunity of propagating out of their own island c .
EMIGRATION OF ANIMALS. ,
I
IT has often been a subject for surprise, in what manner
noxious plants and animals have been transported from one
a Vid. Transact, of Lit. and Philosoph. Society of Batavia, vol. vii. Also
Raffles Hist. Java, vol. i. p. 43.
b Horsefield, Batavian Lit. and Phil. Transact, vol. vii.
c Pontoppidan says, " Near Rostal is a flat and naked field, on which no
vegetable will grow. The soil is almost white, with grey stripes, and has some
what of so peculiarly poisonous a nature, that though all other animals may safely
pass over it, a goat or a kid no sooner sets his foot upon it, than it drops down,
stretches out its legs, its tongue hangs out of its mouth, and it expires ; if it hath
not instant help." Nat. Hist. Norway, 16.
VOL. II. D
34" ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
country to another ; not only distant by land ; but separated
by vast oceans.
The man of war bird soars in the air like a kite, to
which it is similar in shape though not in colour ; having
a black body with a red neck. Its eye is so keen, that
it can see fish on the surface of the ocean ; it descends ; and
after seizing its prey, without scarcely touching the water
with its bill, mounts as swiftly as it had descended.
This bird can traverse the ocean from island to island ;
because it can not only fly, but maintain itself upon its
voyage. The same observation applies to the petrel. This
bird, named after St. Peter, because though it is actually
upon the wing, it seems to walk upon the water, transports
itself from one end of the ocean to the other. It has long
legs ; is about the size of a swallow ; spouts oil from its
nostrils ; and mostly forebodes a tempest. It is seen in
almost every sea ; alike insensible to the heat of the tropics,
and the rigour of the poles. But whence does it arise, that
the house and garden spider of Europe, an insect unknown
in Ireland, is yet found in the Loo-choo Islands ? These
insects are enabled by their circular membrane to walk upon
walls and roofs ; and the latter has the power of suspending
itself from tree to tree, and across ; but it has no power of
flight, as many other insects have.
The isle of Amsterdam has neither insects nor reptiles :
but this may be accounted for by the circumstance, that it
has neither cold springs nor rivers a .
This island is about 2,000 miles from shore, and lies midway between New
Holland and Madagascar. It is eight square miles in surface. Zeolite, obsi
dian, and pumice are seen in every part of the coast. There is not one qua
druped, nor one land-bird ; and, if we except flies, not one visible insect.
There are mosses, sow-thistles, garden parsley, procumbent pearlwort ; poly
pody, spleen wort, and a few other plants : and what is extremely curious,. they
are all British. The gardeners of the Lion, on their voyage to China, planted
potatoes here. Annn.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 35
The boa constrictor is not only known in Ceylon, but in
Java; and yet it is not amphibious. By what means could
this animal find its way to islands so distant ! This is the
more surprising, when we consider that the rattlesnake of
America is unknown in the same latitudes in other countries :
where the vapours they emit and spread around them, and
which affect animals in such a curious manner, would, in those
climates, equally assist them in their plans of subsistence.
Among the Hottentots, too, there is a snake, belted with
black, red, and yellow colours, which, when seen in the night,
becomes luminous and looks like fire. This animal would
embellish the midnight landscapes of Austral Asia ; and yet
it is not there to be found.
That crocodiles should be found to exist in Egypt, in
America, in Java, and many parts of the East, may be
accounted for, since they are amphibious ; but why is the
shawl goat, so useful and so numerous north of the Himaylah
mountains, known in no other country than in Tartary ?
Near the lake of Manasanawara they are used by the natives
as beasts of burden. When laden, they will climb the most
difficult places without hesitation ; but they are timid, when
descending steep precipices ; they are short-legged, and of a
compact form; and even over abrupt roads will travel five
cos a a day. This animal would be exceedingly useful in other
mountainous countries, as well as in those, behind the empire
of Nepaul b .
In the island of Pangesani c are thick forests of palms, in
which are a great number of squirrels : and in Nutmeg Island
are a vast multitude of glow-worms, and spiders of different
forms and colours. Here, too, are large evergreens, the roots
of which are buried in calcareous stones ; several species of
" Vid, Moorcroft s Journey in Little Thibet Asiat. Researches, vol. xii.
b It has been lately introduced into France.
c D Entrecasteux s Voyage in Search of La Perouse, vol. ii. p. 316.
n 2
36 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the fig-tree ; the beautiful Barringtonia speciosa ; mosses ;
ferns ; and many parasitical plants : uniting as it were, by
its productions, Europe to Asia ; and Africa to America.
On the coast of California are found the most beautiful
univalve shells in the world. Their lustre is even superior to
mother of pearl ; appearing through a transparent varnish of
livid blue, like lapis-lazuli. There are, also, fine shells found
on the Papua and Molucca Islands. Off the coast of New
Guinea some are found a 258 pounds in weight ; and on that
of Celebes are cockles so large, that they afford an ample meal
for the satisfaction of seven or eight men. Thus, though
poisonous and destructive animals and plants find means to
emigrate to countries, thousands of miles apart b , shells and
cockles like those, we have alluded to, beautiful and useful as
they are, are unknown to islands even in their own immediate
neighbourhoods.
Though Tobago has the vegetable productions of Trinidad,
it has not all its birds or quadrupeds ; and what is still more
curious, there are several birds of the American continent in
Tobago, unknown in Trinidad, which is many leagues nearer
the continent : and though many of those birds have been
carried to Trinidad, none have multiplied.
That pacos and lamas should not be found north of the
Line, though the Cordilleras of the north have the same climate
and temperature as those of the south, is not to be wondered
at, since the herbage c , on which they feed, is nowhere to be
found north of the Line. The wonder would be, that the
same herbage is not found in the same description of climate,
did we not reflect, that though the atmosphere may have the
a Vid. Dampier, vol. iii. part iii. p. lOfi. Vol. i. p. 449.
b The Falkland Islands, for instance, were originally peopled with Antarctic
foxes, by their being accidentally conveyed thither, from the extreme coast of
South America, on islands of ice, broken from the mainland, and driven thither
by the winds and currents.
c Called Yeho and Xarava. Present State of Peru, 4to. 1805. p. 50.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 73
same temperature, the soils of the two regions may be, and
are, doubtless, of a very different quality.
On the coast of Guinea, asses a are found much larger than
horses. In no other country are they so. The Dongola b
horses, on the same continent, are, on the contrary, the most
perfect in the world ; being beautiful and symmetrical in their
parts ; nervous and elastic in their movements ; and docile
and affectionate in their manners. One of these horses
was sold, in 1816, at Grand Cairo, for a sum equivalent to a
thousand pounds.
The coast of Guinea is remarkable for its animals : among
which are porcupines, wild boars, jackals, tigers, elephants,
crocodiles, large snakes, and ants of a prodigious size. There
were, also, at one time, not less than 100,000 apes of different
species. Now, in the midst of all these powerful enemies, it
is natural to suppose, that the most helpless of all animals
could have no power of security or existence ; and yet the
Sloth has not only the power of living, but of propagating c .
On some parts of this coast, too, Nature seems to have
inverted her plan, by making men woolly and sheep hairy.
On the Tartarian side of the Himaylah range she has, also,
clothed the cow with an undercoat of wool or fur, as fine and
as soft as that of beavers.
The camelopard is not seen out of Africa : neither is the
humming bird witnessed out of America ; though some report
it is to be seen in Java. Why has Nature denied these
beautiful animals to other countries of the same latitude ?
In one of the Philippine islands are an incredible number
of bats ; so large that their wings extend from six to seven
feet from tip to tip. In the evening, as soon as the sun has
set, vast numbers of them collect like bees, and direct their
course to Mindanao. They return regularly every morning.
Bosman, p. 228. ed. 1721. b In Nubia.
c Since this was written Mr. Waterton has given a very different character of
this animal. According to his account, its name appears a complete misnomer.
38 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
As these bats are seen in few other places, we should almost
be tempted to suppose, that Nature had resolved upon sig
nalizing these islands with some of the most curious of her
caprices ; as she has, by the formation of so many unique
animals, on the continent of New Holland.
The first parrot, ever seen in Europe, was brought from
Ceylon by Alexander s admiral, Onesicritus. The Romans
afterwards obtained them from an island of the Nile ; and in
the time of the earlier emperors, they were kept in cages of
shells, ivory, and silver. The ash-coloured parrot, now so
common in Jamaica, and parts of America, went originally
from Guinea. The blue-headed parrakeet, which sleeps with
its head downwards, was carried from Sumatra and Malacca
to the Philippine islands ; but it would be impossible to state,
in what manner it went to Otaheite. The slave ships of
Senegal, however, introduced the rose-ringed species into
Guadaloupe, Martinico, and St. Domingo. Lories, wherever
they are found, were originally deported from New Guinea,
or the Moluccas. The noira lory, called for its beauty " the
brilliant," was with great difficulty made to sustain a voyage
from Java to Amsterdam ; the white-headed Amazon, so com
mon in Mexico, will not naturalize even in Guinea ; the mai-
pouri, occupying the chain between parrakeets and popin
jays, rejects every kind of food, when caught ; and will con
sent to try no climate but its own.
It was observed by Barentz, when he and his compa
nions passed the winter on the western side of Ice-haven,
that when the sun left them the bears left them too ; and
were succeeded by wild foxes ; and that when the sun reap
peared, the foxes fled, and the bears returned.
The Scythian ANTELOPE migrates, every autumn, from the
northern to the southern deserts ; and returns in the spring.
The springer antelope migrates in small herds, from the
interior of Africa to the neighbourhood of the Cape. There
they remain for about two months : when they return in bodies
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. -59
to the amount of many thousands. When rain has not fallen
for two or three years, they travel through Caffraria, and
destroy the chief of the vegetation : but lions, hysenas, and
panthers, destroy them in return a .
Lapland MARMOTS travel, once or twice in twenty years,
from the mountainous parts of Lapland and Norway, in large
bodies ; destroying all the grain and vegetables in their way ;
and, being deterred neither by water nor by fire, travel with
their young either in their mouths, or upon their backs, till
ruin overtakes them. None ever return ; for they are either
drowned, killed by the inhabitants of the districts, through
which they migrate, or eaten by foxes, lynxes, ermines, and
other animals. Wild asses, also, collect in autumn to the
east and north of the lake of Aral, in thousands ; and thence
effect a gradual retreat into the northern parts of Persia and
India.
Monkeys, apes, elephants, camels, and tigers, are not able,
generally, to propagate out of their natural latitudes ; nor
have the Mamelukes of the Caucasus power to propa
gate in Egypt ; nor will Egyptian plants propagate in Tar-
tary. In hot countries, we are told, animals are more
wild, more dreadful, bolder, and more ferocious, than in tem
perate ones : yet in America, Nature, under the same sun,
seems to have relaxed from the severity of this discipline.
Remarkable for the majesty of its vegetable forms, the New
World not only presents to an European a new climate, but
new flowers and plants ; new fossils, shells, and fishes ; and
new reptiles, insects, and zoophytes. It exhibits, also, in the
southern latitudes, not only new birds and quadrupeds, but a
a In 1822, a pair of Wapati, a nondescript species of elk, were discovered in
the interior of North America, and were exhibited in London in the latter part
of that year. Their size was that of a small horse. They were very gentle,
received food even from visiters, and were, at that time, breaking in for the
saddle and harness. The Indians of the Upper Missouri domesticate them, and
they draw sledges at the rate of twenty miles an hour ; and their flesh is said to
be delicious venison.
40 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
new firmament. Another pole presents itself; and shadows
point to the south. Cassiopeia, the Bear, the Pleiades, and
the northern constellations, are no longer witnessed at night ;
and the soul sinks, as it were, at one time, and is elevated at
another, in the contemplation of the power and magnificence
of the SOVEREIGN CHANGER OF THINGS.
It is curious, that when sheep were introduced to Van
Diemens Land, they acquired remarkable fertility. They
bred twice a year, and, for the most part, had twins : In
consequence of which, a few sheep had multiplied, seventeen
years after their introduction, to the number of 127,883. In
1818, there were, also, in this island 264 horses; and 15,356
horned cattle. But to show how little mere climate has to
do, in respect to the increase, we may observe, that ewes in
Lapland have frequently twins twice a year ; and goats con
stantly two kids, and often three at a birth.
Captain Cook left a buck and a doe, with two rabbits, in
Mooa ; a bull and cow, a Cape ram, and two ewes, with a
horse and mare, in Tongataboo ; and various domestic
animals in Otaheiteand other islands *. Captains Vancouver,
Wilson, and other navigators, have followed the exam
ple: in a few years, therefore, islands, which have a tro
pical vegetation, will abound in animals from the temperate
zone.
The Spaniards have done great service to the western
world in this manner. They introduced dogs, swine, horses,
and horned cattle into St. Domingo, which, after extermi
nating the original inhabitants, they permitted to run wild in
the woods and savannahs. They performed the same service
for Chili. In that country horses became so numerous, that
in Molina s time they sold for only four shillings a head ; and
in 1798 there were exported from Buenos Apres not less than
When Vancouver visited Otaheite, he found that most of the herbs, plants,
and animals, left by Capt. Cook, were destroyed during the wars, that had
taken place in that island : vol. i. 98. 4to.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 41
43,752 skins of horses, and 874,593 untanned hides. Horned
cattle have not improved in Chili, or the Brazils ; but the
horses are equal to the finest breeds of Europe. Mules are
larger and more handsome ; and swine more prolific, though
not so large.
The horse originally is a native of Asia a . Led in a domestic
state into these vast regions, they have resumed the wild
habits and manners of their forefathers ; but are subject to
evils, to which those ancestors were strangers. In the season
of heat, they are tormented by musketoes and gadflies by
day ; and in the night by large bats, which leave holes in
their skins for insects to deposit their eggs. During the
season of inundations, when the savannahs become lakes, they
are seen running about in all directions, as if they were fran
tic ; surrounded by manatees, water-serpents, and crocodiles.
Upon the subsiding of the waters, however, the earth becomes
enriched with an odoriferous herbage ; and they enjoy, till the
season of heat returns, the sweets of existence in large herds.
British horses were so much admired by the Romans,
that they imported great numbers of them, for the pur
pose of recruiting their cavalry. Of late years the horse,
the ox, and the sheep have been much improved, both in
size and symmetry, by crossing the respective breeds. The
art of improving stock was carried to a curious height by the
ancient natives of Spain and Egypt ; who, depending much
upon the efficacy of association, placed the handsomest oxen
before their cows, when in conception. In modern Greece,
where cows are not milked, many farmers entertain the same
ideal impressions. In Britain, however, to such an extent
has the art of breeding been carried, that 400 guineas have
not unfrequently been given for a bull ; and 100 guineas for
the use of a ram for only one season.
In Chili, too, are the hare and otter, with many varieties
of European fowls, as well as in Peru, Mexico, and the
" Humboldt.
42 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
South Sea Islands. Chili is happy in having no wolves, or
tigers ; even the lion is harmless ; and men sleep in the
forests in perfect security a : there being no poisonous reptile
of any sort b ; nor any wasps, or musketoes.
The rat was introduced to America by a ship from Ant
werp ; and the first cat was presented to Almagro d by
Montenegro, who received for the present no less than 600
pieces.
Some writers have asserted, that all animals degenerate in
America. This idea has arisen chiefly from the unphiloso-
phical rage for generalization, which prevailed so exten
sively, some years since ; and which still partially remains
to the discomfiture of true science. So far from this having
been the case in Chili 6 , all European animals, as before
observed, have increased in size rather than diminished :
particularly horses, asses, sheep, and goats. Ewes, indeed,
have lost their horns ; but rams have acquired four ; and not
unfrequently six.
There are many animals of Asia and America, which it
would be wise to introduce into the south of Europe. A
French writer recommends to this adoption the fowls of Cha-
tigaon ; the Cashmirian sheep ; the musk deer of Thibet ;
the bulls of Berar ; many kinds of birds, and several species
of fish. The Indian camel would, assuredly, flourish in
Italy f , Sicily, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. It is true, the
camel of the deserts can only be of use in level countries ;
since " uphill or downhill is equally the earners curse :" but
the camels of Dera have a more various capacity of move
ment, and ascend hills with little comparative difficulty.
Of all Asia, the country most resembling Europe, is Af-
Molina, i. 34. <> Ulloa, iii. part ii. c Wallis.
d Herera, dec. v. c. 9. The cat is not mentioned by Aristotle ; it is probable,
therefore, that cats were unknown in Greece at the time, in which that eminent
naturalist wrote. c Molina, i. 267.
{ In Pisa there is a breed of camels, said to have been introduced at the time
of the Crusades.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 48
ghaunistaun. There is nearly the same general climate, simi
lar animals, and a similar vegetation ; most of our best
fruits ; and not a few of our most common, as well as of our
most beautiful, flowers. These are mixed with turtles, tor
toises, and plantains, with other instances of Asiatic zoology
and vegetation. Adelung assigns the table-land of Thibet as
the birth-place of the human race ; since vines, pulse, rice,
barley, and all other plants, which man requires, grow
there ; and since it is the region, where all the domestic
animals are found wild; as the dog, cat, pig, ass, horse,
cow, sheep, goat, and camel.
Among the rocky mountains of North America is an ani
mal, called the Rocky Mountain Sheep a , an intermediate
genus between the goat and the antelope. It has fine white
wool ; and ought to be introduced into Great Britain. The
gazelle, too, might embellish several districts of Spain and
Italy. Mild, intelligent, active, and familiar with man, " the
little four -eyed stag," (as the Ceylonese call it, from its having
two marks under the eyes,) might feed on herbs and flowers,
and milk and honey, to all which it is particularly par
tial, from the hands of Spanish and Italian beauty ; and
reward their attention with one look from its large, brilliant,
fascinating eyes.
An attempt has lately been made to people the desert
mountains of Stavanger with domestic rein-deer. In the
winter of 1818, an inhabitant of that district purchased 200
in Sweden and Russia Lapland ; some of which were of the
white Siberian breed. The want of snow induced him to
leave all his snow-shoes, furs, utensils, and tents, in Aamadt;
and he killed more than twenty on the journey for food and
beverage. They passed through Christiana on the 1st of
" Professor Pallas says, the sheep is the result of intermixtures of the Siberian
Argali, the Sardinian Monflon, the panseng, or goat of Persia ; the bouquetin of
the Alps, and the Caucasian sheep. He extracts the dog from the jackal, wolf,
and fox.
44 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
January, and arrived at their place of destination in perfect
safety a .
Some animals are better protected, and increase more by
being under the guardianship of man, than they would do, if
left entirely to themselves. Hence the large flocks of bus
tards, that are seen in Chili, where they are frequently
domesticated ; and hence the decrease of the black cock in
Wales and Scotland ; an animal which flies from cultivation,
and prefers the birch forests of Lapland, Siberia, Finland,
and some parts of Norway. They are decreasing every year.
This rule, however, does not invariably apply ; for though
redbreasts and wrens in Europe, blue pigeons at Mecca, and
storks in Germany, Greece, and Africa, are piously protected,
we do not find, that they increase to any very considerable
extent. On the rivers of Iceland are seen large flocks of
swans b ; in some parts of America an immense number of turtle
doves c ; while in Upper Canada d , and in the state of Ohio,
are beheld so vast a multitude of wild pigeons, that Wilson,
the celebrated Ornithologist, calculated that he saw in one
day a flock, containing not less than 2,230,000,000.
Some animals are found in distant latitudes ; and not in
their intermediate spaces. Thus in Kodjak e , of the Northern
Archipelago, are found beautifully speckled mice ; the same
animal is found 300 leagues distant; and in no part of the
intermediate countries : and the mountain sheep (argali) of
Kamschatka, in the same manner, is known in Europe only
in Corsica and Sardinia. The dog of the arctic regions, visited
a In 1821, Mr. Bullock brought some rein-deer to England. They all died
but two. For a curious instance of their docility and obedience, see New
Monthly Mag. Oct. 1821, p. 506. Rein-deer were introduced into Iceland in
1770, from Norway, by Governor Thodal. Hooker, i. 107. Capt. Parry found
them in Melville Island. A strange epidemic prevailed among them in the
north of Sweden in 1823-4. A letter from Stockholm states, that as soon as
they were attacked, they ran at full speed, till they met a running stream, into
which they plunged. In this manner more than 3,000 perished.
b Hooker, i. 273. c La Hontau, i. 62. d Howison s Sketches.
c Stsehlin s Russian Discoveries, p. 34.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 45
by Captain Ross, neither growled nor barked ; its anger
being signified simply by the erection of its hair. The
same peculiarities marked those of New South Wales, which
were presented to Mrs. Lascelles and the Marchioness of
Salisbury.
The barby-roussa, though found in a small island % near
Amboyna, is not found on the continents of either Africa or
Asia ; a circumstance the more remarkable, since, when
hunted, it takes to the sea ; and swims from one island
to another. Some animals are confined to particular latitudes.
Thus the sea-wolf, with teeth so sharp and strong, that it
leaves marks of its bite even upon anchors, seems to be con
fined to the arctic and the higher latitudes of the temperate
zones : but, the phocus is occasionally seen in the Medi
terranean : and from this animal, probably, the ancients
conceived their notions, relative to Syrens and Tritons.
DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS.
MEN, in all civilized countries, offer rewards for the destruc
tion of wild beasts. They are, indeed, considered as outlaws
in every country.
Wolves were known in Scotland, even so late as 1577, to
be greatly destructive to the flocks. Sir Ewen Cameron
killed the last wolf in that country in 1 680 : and as Ossian
nowhere alludes to the wolf, an argument has thence been
drawn to prove that the poems, published under his name,
are not genuine b . Edgar, king of England, enjoined Lud-
wall, king of Wales, to pay a tribute of 300 wolves every
year ; but they were common in England in the time of
a Bouro.
b They were once so prevalent in Scotland, that every baron was obliged
to hunt the wolf four times a year, attended by all his tenants ; and every
sheriff had three great wolf-huntings every year also. Black Acts. Jac. I.
ch. 115.
46 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Athelstan ; and very numerous, till within the last two
centuries, in Ireland.
In the time of Solon, five drachms were given for a male
wolf, and one drachm for a female. In Russia they are still
numerous ; as may be seen from an account of the number
of animals, which they destroyed in 1823 a . In Lapland and
Sweden wolves have, of late years, very much increased.
Sixty years since they were scarce. Now the forests are
infested with them.
But discretion must be used in the destruction of rapacious
animals ; lest, in ridding ourselves of one evil, we entail upon
ourselves a greater. Rooks, for many years, were regarded
as nuisances to farmers ; they are now esteemed beneficial,
from the grubs, which they destroy. The Pennsylvanian
blackbird feeding on maize, the farmers destroyed them in
great numbers. The worms, on which they fed, multiplied,
in consequence, so abundantly, that they became immeasura
bly more destructive, than the birds. The birds, therefore,
soon returned into favour.
All quadrupeds, that cannot be tamed for human use, will
one day be extinct. The eagerness, with which they fly from
the progress of man, is fully instanced in the back settlements
of America. The Ohio country, not many years since, con
tained only a few savages, and a multitude of wild animals.
Now (1 837) it has a multitude of inhabitants ; and, as a
natural consequence, few wild animals b .
* This account was published by authority. Horses, 1,841 ; foals, 1,243 ;
horned cattle, 1,807; calves, 733; sheep, 15,182; lambs, 726; goats, 2,545;
kids, 183 ; swine, 4190 ; sucking pigs, 812 ; dogs, 703 ; geese, 673.
b Schoolcraft says, that the Indian considers the forest as his own. A letter
from Berkshire, in America, gives an account of a week s hunt. There were
killed 2 rabbits, 4 owls, 6 foxes, 6 partridges, 49 hawks, 115 grey squirrels,
137 ground hogs, 170 crows, 623 red squirrels, 710 pigeons, and 3,191 striped
squirrels. Squirrels were so numerous in Ohio, in 1822, that they thronged
even the streets and the house-tops of the villages, and consumed vast quanti
ties of corn.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 47
In tropical islands (except those in the immediate neigh
bourhood of continents), there are neither lions, leopards,
tigers, nor elephants a . Lions were more frequent in ancient
than in modern times : and they infested countries, to which
they are now total strangers. For even as lately as the
times of Herodotus and Aristotle, they not only infested
Thrace and Macedon, but Thessaly : and Pausanias b assures
us, that when Xerxes went into Greece, the camels, which
carried the provender, suffered greatly by them : and it
could have been no easy service to eradicate these animals
from the recesses of Pindus, Othrys, Ossa, and Olympus .
That they were even in Argolis is evident, from the institu
tion of the Molorchean games. Lions were not uncommon in
Palestine, in the time of Samson, and Joshua, and David :
and Godfrey of Boulogne d , even so lately as the time of the
Crusades, destroyed one near Antioch. The lions of Asia,
where the population is great, are less ferocious, and more
obsequious to men, than in the interior of Africa, where the
population is small. The presence of man alters the charac
ters, and awes the propensities of animals.
Sylla exhibited a hundred lions ; Csesar four hundred ; and
Pompey no less than from five hundred and fifty to six
hundred.
Neither is the hippopotamus so numerous as in ancient
times. In respect to panthers ; Coelius wrote to Cicero, to
send some from Cilicia, for the public games. " There are
no panthers in Cilicia," answered Cicero ; " these animals,
in their vexation to find, that they were the only objects of
war, while every thing else was at peace, fled into Caria V"
Elephants were used by the Greeks for the first time by Alexander. Ivory
was known, and even in use ; but the Greeks never saw an elephant till the
Macedonians passed over into Asia. At least, such is the assertion of Pausa
nias. Vid. lib. i. c. 12.
b Lib. vi. c. 5. c Euripides describes lions in Cithseron Bacchse.
d William of Malmesbury, p. 448.
e Plut. in Vit. Cic. This passage is very remarkable, inasmuch as the style
is exactly that, which prevailed at the revival of letters. Poggio Bracciolini
seems to be writing, rather than Cicero.
4 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
The egrel was formerly common in Britain ; it is now sup
posed to be confined to Asia, and some parts of South Ame
rica. The lanner, a species of falcon, is now so scarce, that
a naturalist must almost voyage to Sweden, Iceland, or Tar-
tary, before he can procure a living specimen for description.
The condor, once known in Lapland, Russia, Germany, and
Switzerland, is known now only in Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and
some of the South Sea Islands ; in Madagascar and in Sene
gal. The bustard is common in Chili ; but it will, at no
very distant period, be entirely unknown in Europe. Its
numbers are decreasing every year. That Cook should have
found them and hawks in an island near Statenland is not
remarkable ; but, that he should have found the turkey, is
much to be wondered at.
Beasts of prey hide themselves in forests ; serpents in
deserts. Both had once a far more extensive range than
at present. Nor does the strength of lions, panthers, or
eagles, avail them much : for they have little or no courage ;
and will never attack superior force, unless impelled by irri
tation or want. In the early historical eras of Nineveh and
Babylon, beasts were so numerous, that to hunt them with
success was to acquire the most valuable species of distinc
tion a . Nimrod founded his authority on this species of war
fare ; and Odenathus was much celebrated for his skill in
hunting the lions, bears, and panthers of the desert. Lions
are still frequent on the western shore of the Tigris ; but
they are never seen on the Persian side of that river ; nor on
the Chaldean side of the Euphrates b .
Amyclse, in Laconia, was, at one time, so much infested
with serpents, that the inhabitants were compelled to aban
don not only their houses, but their lands. The island of
Ophiusa (Fermentera) derived its name from the number of
Guarini seems to have remembered this, for one of the best passages in his
" Pastor Fido " is that, where a chorus of shepherds and hunters celebrate the
fame of Sylvio for his success against a wild boar, which had ravaged the
country. A. iv. s. 6.
b Vid. Parson s Trav. in Asia and Africa, p. 145. 4to , 1808.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 4y
its serpents. It is only forty or fifty miles from Majorca,
and yet is still uninhabited.
Wholly unmolested, serpents grew to a prodigious size,
and once existed in vast numbers : but the march of civilisa
tion has abridged their food, their numbers, and their growth.
Even the Molucca serpent was not unknown in the higher
parts of Asia. Pliny mentions one, that was three-and-thirty
feet in length ; and another, that had the capacity of swallow
ing an entire stag : while the allegory of Apollo and the
Python seems to favour the supposition, that it was at one
time not unknown even in Greece,
A man may encounter a lion with success : but numbers are
required to subdue serpents of such vast dimensions. For,
before a serpent all the faculties of the human soul are sus
pended : even the most ferocious of quadrupeds bend before
them in agonies of horror.
That wild bulls existed in England is evident, from there
having been six of those animals served up a at the installation
feast of Nevil, Archbishop of York. Hollingshed says b , the
Romans preferred the British cattle to those of Liguria : but
he has not stated his authority. It is certain, however, that
they are praised by Pomponius Mela c : and Hector Boethius
relates, that in his time there was in Scotland a wild race of
cattle, of a milk-white colour, with manes like lions, These
are extinct.
In some ancient countries d , it was capital to kill an ox foi
food ; it being esteemed so useful an animal : while in modern
Hindostan, to exact labour from a bullock when it is hungry,
thirsty, or fatigued ; or to oblige it to labour out of season, is
to incur a fine of two hundred and fifty e puns of cowries.
Previous to the Norman conquest, every freeholder f had a
right to hunt and destroy wild animals, except in royal
Leland, Collectanea, vi. b Descript. Br. 107. c Lib. iii. c. 6.
ri jElian. Var. Hist. lib. xii. c. 34. e Code of Gentoo Laws, p. 299, 4to,
f Leges Edw. Confess, c. 36.
VOL. II, E
50 ON THE BEAUTIES. HARMONIES,
forests. This right was acknowledged, also, in Scandinavia a .
By an edict of William the First, however, all bucks, does,
hares, rabbits, martins, foxes, partridges, rails, and quails,
became the property of the sovereign : also mallards, herons,
pheasants, woodcocks, and swans. The right of killing these
animals was, however, frequently delegated to others, who
had chases, parks, and free warrcr.fi. The exclusive right of
fishing in public rivers, too, once belonged to all those
monarchs in Europe, whose authority was founded on the
feudal system.
The right of fishing in England was first granted in the
reign of King John ; and it was still further extended in
those of Henry the Third, and Richard the First. The laws,
respecting animals, have been modified from time to time ;
but they are still in many points exceedingly oppressive, and
a never-failing source of altercation and disquiet. That a
possessor of land should have no property in the animal, he
feeds, is surely an anomaly in the science of legislation ! In
England, where game is preserved with so much care,
expense, litigation, and angry feeling, privileged birds are com
paratively scarce ; whereas in Bohemia, where the peasantry
are less restricted, they are very abundant.
Whether the elephant was ever known in America was, for
some time, a subject of reasonable doubt ; the fossil bones,
dug up in Peru and the Brazils, being in too imperfect a state
of preservation for the comparative anatomist decidedly to
identify them with the bones of the elephant of Africa and
Asia. But whatever may be the fact, certain it is, that since
Europe has succeeded in planting America with exotic seeds,
* Stiernhook de Jure Sueon. lib. ii. c. 8. In a sporting party of the Emperor
Francis the First, in 1755, there were killed, in the space of eighteen days,
10 foxes, 19 stags, 77 roebucks, and 18,243 hares; 114 larks, 353 quails,
9,499 pheasants, and 19,54.5 partridges. Dutens. There were twenty-three
persons of the party, three of whom were ladies ; and the number of shots fired
were 116,209 ; of which the emperor fired 9,798, and the Princess Charlotte of
Lorrain 9,010.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 51
and in peopling it with exotic animals, it would be one of the
best returns, that Spain and Portugal could make for past
frauds, pillages, and murders, were they to introduce the
elephant and the camel into such points of soil and latitude
as would ensure the ultimate naturalisation of animals, still
more useful in tropical countries, than even the lama or the
pacos.
In the time of Polybius a , there were no wild animals in
Corsica. In that island the cattle, which grazed in the
woods, quitted them at the call of the shepherd ; and even
swine were trained to such obedience, that they would sepa
rate from any drove, which they chanced to mingle with, at
the sound of a horn. In the Isle of Cyprus b , deer, wild
boars, roebucks, and a beautiful species of pheasant, were
once extremely abundant. They are now nowhere to be seen
in that island. The white pelican formerly inhabited Russia ;
and the flamingo, once familiar to the shores of Europe, are
now seldom seen, except in America. That black swans were
formerly seen in Europe or Asia, is evident from a line in
Ovid, declaring their unfrequency : for had he never heard of
one, he would no more have thought of mentioning a black
swan, than a yellow nightingale.
The Canary c Islands derived their ancient name from the
multitude of their dogs : and the Spaniards d named the
Azores from the number of their hawks. Both animals are
now greatly diminished in those islands.
Grouse are not so common in Europe as formerly : and the
cock of the wood seldom delights the sportsman, even in the
Highlands of Scotland.
The beaver was known in Wales during the reign of Howel
Dha ; but, that it was even then rare, may be inferred from
its skin being valued at a hundred-and-twenty pence. This
* Lib. xii. extr. i. b Mariti. vol. i. 26. c Plin. lib. vi. c, 32,
d A. D. 1450.
V 2
52 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
animal was once known in Italy, Egypt, and Persia ; bnt it is
now almost every where extirpated, except in Canada a .
Eagles were once frequent inhabitants of Snowdon and
Cader Idris. On the latter it is now never seen ; and on the
former not once in twenty years. Deer, too, were so nume
rous in the forests of Snowdonia, that they wore extirpated by
royal authority, for the injury they (lid to the trees and corn.
Goats, too, are become scarce in that country b .
The opossum, once common in Antigua, is now almost
extinct in that island ; and the sable is no longer known in
Sweden as it was in the time of Jornandes, nor is the time far
distant, perhaps, when every animal, that bears fur, will be
extinct on the eastern sides of the rocky mountains of North
America. Bears, wolves, foxes, stags, weasels, and bush-cats,
are said to be the only animals, that strictly belong to the
two continents of America and Africa ; while the hare, fox,
bear, wolf, elk, and roebuck, are equal inhabitants of the
northern parts of America, Europe, and Asia. Buffon has
observed, that not one animal is common to the torrid zone of
the old and new continents ; and M. Latreille and M. Cuvier
assert, that no quadruped, no terrestrial bird, no reptile, and
no insect, are common to the equatorial regions of the two
" Beavers are known in the canton of Valois ; but they, as well as Chamois,
are diminishing every year. The stag was an inhabitant of the canton of
Berne; but the race was extirpated during the Swiss Revolution in 1797-8.
b Greece was almost depopulated of goats, in consequence of the number
sacrificed by Callimachus, Polemarch of Athens, who would sacrifice as many
he-goats as were slain of Persians during the invasion of Attica ; and, there
not being sufficient, the Athenians sacrificed five hundred every year, for many
years.
c It is very remarkable that Pliny should assert, that no bears were ever
seen in Africa. "There are a number of authorities against him," says the
Scholiast, " particularly that of Herodotus, who says, of Libya, They have
also lions among them, and elephants and bears. And Solinus observes, that
the Numidian bears excel others in beauty Nurnidici ursi forma cceteris
prcestant ; " which seems to be the reason why Virgil dresses Acestes in the fur
of a Libyan bear."
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 53
worlds. This can be allowed, however, only with exceptions.
It is true the king of vultures and the armadillo are peculiar to
Southern America ; and the zebra is equally unknown out of
Africa, where it is seen to frequent districts, so widely apart
as Congo, Ethiopia, and the neighbourhood of the Cape. It
is true, also, that the antelope is a stranger in America, and
that the humming bird has never been seen in Africa ; but
the Bush-cat of Whyda is the Agousti of Brazil ; and the
plaintive note of Whip-poor-will charms the wanderer on the
banks of the Congo, as well as on those of the Oronoko. The
Tapir was also supposed to be confined to the new world;
but a new species of it was discovered in 1819, in Malacca,
and the forests of the Malay Peninsula. It is also said to be
a native of Sumatra; but exceedingly scarce a .
OF FABULOUS AND EXTINCT ANIMALS.
IN New Holland and New South Wales there are some
animals entirely peculiar. It is true, the water-mole is known
there ; and eels, herons, widgeons, plovers, and pigeons :
quails, wild turkeys, bustards, and pelicans. But they have
all distinguishing characteristics. In the interior, there is a
species of pigeon, seen no where else. On its head it wears a
black plume ; the back part of its head is of a flesh colour ; its
wings are streaked with black ; the breast is fawn-coloured ;
its eyes are red ; and its downy feathers golden, edged with
white. In that country, too, is the black swan b , and the
ornithorynchus paradoxus, the male of which has spurs like a
It is described in Asiatic Researches, vol. xiii. p. 418, 4to. The rump,
back, belly, sides, and tips of the ears, are white ; every other part black.
b In the Museum of Natural History at Paris, is a specimen of a swan having
a black neck and white body. It was sent from Brazil by Mous. Hilaire. The
black swan is now familiarised to the European naturalist. I once saw a
curious battle between a black swan, and two white ones which had attacked it,
in the Regent s Park : they killed it Oct. 1827. For an account of this battle ,
see Arcana of Science, 1828, p. 98.
/>4 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
cock. It is oviparous ; but it belongs, strictly, neither to the
class of birds, beasts, nor fishes.
A few observations may be now introduced, relative to
fabulous and extinct animals. Of the former are the cen
taur a , the minotaur, the phoanix b , the griffin c , the pegasus,
* Pliny believed in the existence of this monster.- (Nat. Hist. vii. c. 3.) He
eays he actually saw one embalmed in honey. And another is said to have been
found on a mountain in Arabia, which the king sent to Csesar, vrhen in Egypt.
It died from change of climate. Csesar had it embalmed ; and it was sent to
Rome and exhibited.
b The earliest account of the phoenix is given by Herodotus ; and this has
been copied by Pliny, Tacitus, Pomponius Mela, Mariana, and other writers :
among the rest our old English writer, Bartholomew Glantville, (as translated
by Trevisor, and printed in black letter by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1498) says :
" St. Ambrose, in Exameron, sayth : of the humoure or ashes of feenix ariseth a
newe byrde and wexeth, and, in space of tyme, he is clothed with fethers and
wyngis, and restored into the kind of a byrde, and is the most fairest byrde
that is most like to the pecock in fethers, and loveth wilderness, and gadereth
his meate of cleane greenes and fruites. Alanus speketh of this byrde, and
saith, that whan the hyghest byshop Onyas had buylded a temple in the citie
of Helyopolys in Egypt, to the lykeness of the temple of Jherusalem, and the
fyrste daye of Easter, whaune he hadde gathered moch sweete smellyng wood,
and sette it on fyre uppon the altar to offer sacrifyce, to all mennes syghte
suche a byrde came sodaynely, and fell into the myddel of the fyre and was
brente anone to ashes in the fyre of the sacrifyce ; and the ashes abode there,
and was besely kept and saved by the commandemente of the preeste ; and
within three dayes, of these ashes was bred a lyttel worme, that took the shape
of a byrde atte the laste, and flew into the wyldernesse."
c Alluded to by JJschylus in his tragedy of Prometheus :
Thus the gryphins,
Those dumb and ravenous dogs of Jove, avoid
The Arimaspian troops, whose frowning foreheads
Glare with one blazing eye.
Thus described by Servius : " Gryphes autem, genus ferarum^ in hyperboreis
nasciturmontibus. Omni parte, leonesunt, aliis, et facie, aquilis similes, A polloni
consecrati." This animal was supposed to have been generated between a lion
and an eagle. Some have affirmed, that the dromedary was originally the offspring
of a hog and a camel. Anciently it was supposed, that the leopard sprang
from a lion and a panther ; the quacha from an ass and a zebra ; the came-
lopard from a panther and a leopard, or a leopard and a camel. An origin,
equally illegitimate, has been attributed to the lama, since it unites the sheep,
the hog, the camel, and the stag. The ichthyosaurus, or fish-lizard of ancient
times, is described as having had " the snout of a porpoise, the teeth of a cro-
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. J5
the chimaera, and other monsters engraved upon the monu
ments of Egypt, and on the temples of Persia 3 , India,
Ethiopia, Arabia, and many parts of China, Japan, Mexico,
and Peru b . Of the latter we may, in the first instance,
allude to the behemoth, the leviathan, the flying serpent, the
roc, and the unicorn.
The existence of these has been doubted for many ages ;
yet surely with no sufficient reason. The behemoth c was,
doubtless, a species of hippopotamos ; and the leviathan d a
codile, the head of a lizard, the vertebrae of a fish, and the breast-bone of that
paradoxical animal of New Holland, the Ornithorhynchus."
The plesio-saurus, also, is described as having had a lizard s head, with cro
codile teeth, set on a serpent-like or rather swan-like neck of great length (the
vertebrae being about thirty-three), a trunk and tail with the proportions of
those of an ordinary quadruped, the ribs of a cameleon, and the paddles of a
whale.
What a mass of fable would have descended to us, had the ancients known
the bonassus of the Apalachian mountains ! This animal has horns resem
bling those of an antelope ; the head and eye of an elephant ; the beard of a
goat ; the foreparts of a bison ; the hind parts of a lion. It has a flowing mane ;
is cloven-footed ; and chews the cud. It is active, strong, and savage ; but it is
said to emit no sound, even when irritated. The Mahometans believe, that one
of the great signs of the last day will be the appearance upon earth of a beast,
composed of various others : the head of a bull, the eyes of a hog, the ears of
an elephant, &c.
Ducks have certainly been known to be impregnated by toads. There are
two instances on record. One as occurring at Thome s Lane, nearWakefield ;
and another at a village near Grantham. Vid. Literary Panorama, 180 7, p. 1083.
a As the martichore ; having the tail of a scorpion, the body of a lion, and
the head of a wren.
b Imaginary animals are not undreamt of in the Highlands of Scotland. Of
these one of the most remarkable is the water-bull. Dr. Maccullough thus
describes it : " This animal is supposed to reside in several of the lakes, in
Loch Rannoch and Loch Awe, for example ; combining powers and properties,
worthy of the pen of Spenser. He is occasionally angled for with a sheep, made
fast to a cable, secured round an oak ; but as yet no tackle has been found
sufficiently strong to hold him." Descr. West. Islands of Scot. vol. ii. p. 185.
c Job xl. v. 15.
d Job xli. v. 1 Some have supposed the leviathan to be the great sea-ser
pent. Isaiah says, that " the Lord shall punish leviathan, that piercing serpent,
even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon, that is in
the sea." Ch. xxvii. v. 1. The sea-serpent has been seen on the coast of Nor
way, on that of Coll, among the Orkney Islands, and on the coagt of North
56 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
crocodile whale a . That flying serpents once existed there
surely can be little doubt, since they are mentioned by
Isaiah b , Pliny, and Marcellinus : while Herodotus expressly
states, that he saw the bones of winged serpents on a plain in
Africa ; and Aristotle, in his first book of Animals, speaks
of them as existing in Ethiopia. Strabo d , ^Elian e , and Pau-
sanias, also allude to them. " I have never seen winged ser
pents," says Pausanias ; "but I believe in their existence,
because a Phrygian once brought a scorpion into Ionia, which
had wings, similar to those of a locust f ."
^Eschylus has a fine passage in his description of Clytem-
nestra\s dream.
She fancied she had given a dragon birth.
This new-born dragon, like an infant child,
Laid in the cradle, seemed in want of food ;
And in her dream she held it to her breast.
The milk he drew was mix d with clotted blood.
She cried out in her sleep with the affright.
SEschylus The Choephor(e.~Potter ff.
America. The authorities for the existence of this animal on the Norwegian
coast are De Ferry of Bergen ; Olaus Magnus, lib. xxi. c. 27. ; Ramus, Descript.
Norway ; Happelius, Mundus Mirabilis ; Peter Undalinus, cap. vii. ; Pontop-
pidan, vol. ii. p. 203. Milton, also, alludes to it. B. i. 1. 201.
a These are now extinct in the Mediterranean. In a few years, perhaps,
whales will be extinct on the east coast of Greenland ; for it is even now
nearly exhausted of fish, as the Bay of Biscay was, some few centuries ago.
b Ch. xiv. v. 29. Ch. xxx. v. 6.
c He mentions alsa two animals, alluded to by no other author ; the Dictyes
and Boryes. A Lib. xv. e Lib. xvi. c. 42.
f Lib. ix. 21. Pausanias also says, that Ctesias mentioned, in his " History
of the Indians," an animal called martiora. It had a triple row of teeth in
one of its jaws, and stung by the extremity of its tail, and hurled its stings, like
arrows, at a distance. Pausanias is incredulous, however, in regard to the
existence of such a creation. He mentions, also, an animal, called the alee,
found in Gaul, between a stag and a camel (c. 41); and bulls, existing in
Ethiopia, having horns growing out of their nostrils. Lib. v. c. xii.
g That serpents with two heads have existed, also, is not to be denied. In
the Museum of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, there is a serpent with two
heads, brought from Nepaul : and a letter from Charleston states, that there
was killed, in the town of Ogden, a large snake, containing 106 live snakes;
one of which had two complete heads and necks, with one body : another had
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 57
The Dodo is extinctV That the Roc once existed is ren
dered probable by the circumstance of Mr. Henderson b hav
ing found in Siberia the claws of a bird, which measured a
yard in length : and ho was assured by the Yakuts, that
skeletons and feathers of this bird were often seen in their
hunting excursions. The quills, it is said, are of a size
so large, that they will admit a man^s arm into their
interior.
Caesar c speaks of several animals, existing in his time in
the Hercynian forest ; no longer known: viz. bulls, resem
bling stags, with only one horn, rising in the middle of the
forehead, dividing at the top into several large branches :
two heads, with one neck and body : a third had one and a half heads, with
one neck and two bodies : all of which were as sprightly and active as the
others.
a Several pictures of this extraordinary bird still remain. Vid. Clusius
Exoticorum, lib. v. 160"> ; Herbert s Travels in 1634; Bontius work on the
Natural and Medical History of the East Indies ; and Willoughby s Orni
thology. It is supposed to have been a native of the Mauritius. Herbert
gives the following account of it : " The dodo comes first to our description,
here, and in Dygarrois ; (and no where else, that ever I could see or heare of,
is generated the dodo.) (A Portuguize name it is, and has reference to her sim-
plenes,) a bird which for shape and rareness might be called a Phsenix (wer t in
Arabia ;) her body is round and extreame fat, her slow pace begets that curpu-
lencie ; few of them weigh lesse than fifty pound : better to the eye than the
stomack : greasie appetites might perhaps commend them, but to the indif
ferently curious nourishment, but prove offensive. Let s take her picture : her
visage darts forth melancholy, as sensible of nature s injurie in framing so great
and massie a body to be directed by such small and complementall wings, as
are unable to hoise her from the ground, serving only to prove her a bird ;
which otherwise might be doubted of: her head is variously drest, the one halfe
hooded with downy blackish feathers ; the other, perfectly naked ; of a whitish
hue, as if a transparent lawne had covered it : her bill is very howked and bends
downwards, the thrill or breathing place is in tlie midst of it ; from which part
to the end, the colour is a light greene mixt with a pale yellow ; her eyes be
round and small, and bright as diamonds ; her cloathing is of finest downe, such
as you see in goslins : her trayne is (like a China beard) of three or four short
feathers ; her legs thick, and black, and strong ; her tallons or pounces sharp,
her stomack fiery hot, so as stones and iron are easily digested in it ; in that and
shape, not a little resembling the Africk Oestriches : but so much, as for their
more certain difference I dare to give thee (with two others) her repre
sentation." b Philosoph. Mag. vol. Iv. p 7.5.
e De Bell. Gall. vi. 25.
58 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
wild asses, shaped and spotted like goats ; but larger ; with
out horns, or joints in the legs ; that never lay down to
sleep, nor could raise themselves, if overthrown.
Diocles, as quoted by Pliny, describes the Nemaean lion as
having been green ; Solinus says, that red lions were frequent
in Armenia ; and Mondavilla (quoted by Aldrovandus) speaks
of white ones existing in the island of Scilla. Appian, in his
work on " Hunting, 11 says black lions were common in Ethio
pia. Thus, Bargaeus, (lib. iii.)
Non illis fulvo spectantur terga colore,
Nee rutilus pendet solida cervice capillus,
Csesareis nigra est, niger cutis obteglt artus.
Appian speaks, also, of black lions with yellow mouths. He
says, he had seen them ; and their existence is attested by
^Elian a , who says, also, that lions existed in Lybia, which
had their sides tinctured with blue spots. Paulus Venetus,
also, says, that he saw lions among the Tartars, some of
which were part black and part red ; and others striped with
black and white. Even Gesner speaks of black lions h aving
been common in the interior of Africa b .
The unicorn still exists in the interior of Thibet. It is
there called the one-horned tso-po. Its hoofs are divided, it
is about twelve or thirteen hands high ; it is extremely wild
and fierce, yet associating in large herds. Its tail is shaped
like that of a boar ; and its horn, which is curved, grows out
of its forehead. It is seldom caught alive ; but the Tartars
frequently shoot it, and use its flesh for food c . An account of
a Var. Hist. xii. 7.
b " Leones nigros," says he, " IN INTIMA AFRICA." Inspector, No. 107.
Quarterly Review, No. xlvii. p. 120, 1. Ancient writers mention three
animals, with horns growing out of the middle of the forehead. The carta-
zonon *, or wild Indian ass ; the African oryxf ; and the monoceros J.
* Solid hoof.
t Cloven hoof ; tall as a rhinoceros, and form like that of a deer. ^Elian
mentions some with four horns. J Divided feet.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. .59
the existence of this animal was communicated by Major
Lattar, commander of the territories of the rajah of Sik-
kim in the mountainous country east of Nepaul, to General
Nicol, who transmitted the account to the Marquis of
Hastings a .
Of extinct animals, the remains of which have been found
in various parts of the globe, Cuvier reckons forty-nine spe
cies of quadrupeds ; of which twenty-seven are referrible to
seven new genera : the others to known ones. Of these are
" a tapir as large as an elephant ; a species of sloth, as large
as a rhinoceros ; and a minotaur, possessing the magnitude of
a crocodile." For a more particular account of these ante
diluvian animals, the reader is referred to the works of
Cuvier and Buckland, as affording curious data in respect to
the evidence, they present, of an order of things, previous to
the one now prevailing on the surface of the globe. In re
gard to the mammoth, remains of which are found in various
countries, at wide distances from each other, it may be pro
per to remark, that Fischer discovered the skull of one,
near Moscow, which measured five feet in length ; and that
one has been found in a state of great preservation by a
Tungus chief at Schoumachoff, on the borders of the Frozen
Ocean, imbedded in ice, where it must have remained a vast
multitude of years. It still retained its flesh, its skin, and
* Webbe says, in his Travels, A. D. 1590 : " I have scene in a place like a
parke, adjoyning unto Prester John s court, three score and seventeene uni-
cornes and oliphants, all alive at one time, and they were so tame, that I have
played with theme as one would playe with young lambes."
For the unicorn of Africa, see Campbell s Journey into Southern Africa, and
Missionary Sketches, No. xv. This animal is larger than the rhinoceros, and
answers better with that, mentioned in Job ; where it is associated with
strength, untameableness, and ferocity. Vid. ch. 39.
Perhaps this animal is the same as that, mentioned by Aristotle, Appian,
Pliny, Juvenal, and Martial, under the name of Oryx. I have not, however,
had sufficient leisure to examine how they agree.
Conrad Gesiier speaks of a large unicorn s horn, presented to the king of
France, and valued at 80,000 ducats. What this could be I have no informa-
tion, on which to form a conjecture.
60 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
its hair. The skeleton is now in the Museum Academy at
St. Petersburg!! 3 .
FORMATION OF ISLANDS.
BY the silent labours of the Corallina have immense conti
nents been formed. Heefs extend along the whole western
coasts of Guinea b , and Madagascar ; the eastern coast of
Abyssina ; the Red Sea ; the Mediterranean ; the coasts
of China, Japan, Corea c , and the Straits of Sunda ;
while they extend also along the whole eastern coasts of
Australasia ; and are found in almost every part of the
Pacific, covering not only detached parts, but extending
several thousand square leagues.
Thus islands are formed. The corallina, with gradual, but
incessant, labour, raise their foundations from the bed of the
ocean : on these reefs d , after an interval, the high tides
deposit sand, shells, pumice, pebbles, mud, weeds ; pieces
of coral, roots, wood, and soil. Birds then begin to settle
upon them ; salt plants take root upon them ; tropical trees,
vegetables, seeds, and shells, are washed upon them ; and
birds deposit their exuvia. In this manner islands are
formed into groups and archipelagos ; and become enriched
with soil : and in a few years they are clothed with the
prurient vegetation of tropical climates 6 . Man then takes
a There is also a skeleton of the mammoth in the Museum of Philadelphia :
a middle-sized man may stand with his arms outstretched under its body.
b On this coast are two species of Coral ; one of which, in Bosnian s time,
was called Conta de Terra ; the other was of a blue colour. The latter was
valued at its equal weight in gold ; the former at four times its weight.
e Vid. Capt. Hall s Voyage of Discovery to the west coast of Corea and
Loo-choo Islands, 4to., p. 107, 8, 9. The Loo-choos call coral O6roo Vid.
Clifford s Vocabulary.
d Vid. Flinders Voy. to Terra Australis, ii. p. 115. Peron s Voy. to Austral
asia, p. 183.
e Mosses and lichens clothe the soil with verdure in newly-formed countries,
where the atmosphere is humid ; but in countries near the tropics, the succu
lent plants.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 61
possession ; and Nature has rewarded herself for her
labours : but she does not cease to extend her operations.
Her work of marine creation still goes on ; and the time may,
one day, come, when the existence of the Pacific, as an
entire ocean, will be esteemed as fabulous, as the ancient
Atlantis. Islands are increasing every year ; in size every
hour. They rise in archipelagos, and archipelagos, in future
ages, may associate into continents a .
We may read the manner, in which Alluvial Islands b are
constituted, by that in which Edmonstone Island has been
formed. A few years since and it was not in existence. It
is now situated in the upper part of the bay of Bengal ;
between the mouths of the Hoogly and Channel Creek. It is
two miles long, and about half a mile in breadth : a mere sand
bank c ; but it is rapidly acquiring a much higher character.
From the manner in which this island is proceeding, we
may also form no very erroneous idea of the method, with
which Nature has secured the gradual extension of her vege
table productions ; and the adorning remote islands with
flowers and plants. This island, having gradually accumulated
by the soil of two rivers, trunks of trees, with branches con
taining pods and seeds, were deposited upon it. Plants,
too, of various kinds were washed upon its sides. Some of
these decomposed ; and with the excrement of birds assisted
in the formation of a fruitful soil. Seeds, too, have taken
root upon the higher beach ; these when afterwards in seed
were scattered by the birds and winds : and some of the
branches of trees cast ashore, being gradually covered with
soil by succeeding tides, took root.
No human hand has yet planted one tree, shrub, flower,
a Some have even supposed, that all marbles, limestones, and calcareous
rocks, were originally formed by analogous animated beings.
b For observations on the alluvial land of the Danish islands in the Baltic,
and on the coast of Sleswick, vid. Jameson on Cuvier, p. 202.
c Vid. Journal of a Voyage to Sangor, Asiat. Journ. vii. 355.
62 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
or oven seed upon this island ; and yet the central part has a
strong verdure, formed by the ipomea pes caprse, and the
salsola : and several tufts of the saccharum spontaneum have
lately been observed in a flourishing condition. A few trees
and plants are, also, growing up ; amongst which are the
manby date and morinda ; a species of bean ; and no
inconsiderable quantity of purslane. The northern part of
the beach is occupied by a large quantity of small sea crabs :
and turtles are frequently seen upon the southern part.
In the north of Siberia, two islands, between the mouths of
the Lena and the Indigerka, have been formed by the bones
of animals, carried down, like trees, from the interior. These
bones, having accumulated during the progress of ages, were
at length cemented with sand and ice, till they formed two
complete islands : affording a curious instance of the art,
with which Nature sometimes avails herself of animal
materials.
It would seem, that America is not so old a continent as
either Europe or Asia. The depth of mould is very fleet ;
in the forests seldom more than six feet ; and frequently not
more than three. Some islands have been formed by the mud
of large rivers, which has gradually risen above the utmost
reach of the tide. Some derive existence from the accumula
tion of sea weeds and trees upon rocks, but slightly buried
under the waves. These substances being cast higher and
higher every spring tide, become a substratum for future
decompositions. Sands, blown upon each other by high
winds, when left by the tide, accumulate into large banks,
and alter and shift their positions at the discretion of the
winds, until they acquire permanency from vegetation. The
Baltic, near Kronolung, on the Swedish side, becomes shal
lower every year, on account of the great accumulation of
sand, grass, wrack, and sea-weed.
Some islands are composed almost entirely of alluvial soil.
>! ,." AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 63
The group at the mouth of the Orinoco was formed by an
accumulation of trees, weeds, sand and mud, during the
various inundations of that river. Some of these islands
abound in palms and cocoa trees ; upon the tops of which
live in huts an Indian tribe, called Guarous. These aerial
habitations are covered with palm-leaves ; and cocoa trees
furnish their inhabitants with wood for fuel ; food and
beverage. The Guarous are social and hospitable ; and are
at peace, even with the Spanish settlers. Secured by their
height from the inundations of the river, they live in peaceful
enjoyment ; are passionately fond of dancing ; and derive no
little profit from trading in various species of fish ; which
their dogs assist them to catch, in nets, in hammocks, and in
baskets. They are frequently called the Palm-tree Nation ;
and their numbers vary from 10 to 12,000.
The African Atlantic islands are of basaltic formation, and
of submarine volcanic origin a . Amsterdam Island had a
similar formation 6 ; and the eruptions of the several different
periods were observed by Dr. Gillan, to be distinctly marked
in regular divisions by different layers. 1st. A layer of
vegetable mould ; 2d, volcanic ashes ; 3d, celular lava ; 4th,
compact lava ; and 5th, glassy lava c .
" Professor Smith. Tuckey, p 29, 4to.
b The process is obvious whereby even solid rocks are converted into soil, fit
for the maintenance of vegetation, by simple exposure to atmospheric agency ;
the disintegration produced by the vicissitudes of heat and cold, moisture and
dryness, reduces the surface of almost all strata to a comminuted state of soil,
or mould, the fertility of which is usually in proportion to the compound nature
of its ingredients. Buckland s Bridgewater Treatise, p. 69.
c This island is about 2,0^0 miles from shore, and lies midway between New
Holland and Madagascar. It is eight square miles in surface. Zeolite, obsi
dian, and pumice are seen in every part of the coast. There are many boiling
springs ; and whenever the ear is applied to the earth, a noise is heard like the
bubbling of water. There is not one quadruped, nor one land-bird ; and, if we
except flies, not one visible insect. There are mosses, sow-thistles, garden
parsley, procumbent pearlwort, polypody, spleenwort, and a few other plants ;
and, what is extremely curious, they are all British. The gardeners of the
Lion, on their voyage to China, planted potatoes here.
64 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
It is many ages before a coral rock becomes so deeply
covered with soil, as to bear the bread-fruit tree. In some
islands of the Pacific, pandangs, sago -palms, casuarinas, and
the Barringtonia, will grow to a great size ; but the bread
fruit will not ; and this, not because it is unadapted to the
climate, but because it has not the power of insinuating its
roots into the coral rocks ; of which those islands are, in a
great measure, composed.
Palmerstone Island is of still more recent formation a . It
is a mile only in circumference ; and it is composed of coral
sand, mixed with blacker earth. Upon it grows scurvy-grass
and cocoa trees ; and though the soil is poor, there are a
great many shrubs and trees. That it possesses men of war
and tropic birds, with crabs crawling among the bushes, is not
much a subject for wonder ; but that in one part of the reef
there should be a lake, full of blue, black, red, and yellow
fishes, is a phenomenon, for which it is now, perhaps impos
sible to account.
Sponges in Italy are found rooted on hard flints b ; and on
the amphitheatre near Albano, several trees have insinuated
large roots between the best cemented stones. The lichen
calcareum even vegetates on the naked rock ; and draws its
chief nourishment from the air. This, decaying, furnishes a
bed and a little moisture to maintain a moss. The moss
a Captain Colebrooke, in his account of Barren Island, has the following
remark : " From the singular appearance of this island, it might be conjec
tured, that it has been thrown up entirely from the sea, by the action of subter
ranean fire. Perhaps, but a few centuries ao, it had not reared itself above
the waves ; but might have been gradually emerging from the bottom of the
ocean, long before it became visible ; till at length it reached the surface, when
the air would naturally assist the operation of the fire, that had been struggling
for ages to get vent, and it would then burst forth. The cone or volcano would
rapidly increase in bulk, from the continual discharge of lava and combustible
matter ; and the more violent eruptions, which might have ensued at times,
when it would throw up its contents to a greater elevation and distance, might
have produced that circular and nearly equidistant ridge of land we see around
it." Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 413, 14.
b Misson, ii. p. 399.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. G5
yields to the course of Nature, decomposes, and adds to the
previous soil. Seeds of other vegetables are wafted by the
winds, or dropped by birds ; and thus the bare rock, after a
series of ages, becomes green with vegetation.
Christmas Island, in the South Seas, is composed of sand,
rotten vegetables, dung of birds, decayed shells, broken coral
stones, and other marine productions. There is no fresh
water ; and therefore no inhabitants : but there are marine
birds, land crabs, and lizards. The two clusters of islands,
lately discovered a , are but now emerging, as it were, into
visible existence. They are so low, that they can be seen
from the deck, even in the day time, only when ships are very
near. They were discovered by De Peyster, while sailing
from Valparaiso to the East Indies. To the former cluster
he gave the name of Ellice s Group ; to the latter, that of
De Peyster s Islands. They were totally uninhabited.
Byron and Wallis had previously borne down near these
islands ; but, from their lowness, they did not discover
them.
Some suppose, that land is entirely derived from the exuviae
of marine animals. That the earth possesses a renovating
power is certain. Islands expand, and become elevated by
the combined influence of heat and water. The power, which
heat possesses, of dilating bodies, arises out of its faculty of
forcing itself between their separate particles. This, as a
natural consequence, causes them to occupy a larger space
than before.
THE MANNER IN WHICH ISLANDS ARE FIRST PLANTED ; AND
BECOME PEOPLED WITH ANIMALS.
THE manner in which distant islands become planted with
vegetation is exceedingly curious. The Pacific Islands afford
instances, from which the various methods may be success -
a May 17th, 1819 long. 180 54 W,, lat. 8 29 S. long. 181 43 W.,
lat. 8 5 S.
VOL. II. K
66 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
fully developed. How European and American fruits came
to be naturalized in some of those islands is sufficiently obvious.
Some have been carried thither by accident ; some for delight;
and others for subsistence. Some have been mixed with other
seeds ; and thus been transported against the will and wish of
the transporters ; as darnel amongst rye, and melilot amongst
wheat. Cook planted the pine-apple and melon in Eoha; on
Christmas Island yams and cocoas ; on Lefooga melons, pump
kins, and Indian corn. Vancouver planted water-cresses and
vine-cuttings in New Holland ; on the Island of Cocos
peas, beans, apples, melons, and peach-stones. Captain
Colneth had previously left a variety of garden-seeds. On
other islands he had also introduced the almond. Wilson
planted the bread-fruit tree a on the Palmerstone Islands.
In Otaheite successive navigators have introduced various
species of plants and vegetables : and other islands have been
benefited in a similar manner.
But as the mode, in which these islands became rich in
what we now call native plants, is a subject of some difficulty,
we will assist in the endeavour to explain it.
One of the circumstances, on which Columbus and his crew
founded their hopes of being near land, was that of the Nigna
taking up a branch, the red berries of which were as fresh,
as if they had been taken immediately from the tree. Philips,
also, in his voyage to Botany Bay, saw a great number of
cocoa-nuts, floating at a great distance from shore b ; and
Captain Tuckey c found several floating patches of reeds and
trees, forty leagues from the African coast. Near one of the
Aleutian Islands Captain Kotzebue picked up the log of a
camphor-tree ; and fell in with an iceberg, having a portion
8 This tree, so abundant in its useful qualities, is yet held in little esteem in
the islands of India. Crawford s Indian Archipelago, i. 413.
b Near Cape Musseldom the Indians throw cocoa-nuts, flowers, and fruits
into the sea, to ensure a quick passage, and a safe voyage.
Narrative, p. .5.5, 4 to.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 07
of its surface lined with earth ; in which grew trees and other
vegetable substances a .
The Canadians had formerly a custom of planting large
trees on the ice. These remained the whole winter; and
being evergreen, " you frequently appear," says Aubery b ,
"to be travelling through an avenue of pines." These, on
the melting of the snow, float down to the sea. From the
western shores, also, of America pines float to the Pacific
Islands ; an instance of which is afforded by the circumstance
of two large canoes having been made of pine at Mowee and
Attowai. The pine, as a living tree, is unknown in those
islands. Indeed the American rivers, both north and south,
during the time of their respective inundations, carry an in
conceivable quantity of logs, weeds, shrubs, and other plants,
down to the ocean. Largo trees, too, of American growth
are frequently picked up on the beach in the Azores. On the
same coast, previous to the time of Columbus, a new conti
nent and a new race of men were indicated by the appearance
of a bamboo c , and two dead bodies, having features and
complexions widely differing from those of any men, at that
time known.
After violent storms cocoa-nuts are picked up on the beach
of the North Seas. On the Shetland and Orkney Islands are
occasionally thrown up fruits, belonging to the torrid hemi
sphere of America ; on the shores of the Hebrides seeds from
Jamaica ; and on those of Ferro and Gomera, plants from
St. Domingo. Seeds, cast on the coasts of Ireland and
Norway d , will sometimes take root and flourish.
a The only insect seen by Captain Parry, in the higher arctic regions, was
the Aphis borealis, which he found on floating floes of ice in the Polar Sea, and
as far north as 82|. " Its near resemblance to Aphis picese, which feeds on
the silver fir, would induce the belief, that the floating trees of fir, that are to
be found so abundantly on the shores and to the north of Spitzbergen, might
be the means by which this insect was transported to the northern regions."
P. 201, 4to. b Trav. i. p. 208.
c Munorz. Hist, del Nuevo Mundo, 1. ii. ss. 14.
d Linnaeus. Colonise Plant, p. 3. Amoenitat. Academ. 1. viii.
F 2
68 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Darwin alludes to these emigrations in the following
manner :
Where vast Ontario rolls his brineless tides,
And feeds the trackless forests on his sides,
Fair CASSIA, trembling, hears the howling woods,
And trusts her tawny children to the floods.
Cinctur d with gold, while ten fond brothers stand,
And guard the beauty on her native land ;
Soft breathes the gale, the current gently moves,
And bears to Norway s coasts her infant loves.
Some plants float from one end of the globe to the other.
The trumpet-grass, seen off the Cape, is torn, for the most
part, from the South African shores ; but others are wafted
from the American continent. The pistia straliotes float on
pools, ditches, and rivers in Java. Its root takes but little
or no hold of the ground. The marine weeds, that compose
the grassy sea in the Atlantic, have neither roots nor fibres a .
They vegetate, as they float along, bearing green and red
berries, harbouring a multitude of insects. There is also a
plant in Chili 11 , and a similar one in Japan, called the
" flower of the air." This appellation is given to it,
because it has no root, and is never fixed to the earth. It
twines round a dry tree, or sterile rock. Each shoot pro
duces two or three flowers like a lily; white, transparent, and
odoriferous. It is capable of being transported two or three
hundred leagues ; and it vegetates as it travels, suspended on
a twig.
Many plants have a double faculty of propagation. The
testuca ovina has this property. When it grows in a vale, or
upon a plain, its seeds ripen, fall, and vegetate in the manner
of other plants. But when it grows upon the tops of moun
tains, where it finds a difficulty in ripening its seeds, it
becomes a viviparous plant. The germ shoots into blade in
the cup ; falls to the ground ; takes root ; and becomes the
a Sea-weeds generally propagate from roots.
b Molina, i. p. 316, in notis.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. (>i>
mother of others, having the same remarkable property. The
aphis (insect) is also viviparous in summer, and oviparous in
autumn.
Some seeds are thrown by the force of the surf, which, in
some places, rises even to the height of ten fathoms. Lifted
so high in air, the winds separate them, as they descend, from
the particles of water, with which they rose, and waft them
to the internal parts of the island. Some plants in the
Pacific islands were probably originally marine. Cast upon
the shore, they have vegetated : these have produced seeds,
which, being carried by winds or birds higher from the sea,
have accommodated themselves to the soil, in which they were
thus accidentally thrown ; and during a series of propagations
have gradually assumed characters not originally belonging
to them. The nymphsea alba has, in this way, been the patri
arch of many plants, now differing in shape and habit from
itself. This vegetable, like many other aquatic plants, at the
time of flowering, rises to the surface of the water : in the
morning it expands its blossoms, and towards evening closes
them again.
Many trees, such as the oak, beech, and hazel, are planted
by squirrels and ravens ; and the cinnamon of Ceylon and
Malabar are propagated by the Pompadour pigeon ; which
drops the fruit, as it is carrying it to its young. The doves
of Banda swallow seeds whole, and expel them whole ; and
in this manner propagate the nutmeg. The missel lives on
the berries of the misseltoe, and propagates it from tree to
tree.
Some weeds are disseminated by the winds ; as mosses,
fungi, and mucor. The leather-cup has a seed so small, that
it is almost imperceptible. This, and many seeds of similar
minuteness, are conveyed in the leaves and trunks of trees.
Some are fixed by the winds to the coats of animals ; the
feathers of birds ; the sides of ships ; and others to the backs
of insects. Some seeds have species of feathers, which enable
TO ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
them to be sustained in the atmosphere to a great distance.
The roridula dentata has leaves covered with fine hairs, and a
glutinous substance, to which small insects adhere ; and their
eggs are, in consequence, wafted to wherever that plant is
carried.
Some animals are wafted by the drifting of canoes. In
desert islands, where there are no quadrupeds but rats, frag
ments of canoes have been observed, stranded on the shores.
Those canoes were probably the media, by which those ani
mals were conveyed. Many vegetables of the Friendly and
Society adorn the Sandwich Islands ; though many leagues
distant. Islands, situate from the 50th to the 55th degree
of latitude, have the same beasts, birds, fishes, and shells,
that are found upon the Kurili Islands : and those, from the
55th to the 60th degree of latitude a , have many animals that
are found on the peninsula of Kamschatka.
Bears, foxes, ermines, seals, and walruses ; wild fowl ; the
spawn of river-fish, and the eggs of northern birds, are car
ried to distant longitudes and latitudes by ice islands. Of
these islands there are two species ; one composed of sea
water ; the other of fresh water. The former kinds are white,
and have little transparency : the latter blue, and so clear,
that objects may be seen to a considerable depth. These are
mostly formed on the sides of rocks, jutting over seas or large
rivers. They melt in summer, at the lower extremities, by
the influence of the sun, and the moisture of the waves below.
Thus undermined, their bulk becomes too ponderous for their
base : they break ; and, falling into the river or sea, float ;
and being joined by others, unite and form themselves into
islands of vast length, breadth and height : And not unfre-
quently sail with the winds, currents, and tides, from the
arctic circle to the utmost extremity of the temperate zone ;
exhibiting, as they sail along, upon a minute survey, innu
merable combinations occasioned by the spray of the sea,
" Vide Stuehlius Account of the New Northern Archipelago, p. 18.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 71
the mists, and the snows, of trees, and flowers; villages,
towns, and cities ; ruins, and palaces ; and myriads of forms
before unknown, even to the imagination.
The mountains of ice, which are composed of fresh water,
are not unfrequently incorporated with soil, stones, and brush
wood ; and covered with the eggs of those birds, which fre
quent the coasts, from which they fall a . The salt water
islands bear sea weeds, spawn, and not unfrequently bears,
foxes, and ermines. In the north of Iceland b , the cold splits
the calcined mountains, from which large masses fall in detached
pieces, and roll precipitately into the sea, like waterfalls.
The approach of ice islands is indicated by the bluish
lustre, which appears in the horizon. They are often covered,
too, with an immense number of seals and sea calves ; which
are seen rolling and sporting in the snow, and seem by no
means terrified at the approach of either men or ships : remind
ing the voyager of those lines of Cowper, which he puts into
the mouth of Alexander Selkirk,
The beasts, that roam over the plain,
My form with indifference see :
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.
Professor Smith saw several islands, floating from the
African rivers, which, upon inspection, he found to bear reeds,
resembling the donax, a species of agrostis, and some branches
of justicia, with the roots of mangrove and papyrus. There
were, also, in the midst of them, several small animals c ;
which are found, also, floating on the Grassy Sea *.
Reptiles are probably propagated to distant regions by
their eggs, or embryos, being casually dropt on the sea shore,
at low ebb, and borne away by the returning tides. Some
a In one of the Dutch voyages to Nova Zembla, the captain ascended an
iceberg, on the top of which were a considerable quantity of earth, and forty
birds eggs. h Freminville, Voyage to the North Pole, p. 12.
1 Journal Tuckey, p. 259.
A Scyllaea Pelagica Cancer minutus. Lophius histrio, &c. &c.
72 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
insects are transported on the backs, and in the intestines of
animals : others in their skins. The hair-worm lives not only
in the earth, on the leaves of trees, and in the water, but
in the bodies of beetles : while large flies enter the ears of
elks, in the Lapland forests ; and take up their winter quar
ters in their heads.
Vipers are easy of transportation ; since they possess such
a faculty of abstinence, that some species will remain even
six months without food. Canadian bears, also, frequently
live without sustenance so long, that many persons believe,
they can live by licking their own paws.
It is exceedingly curious, that in Ireland there is neither a
mole, a spider, nor any venomous reptile or insect. Frogs, a
hundred years ago, were foreign to Ireland ; but having been
observed, for the first time, in a well at Moira, in the county
of Down, they have multiplied all over the island. How
came they into that well I There are no frogs in Lapland a ;
nor, I believe, in Iceland ; but in 1783, the pastures of that
island abounded in small insects, which had never been seen
there before. They resembled b , in some degree, the earth-
fly ; blue, red, yellow, and brown. The weevil, in the same
manner, will not live in Van Diemen s Land : in which island
grows the cedar (huon pine), which has the property of
repelling insects. The cochineal has been found extremely
difficult to transplant : and it is remarkable, that though
insects are the most liable to corruption of all animals, the
cochineal never spoils. It has, therefore, been preserved for
ages.
The spawn of some fishes are propagated by insects and
aquatic birds : some of which even void the fishes, they have
gorged, without any change in the fishes themselves c . Eels
Lachesis Lapponica, i. 177. b Hooker, ii. 5.
c The large water-beetle feeds on spawn. It rises on the leaves of the
water-plants, and takes wing. By this insect mountain lakes are frequently
stocked.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 73
are thus transported a . Cranes swallow them alive ; and void
them alive b ; and thus fish-ponds are frequently stocked in a
manner very mysterious to their proprietors c .
Ponds are often stocked with fish too by wild ducks, which,
in their emigrations, carry impregnated spawn d .
The ostrich will eat wood, stones, glass, and pieces of iron ;
and void them whole. The polypus frequently swallows a
polypus ; which afterwards issues from its body, perfect and
uninjured. The ocythoe polypus takes up its residence in
the shell of a nautilus ; and in this manner is conveyed from
one coast to another.
a The eel is seldom seen in the Danube ; a very remarkable circumstance,
since it is migratory, especially in tempestuous weather. Sir Everard Home
says, he is firmly convinced that the eel is hermaphrodite, and impregnates
itself. See Davy s Life, p. 455, 4to.
b This is not more extraordinary than that worms should be capable of living
not only in the intestines of the human body, but in those of quadrupeds,
birds*, seals ti and fishes. The Acarus aquaticus deposits its eggs in the
water-scorpion ; and the Pulex penetrans of South America inserts its eggs
under the toe-nails of men and monkeys. The teeth of Laplanders J are cor
roded by worms ; and a woman of Sweden once bred a quantity of flies in
her nose.
c Colonel Sykes states, that in the ponds in the East Indies, which have
become perfectly dry and the mud hard, the next rainy season will find them
full of fish, although wholly unconnected with any stream or passage by which
they can be connected. Mr. Yarrell, in his History of British Fishes, says,
The solution appears to me to be this : the impregnated ova of the fish of one
rainy season are left unhatched in the mud through the dry season, and from
this low state of organization as ova the vitality is preserved, the occurrence
and contact of the rain and the oxygen of the next season, when vivification
takes place through their joint influence. If this solution of the problem be
the true one, it points at once to what may be effected after a few experiments
namely, the artificial fecundation of the roe, the drying of that roe (or of
other roe naturally impregnated) sufficiently to prevent decomposition, and its
possible transportation to, and vivification in, distant countries. -Anon.
d In most instances, fishes lay the unimpregnated eggs ; the male coming
afterwards, and sprinkling them with his semen. Vid. Blumenbach s Elem.
Nat. Hist. 148.
* Grouse are troubled with the tape-worm.
t Genus Eschinorhycnus. Freminville, p. 0. J Acerbi, ii. p. 290, 4to.
Memoirs of the Swedish Academy.
74 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
If some plants have riveted partialities to peculiar soils,
some insects have equal partialities to particular plants.
The cochineal is wedded, as it were, to the fig-tree ; the aphis
to beans, peas, and rose-trees ; the musk-beetle to willows ;
the papilio machaon to fennel ; the phalsena grossulatriata to
currant bushes ; the phinx licustri to poplar, privet, and lilac
leaves ; and the sphinx atropos to jessamine and love-apple.
There is a small red insect, too, which seems to be almost
entirely devoted to the violet ; and these emigrate with the
plants, to which they are attached.
The tenthredo insects proceed from the galls of willow,
beech, holly, hairy hawkweed, and ground ivy: while the
leptura of Finland lies concealed in the corolla of the globe-
flower. The caterpillar, which changes to the phalsena tortix,
and the hawkmoth, emigrate with the woodbine. The former
curls itself up in its leaves ; and the latter hovers over its
blossoms of an evening, and extracts honey from the bottom
of its nectarium.
Most shrubs and trees have particular species of the
aphis attached to them : all varying in size, structure, and
manners ; and were we to enumerate the whole, we should
enumerate almost every species of tree and shrub now in
existence.
Some insects emigrate with the atmosphere : for the atmo
sphere is not only a temporary receptacle for many small
aquatic and terrestrial seeds ; but for the eggs of insects, and
imperceptible animalcules, which, having surfaces resembling
leathers, are easily wafted. Saussure saw two butterflies on
Mont Blanc ; and a lady-bird once flew against my face on
the circular balustrade of St. Paul s cathedral.
Many insects, and even birds, are doubtless carried through
the air by trade winds. Others float upon the ocean ; are
picked up by marine birds ; and afterwards discharged, entire,
on the islands upon which they rest : as some birds do fish.
It is curious here to remark, that the heat and strength of
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. ?5
pepper are qualified, and even thought to be much better,
from passing through the body of a toucan.
Bees were not originally natives of New England. The
first planters never saw any : but the English having introduced
them to Boston, in 1670, they were carried over the Alle-
ghany mountains by a violent hurricane : hence their propa
gation on the western part of that continent ; where they have
multiplied beyond all power of calculation. There is no data
to prove, that bees are known in the South Sea Islands ; but in
Hammock, one of the Philippines, the chief subject for barter
is bees 1 wax. Bees were introduced to New South Wales in
1809. Two hives were taken from England ; but the bees were
suffocated by the melting of the wax, in crossing the Line.
Captain Wallis afterwards introduced four more hives in
1822, and the last time I heard of them, they were healthy
and increasing. They were introduced into Cuba by some
families, who, after the peace of Versailles, went from St.
Augustine s, only since 1784 : and yet in 1792, the settlers
exported not less than 20,000 arrobs of wax. In 1796, there
were 212 barrels of honey and 1854 arrobs of white wax
exported from the Havannah a to Buenos Ayres.
In June 1728 a large flock of butterflies appeared in the
Canton de Vaud, flying from north to south. The column
was from 10 to 12 feet broad, and very thick. Their flight
was low, rapid, and equal. They did not rest on the flowers ;
but continued their flight. Their species was the belle-dame
or thistle butterfly, the caterpillars of which never live in
company.
We must not forget the emigrations of the locust.
Their numbers and extents of flight are prodigious. Mr.
Moor records a flight in India which extended 500 miles ;
* Bees are domesticated in few parts of Asia. Those of the Indian Archi
pelago hoard but little honey : owing to the multitudes of flowers at almost all
seasons of the year. But they make a great deal of wax, which the merchants
export to China and Bengal. The Morea exports 14,000 ocques every year.
(An ocque is three pounds two ounces French.)
/" ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
;ind Mr. Barrow describes one in Africa, which occupied an
area of 2,000 miles a .
The yellow butterfly, and the little black and white but
terfly, came from China : the black species from the West
Indies. About thirty-five years since, too, a mealy insect was
introduced from America, which proved, for a time, extremely
destructive to apple-trees. It propagated with great ra
pidity : but by the skill and industry of our gardeners, it is
now almost eradicated. In March, 1819, also, there appeared
near Sydney, in New South Wales, a vast number of full-
grown caterpillars in one night during the rains. Most of
them, however, disappeared on the next day ; though no one
could form the least probable conjecture, whence they came,
or whither they went.
In some parts of Italy is seen the Menelaus butterfly of
Surinam ; and in others the cerulean serpent of the Indies.
The tortoise of the Antilles is occasionally found on the
shores of the Hebrides ; and the whale-tailed manati of
the Aleutian Islands are not only known in Kamschatka,
whither they are driven by storms, but in New Holland and
Mindanao.
There are thousands of lizards among the ruins of Balbec ;
and though there are no venomous insects in the Madeiras,
myriads of those reptiles are seen of a clear day, basking in
the sun. These animals were, no doubt, in those islands
previous to their separation from the African continent.
Insects and shell-fish there are, which emigrate with the
plants, on which they feed, and whence they have their being.
Several species of the lepas cling to bamboo canes, and
float to vast distances : when their shells are open, they look
like full-blown flowers. The spotted toad-fish b , which keeps
a In August 1748, many swarms of this insect were seen flying in different
parts of London. They were supposed to have come from Poland and Hungary,
where flights of these insects had done great injury. They soon disappeared.
b Lophius histrio.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 77
among sea-weeds at the bottom of the water, has, no doubt,
also wandered in this manner from China to the Brazils,
where it is almost equally abundant.
Pearls are discovered in several seas ; and, being found in
the shell of an oyster, no one has yet been able to explain the
manner, in which it is formed. The following circumstance
may, however, one day perhaps lead to some probable con
jecture, in respect to it. At Sydney a a party, while at
supper, on opening an oyster, beheld a fish of about two inches,
curled up, in the bed of the late inhabitant of the shell. It
sprang upon the table, and was preserved alive several hours.
This fish, which was found to be cartilaginous, had, no doubt,
destroyed the oyster. When placed between the sun and the
eye it appeared perfectly transparent ; and the body had
stripes of brown and yellow, forming altogether a very beau
tiful little animal. That this fish, residing in a foreign shell,
might, had the oyster been able to destroy it, instead of the
fish destroying the oyster, have become a pearl, by some
secret operation of Nature, is not probable ; but that some
aqueous animal may intrude itself into the shell, and there
crystallize, is not impossible. And here we may stop to
observe some peculiarities of Nature in respect to fishes.
In the Lake Fakonie (Japan), which is surrounded by
mountains, and was formed by an earthquake, are the salmon
and the herring b of the Baltic. In what manner could they
possibly come there ? In a stream c , which empties itself into
the Nile in the Aloa country, is a fish without scales. It is
not seen in the Nile ; and yet a species of it is found in Asia
Minor. The Caspian is insulated, as it were, in the bosom of
a vast continent, and yet fishes are common to that sea and
the Mediterranean. Seals, also, are in great numbers ; and
sturgeons are so plentiful, that they sell for 1,760,405 rubles
every year.
a Sydney Gazette, 1817. b Stroemings Ksempfer.
c Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, p. 498, 4to.
78 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
THE PEOPLING OF ISLANDS.
HAVING, in former chapters, endeavoured to explain in
what manner islands are formed ; and after what method
they become green with vegetation, and enlivened with ani
mals, it remains to show in what probable manner, they become
peopled with the human race.
That America was peopled from Africa, there is scarcely
one argument for inducing the belief. No similarity is there
in colour, language 1 *, manners, customs, or religion ; by which
a single proof of a common origin may be traced. Nor is
there even an association, on which we might build a con
jecture, that, prior to the age of Columbus, any intercourse
subsisted between them by the means of navigation.
That America was peopled from Asia, on the north-west,
there are so many reasons, arising out of a great variety of
evidence, strengthened by the fact, that in one point the two
continents are separated by a distance of only thirty-nine
miles, that the problem may be said almost certainly to be
solved. In fact, the continents are so contiguous, that hares,
elks, roebucks, foxes, wolves, and bears, belong as well to
North America as to Northern Asia.
Whence, and in what manner, the Pacific Islands became
inhabited, is a question much more complicated and difficult.
Their very existence was unknown to European research, a
long time after the discoveries of Columbus, Vespucius,
Magellan, and other navigators. They were equally unknown
to Western America, and to Eastern Asia : and, with the
exception of those islands, which are disposed in clusters,
they were equally unknown to each other.
One object of modern inquiry has been to discover a north
east, a north-west, or a Polar passage to Cathay : and while
the Russians were making efforts in the North Pacific, the
* Duponceau says, however, that some resemblances do exist between the
language of the American Indians and that of the people of Congo.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 79
English and French, steering through the vast bosom of the
Southern Ocean, gave to the knowledge of Europe, Asia, and
America, new manners, new customs, new religions, and even
new creations ; both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
Semi-barbarous nations mingle so many fables with their
traditions, that it is difficult, and indeed frequently impossi
ble, to separate the one from the other. But barbarians have
not even traditions, on which to build the structure of hypo
thesis. The inquirer into the origin of nations can, there
fore, only reason from the best evidence that analogy affords.
In the present instance these evidences are few ; but they
are striking : and lead to the probable conclusion, that most
of the islanders, in the Pacific, sprang from one original
stock.
What the Tartars still continue to do by land, the natives
of the islands on the South Asian coasts were accustomed to
do by sea. They voyaged from one island to another a ; and
settled in those, they found tho most agreeable and the best
provided. The chief points of resemblance among these
islanders may be reduced to the knowledge, which many of
them traditionally possessed, of the use of iron : to the cir
cumstance, that the natives of Maugeca, and of the Caroline
islands, although distant 1,500 leagues, saluted strangers in
the same manner, viz. by taking the hand and joining noses :
to the similarity, observable in their features and complexions ;
to the coincidence of many of their manners and opinions ; to
the shapes of their musical instruments ; and, above all, to
the harmony, which subsists between their respective lan
guages b .
* Stsehlin s Disc, of New North Archipelago, p. 25. The Biajus of Borneo *
live in covered boats, and subsist by the art of fishing ; float from one island to
another with the variations of the monsoons, and thereby enjoy perpetual
summer.
k In respect to the New Zealanders, some have imagined, that they sprang
from Assyria or Egypt. " The god Pan," says Mr. Kendall to Dr. Waugh,
* Leyden on the Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations.
80 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
In respect to the manner, in which some other of these
islands were peopled, some idea may be formed from the cir
cumstance of two Esquimaux savages having been driven by
the currents in canoes upon the coast of the Orcades ; a cir
cumstance which is attested by Wallace, in his History of
the Orkney Islands a . Baron de Humboldt b , who alludes to
this fact, relates, also, that in the year 1770, a small vessel,
laden with corn at the island of Lancerotte, and bound to
Santa Cruz, was, in the absence of its crew, driven out to
sea : where, crossing the vast expanse of the Atlantic, it ran
ashore at La Guayra, near the Caraccas.
Some have, doubtless, been peopled by men and women,
who, while fishing along their native coasts, lost their oars
and paddles, and were drifted by the winds and tides . A
circumstance rendered the more probable, by its being ascer
tained, that women are employed in fishing, on some parts
of the west American coasts, as well as men.
Whence New Holland derived its inhabitants, it is exceed
ingly difficult, perhaps impossible, to determine d ; but, that
the natives of Van Diemen s Land were originally African is
evident from their heads being covered with wool ; and from
is universally acknowledged. The overflowings of the Nile, and the fertility
of the country, in consequence, are evidently alluded to in their traditions ; and
I think the Argonautic expedition, Pan s crook, Pan s pipes, and Pan s office in
making the earth fertile, are mentioned in their themes. Query : Are not the
Malays and the whole of the South Sea Islanders Egyptians ? " To which we
may reply ; When will the spirit of conjecture rest ?
a Page 60. Ed. 1700.
b Humboldt s Voy. to Equinoctial Regions, i. p. f>7. Originally in Viera.
Hist. Gen. de las Islas Canarias, iii. p. 167.
Captain Cook found on the island Wateoo three inhabitants of Otaheite,
who had been drifted thither in a canoe, although the distance between the two
islands is five hundred and fifty miles. In 1696, two canoes, containing thirty
persons, who had left Ancorso, were thrown by contrary winds and storms on
the island of Samar, one of the Philippines, at a distance of eight hundred
miles. Willis.
d For some curious remarks on the affinity of certain words in the language
of the Sandwich and Friendly Islands in the Pacific Ocean, with the Hebrew,
see Archseologia, 1787. art. viii. by Dr. Glass.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 81
their countenances exhibiting, in a very striking manner,
the African physiognomy.
Many islands, on the American coasts, were, when first
discovered, totally destitute of inhabitants : the Bermudas,
for instance, 400 in number, lying in the form of a shepherd s
crook, and situate between 200 and 300 leagues from the
continent. The manner in which they have been successively
peopled, it is not necessary to state ; as they are well known
to have derived their inhabitants from modern industry and
enterprise.
In 1681, a Mosquito Indian was accidentally left on the
island of Juan Fernandez by Captain Watling. For three
years he lived upon fish, goats, seals, rock-fish, snappers, cab
bage-tree, and a variety of herbs. He built himself a hut,
and made his bed with goat-skins. Upon Captain Watling s
revisiting the island, the Indian saw the ship at a distance ;
and, knowing it to be an English one, killed three goats ;
dressed them with leaves of the cabbage-tree ; and brough
them down to the shore. The ship anchored, and a Mos
quito Indian, who was on board, with other sailors, landed.
Running to his brother Indian, he threw himself upon his
face at his feet. The islander lifted him up ; and then fell
at his feet in the same manner. He was aftenvards hailed
by the crew, when his joy was signified in every action.
Not long after the departure of this Indian, Alexander Sel
kirk was left, with his own consent, upon the same island, and
passed upon it several years a . His history is well known. It was
he that planted the oats, which Commodore Anson saw grow
ing, some years afterwards. The island rises high out of the
water, and has a steep shore, fine woods and savannahs.
The soil in the vales consists of a black and fruitful earth ;
and theYe is good water in almost every part. It has been
peopled by the Spaniards ; and there is a regular garrison
a Selkirk was not wrecked on the island of Juan Fernandez, as most persons
suppose ; but, having a great dislike to his captain, he was left there at his own
desire.
VOL. IT. G
82 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
and a governor. From this account we learn, that Juan
Fernandez was peopled with goats by the discoverer ; and
first planted with oats by a man, who was unfortunate enough
to be cast upon it.
In recurring to the fate of Alexander Selkirk, the imagi
nation naturally reverts to the distress of Philoctetes, on the
desert island of Lemnos ; so powerfully painted by Euripides.
As, wearied with the tossing of the waves,
They saw me sleeping on the shore, beneath
This rock s rude covering, with malignant joy
They left me, and sail d hence.
Think from that sleep, my son, how I awoke,
When they were gone ! Think on my tears, my groans.
Such ills lamenting, when I saw my ships,
With which I hither sail d, all out at sea,
And steering hence ; no mortal in the place ;
Not one to succour me ; not one to lend
His lenient hand to mitigate my wound !
On every side I roll d my eyes, and saw
Nothing but wretchedness ft .
Upon a rock, twenty-nine miles north-west of Nooaheevah,
in the South Seas, an American passed three years. With
three companions (who died soon after their landing), he had
quitted his ship for the purpose of procuring feathers. The
rock, upon which they were cast, was barren and desolate ;
but he contrived to live upon the flesh and blood of birds.
The skulls of his companions were his only drinking vessels.
In 1818 the crew of the Queen Charlotte discovered a fire on
the rock, made of dried sea-weeds. Knowing the rock to
be barren, their curiosity was excited ; and the captain
sending off a boat, they discovered the forlorn seaman, and
took him to Bombay. This man had a few seeds in his
pocket; and he planted them; but they refused to propagate b .
In the year 1808 or 1809, a sailor, named Jeffery, on
a Potter.
b The island of Serrana takes its name from a Spaniard, called Serrano, who
in the time of Charles V. was wrecked upon it, and remained several years.
He was taken thence, all overgrown with hair, by a Spanish vessel, and carried
to Spain. Adams.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 83
board the Recruit, having stolen a little spruce beer, his
commander, Captain Lake, set him on shore on the uninha
bited island of Sombrero, in the Atlantic archipelago. Two
months after this, the Recruit returning to the same latitude,
the captain sent a boat, with several seamen, in order to
retake the man on board ; but he was no where to be seen:
and the crew concluded, that he had been devoured by the
large birds, which frequent that barren rock in vast numbers.
Jeffery, in the meantime, having been landed, with only the
clothes he had on, was left, helpless and hopeless, to endure
all the agony of the apprehension of being devoured by
birds, or of dying of want. There was no shelter, and
the heat of a tropical sun almost drove the unfortunate man
to madness. The island being a low rock, after searching
for some time, he discovered water in some of the hollows,
and a considerable quantity of birds 1 eggs, and a few limpets.
On these he lived for nine days ; during which time he ob
served several ships pass in the distance, to which he made
signals, but without effect ; until he was discovered by the
master of an American schooner, who took him on board,
and landed him at Marblehead, in the state of Massachusetts.
In the mean time, the conduct of Captain Lake having
been reported to the commander-in- chief of the West India
station, he was tried before a court-martial, and sentenced to
be dismissed his Majesty s service. The Parliament of Great
Britain, too, having, at the instance of Sir Francis Burdett,
recommended a search for the unfortunate seaman, he was
brought to England, and arrived in London in the month of
October, 1809. When I first saw him, I was particularly
struck with the modesty of his manners, and the grave sim
plicity of his conversation. Deeply impressed with gratitude
to Heaven for his preservation, there was a solemnity of
tone in the artlessness of his remarks, that struck me with
no small degree of admiration. He was about one-and-twenty
years of age.
G 2
84 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Captain Lake s family having recompensed him for the suf
ferings he had experienced, Jeffery left London for Cornwall,
where he was born, in order to visit his mother. He was
met near Polperro by his father-in-law, who, soon after their
first greeting, returned to apprise his mother of his arrival.
The whole village now came forth to meet him ; and nothing
could exceed the joy with which he was welcomed. The
meeting between him and his mother was affecting in the
highest degree. She gazed upon him with bewildered anxiety,
as if she could scarcely believe that she saw ; but, recovering
herself, they rushed into each other s arms, and, for some
moments were lost in sobs and tears. Nothing but the ar
rival of Jeffery was talked of ; while the joy of the villagers,
and the tumultuous endearments of the mother and son, con
secrated an evening, that will for many years be remembered
in that village with the liveliest satisfaction.
The Gallipagos islands, situate about 200 leagues west of
Peru, are of volcanic origin ; and every hill retains evidence
of being the crater of an extinguished volcano. The only
one, ever inhabited, was taken possession of by a native of
Ireland (Watkins), who quitted his ship ; and taking up his
abode there, built a hovel, planted potatoes and pumpkins,
and lived a miserable life, for several years, on tortoises and
other marine animals ; bartering vegetables for rum, and
other necessaries a .
The island of Tristan d Acunha is an entire mass of
lava. It rises 5,000 feet above the sea, in the form of a
cone. With the exception of a plain, six miles in length, and
two furlongs in breadth, this island is entirely covered with
copse- wood ; and not a day passes without rain. The common
thistle, the lichen, a species of goosefoot, and storksbill, are
found there. There, too, are found two or three species of
1 In the United Service Journal there is an account of a young man being
left on one of the Gallipagos, where he had lived for twenty-one days. An
abstract of this may be found in the Saturday Mag., July 6, 1833.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 85
seal, of which the leonine is so little alarmed at the presence
of men, that persons may get on its back, and be carried
into the water. The black albatross breed there in a grega
rious manner ; and, upon being touched, throw out a deluge of
foetid oil fluid. Wild goats and hogs, too, are seen among
the bushes, a few having been left by early navigators. In
1814, this island was inhabited by three men ; an American,
named LAMBERT, a Portuguese, and a native of Minorca a .
They lived upon fish and birds eggs, and covered their huts
of straw with seal-skins.
Lambert took possession of the islands, and constituted
himself sole sovereign by a formal instrument, in which he
stated, that as no power whatever had publicly claimed
them, he had taken possession of them for himself and his
heirs, with a right to convey them, by sale or free gift, as he
or his heirs should think proper. He farther declared, that
his motive for taking possession was to procure for himself
and family a competence and a house far beyond the reach of
chicanery and misfortune ; and that in order to ensure this,
he would devote himself to husbandry, and supply ships,
calling there, with any articles, he might be able to procure.
By this document, he invited ships to lay by, opposite the
cascade, where they would be visited by a boat from the
shore, and supplied : and he promised, that himself and his
people should be governed, in their intercourse with crews of
ships, by the principles of hospitality and good fellowship.
On taking possession, he built a hut, thatched it with coarse
grass, and planted cabbages, turnips, carrots, parsnips and
beet ; lettuces, onions, raddishes, parsley and potatoes. All
these grew better in winter than in summer, in a soil of
vegetable mould. At this time, there were between three
and four hundred acres of land, well adapted for cultivation ;
and a meadow of about fourteen acres.
At the end of a year s occupation, he had a small flock of
A. D. 1810.
86 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
geese. The fowls bred three or four times in a year: but
all his English and Muscovy ducks, and his turkeys, excepting
three, died from eating the entrails of fish. He had eight
sows and four boars ; seven of which he caught on the island.
He, as well as his pigs, lived chiefly on the flesh of sea-elephants,
which abounded in two ponds of ten or twelve acres in extent.
There were, also, from twelve to sixteen wild goats. The
little black-cock was also in great numbers, very fat, and its
flesh delicate. On the mountains were petrels, sea-hens,
mollahs, the albatross and other birds. Among the sea-cliffs
they caught grampers, mackarel, and a beautiful species of
cray-fish.
Having collected about a thousand gallons of oil, Lambert
wrote to a friend, Capt. Briggs, giving him an account of the
island, and proposed, that ho should purchase a schooner of
about twenty-five tons ; make his brother master of her ; and
send it for the oil and skins he had collected, with three or
four boats, and provisions for twelve months : Briggs to find
the money and take half the profits.
Lambert remained on the island till May 17, 1812 : when,
under pretence of collecting wreck, he and one of his com
panions quitted the island in a boat ; leaving his empire in
possession of Currie and the native of Minorca. Currie had
accompanied Lambert under an engagement of receiving
wages and a share of the produce, during his stay : but
received nothing. After Lambert s departure, he and his
companion suffered many hardships ; and the chief of their
stock was taken from them by the vessels that came to the
island.
Upon Napoleon s arrival at St. Helena, it was deemed
adviseable to take possession of this island ; and the Falmouth
frigate was, in consequence, despatched, and arrived in the
month of August, 1816. Currie and his companion imme
diately placed themselves under the captain s protection *.
* At this time they had three huts, covered with reed ; twenty acres of vege-
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 87
New Island (one of the Falkland Islands) has, of late,
become remarkable for having been the solitary residence
of a Captain Barnard, an American, whose vessel was run
away with in the year 1814, by the crew of an English ship,
which, on her passage from Port Jackson, had been wrecked
on the south side of this island. Capt. Weddell, in his
voyage from the South Polar Regions, met with Capt. Bar
nard in 1821, and from him learnt the following account :
" Capt. Barnard was at New Island with his vessel, in the
performance of a voyage for seal-furs, and when on the south
side of the island, he met with the crew of a wrecked English
ship. Their number was about thirty, including several pas
sengers, some of whom were ladies. He kindly took them to
his vessel, treated them with all the hospitality which their
destitute condition required, and promised to land them,
on his passage home, at some port in the Brazils. Owing
to the additional number of people, hunting parties were
frequently sent out to procure supplies ; and, when the
captain, with four of his people, were on an excursion of this
kind, the wrecked crew cut the cable, and in defiance of the
Americans who were on board, ran away with the ship to Rio
Janeiro ; whence they proceeded to North America a ."
On Capt. Barnard s return, he was struck with astonish
ment at finding his ship carried off. On reflection, however,
he soon guessed the cause ; which he attributed to the fear of
being taken to America, where they would become prisoners
of war. Nothing in the way of supplies having been left for
him and his four companions, he was forced to consider how
they were to subsist ; and recollecting that he had planted a
few potatoes, they directed their attention to them, and in
tables, forty breeding sows, and two boars ; but the American privateers had
robbed them of all their ducks and fowls. For a later account, see Earle s
Narrative of a Nine-Months Residence in New Zealand and Tristan d Acunha,
8vo, 1832.
a It is to be lamented, that Captain Weddell has not published the name of
the vessel to which these unworthy people belonged.
88 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the course of the second season obtained a serviceable supply.
They had a dog, which now and then caught a pig ; and the
eggs of the albatross, which were stored at the proper season,
with potatoes, formed a substitute for bread, and the skins of
the seals for clothes. They built a house of stone, still
remaining on the island, which was strong enough to with
stand the storms of winter, and they might have been com
paratively happy, but that they were cut off from their
relations and friends.
To add to the misfortunes of Capt. Barnard in being sepa
rated from his wife and children, his companions, over whom
he exercised no authority, but merely dictated what he consi
dered was for their mutual advantage, became impatient even
of this mild controul, took an opportunity to steal the boat,
and he was left on the island alone. Being thus abandoned,
he spent the time in preparing clothes from the skin of the
seals, and in collecting food for winter. Once or twice a day,
ho used to ascend a hill, from which there was a wide
prospect of the ocean, to see if any vessel approached ; but
always returned disappointed and forlorn : no ship was to be
observed ! The four sailors, in the meanwhile, having expe
rienced their own inability to provide properly for themselves,
returned to him after an absence of some months. He still
found much difficulty in preserving peace among his com
panions ; indeed one of them had planned his death ; but, for
tunately, it was discovered in time to be prevented. He
placed this man alone, with some provisions, on a small island
in Quaker Harbour ; and, in the course of three weeks, so
great a change was made in his mind, that when Capt. Bar
nard took him off, he was worn down with reflection on his
crimes, and became truly penitent.
They were now attentive to the advice of their commander.
In this way they continued to live, occasionally visiting the
neighbouring island in search of provisions, till the end of two
years, when they were taken off by an English whaler, bound
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 89
for the Pacific. Capt. Barnard informed Capt. Weddell,
that a British man-of-war had been sent expressly from Rio
Janeiro to take them off, but by some accident the vessel,
though at the Islands, did not fall in with them a .
The peopling of PIT-CAIRN S ISLANDS has excited much
interest in Europe, and in all the British Asiatic settlements.
Captain Bligh having sailed, in 1790, in order to plant the
bread-fruit tree in one of the South Sea islands, his crew
mutinied, and putting him in a boat, they sailed for Otaheite,
where each sailor took a wife. With these women, and six
Otaheitan men-servants, the mutineers again set sail ; and
after passing a Lagoon island, which they called Vivini, and
where they procured birds eggs and cocoa nuts, they ran
their ship ashore on Pitcairn s Island, situate 25 degrees
2 seconds south latitude, and 130 degrees west longitude.
Finding the island small, having but one mountain, and
that adapted for cultivation, they put up temporary houses,
made of the leaves of the tea-tree, until they were able to
cover them with palms. In this island they found yams, taro,
plantains, the bread-fruit tree, and ante, of which they made
cloth. They climbed the precipices, and procured eggs and
birds in abundance : they made small canoes, and fished ; and
they distilled spirits from the roots of tea. In this manner
the whole party lived four years : during which time there
were born to them several sons and daughters. But a
jealousy arising between the English and their Otaheitan ser
vants, the latter revolted, and murdered all the former, except
one, Adam Smith ; whom they severely wounded with a
pistol-ball. The women, upon losing their husbands, to whom
they had become exceedingly attached, rose in the night, and,
stealing silently to the place where their countrymen lay, mur
dered them. By this act there remained upon the island only
I find this account in my portfolio ; but whether I merely extracted or
compiled it from Captain Weddell s account, I do not remember.
90 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
one Englishman (Smith), the Otaheitan women, and the
children.
Thus left to their own exertions, Smith and the women
applied themselves to tilling the ground ; in which they culti
vated plantains, nuts, bananas, yams, and cocoas. Their
animals consisted of pigs and fowls ; but having no boilers,
they dressed their food after the manner of Otaheite. They
made cloth, and clothed themselves also like the Otaheitans.
Thus situated, they were at length discovered by an Ameri
can captain, who chanced to sail that way. At this time
the children had grown to be men and women ; and the popu
lation amounted to thirty-nine. They looked upon Smith as
their patriarch ; they spoke English ; and they were brought
up under his tuition, in a moral and religious manner.
Some time after they were discovered, their population
increased considerably ; they parted with their still, and
obtained a boat. Their ceremonies of marriage, baptism,
and funerals, were plain and simple ; none of them learnt to
read ; but great strictness was observed in respect to reli
gious duty. Many ships afterwards visited them : and in
September, 1819, a subscription was entered into, at Calcutta,
to supply them with ploughs and other useful articles. These
were sent by Captain Henderson, who undertook to land
them in the Hercules, on his voyage to Chili. In 1819, not
a quarrel had taken place among the inhabitants for eighteen
years !
Since the above was written, they have quitted the island.
A letter from Sydney, dated June 12, 1831, states, that the
Surry had touched some time before at this island, and found
the inhabitants living in an undisturbed security, and appa
rently blessed with every possible happiness. Capt. Beechey,
also, gives, in his voyage to the Pacific a , a very agreeable
account of them. In August, 1831, however, an American
Vol. i. p. 27, 4to.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 91
newspaper informed us, that Captain Wilcox, of the whaling
ship Maria Theresa, had arrived at Bedford, and stated, that
while he was at Otaheite the English transport-ship, the
Lucian, arrived there with all the inhabitants of Pitcairn s
Island, for the purpose of settling them at Otaheite, on
account of a scarcity of water.
In December, 1831, it was stated in an English newspa
per, that they had been removed to Otaheite by his Majes
ty s ship the Comet ; that they amounted to eighty-six
persons ; and that they appeared to be dissatisfied with the
Otaheitans for being too dissolute. Is innocence never to
have a resting-place a ?
. a They have since returned to their own island. " At the time of Captain
Beechey s visit, considerable apprehensions were entertained, that, by the rapid
increase of the colony, the island might prove inadequate to the support of its
inhabitants. It, therefore, appeared desirable to remove them to some other
island, which offered a more certain prospect of support for their increasing
numbers. Accordingly, an arrangement having been effected between the
British Government and the authorities of Otaheite, for a grant of land for
their use on that island, the Comet sloop, Captain Sandilands, arrived at Pit-
cairn s Island on the 28th of February, 1831, and offered to take on board any
of the inhabitants who were desirous of removing to Otaheite. On the 7th of
March, the whole colony had accepted the offer, and, with their little property,
sailed for that island. Their reception was cordial and friendly, and they were
located on a rich tract of land ; but the experiment did not succeed. The
manners of the Otaheitans were so different from their own, and the dissolute
conduct of some so disgusted them, that they were unhappy ; they were also
attacked with diseases new to them, and seventeen of their number died. They
requested to be allowed to return, and were, accordingly, put on board an
American vessel, and taken back to their native island. Subsequent accounts
state, that their transient stay at Otaheite was by no means favourable to their
morals ; it had unsettled them, and some had addicted themselves to drunken
ness, and others to bad vices. In addition to this, John Buffet, and two other
Englishmen of dissolute habits, had married native women, and settled on the
island, and their influence had tended greatly to demoralise the colony. The
latter, however, had been brought to a sense of their duty by the timely
arrival of a respectable gentleman, named Joshua Hill, who, at the age of
seventy years, had left England to settle amongst them, as their pastor and
preceptor. At his suggestion they destroyed their stills, established a tempe
rance society, and returned in some measure to their former state of order and
moral discipline. They are happy at having got back ; and the three English
men who had done so much harm by their immoral example, agreed to leave
92 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES.
COLONIES,
THE manner in which cities have been founded, and states
organised, is another interesting subject for remark. Colo
nies have been formed, as checks on conquered countries; as
media of extending particular branches of commerce ; or in
order to discharge a superabundant population. Some by
persons, labouring under civil or military inconveniences ;
others by martyrs in the cause of their faith. Some derived
their origin from contagious disorders, ambition of chiefs,
vows, or commands of oracles. The Greeks established theirs
for all of these causes ; but chiefly in order to relieve their
cities from a redundancy of inhabitants. The Tartars, Huns,
Goths, and Vandals, emigrated with similar views ; the Ro
mans formed colonies as checks on the countries they had
conquered; the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and
English, chiefly for the purposes of commerce.
The most celebrated of colonial establishments in ancient
times, were those of the Italians in Sicily, before Christ 1294;
of Evander, who led a colony of Greeks into Italy in 1243 ;
of the Phoenicians to Carthage, 1235; of the Ionian colo
nies in 1044 ; of the Messenians to Rhegium in 723 ; and of
the Athenians to Byzantium in 670. Miletus, the Athens of
Ionia, sent many colonies along the shores of the Euxine,
Propontis, and Hellespont. The Cretans, previous to the
time of Agamemnon, had made settlements on many coasts
of Europe and Asia : while the Samians sent a colony
even to Upper Egypt. Samos itself, after many revolu
tions, was colonized by the Athenians, and partitioned
into two thousand parts ; one part being apportioned to
one colonist.
the island. The latest return made their numbers seventy-nine ; and a closer
examination of the island has proved that it is capable of supporting one thou
sand persons ; so that no apprehensions of an overgrown population need be
entertained for many years to come."
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 93T
The Lydians colonized Tuscany ; the Rhodians founded
Naples, and some cities in Iberia ; while the Phocians sent a
colony to Marseilles. This settlement was highly important
for the harmony, which, for so many ages, it preserved ; and
for the benefits which resulted to the country, in which it was
established : Marseilles being the Athens, Oxford, and Cam
bridge, for the youths of Gaul, and no inconsiderable portion
of Spain, Germany, and Britain. It is curious to remark,
however, that though Marseilles was eminent for so many
ages, not one author, residing within its walls, has survived
the wreck of learning and science.
The most remarkable emigration, in modern times, is that
of 500,000 Tour-Goths, from the shores of the Caspian to
the Chinese frontiers. Nor did ever a government receive a
greater insult, than that of Russia in the resolution of those
emigrants to encounter so long and so difficult a journey, in
order to throw themselves under the protection of a foreign
prince, rather than submit to the insults of an unprincipled
conquest.
But history presents no colonization, so agreeable to the
imagination as that of Pennsylvania by the immortal Penn ;
whose enlightened philosophy, private and public difficulties,
faith with the native Americans ; the urbanity of his compa
nions ; their order, purity, and precision ; present a com
bined picture, > whether relating to manners or to circum
stances, which throw into the shade the whole history of
empires : deformed, as it is, with every variety, arising out
of sacrilege, robbery, treachery, assassination, and public
murder ; sanctioned by custom, dignified by law, and hal
lowed into glory.
The United States of America are chiefly indebted for
their population, civilization, and consequent power, to the
impolicy of European administrations : factions, civil wars,
difficulties in procuring subsistence, or the hope of bettering
their condition, having induced a great number of Swiss,
y4 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
German, French, Irish, Scotch, and English emigrants to
quit their native soils, and seek in a distant country subsist
ence and repose.
One observation, however, in respect to colonies, it is very
important to record. They are mere merchants: seeming to
have no conception beyond the vulgar wants and passions of life.
What have the colonists either of Spain, Portugal, France,
or England, done for the imagination, or the judgment, of
superior men ? Those settled in Africa, nothing ; in Ame
rica, nothing ; and in Asia, comparatively nothing ; if we
except a few translations, and a few treatises on local anti
quities a . In Greece it was otherwise. Nor is it possible
to contemplate, without the liveliest admiration, the gems
both of history and of poetry, that the Greek colonists of
Sicily, Doria, and Ionia, left for the instruction, and de
light of mankind. Scarcely a city of those countries, but
has recommended itself to the gratitude of posterity !
Homer, Theocritus, Herodotus; but the list were multi
tudinous.
Liberty came from the North ; the sciences and the arts
from Egypt, Greece, Arabia, and other parts of the East.
These we have imported with safety ; since we have had suffi
cient grace to perceive, that despotism was unworthy of impor
tation. But as a drawback on these advantages, Europe owes
some of its disorders to her intercourse with Asia. It is
remarkable that in the year, which gave birth to Mahomet,
the measles, the small-pox, and the hydrophobia, were first
known in Arabia. The two former emigrated from Ethiopia.
These disorders have subsequently been transplanted into
Europe.
As Europe, in this particular, has suffered by an inter
course with the East, Africa and the Pacific are under a
similar disobligation to Europe. The Portuguese introduced
the gonorrhoea and the elephantiasis into the Congo country :
This was written in 1817.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 95
and other Europeans left the small-pox and the lues in the
South Sea Islands. The natives complain, that the Spaniards
left them the swelled throat ; Cook the intermittent fever ;
Vancouver the dysentery ; and Bligh the scrofula. Europe
has also introduced to them a new and more destructive
method of making war.
The diffusion of knowledge, by creating a vibration of in
terests from one end of the globe to the other, has annihi
lated space ; by bringing countries, the most remote, into
contact with each- other. This has led to a juster equili
brium in respect to civilization. For commerce is one of
the greatest and most profound of all instruments, for effect
ing the result Nature has instituted, by establishing a com
munity of wants. The second instrument of civilization
arises out of the greatest of all moral calamities war. For
savage countries and corrupt nations, as an elegant writer
has remarked, gain essential and lasting advantages, by
being conquered by a people, governed by wiser laws, and
distinguished by more humane institutions than themselves.
The effects of Roman conquests yielded, in point of interest
to those who w r ere conquered, only to the advantages, which
have been the constant results of British conquests ; whe
ther in America, in Africa, or in Asia.
Such are the advantages arising from war, from com
merce, and from colonization. But those, who emigrate,
seldom cease to lament the country they have quitted ; and
hence they are at all times ready to address that country in
imagination, as a lover addresses the mistress he has left
behind :
Where er I go, whatever realms I see,
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my country turns with ceaseless pain,
And drags, at each remove, a lengthened chain !
96 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
PLEASURES OF CONTEMPLATION.
BUT we have ventured on these subjects too widely and too
long. Nature is so captivating ; her methods so various ; her
laws so mysterious ; her similitudes so beautiful ; and her
contrasts so magnificent : we are led so insensibly from
plants to insects ; from insects to fishes, birds, and quadru
peds ; thence to the subject of emigration ; and, lastly, to
the love of the country, which gave us birth, that though we
have become enriched by the various transitions, we have
become embarrassed also.
In drawing similitudes, and making contrasts, the mind,
though spiritualized, as it were, by the contemplation, is
able to look into Nature only in parts. Nature, as a whole,
it has no power to approach. Men, in whom the energy of
spontaneous ambition excites no appetite for the investigation
of phenomena, are satisfied that effects cannot always be
elicited from causes, and that causes cannot always be traced
from results. And because Nature is stupendous in her
works, and mysterious in her operations, they are unwilling,
and indeed almost fearful, to exercise the powers, she has
delegated. But they cannot always resist the majesty of
their Creator ! For no pleasures are so bland in their qua
lities, or so pure in their sources ; and none are there so
worthy the vast capacities of the human mind. And though
nothing is entirely certain, but that space is infinite, yet, as
things present bear presumptive evidence to things unseen,
the mind delights in the endeavour to trace the beauties, the
harmonies, and the sublimities, of the material universe, not
only up to Nature, but to " Nature s God."
When the waves break upon the distant shore with a wild,
solemn, melancholy, yet delightful murmur ; when we observe
the regular succession of the seasons ; the rising of the sun
from behind rocks lifting their spires, as it were, to the
clouds ; when we behold meteors ; comets ; planets ; the
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 97
blue vault ; and the uniform reproduction of animal and
vegetable life ; we feel, that sublimity dwells in beauty, beauty
in order, and order in sublimity. An homage, at once pure
and ardent, meditative and reflective, diffuses the cheek of
manly virtue with delicious tears ; and, turning with disgust
and impatience from the cold spectacle of artificial life, light is
beheld, where others see only mystery ; clemency and bene
volence are observed to proceed out of apparent cruelty ;
truth springs even out of optical and mental delusions ; and
out of apparently frigid commentaries are elicited the benefits
of justice and wisdom. The INFINITE is every where, and
speaks in all things.
NATURAL ENJOYMENTS.
As our sensual enjoyments acquire a zest from a union with
the mental, so each of them derives additional gout from
those objects, which flatter the appetites of both. A fine day,
therefore, as Sir William Temple has observed, is as much a
sensual, as it is a mental enjoyment. " It is a banquet given
by Heaven to earth." It unites the character of luxury and
temperance.
The Italians live in the air. Walking under piazzas ;
sitting in porticos ; and reclining under bowers, many of
their domestic banquets are peculiarly agreeable a . How
much more pleasure some of us derive from the simplest of
collations, under the shade of a tree, than from the most
luxurious banquet in a dining-room, every person of taste is
ready to acknowledge. When we are enjoying the society
of ladies, of a fine summer s evening, in a drawing-room,
opening into a green-house, who will not confess, that the
effects of their conversation are far more flattering to the
a Cur non sub alta vel platana, vel hac
Piu jacentes, &c. &c. HOR. Carm. lib. ii. 2.
VOL. H. H
98 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
mind, than at those moments, when, dressed in all the splen
dour of decoration, their persons derive additional lustre
from the blaze of Grecian lamps, the heat of fires, and the
reflection of mirrors ? How agreeable to our palate are our
grapes, pines, and nectarines, when partaken in a bower,
formed of roses and honeysuckles, which seem to vie with
each other in imparting their fragrance to our peaches and
our melons ! If these are not the " Cosnse decrum" of Horace,
they are at least the " epulse deorum." Sherry becomes Bur
gundy, water nectar, honey manna, and bread ambrosia.
While the flageolet, which merely pleases in the odeum,
enchants us among rocks ; and seems even to articulate, if it
be sounded in a narrow valley or glen, where the music of its
echoes charm even more than the modulations of the instru
ment itself.
No slumber is more delightful than that, which is brought
on by the mingled sounds of natural music. Dryden alludes
to this lulling power, in his poem of Cymon and Iphigenia.
The lovely nymph lies sleeping on the banks of a river :
" The fanning wind upon her bosom blows ;
To meet the fanning wind her bosom rose ;
The fanning wind, and purling stream, continue her repose."
Virgil speaks of " Molles sub arbore Somni a ;" Lucretius
has a similar passage b : while the power of natural objects
to lull the senses of the elegant, is beautifully insinuated by
Horace c ; and more particularly alluded to by Spenser, in his
Bower of Bliss. One of the archbishops of Saltzburgh fre
quently dined in his garden and his aviary : and Leopold,
emperor of Germany, twice took a collation under the shade
of the hazel tree, growing in the city of Frankfort. " I had
rather dine under this tree," said his imperial majesty, "than in
the finest palace in Germany." And here, my Lelius, you must
excuse me, for quoting one of your own letters, written from Y il-
a Georg. ii. 1. 470. Lib. ii. Lib. v. Ep. ii. 23. 27.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 99
leneuve, situated in the bosom of the Savoy mountains. " When
I arrived at the bridge, crossing the Doron, I sat myself down
upon the grass, took out my wallet, and regaled myself with a
few dates and oranges, I had brought with me in my fishing-
bag, with great satisfaction. Perceiving a cottage at some
distance, I walked thither ; and, procuring some milk and a
little honey, I enjoyed a repast, of which the patriarchs would
not have disdained to have partaken. I then laid myself
down upon the grass, and gazed for some time upon the clear
autumnal sky above ; and sent my imagination among those
innumerable globes, that invisibly fill the vast regions of space,
till sleep overtaking me in the excursion, I fell into a dream ;
and having partaken of an agreeable repast myself, I fancied
that I saw Camoens and Tasso reclining under orange trees ;
and satisfying their hunger with the fruits above them, which
they were not always capable of doing, when in this world of
trouble and misfortune. On the other hand, Voltaire, -
the companion of kings, was weaving a crown of laurel for
them ; and the princes, in whose reigns Tasso was a prey to
melancholy, and Camoens died of hunger in the streets, were
eating wild leeks, and drinking water from a fountain, in
which were a vast number of crawling reptiles."
BANQUETS.
As a contrast to the simple enjoyments of moderate appe
tites, I shall present you with an account of the banquets of
princes. Diodorus Siculus relates, that an Agrigentine, on
the marriage of his daughter, feasted upwards of 20,000 per
sons. The brother of the Emperor Vitellius once treated
him with 2,000 fishes, and 7,000 birds ; all " scarce and
exquisite."
Had Vitellius lived, says Josephus, not even the whole
revenue of the Roman empire could have maintained his table !
H 2
100 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Heliogabalus, who was the first Roman that ever clad himself
in silk, never ate fish when he resided near the sea ; nor any
fowls, or meat, but what came from a great distance a . His
horses he fed with grapes ; his lions and tigers with par
tridges, quails, pheasants, and woodcocks ; and his dogs with
the livers of ducks, geese, and turkeys ; while he ate for his
daily food the heads of parrots and peacocks, the combs of
cocks, and the brains of thrushes and nightingales. To
these banquets, he would frequently invite eight old men,
blind of one eye; eight bald; eight deaf; eight lame with
the gout ; eight blacks ; eight exceedingly thin ; and eight
so fat, that they could scarcely enter the room ; and who,
when they had eaten as much as they desired, were obliged to
be taken out of the apartment on the shoulders of several
soldiers.
At the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the
reign of Edward IV., the Right Reverend Primate gave a
feast, in which were consumed b 104 oxen, 304 calves, 306
swine^ 1,000 sheep, and 2,000 pigs ; 104 peacocks, 400 swans,
1,000 capons, 2,000 geese, 5,500 venison pasties, and 5,000
custards. There were also consumed 300 quarters of wheat,
300 tuns of ale, and 100 tuns of wine.
At the dinner, given by Henry of Winchester, at the nup
tials of his sister-in-law, Cincia, with Prince Richard, cele
brated at Westminster, November 23, 1243, there were no
n In respect to his appetite, ^Elius Lampridius says, " Comedit ssepius ad
imitationem Apicii calcanea camelorum, et cristas vivis gallinaceis deruptas,
linguas pavonum et lusciniarum : quod qui ederet ab Epilepsia tutus diceretur."
Antony had once eight boars roasted for his supper. Cleopatra dissolved a
pearl, worth 125,000 Italian ducats, and drank it. Caligula frequently dis
solved pearls in vinegar, and served them up to his guests. In the reign of
Aurelian, a centurion, named Phagon, ate, in one day, a pig, a sheep, 100
loaves, and a wild boar ; and Albinus is said to have consumed 40 dozen
oysters, 100 woodpeckers, 20 Ib. of grapes, 10 melons, and 100 peaches.
Spartian relates, that Geta was accustomed, at his feasts, to have the
dishes served up according to the first letters of their names ; as peas and pork,
veal and venison, &c. &c. b Leland, Collectanea.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 101
less than 30,000 dishes. In the reign of Edward the Fourth,
the Earl of Warwick s brother entertained a large portion of
the nobility and clergy upon being installed Archbishop of
York. At this feast were consumed eighty fat oxen ; six
wild bulls ; 200 kids ; 300 hogs ; 300 calves ; 300 pigs ;
1,004 wethers; and 4,000 rabbits: 100 peacocks; 200 cranes;
200 pheasants ; 400 plovers ; 500 partridges ; 2,000 chick
ens ; 2,000 woodcocks ; 3,000 geese ; 3,000 capons ; 4,000
ducks ; and 4,000 pigeons : 400 bucks, does, and roebucks ;
1,506 hot venison pasties, and 4,000 cold ones; 300 pikes;
300 breams ; four porpoises, and eight seals : 400 tarts ;
1,000 dishes of jelly parted; 4,000 dishes of plain jelly;
and 6,000 custards. There were also consumed 300 quar
ters of wheat ; a pipe of spiced wine ; 350 tuns of ale ; and
104 pipes of wine.
In the time of William of Rosenberg, the annual revenue
of a small state was frequently expended at a marriage. This
nobleman, being one of the richest in Bohemia, married Mary,
Margravine of Baden. At this marriage were drank 40
tuns of Spanish wine; 1,100 setiers of Austrian, Rhenian,
and Tyrolian wine ; besides vast quantities of liquors. The
festivities began on the 26th January, 1378, and closed on
the 1st of May : during which time there were consumed 150
oxen ; 450 sheep ; 546 calves ; and 634 hogs : thirty heath-
cocks ; 240 pheasants ; 2,050 partridges ; and not less than
2,130 hares. Besides these, there were 120 pieces of other
game, and forty stags. Of poultry, there were 3,106 capons
and pullets, with 5,135 geese, garnished and attended with
30,997 eggs. The quantity of fish consumed was equally
surprising ; as most of them were river fish : 675 lampreys ;
6,080 trout; 1,820 carp; and 10,209 pike; besides 350
tails of stock-fish ; 2,600 lobsters ; and 7,096 dried fish of
different descriptions.
As a companion to this we may enumerate the quantity of
102 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
provisions, consumed at the festival, given by the Duke of
Orleans, at his chateau of Villers-Cotterets, to Louis the
Fifteenth, after his coronation.
There were consumed 3,071 Ibs. of ham ; 10,550 Ibs. of
bacon and hog s lard ; 29,045 head of poultry and game ;
100,809 Ibs. of butcher s meat ; 5807. worth of sea and fresh
water fish; 150,096 Ibs. of bread; 36,464 eggs, and 6,660 Ibs.
of butter : 800 bottles of old hock ; 200 hogsheads of com
mon wine ; 80,000 bottles of Champagne and Burgundy ; and
3,000 bottles of liqueurs : 800 pomegranates; 2, 000 Ibs. of
sugar-plums ; 15,000 Ibs. of sweetmeats ; 65,000 oranges and
lemons ; and 150, OOOlbs. of apples and pears: l,5001bs. of cho
colate; 2, 000 Ibs. of coffee, besides tea; and 8,000 Ibs. of sugar.
It is said, that where Nature furnishes a guest, she seldom
fails to furnish a banquet : but profusion like this must have
caused many a father to pine for the misery of his unfortunate
infants.
The wealth of the entertainer, and the magnificence of the
fete, may be still further illustrated by an allusion to the linen ;
the number of china dishes and plates ; and the gold and
silver utensils. These were 900 dozens of napkins; 2,000
dozens of aprons for the various cooks, and other persons
employed ; with 3,300 table-cloths. There were, also, 20,000
pieces of crystal dishes, on which to serve sweetmeats, &c. ;
30,000 china plates and dishes for the dessert; 11 5, 000 glasses
and decanters ; with 50,000 plates, dishes, tureens, and other
pieces of silver and gilt silver.
Such were the feasts of princes ! The comforts of a social
family what are they to the vile raptures of a military peo
ple ? The Romans of the empire delighted in the shows of
animals. In the days of the republic, Pompey was drawn in
triumph by elephants; and Antony by lions. Aurelian
was drawn by deer ; Firmus by ostriches a : Heliogabalus,
8 August. Hist.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 103:
sometimes by four lions ; then by four tigers ; now by four
elephants ; then by four mastiffs ; not imfrequently by four
camels ; and once by four naked women ! At one time, he
caused to be collected a thousand rats ; at another time a
thousand weasels ; and at another ten thousand mice ; all
of which he exhibited to the Roman people : and, for the
purpose of estimating the magnitude of the city, he com
manded a collection of spiders a !
PASTORAL WRITERS.
MANY are the descriptions of pastoral life in the Scrip
tures ; particularly in the histories of Abraham, of Jacob^of
Joseph, of Ruth, and of David : and many are the allusions
in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. David was a shepherd,
Amos a herdsman, and several of the apostles fishermen.
The first Greek pastoral poet was Daphnis b , who invented
the Idyllion ; but as none of his works remain, Theocritus is
generally esteemed the father of pastoral poetry. Blest with
a lively genius, and born in a country enjoying serene skies,
this poet is as much superior to Virgil in beauty, simplicity,
and originality, as Virgil is superior to Ausonius, and the
whole host of his literal imitators c .
The Aminta of Tasso is, with the exception of Milton s
Comus, the most elegant pastoral drama in any language :
and, with Guarini s Pastor Fido, and Bonarelli s Filli-di-Sciro d ,
Gibbon has passed over these and many other curious circumstances ;
fearful, we may suppose, that they might encumber and degrade the dignity of
history.
b Vid. JEliau. Var. Hist. x. c. 18.
c Virgil s chief loss, in point of interest, arises out of his not having intro
duced some females, in the rural dramatis personse.
d This pastoral was translated, in 1655, by J. T. Gent, under the title of
" Filli-di-Sciro," or Phillis of Scyros. Du Bos calls Fontenelle s " Plurality
of Worlds" an eclogue. "The descriptions," says he, " and images, drawn by
the personages, are very suitable to the character of pastoral poetry ; and
104 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
was frequently represented by the Italian nobility in gardens
and groves, having no other scenery, than what the places, in
which they were represented, naturally afforded a .
Among the British, pastoral attained little of excellence
from the days of Spenser, Drayton, and Browne, to the time,
in which Bloomfield wrote his Richard and Kate, the Poor
Blacksmith, and the Miller s Maid. Affectation had long
been substituted for passion ; and delicacy and elegance for
that exquisite simplicity of language and sentiment, which
constitutes the charm of this delightful species of poetry.
Phillips is but an awkward appropriator of Virgil s imagery ;
and an unsuccessful imitator of Spenser s phraseology. As a
pastoral, Milton s Lycidas, too, notwithstanding the applause,
that has been heaped upon it, is frigid and pedantic ; while
his Epitaphium Damonis, boasting many agreeable passages,
merely denotes the elegance of an accomplished scholar. Pope
is too refined ; his versification too measured ; and his ideas
little more than derivations from the more polished and courtly
passages of his Sicilian and Mantuan masters. He addresses
the genius of the Thames, rather than of the Avon : and
adapts his sentiments, more to the meridians of Hagley and
Stowe, than to the meadows of Gloucestershire, or the vales
of Devon.
The "Gentle Shepherd" of Fletcher, however, may be
placed in competition with its prototype by Guarini : the pas
toral songs of Burns, and other Scottish poets, are equal to
those of any other age or nation : and the four pastorals
of Shenstone are even superior to any in Pope, Virgil, or
among those images there are several which Virgil himself would willingly have
adopted." Vid. Crit. Reflex, i. c. 22. That astronomy is a subject well adapted
to pastoral is certain, since the first astronomers were shepherds.
3 We are assured by Rosinus, that plays were acted under the shades of
trees, long before they were performed in theatres. It is certain that shop-
herds used to sing and recite their pastorals in those situations ; and hence
Cassiodorus derives the word Scena. In Greece, they were frequently
performed in the open air, and in the day-time.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 105
Theocritus. But none equal the mild and captivating Gess-
ner ; whose simplicity and tenderness have power to animate
the bosom of age, and to refine the passions of the young.
Superior to the rural poets of France and Spain, of England,
Scotland, and Italy, he united the elegance of Virgil to the
simplicity of Theocritus ; and decorated Nature, by adopting
the manners of the golden age. His " Death of Abel" is
almost worthy the pen of Moses ; his " First Navigator"
combines all the fancy of the poet, with the primeval simpli
city of the patriarch ; and his " Idyls" are captivating to all,
but the pedant and the sensualist.
It was his family, which rendered the geniusof Gessner so
irresistibly engaging. His wife and his children animated his
heart ; and he dipped his pen, as it were, in their bosoms. While
we are reading, we seem to be gazing on the pictures of his ima
gination; but we are, in reality, witnessing passages in his life.
One of his daughters chances to visit a poor woman out of
charity. Gessner is impressed with her intention, and imme
diately writes an idyl, in which one Zephyr says to another,
" Why flutterest thou here, so idly among the rose-bushes?"
" A maiden will soon pass along the path : she is as lovely as
the youngest of the Graces. At peep of dawn, she repairs with
a well-filled basket to the cot, which stands on yonder hill.
See ! That is the cot ; the mossy roof of which is now gilded
by the rays of the sun. In that cot dwells a female, afflicted
with sickness and poverty. She has two infants, both of
whom would weep with hunger by the side of her bed, did
not Daphne afford them relief and consolation, every day.
She will return by this very path ; her cheeks glowing with
pleasure, and tears of sympathy gemming her eyes. In this
rose-bush I wait till I perceive her coming. When she issues
from the cottage, I fly to meet her, laden with perfumes. I
fan her cheeks, and kiss the dewy pearls from her eyes. This
is my employment."
In this manner, Gessner rendered all the more agree-
106 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
able incidents of domestic life subservient to his genius.
Upon recovering from a Jit of illness, he composed his idyl
of " Daphnis and Chloe ;" in which, depicting the anxiety of
children, at the dread of losing their father, they indicate
their affection, by offering a sacrifice of all they possess ; ac
companying their offers with language the most innocent and
engaging. Something analogous occurring in the canton of
Zurich, Gessner wrote that history of the wooden leg, which
he calls a Swiss Idyl; but which is infinitely superior to any
idyl in Theocritus, or any bucolic in Virgil.
What was Gessner s wish ? All that a delicate imagination
might desire to possess ! A cottage overhung by walnut trees;
doves flying among the boughs ; a bee-garden, hedged with
hazels ; and, at each corner, a bower formed of vines. Behind
the garden a meadow ; and before it a grove of fruit-trees ; in
the midst of which a small lake, in the centre of which an
island, containing an arbour. On the south side of the
orchard a vineyard ; and on the north a field waving with
corn. " With such an habitation," says the poet, " the
richest of monarchs, when compared with myself, would be
comparatively poor."
The first pastoral poem, exhibited on the stage, was the
" Arethusa," by Lollio ; the second, the " Sacrificio," by
Beccari; the third, " Lo Sfortunato," by Arienti; the fourth,
the " Aminta ;" the fifth, " II Pastor Fido." So much was
the "Aminta" admired, that, within a few years after its first
appearance, Italy had no less than eighty dramatic pastorals ;
few of which, however, possessed merit; except BonarehTs
" Filli-di-Sciro," and Ongaro s " Alceo." The first pastoral
comedy is said by some to have been written by Tansillo; by
others the honour is given to Politian. Fontenelle consi
dered pastoral the oldest species of poetry ; because the occu
pation of a shepherd was the oldest employment. Hence
Boileau personified it, as a nymph at a feast of shepherds,
adorned with ornaments, gathered from the fields and mea-
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 107
tlows. Much more plausible is the idea of Fontenelle, than
that of Rapin ; who fancifully endeavours to trace the origin
of the pastoral drama to the " Cyclops" of Euripides !
" Nothing," says a celebrated traveller, " delights me so
much as the inside of a Swiss cottage. All those I have
visited convey the liveliest images of cleanliness, ease, and
simplicity ; and cannot but strongly impress on the observer
a most pleasing conviction of the peasants happiness." With
such models constantly before him, it is no subject for asto
nishment, that Gessner should be capable of painting such
exquisite companion pieces. But for a man, bred in the
school of dulness, as a country town invariably is; associating
with players ; and residing, for the principal part of his life,
in all the dust and poison of a city, how much are our wonder
and admiration excited, when we read the delineations of
pastoral manners, drawn in several dramas of that fine deli
neator of passion, Shakspeare ! That a master, so skilled
in the minute anatomy of the heart, should be capable of
divesting himself of all that fatal knowledge to sound " wild
wood-notes," worthy of the reed of Tasso, is, of itself, a
singular phenomenon ; and proves our English bard to be
superior to Euripides.
As Colonna was walking, one day, in Mecklenburgh-square,
he met the poet Bloomfield. They had not seen each other
for two or three years ; and Colonna engaged him to break
fast the next day. As they were talking over their coffee,
Colonna inquired of his guest, whether he had been engaged
lately in any literary pursuit I " No," returned Bloomfield,
"my health has been declining; and my anxieties have pre
vented me from attending to literary labour of any sort. To
write," continued he, " we must be tranquil." " Ah !" re
turned Colonna, " to write, with any degree of effect, we
must, indeed, be tranquil. And yet, after all, it is misfor
tune, which gives that solemn tone to the feelings, which
impresses the mind so deeply." u To paint the manners and
108 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
occupations of rural life," said he again, " the mind, or at
least my mind, must enjoy tranquillity." Bloomfield pines;
and General Delancey enjoys two thousand a year!
SHEPHERDS.
THERE is no occupation so fascinating to the imagination,
as that of the shepherd. This chiefly arises from the sim
plicity with which shepherds are introduced as actors on the
theatre of scripture ; where allusions to patriarchal manners
are so frequently occurring. It is a mode of life, which, in
some climates, must indeed be highly delightful.
Come hither, come hither ; by night and by day,
"We revel in pleasures, that never are gone :
Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away,
Another as sweet and as shining comes on *.
Job had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and
500 she-asses b ; and these were doubled at the end of his
trial c . He was the greatest proprietor in all the East.
Jacob, too, must have had large flocks and herds d ; since he
sent to his brother Esau, as a peace-offering, no less than 200
she-goats and 20 he-goats ; 200 ewes and 20 rams ; 30
milch camels, with their colts; 40 cows; 10 bulls; 20 she-
asses, and 10 foals.
Moses kept sheep on Mount Horeb : he had fled from
before Pharaoh, and was sitting by the side of a well, when
the daughters of Midian came to draw water for their father s
flock. When they arrived at the well, the neighbouring
shepherds came to drive them away : but Moses stood up
and assisted them. When these young maids returned to
their father s house, they told him of the assistance they had
received from Moses. Upon hearing this, Jethro invited the
Egyptian exile to his board ; married him to his daughter
a Moore. b Ch. i. v. 3. c Ch. xlii. v. 12.
d Gen. xxxii. v. H.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 109
Zipporah ; and gave him charge of all his flocks. These
flocks Moses kept on Mount Horeb ; where the God of the
Israelites appeared to him in a burning bush ; and where he
received the command to deliver the children of Israel from
the bondage, beneath which they laboured in the land of
Egypt.
Homer calls kings " shepherds of the people ; " and the
Messiah is represented as the Shepherd of the human race.
" Tell me, oh thou, whom my soul loveth, where thou feed-
est ; where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon ? If thou
know not, thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the
footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds 1
tents a ." In Isaiah b , " Jehovah in his goodness shall feed his
flock like a shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs with his arm ;
carry them in his bosom; and gently lead those that are with
young." In the Psalms c , the royal poet exclaims, " The
Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want ; he maketh me to lie
down in green pastures ; he leadcth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul."
In Ezekiel the prophet reproves bad shepherds. These are
represented as feeding themselves, and giving no food to their
flocks : as clothing themselves with their wool ; as neglecting
the sick ; neither binding up the wounds of those that are
injured; nor searching for those that are lost. In St. Mat
thew d , " When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne
of his glory ; and before him shall be gathered all nations ;
and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep
on his right hand ; but the goats on his left e ."
a Song of Solomon, ch. i. v. 7, 8. b Ch. xl. v. 11.
c Ps. xxiii. 1,2. <J Ch. xxv. 31.
8 The following passage, too, occurs in Mrs. Barbauld s admirable Hymns
for Children. Thus the association begins in the earliest period of life :
" Behold the shepherd of the flock, he taketh care for his sheep, he leadeth
1 10 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
In the earlier ages of Greece, shepherds were held in great
esteem. Their names were given to Mounts Cithseron and
the Caucasus : and in Egypt that of the shepherd, Philistis,
was given to one of the pyramids. Homer has many allusions
to this agreeable life. In one place he compares a general
marshalling his army, to a shepherd gathering his flock a : in
another, the clamour of a multitude to the bleating of sheep,
standing to be milked b : and in a third passage a general,
surveying his troops, to the delight of a shepherd leading his
flock to the mountains c . Similar passages occur in Tasso, in
Ariosto, and in Camoens.
Boccalini frequently illustrates his subjects by references to
flocks and herds. In one instance, he makes sheep and shep
herds illustrate the maxim, that the best means to make
nations quiet, humble, and obedient, is to afford them all pos.
sible opportunities of becoming rich d . In another he draws
a moral from the circumstance of the sheep having sent ambas
sadors to Apollo, to request being allowed long horns and
sharp teeth e . And in a third advertisement he makes Apollo
declare, that he loved husbandmen and shepherds far better
than nobility f .
The Afghauns are stated to be extremely partial to a pas
toral life. " They enter upon it," says an accomplished tra
veller g , " with pleasure, and abandon it with regret." The
them among clear brooks, he guideth them to fresh pasture. If the young
lambs are weary, he carrieth them in his arms ; if they wander, he bringeth
them back.
" But who is the shepherd s Shepherd ? who taketh care for him ? who
guideth him in the path he should go ? and, if he wander, who shall bring
him back ?
" God is the shepherd s Shepherd. He is the Shepherd over all ; he taketh
care for all ; the whole earth is his fold ; we are all his flock ; and every herb,
and every green field, is the pasture which he hath prepared for us.
" God is our Shepherd, therefore we will follow him ; God is our Father,
therefore we will love him ; God is our King, therefore we will obey him."
II. book ii. b II. book iv. II. book xiii.
d Adv. from Parnassus, Ixvii. e Adv. Ixxxviii. f Adv. xcii.
e Elphinstone.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. Ill
shepherds are emancipated from control ; a few families,
closely connected by blood and interest, associate together ;
and they require no magistrate. Feeling the charms of inde
pendence, they lead a life of ease. Their flocks supply them
with almost every thing they want ; and the frequent change
of scene, with hunting and guarding their flocks, give variety
to their lives, and afford relief from the listlessness of mono
tony.
The Guanchos of the Canary Islands have a curious opinion,
in respect to the efficacy of the bleating of lambs and sheep a :
when they want rain, therefore, they collect their flocks
into one spot. Then they separate the lambs from the
ewes ; upon which both set up a violent bleating, which the
Guanchos imagine will induce the Deity to favour them with
rain.
The Murtats of the Crimea keep numerous flocks of goats ;
while the Coriacs, wandering along the north-east sea of
Okotska, devote themselves to the pasturing and breeding of
deer. Some chiefs have not less than 5,000. In Zetland
and in Zealand, the shepherds pull the wool from them,
instead of shearing ; believing that practice to be the better
method of making it grow of a fine quality. In Japan there
is neither a sheep nor a goat. In the Taurida, they are, on
the contrary, so numerous, that flocks extend even" to 50,000:
and he is but a common proprietor, who has a flock of only
1,000. In Iceland, they are, of course, far from being nume
rous ; but every flock has a trained ram, which, let the night
be ever so dark and tempestuous, leads the sheep to their
fold. In many countries shepherds know the countenances
of every sheep ; and, among the Peruvian mountains, they
not only note their increase and decrease, but keep a strict
account of the day on which every lamb is owed ; and on
which every sheep dies.
Pales, the Tuscan goddess of shepherds, and whose annual
* Astley s Voy. vol. i. p. 549.
112 ON THE DEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
festival was on the 21st April, was unknown to the Greeks,
whose chief rural deity was PAN ; a name synonymous with
universal nature. When the Tuscan and other Italian pea
sants wanted a good crop of corn, they offered ears of corn ;
and when a good vintage, branches of grapes : but if they
desired a good lambing season, they offered large pails of
milk.
In the early ages of mankind, says Porphyry, " every
man was a priest in his own family ; and the only sacrifices
were fruits and vegetables." A few vestiges of this patri
archal mode of life still remain. They are found in Java ;
in some parts of America ; and even in Greenland ; where
examples are occasionally presented of the manners and
customs of ancient times. It is curious, however, to remark,
that countries, once occupied chiefly by shepherds, are in
the present age occupied in the same manner. It is not
thus with the other pursuits of life. The Dutch now live
like gardeners, and fishermen ; their Batavian ancestors like
herdsmen ; and the Britons, once living like hunters, and
hewers of wood, are now merchants, agriculturists, and manu
facturers.
It is also curious to remark, that the hunting and shep
herd states a were never known to exist in any quarter of the
torrid zone. But in Tartary they have prevailed from the
earliest ages : and it is said, that when Ghengis Khan con
quered China, there was a deliberation in his council, as to
the propriety of destroying all the Chinese ; in order that
the whole of that immense empire might be converted into
pastures for flocks and herds.
So agreeable is the shepherd s life, that even Jews have
taken to it. In the government of Cherson b there is a body
of them, consisting of four thousand ; who, having left their
" Kahnes, i. p. 103, second edit.
b Solomon, the converted Polish rabbi, Letter to the Rev. C. S. Hawtrey,
dated Kremenclmg, May 24, O. S. 1819.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 113
native trades in Poland, cultivate the soil, given them by
Alexander, emperor of Russia ; and live in the patriarchal
manner of former ages.
Spenser seems to have taken great pleasure in painting
this mode of life.
The time was once, in my first prime of years,
When pride of youth forth pricked my desire,
That I disdain d amongst mine equal peers
To follow sheep and shepherd s base attire.
For further fortune then I would inquire ;
And leaving home, to royal court I sought,
Where I did sell myself for yearly hire,
And in the prince s garden daily wrought :
There I beheld such vainness, as I never thought !
With sight whereof soon cloy d, and long deluded
With idle hopes, which them do entertain,
After I had ten years myself excluded
From native home, and spent my youth in vain,
I gan my follies to myself to plain ;
And this sweet peace, whose lack did then appear.
Though back returning to my sheep again,
I from thenceforth have learn d to love more dear
This lowly quiet life, which I inherit here.
Faerie Queene, B. vi. Cant. ix. St. 24, 25.
In Spain the country has received great injury, not so
much from the number of Merino flocks, as from the cus
tom, which has prevailed for many centuries, of traversing
every year the plains and mountains of the two Castiles, Bis
cay, and Arragon ; Leon, Estremadura, and Andalusia. In
these peregrinations, they do so much injury, that in one
province (Estremadura), there are only 200,000 inhabitants ;
when it is capable of maintaining upwards of two millions.
In 1778 there were seven flocks, which amounted in number
to no less than 220,000 a . Of these, the Duke of Infantado
had one flock, consisting of forty thousand ; the six remain
ing flocks consisted of thirty thousand each ; belonging to the
Countess of Campo Negretti ; the Marquis Perales ; the
Dillon, Trav. Spain, p. 47, 4 to.
VOL. II. I
114 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Duke of Bejar ; and the convents of Guadaloupe, Paular,
and the Escurial. The mesta seems also to have obtained
in ancient Italy ; for the shepherds used to drive their flocks
into Calabria in summer, and into Lucania in winter. This
is what Horace probably alludes to, when he says that his
sheep fed in agris longinquis a . In ancient Britain, too, the
shepherds, called Ceangi, traversed the plains with their
flocks and herds ; and vestiges of them b remain even to the
present day.
MUSIC.
THE painter says, " Open thine eyes, and I will delight
thee;" the philosopher, "Attend, and I will instruct thee;"
the musician, " Listen, and I will subdue thee." The passions
of the soul, assuredly, are more obsequious to music than to
any other art. This power to subdue has procured music, it
must be confessed, too much attention in this age of heartless
refinement. Young ladies play airs, as spiders spin cobwebs
to catch flies. The flies are caught. But Crabbe shall tell
us the result. " Full welV says he,
" Full well we know that many a favourite air,
That charms a party, fails to charm a pair :
And as Augusta play d, she look d around,
To see if one was dying at the sound ;
But all were gone a husband, wrapt in gloom,
Stalk d careless, listless, up and down the room!
Music gives an ambrosial character to every thing. But of
all instruments the ^Eolian harp, for a time, gives the greatest
play to the imagination of the poet c . Nature operates upon
3 Epist. viii. 1. 6. b Baxter, Gloss. Britt. p. 75.
c The Javanese have a tradition, that their first idea of music arose from the
circumstance of some one of their ancestors having heard the air make a melo
dious sound, as it passed through a bamboo tube, which hung accidentally on
a tree, and was induced to imitate it. Thus they fable that music came from
Heaven. In some of the Australasian Islands they have a curious species of
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 115
tliis instrument invisibly ; and the soul seems at one moment
to be wafted to the empyrean ; at another it is hushed into
the melody of tranquillity ; sounds become, 4s it were,
embodied ; and the soul almost visible.
It has been justly observed, that, of all relaxations for the
poor, the most delightful would be that of music. This art it
is, that gives such a charm to the winter evenings of the
French and German peasantry. A taste of this kind it would
be wise in masters and magistrates to encourage ; since it would
tend to soften the hearts of the poor, and civilise their manners.
The German with his flute, the Frenchman with his violin,
the Spaniard with his guitar, and the Italian with his mando-
lino, are far more graceful to the imagination, than whole
groups of English boxers and wrestlers. One day, it may
be hoped, English lands may be more equally divided; small
farmers again be known ; the peasantry again smile ; have
cottages, resembling those of Java a : and that each cottage
may have a garden, a well, a few fruit-trees, three or four
hives of bees, and a right of cutting fuel on heaths and
commons. These, added to the pleasure of hearing their
children modulate b on some rustic instrument, it would
rejoice my heart to see, and please my soul to hear c .
^Eolian instrument, formed of bamboo. Mons. Labillardicre listened to one
hanging vertically by the sea-shore. It elicited some fine cadences, inter
mixed with discordant notes. " I cannot convey a better idea of this instru
ment," says he *, " than by comparing its notes to those of the Harmonica."
a Vid. Raffles Hist. Java, i. p. 472.
b Whatever a musician has to do is comprised in the simple word " modula
tion." Augustine de Music, lib. i. Macrobius sums up the beneficial effects
of music in a single passage : " Dat somnos adimitque, nee non curas immitit
at retrahit, iram suggerit, clementiam suadet. Corporumque quoque morbis
medetur. " In Somn. Scipionis, lib. ii. c. 2.
c I presume to take the liberty of warning the gentry of this country
to beware of the arguments employed by some superficial economists of the
present day. In the whole history of human imperfection, throughout the
entire body of political ignorance, and in all the works, ancient or modern,
which have the smallest reference to the happiness of nations, there is no pas
sage so entirely heartless, so completely offensive in a moral view, and so
* Voy. in Search of La P^rouse, by D Entrecasteaux, vol. i. 349 350.
I 2
]16 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
In some parts of North Wales the women used to assemble
at each other s houses, or under some large tree, in summer,
and spin tlteir woollen yarn, having a harper to amuse and
delight them a . The harp is still in frequent use in that
diametrically opposite to the benevolent spirit of the Christian code, as] the
following canon. It is, in fact, one of the most atheistical and detestable doc
trines ever broached : and it is a passage which Mr. Mallhus ought immediately
to cancel: " A man, who is born into a world, already possessed, if he cannot
get subsistence from his parents, on whom he has a just demand, and if the
society do not want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of
food ; and, in fact, has no business to be where he is. At Nature s mighty feast
there it no vacant cover for him. She tells him to be gone, and will quickly
execute her own orders, if he does not work upon the compassion of some of
the guests. If these guests get up, and make room for him, the order and
harmony of the feast are disturbed." If this system is to be adopted, adieu to
all the comforts of the poor ; and an equal adieu to all the respectability of
the rich.
Since these remarks appeared, the whole passage has been cancelled : but,
alas ! the spirit of the precept spread far and wide ; and at length the LEPROSY
crept into the two houses of Parliament, and produced the most heartless,
ignominious, and disgusting act of legislation ever known in this country the
POOR-LAW AMENDMENT BILL. There are still hopes, however, that some
of its clauses may be moderated. April, 1837.
ON THE DECLINE OF SERENADING IN ITALY. In former times, the prac
tice was very general in Spain and Italy, among the great and high-born. A
serenata, indeed, was held to be an essential part of gallantry ; and the towns
of the south, during the beautiful nights of summer, were kept musical from
midnight to day-dawn by amorous cavaliers. As all knights had not good
voices, many of them employed vocalists ; but, during many ages, the proudest
of them thought it not beneath them to take a part in the concert. One of
the earliest serenaders we read of in Italy was, perhaps, the loftiest of them
all. This was Manfredi, son of the Emperor Frederic the Second, who after
wards became king of Naples and Sicily, and whose misfortunes were made
immortal by the genius of Dante.
According to Matteo Spinelli, a chronicler of the thirteenth century, this
accomplished prince, before he succeeded to the cares of a crown, resided a
good deal at the pleasant town of Barletta, on the shores of the Adriatic sea ;
" and there it was his wont to stroll by night through the town, singing songs
and ballads ; and so he breathed the cool air, and with him there went two
Sicilian musicians, who were great makers of ballads and romances."
We know not how it has happened, but the fact is obvious in Spain and
Italy, that the practice, after a decline which commenced about the middle of
the last century, has fallen into disuse, and out of fashion with the upper
classes, and is almost confined now to the lowest class.
At Venice, which used to take the lead, the chief serenaders now are barbers,
and they rarely take the field.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 117
country, though in South Wales it is almost unknown : and
no traveller of taste but remembers with pleasure the national
tunes, he has heard at the various inns, at which he has been
entertained a .
In Naples, where the exquisite moonlight nights inspire love with music its
most natural voice if you hear a guitar in the streets, it is almost sure to be
in the hands of an amorous coachman or sentimental barber. The style and
execution of these minstrels ra rely entitle them to a hearing ; and, so far from
meeting the respect paid in the olden times, to serenaders, they are not unfre-
quently saluted from the windows and house-tops, in the same manner that
Gil Blas was, when going to serenade Donna Mergelina " on lui coiffa d une
cassolette qui ne chatouillait point 1 odorat."
At Rome, where the popular taste is better, very pretty sweet music is some
times heard by night ; and young mechanics and servants sing airs, regularly
distributed into parts s with much feeling and ability. A modern traveller
observes, " Here the serenade is a compliment of gallantry by no means con
fined to the rich. It is customary for a lover, even of the lowest class, to haunt
the dwelling of his mistress, chaunting a rondo, or roundelay, during the period
of his courtship." But, in truth, this accomplished writer might have said,
that there, too, the compliment, instead of being monopolised by the rich, was
almost confined to the poor. He only recollects the serenades of mechanics ;
and during our different stays at Rome, we seldom, indeed, heard street-music
by night from any other class. A Roman nobleman would no more think of
thrumming the guitar under his mistress s window in the Corso or the Piazzi
di Spagna, than an English lord would of doing the like in Grosvenor-square.
Anon.
* The British bards * sung the brave actions of their chiefs to the sound of
the lyre ; and the Scythians f to those of the harp, which they are supposed
to have invented. At the time of Archbishop Baldwin s itinerary through
Wales, there was a harp in every house of respectability throughout the princi
pality. The utmost hospitality prevailed ; the dishes, plain and simple, were
placed on mats ; their platters were full of herbs ; the family waited while the
guests were served ; universal good-humour prevailed ; and the art of playing
on the harp was preferred to all other descriptions of learning J. In the art of
singing, these artless sons of nature seem to have had even a knowledge of
counterpoint, for they sung in as many different parts as there were voices,
which united in one consonance in organic melody : a custom which prevailed
at the same period in Britain, beyond the Humber.
Blackstone || informs us, that, in some manors, copyholders were bound to
hedge the lord s grounds, to top his trees, and reap his corn ; in return for
* Ammian. Marcellinus, lib. xv. c. 9. Diod. Sic. v. 31.
f Pelloutier, Hist, des Celtes, c. 9, p. 360, in notis.
J Girald. Camb. ii. 293. Hoare. Giral. Camb. p. 320.
II B. ii. c. 6.
118 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
The Scotch peasantry are attached to their bagpipes ; and
the superior orders are so delighted with music, that it is said
alone to have the power of making them enthusiasts. Pre
vious to the rebellion in 1745, the Highlanders used to
assemble at each other s cottages, and listen with delight, of
a winter s evening, to those fragments of Gaelic poetry, from
which Macpherson composed those poems, now dignified by
the name of Ossian. These fragments were, not unfre-
qucntly, sung to national airs. Genuine Scotch music owes
the peculiarity, by which it is distinguished, to its containing
the fourth and the seventh of the modern diatonic scale of
music. The same system of intervals is said a to distinguish
the music of Japan and China.
If, as ancient sages ween,
Departe d spirits, half unseen,
Can mingle with the mortal throng ;
Tis when from heart to heart we roll
The deep ton d music of the soul,
That warbles in our Scottish song b .
The Dervises of the East hold the flute to be the most
sacred of instruments ; because the shepherds of the Old Tes
tament sung hymns to it. The Turks and Moors are partial
to their cymbals and dulcimers ; and the Greeks are still
delighted with their lyres and flutes. They are indeed so
partial to music c , that they seldom hear a nightingale, but
they stop to listen to it.
How delightful, too, in former times, was it to hear the
violins of the peasantry in France ; and not unfrequently to
which he gave them meat and drink, and not unfrequently engaged a minstrel
for their diversion. He quotes also an instance of the same kind in the king
dom of Whidah *, in South- Western Africa, where the people in the king s
field are entertained with music during all the time of their labour. In many
parts of England, and Wales too, farmers employ fiddlers to play in the field,
while men are reaping or mowing.
a Macculloch. b Leyden. c De Guys, vol. iii. 83.
* Mod. Univ. Hist. xvi. 429.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 1)9
hear them sing anthems in the open air at the doors of their
cottages ! The Russian airs resemble Italian ones so much,
that when Kotzebue heard an Italian, at any time, sing in the
fields, he almost imagined himself transported into Russia.
This similitude has been attributed to the airs of both
countries having been originally derived from the ancient
Greeks.
Even the Americans begin to relish music. In the time of
Brissot they were accustomed to sit with their families on
benches in the front of their houses, enjoying the placidity of
the summer s evenings : a patriarchal picture now seldom
witnessed in that land of worldly impulses. But the back-
settler, in the midst of boundless forests, cheers the hours of
leisure and of winter frequently with an old violin : and the
boatmen, plying from La Prairie to Montreal, amuse them
selves and their passengers, across the Saint Laurence,
singing, in full chorus, songs in French a ; keeping time with
their oars ; and pausing at the end of each stanza ; when the
thread of the song is resumed by the steersman.
How far superior are those pictures by Italian masters,
which represent peasants, dancing by the light of the moon,
to the merry-makings of a Dutch painter, or even Wilkie s
Penny-wedding ! Claude frequently embellishes the most
lovely of his landscapes with similar groups. The vintage in
France is a season sacred to the poet and the painter ; it was
equally so in ancient Greece ; and few of its pictures were
more agreeable to the imagination than those, describing the
young of both sexes dancing ; while a youth in the midst of
them was tuning the fate of Linus. After dancing a short
time, the whole circle suddenly stopped, took up the melody,
and answered in chorus.
Lucian informs us, that in his time a shepherd was accus
tomed to place himself in the midst of his companions, who
danced round him, while he played upon the flute. At length
* Palmer s Trav. Amer. p. 210.
120 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the shepherd began to dance as well as to play, and then the
whole party exhibited the most elegant positions ; and the
evening passed as if it were consecrated to Apollo. Maximus
Tyrius even ascribes the origin of the drama to the songs
and dances of husbandmen, at the close of their harvests : and
one of the most beautiful subjects, found at Herculaneum,
represents a young villager, leaning on a pitcher near the
margin of a fountain. A shepherd, passing with his flock,
stops and plays an air on his pipe ; while the villager seems to
listen with timid and breathless rapture.
But, for the most part, the simple words " my own " have
more charms for mankind, than all the pieces of Mozart or
Handel ; a gold cup than a statue of Canova ; and men give
more honour to a man of rank, than to a poet of the first
order. These errors and prejudices will, one day, undulate
away.
Strabo relates, that as a musician was employing his
talents, in the streets of Lassus, a town chiefly inhabited by
fishermen, a crowd collected around him, and seemed to
enjoy his music with no little delight. At length the signal
being given, that the fish -market was open, all the fishermen
left him but one. When the musician saw only one remain
ing, he began praising his taste, and admiring the pleasure
with which he seemed to listen to the piece he had played ;
when the rest of his companions had precipitately left him,
upon hearing the first bell. " What ! " said the fisherman,
who was deaf, " has the bell rung ? By Jupiter, I did not
hear it ! " and off he ran after his brother fishermen.
A taste for melody is. almost universal ; a taste for harmony
is but slowly acquired. Melody delights us in youth; har
mony gratifies us in manhood ; but age recurs to melody,
because it associates the spring of life with its winter.
Haydn always spoke of those solitary hours, he had passed
in his garden, and in musical application, as the happiest of
his life. Mozart, to his other qualifications, loved Nature in
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 121
her most beautiful aspects. Gifted with talents, equalled
only by Haydn, and surpassed only by Handel, he lived in a
garden, in the suburbs of Vienna ; where he enjoyed every
fine evening of summer : attending to his flowers and shrubs ;
enjoying the delicious coolness of the air, in the society of his
wife and friends ; whom he frequently delighted with playing
over to them the pieces of music, he had recently composed.
Bombet a distinguishes the several eminent composers of
Germany and Italy, by associating them with painters.
Haydn he calls the Tintoret of Music ; Pergolese he asso
ciates with Raphael ; Sacchini with Correggio ; Hesse with
Rubens ; Paesiello with Guido ; Piccini with Titian ; and
Mozart with Domenichino. Durante has been styled the
Leonardo da Vinci, and Handel the Michael Angelo of
music.
Pergolesi died in 1733 ; Metastasio in 1782 ; Mozart in
1792 ; Cimarosa in 1801 ; and Haydn, the creator of sym
phony, in 1809. Cimarosa composed best, when surrounded
by his friends ; Paesiello in bed ; Sacchini in the society of his
mistress ; but Haydn in the solitude of his chamber. While
listening to the harmonies and melodies of these composers,
we seem to realise the sentiments of those Hindoos, who
explain their love of music, by asserting, that it recals to
mind the music of paradise, which they had heard in a pre-
existent state.
The musical instruments, now in use in Greece, are the
lyre, lute, bagpipe, tamboura, monochord, pipe, pipe of Pan,
and cymbals b . The pipe of Pan is generally the instrument
of the peasants. In some of the valleys in Sweden, a pipe,
resembling the old English flute, is used : among the Fin-
landers the harpu, with five strings. Their national melody
is the Runa ; and no inconsiderable number of Runic songs c
are the production of Finnish female peasants. The Lap-
1 P. 301. b Dodwell s Greece, vol. ii. p. 493, 4to.
e Acerbi.
J22 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
landers, on the contrary, are such entire strangers to music a ,
that they have not a single instrument.
There is not a finer collection of objects in the whole circle
of visible nature, than a view of the ocean on one side, and of
the harvest moon, rising from among purple clouds over the
summit of a gigantic range of mountains and rocks, on the
other. And yet how much solemnity does this assemblage
acquire from the murmuring of the waves, softly laving the
beach in autumn, or of the billows, rudely rushing against
the rocks in winter. The former of these scenes, too, is
magically improved by that interest, which can be lent to it
by the flute, the pipe, the flageolet, or the shepherd s reed.
As Barrow 5 was ascending Mount Teneriffe, the impressive
scene was heightened by the presence of a storm, during the
intervals of which were heard the sounds of the guides and
muleteers, singing in full chorus the midnight hymn to the
Virgin.
WRITERS OF DESCRIPTIVE ROMANCES.
THE concord of sounds is not more grateful to the genuine
lover of music, than Nature, exhibited in all its grace of
drapery, is to the generality of mankind. So common
is this taste, particularly with that part of the commu
nity, who are young, and of good dispositions, that there
is scarcely a writer of romance, who does not attempt to
gratify it. Hence our romance writers frequently select, as
the theatres of action, the forests of Germany, the vales of
Languedoc, the mountains of Switzerland, the plains of Tus
cany, or the delightful environs of Rome, Naples, and Palermo.
For elegance of taste and sentiment, for the variety and
strength, the beauty and force of her descriptions, Mrs. Hat-
cliffe, bred in the schools of Dante and Ariosto, and whom
the Muses recognise as the sister of Salvator Rosa, stands
Clarke, Scandiuav. p. 440. b Voy. to Cochiu China, p. 43, Ito.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 123
unrivalled in her department of romance. It is impossible
to read this enchanting writer, without following her in all
her magic windings. If she traverse the tops of the Pyre
nees, the romantic plains of Gascony, the odoriferous shores
of Languedoc ; the mountains of Switzerland, or the vales
of Savoy ; we are never weary of the journey. If she lead
us through a forest, at morning, evening, or in the gloom of
night, still are we enchained, as with a magic girdle, and fol
low from scene to scene, unsatiated and untired a .
Rousseau confesses, that when he was forming the plan of
his New Heloise, he was anxious to select a country, which
should be worthy of his characters. He was, in consequence,
some time before he could finally determine upon the pro
vince, in which he should lay the scene of that celebrated
romance. He successively called to mind the most delightful
spots that he had seen ; but he remembered no grove suffi
ciently charming ; no glen sufficiently beautiful. The valleys
of Thessaly would have fixed his wavering thought ; but those
valleys ho had never seen : and, fatigued with invention, he
desired a landscape of reality, to elicit his descriptive powers,
and to operate, as a point, on which he might occasionally
repose his strong, vivid, and excursive imagination. At
length, weary of selection, he fixed upon those vales, and
1 For this criticism Mrs. Ratcliffe was pleased to send me her thanks. Some
time after, I was invited to supper. Her conversation was delightful I She
sung Adeste Fideles with a voice mellow and melodious, but somewhat tremu
lous. Her countenance indicated melancholy. She had been, doubtless, in her
youth, beautiful. She was a great admirer of Schiller s Robbers. Her favourite
tragedy was Macbeth. Her favourite painters were, Salvator, Claude, and Gaspar
Poussin: her favourite poets, after Shakspeare, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton.
There was, for many years, a report that this accomplished lady was
afflicted with insanity. How the report came to be raised I know not ; but, I
believe, it never was the case. She had not only an elegant taste, but a com-
prehensive understanding. She died in 1823 ; and was buried in the chapel of
ease, (belonging to the parish of St. George, Hanover Square,) at Bayswater.
I have read her ROMANCE OF THE FOREST four times; her ITALIAN five
times ; her MYSTERIKS OK UDOLPHO nine times ; and my imagination is, even
now, always charmed whenever I think of either.
124 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
upon that lake, which, in early life, had charmed his fancy,
and formed his taste. Who has not beheld the pictures of
his youth, in the first part of his Confessions ? and who has
not been captivated with the description, he has given, of
Geneva and Vevay, the Lake of Lausanne, and the orchard
of Clarens ?
DESCRIPTIVE POETS.
IN general description, Homer was as great a master, as in
the sublime departments of his art. What can be more
admirable, than the scenes of harvest and the vintage, with
which he has embellished the eighteenth book of the Iliad ?
As to his gardens of Alcinous, I must take the liberty of
observing, that, as they seem to have exhibited a union of
the modern kitchen garden of Italy and the ancient orchard
of Greece, they are no more to be compared with Milton s
Garden of Eden, than a Dutch landscape is to an Italian
one.
Hesiod has many descriptions of rural scenery ; sketched
with all the truth and simplicity of Nature. He deserves the
elegant encomiums of Heinsius. There are also some fine
specimens of landscape painting in Apollonius Rhodius ; par
ticularly in those terrific scenes, which announce the approach
to Tartarus. It is curious, however, that though Greece had
so many poets, and so many objects, which conspire to form
the poet, yet none of them, except Hesiod and Aratus, have
left any particular indication of their having derived much
vivid satisfaction from them. Nor have they left any poem,
that can vie with the Fleece of Dyer ; the Cyder of Phillips ;
Grongar Hill ; Pope s Windsor Forest ; or Thomson s Sea
sons.
Among the Latins, Virgil excels in the delineation of par
ticular, and Lucretius in that of general landscape. What
a passage is the following !
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 125
Inque dies magis in montem swccedere sylvas
Cogebant, infraque locum concedere cultis :
Prata, lacus, rivos, segetes, vinetaque laeta
Collibus, et campis ut haberent, atque olearum
Coerula distinguens inter plaga currere posset
Per tumulos, et convalleis camposque profusa :
Ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore
Omnia, quse pomis intersita dulcibus ornant :
Arbustisque tenent felicibus obsita circum.
Lucretius, De Rer. Nat. lib. v. 1. 1370.
In that part, too, where he sings the praises of Empedocles,
beautiful is the picture, which he draws of the coast of
Sicily, and the wonders of JEtna and Charybdis : and no
finer contrast is exhibited by any of the poets, ancient or
modern, than the one, in which he compares the pleasure of
being stretched beneath the shade of a tree, or on the banks
of a river, with the more costly raptures of a splendid ban
quet. It has all the feeling of Nature, and all the denial of
philosophy : the versification (with the exception of the last
line) is flowing ; the sentiments are golden sentiments ; and,
to speak after the manner of painters, the composition is cor
rect, and the colours " dipt in heaven."
Si aon aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per sedis
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris,
Lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur,
Nee domus argento fulget, auroque renidet ;
Nee citharis reboant laqueata aurataque templa :
Attamen inter se prostrati in gramine molli
Propter aquae rivum, sub ramis arboris altse,
Non magnis opibus jucunde corpora curant :
Prsesertim cum tempestas arridet, et anni
Tempora conspergunt viridanteis floribus herbas,
Nee calidse citus decedunt corpore febres
Textilibus si in picturis, ostroque rubenti
Jactaris, quam si plebia in veste cubandum est.
Virgil, too, that great master of the passions, and the best
of all the Latin descriptive poets, if we except Lucretius, was
an ardent lover of picturesque imagery. Hence he is, at all
times, on the watch to inquire into, and explain the pheno-
126 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
mena of Nature ; to boast the number of flocks and herds of
Italy ; the beauty of its groves ; the fineness of its olives ;
the virility of its spring, and the mildness of its climate. In
his Pastorals, and his Georgics, we find him sketching with
graceful exuberance ; while, in the Eneid, many of his indi
vidual scenes are drawn with the pencil of a finished painter.
The picture of Claude, in the collection of Welbore Ellis,
exhibits not more clearly to the imagination, than the lan
guage of the Mantuan poet, describing the spot where ^Eneas
landed in Italy.
Crebrescunt optatse aurse ; portusque patescit
Jam propior, templumque apparet in arce Minervse.
Vela legunt socii, et proras ad litora torquent.
Portus ab Eoo fluctu curvatur in arcum ;
Objectse salsa spumant aspergine cautes ;
Ipse latet ; gemino demittunt brachia muro
Turriti scopuli, refugitque a litore templum a .
A view at the dawn of day is delineated with all the fidelity
of actual observation.
Jamque rubescebat radiis mare, et sethere ab alto
Aurora in roseis fulgebat lutea bigis :
Cum venti posuere, omnisque repente resedit
Flatus, et in lento luctantur marmore tonsse.
Atque hie tineas ingentem ex sequore lucum
Prospicit : hunc inter fluvio Tyberinus amoeno,
Vorticibus rapidis et multa. flavus arena,
In mare prorumpit : varise circumque supraque
Assuetse ripis volucres et fluminis alveo,
.^Ethera mulcebant cantu, lucoque volabant b .
Nor is it possible to draw for the eye a more agreeable
picture, than that which has so often been esteemed a sketch,
in miniature, of the bay of Naples.
Est in secessu longo locus : insula portum
Efficit objectu laterum, quibus omnis ab alto
Frangitur, inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos :
Hinc atque bine vestse rupes, geminique minantur
In ccelum scopuli : quorum sub vertice late
^Equora tuta silent ; turn sylvis scena coruscis
Desuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra c .
JEn. lib. Hi. 530. b Lib. vii. 25. e Lib. i. Ifi3.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 127
Among the Latin descriptive poets, Lucretius occupies the
first rank ; Virgil the second ; Silius Italicus the third ;
Statius the fourth ; and Lucan the fifth. Some of the French
writers, too, indicate a lively sense of natural beauty. La
Fontaine affords some highly animated scenes ; particularly in
the fable of the " Oak and the Reed." He adds, indeed, a
landscape to every fable. What fine passages are there in
De Lille ! How beautiful are the descriptions of Fenelon
and St. Pierre ! While those of Rousseau combine the
richness of Claude, with the grace, splendour, and magnifi
cence of Titian.
But to confine ourselves to British writers. Chaucer,
active, ardent, and gay ; a lover of wine, fond of society,
and well qualified to charm, by the elasticity of his spirits,
the agreeableness of his manners, and the native goodness of
his heart, was a lover of that kind of cheerful scenery, which
amuses in the fields, or delights us in the garden. The
rising sun, the song of the sky-lark, and a clear day, had
peculiar charms for him. His descriptions, therefore, are
animated and gay, full of richness, and evidently the result
of having studied for himself. Spenser, the wild, the fas
cinating Spenser, delineates, with force and simplicity, the
romantic and enchanting. Milton, born, as Richardson
finely observes, two thousand years after his time, was a
lover of the beautiful in Nature, as he was of the sublime in
poetry. For, though his " II Penseroso" abounds in those
images, which excite the most sombre reflections, the general
character of his delineations is of an animated cast. In his
minor poems, which afforded him an opportunity of consulting
his natural taste, unconnected with epic gravity, we find him,
almost universally, sketching with a light, elegant, and ani
mated pencil. What can be more cheerful, for instance, than
his song on May morning ; or his Latin poem, on the coming
of Spring? And can any thing be more rich than the scenery
128 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
of Comus ; or more abounding in all, that renders imagery
delightful, than his lyric of " L Allegro ?" And beyond all
this, what shall we compare with his " Garden of Eden 2"
Nothing in the " Odyssey ;" nothing in the descriptions, we
have received, of the " Groves of Antioch a ," or the " Valley
of Tempe ;" neither the " Gardens of Armida b ," or the
" Hesperides;" the "Paradise of Ariosto c ; Claudian s "Gar
den of Venus d ;" the " Elysium" of Virgil and Ovid; or the
" Cyprus" of Marino ; neither the " Enchanted Garden" of
Boyardo ; the " Island" of Camb ens e ; or Spenser s "Garden
of Adonis V have any thing to compare with it. Rousseau s
" Verger do Clarens" is alone superior !
The poet s province is to copy Nature ; such, also, is the
province of the historian ; and it is a subject of regret, that
ancient historical writers had not been more observant of the
rule. How far more interesting had their pages been, for
instance, had they enlivened the progress of their armies,
with descriptions of the countries, through which they
marched, rather than have encumbered them with so much
military detail ! Something of this kind may be observed
in Xenophon, Quintus Curtius, and Csesar s Commenta
ries ; yet they are but sketches : strongly lined, in some
instances, it is true ; yet still sketches, and most of them
imperfect.
But, however well a scene may be described, every land
scape, so exhibited, does not necessarily become a subject for
the pallet of the painter. Some descriptions embrace objects
Alluded to in P. L. b. iv. 272, and in Julian ; and described by Strabo,
lib. xvi.
b Tasso, cant. xvi. 9. The best principles of a garden are comprised in the
following line :
Arte che tutto fa, nulla se scopre.
c Orl. Fur. xxxiv. Garden of Alcina, b. vi.
d Nupt. Hon. et Marise, v. 49. e Cant. ix.
f Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 6. Sylvester has some curious and not inelegant
descriptions in his translation of Du Eartas. W. ii. D. i.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 129
too minute ; some are too humble and familiar ; others too
general ; and some there are too faithful to be engaging.
This poet delights in the familiar ; that in the beautiful ;
some in the picturesque ; and others in the sublime.
These may be styled the four orders of landscape. In the
first we may class Cowper ; in the second Pope ; in the third
Thomson ; in the fourth Ossian. The descriptions of Cowper are
principally from humble and domestic life ; including objects
seen every day and in every country. The gipsey group is
almost the only picturesque sketch, he affords. Highly as
this has been extolled, how much more interesting had the
subject become, in the hands of a Dyer, a Thomson, or a
Beattie ! Pope excels in the beautiful ; yet he is so general,
that his vales and plains flit before the imagination, leaving
on the memory few traces of existence. Thomson s pictures
are principally adapted to the latitude of Richmond. Some,
however, are sublime to the last degree. They present
themselves to the eye in strong and well-defined characters;
the keeping is well preserved, and the outlines boldly
marked.
Dyer tinted like Ruysdael ; and Ossian with the force and
majesty of Salvator Rosa. In describing wild tracts, path
less solitudes, dreary and craggy wildernesses, with all the
Ijorrors of savage deserts, partially peopled with a hardy,
but not inelegant race of men, Ossian is unequalled. In
night-scenery he is above all imitation, for truth, solemnity,
and pathos ; since no one more contrasts the varied aspects of
Nature with the mingled emotions of the heart. What can
be more admirable, than his address to the evening star, in
the Songs of Selma ; to the moon, in Darthula ; or that fine
address to the sun in his poem of Carthon? passages almost
worthy the sacred pen of the prophet Isaiah.
The uniformity, that has been observed in the imagery of
Ossian, is not the uniformity of dulness. Local description
only aids the memory : for a scene must be actually observed
VOL. II. K
130 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
by the eye, before the mind can form a just and adequate
idea of it. No epicure can judge a ragout by the palate of
another ; a musician must hear the concert, he presumes to
criticise ; and the reader will gain but a very imperfect idea
of the finest landscape in the universe, by reading or hearing
it described. For we can neither taste, hear, smell, feel, nor
see by proxy.
Thus, when Ossian describes vales, rocks, mountains, and
glens, the words he uses are the same ; and the images, they
respectively suggest, would appear to be the same ; but the
scenes themselves are dressed in an infinite variety of drapery.
It is not that the poet is poor, but that language is indigent.
A superficial reader, possessing no play of fancy, when the
sun is represented as going down, and the moon as rising ;
when a cataract is said to roar, and the ocean to roll; can
only figure to himself the actual representations of those
objects, without any combinations. A man of an enlarged
and elegant mind, however, immediately paints to himself the
lovely tints, that captivate his fancy in the rising and setting
of those glorious luminaries ; he already sees the tremendous
rock, whence the cataract thunders down ; and thrills with
agreeable horror, at the distant heavings of an angry ocean.
Possessing a mind, that fancy never taught to soar, the one
perceives no graces in a tint ; a broad and unfinished outline
only spreads upon his canvas ; while, by the creating impulses
of genius, the outline is marked by many a matchless shade,
and the foreground occupied by many a bold, or interesting
group.
NATURAL AND MORAL ANALOGIES.
GIFTED with an accomplished mind, the POET walks at
large, amid the creations of the material world ; and, imbib
ing images, at every step, to form his subjects and illustrate
his positions, he turns all objects into intelligible hieroglyphics.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 181
For there is an analogy between external appearances and
interior affections, strikingly exemplificative of that general
harmony, which subsists in all the universe. For infinite are
the relations and analogies, which objects bear to each other:
Harmonies, which would give ample scope for the satisfac
tion and rapidity of the liveliest imagination ! It is from
these analogies, that the heavenly bodies have been consi
dered symbols of majesty ; the oak of strength ; the olive
of peace ; and the willow of sorrow. One of the Psalms of
David, pursuing this analogy, represents the Jews, hanging
their harps upon the willows of Babylon, bewailing their exile
from their native country.
The yellow-green, which is the colour Nature assumes at
the falling of the leaf, was worn in chivalry, as an emblem of
despair. Red is considered as indicative of anger, sometimes
of guilt a ; green of tranquillity b ; and brown of melancholy.
The lotos c was regarded in Egypt as an emblem of the
creating power : and the cypress has long been acknowledged
an emblem of mourning ; the swan of graceful dignity ; the
violet of modesty ; the myrtle of love ; and the tulip of
vanity : the aloe of constancy ; the mulberry of prudence ; the
lily of the valley of innocence ; the rose of beauty ; the
" Come, now, let us reason togther, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet ; they shall be as wool." Isaiah, i. v. 18. When Moorcroft was
about to take leave of the Lama of Narayan, on his journey to Manasanawara,
the Lama took his friend s white garment in his hand, and said, " I pray you,
let me live in your recollection, as white as this cloth."
b Green, in heraldry, is used to express liberty, love, youth, and beauty : and
all acts and letters of grace were, at one time, signed with green wax.
Because it vegetates from its own matrice. The lotus is esteemed sacred
in Thibet, Nepaul, and Hindostan *. On its bosom Bramah was supposed to
have been born ; and on its petals Osiris delighted to float f. This flower is
very common along the countries bordering the Senegal, the Gambia, and the
Niger J.
* Asiat. Research, vol. i. 243. t Indian Antiq. iii. 232.
: Park s Trav. 100.
K2
132 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
fuschia of magnificence ; and the palm and laurel of honour
and victory a .
Branches of palms were, in ancient times, esteemed em
blems of mental and bodily vigour b ; and the white violet of
love c ; as a blush was the emblem of modesty and virtue.
The amaranth was an emblem of immortality. St. Peter
promises an amaranthine crown ; and Milton says, the ama
ranth bloomed in Paradise ; but for man s offence was
removed to Heaven ; where it still grows, shading the foun
tain of life, near which the river of bliss rolls in streams of
amber : while every angel is supposed to be bound with
crowns and wreaths of amaranth.
The yew ! Many reasons have been assigned for the cus
tom of planting yew-trees in the yards of churches ; and
because they were, in ancient times, used for bows d , some of
the scholiasts have sanctioned the belief, that they were
planted, in order to bo used for those weapons. The fact,
however, is, the yew-tree has been considered an emblem of
mourning from the earliest times. The more ancient Greeks
planted round their tombs such trees only, as bore no fruit ;
as the elm, the cypress, and the yew. This practice they
imported from the Egyptians ; the Romans adopted it from
the Greeks ; and the Britons from the Romans. From long
habits of association, the yew acquired a sacred character ;
and therefore was considered as the best and most appro
priate ornament for consecrated ground. The custom of
* Cm geminse florent vaturnque ducumque
Certatim laurus.
Statius. Achill. i. 15.
Arbor vittoriosa triomphale,
Honor d imperadori et di poeta, &c.
Petrarca.
The ancient rliapsodists always recited the verses of the poets, with laurel
rods in their hands. And when Castro entered in triumph into Goa, he walked
upon silk, holding a laurel bough ; while the ladies showered flowers upon him,
as he passed. b Plut. Symp. lib. viii. Quest. 4.
e Hor. iii. od. 10. 14. d Georg. lib. ii. 1.439.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 133
placing them singly is equally ancient. Statius calls it the
solitary yew : and it was, at one time, as common in the
church-yards of Italy as it is now in North and South Wales.
In many villages of those two provinces the yew-tree and the
church are coeval with each other.
The palm, the plantain, the olive a , and the pepper-plant,
seem to have been instinctively used as emblems of peace, by
many nations. Hence Tasso call the former " le sacre
palme b ." The natives of Australia del Espiritu Santo
invited the friendship of the discoverers by holding boughs of
palm-trees in their hands c . When Vancouver was at the
Island of Otaheite, the messenger, whom he had sent to
inform the king of his arrival, returned with a present of
plantain, as a peace-offering d : and when a misunderstanding
had occurred between Krusenstern and the king of Nuka-
hiwa e , the king sent him a pepper-plant, as a token of recon
ciliation. Branches of trees seem, in all ages and countries
to be used as emblems of peace, from the time of Noah f to
that of Hannibal g , when the inhabitants of one of the Alpine
towns met him with garlands and branches h . " We have
* Olive wreaths were annually worn by the soldiers of Rome, on the day on
which they were reviewed by their generals ; when every soldier appeared
decorated with the ornaments he had received as rewards of his valour. " This
review," says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who describes the whole ceremony,
" formed a most magnificent sight, worthy the grandeur and majesty of Rome."
Lib. vi. Caesar first adopted the laurel wreath ; and the Germans and Gauls
used branches of trees in various ceremonies. Lucan, lib. iii. Claudian, in
Laud. Stilich. b Jer. Del. b. iii. st. 75.
c Fernand.de Quiro s Voy. to Polynesia, &c., 156, ed. 1606. In several
islands of the South Sea, chiefs present the fruits of their orchards, as peace-
offerings to strangers.
d Voy. Discov. i. 254. An old man in the Great Loo-choo Island approached
Mr. Clifford with a green bough in his hand ; which Mr. C. observing, broke
one from a tree, and exchanged boughs with him. Hall, p. 145, 4to.
c Krusenstern s Voy., vol. i. p. 160. f Gen. ch. viii. ver. 11.
8 Vide Polyb. iii. 5052.
* When Dampier was off New Guinea, the natives made signs of friendship
by pouring water on their heads with one hand, which they dipped in the sea.
Voy., vol. iii. part ii. p. 97.
134 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
planted the tree of peace," says an American Indian, " and we
have buried the axe under its roots ; we will henceforth
repose under its shade ; and we will join to brighten the
chain, which binds our nation together."
Nearly through all the empires, countries, and islands of
Eastern Asia, peace, friendship, and benevolence are signified
by the presentation of a betel leaf. In Africa it is still a leaf
or a bough. When Captain Tuckey, in his expedition to the
Congo, appeared at a feast given by the chenoo of Embornma,
the chief seemed to be dubious as to the real motive of his
voyage. At length an old man rose up hastily, and taking a
leaf from a neighbouring tree, exclaimed, " If you come to
trade with us, swear by your God, and break this leaf." This
Captain Tuckey refused to do. Then said the old man, " If
you come with no design of making war upon us, swear by
your God, and break this leaf." Captain Tuckey imme
diately took the oath, and broke the leaf. Upon which the
whole party rose up, and danced for a considerable time ; and
all was cheerfulness and satisfaction.
Palms were worn, as emblems, by those, who had made
pilgrimages to the Holy Land : and the custom of carrying
branches of palms, on Palm- Sunday, is said to have been
derived from the worshippers of Serapis. It was introduced
into the service of Christianity by Origen ; that Origen, who
taught the doctrine of the plurality of worlds, and who illus
trated Christianity by the Alexandrian system of philosophy ;
who esteemed gods, angels, and the souls of men, to be of one
substance ; who believed that the soul had a pre-existent
state ; and that those of good men advanced in regular
gradation to a higher state of perfection.
Garlands of olives are also of high antiquity. It was with
a garland of this plant that the women of Jerusalem crowned
Judith, when she returned from the camp of Holofernes a .
They met her on the way, and blessed her ; and leading her
Judith, xv. 12, IX
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 135
in triumph to Jerusalem, carried olive branches in their
hands, and sang songs in honour of her.
By analogy, we associate good fortune with a fine morning ;
ignorance with darkness ; youth with spring ; manhood with
summer ; and autumn with that season of life, when, as
Shakspeare observes, in a fine vein of melancholy, we are
fallen into " the sere and yellow leaf." Winter we associate
with age.
It is this striking analogy, which enables Thomson and
Young so intimately to connect the seasons with each other a .
We associate Summer and Winter, too, with good and ill for
tune ; an instance of which occurs in Cymbeline b . Even the
art of war has some analogies with natural objects ; hence in
Behold, fond man !
See here thy pictured life : pass some few years,
Thy flowery spring, thy summer s ardent strength,
Thy sober autumn fading into age ;
And pale concluding winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene 1
Dante metaphorically compares the dispensations of Fortune to the progress
of the seasons. Vide Inferno, canto vii. st. 14. Thus Ford:
Here, in this mirror,
Let man behold the circuit of his fortunes.
The season of the spring dawns like the morning,
Bedewing childhood with unrelished beauties
Of gaudy sights. The summer, as the noon,
Shines in delight of youth, and ripens strength,
To autumn s manhood : here the evening grows,
And knits up all felicity in folly :
Winter at last draws on the night of age. The Suris Darling.
The seasons were represented in Egypt by a rose, an ear of corn, and an
apple : spring, summer, and winter. The Egyptians, like the ancient Ger
mans, are said to have divided their year into three seasons only, autumn being
unknown. Macrobius *, however, states to the contrary; for he says that the
Egyptians drew the sun at the winter solstice as an infant ; at the vernal
equinox as a youth ; at the summer solstice as a man in the highest state of
vigour ; and at the autumnal equinox as an old man. The analogy, therefore,
between the seasons and human life may be traced to Egypt.
b Act iii. sc. 6. Also, Richard III., act i. sc. 2.
* Saturnalia, lib. i.
136 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
gunnery, when ordnance, from being ill-cast, is spongy, it is
called honey-comb : and hence among generals, it is no unfre-
quent practice, to encamp forces in a form, which they
descriptively call the "rose-bud;" the works flanking and
covering each other, like the lips of roses a .
Pythagoras was the first, among the Greeks, who com
pared the four ages of man to the four seasons : other
philosophers had divided them into three only; the green
age; the ripe age ; and the mellow age b . And, here, perhaps,
we may be permitted to observe, that the colouring of Rubens
has been likened to spring; that of Claude to summer;
Titian s to autumn ; and Vanderveldts to winter. The Four
Seasons of Haydn exhibit more sublimity, in respect to music,
than any of his works, if we except the Creation.
The poets associate wisdom and content with vales ; philo
sophy with shades ; and ambition with mountains. Availing
ourselves of similar analogical licenses, we may compare a
dingle to a smiling infant ; a glen to a beautiful girl ; a valley
to a captivating virgin ; and when the valley opens into a
vale, it may, not inelegantly, be associated with the idea of a
well-formed, finished matron. In speaking of the sun, if we
may be allowed to indulge in flowers of rhetoric, so excursive,
we might almost be excused for saying, that it rises from
behind rocks of coral, glides in a universe of sapphire over
fields of emerald, mounts its meridian among seas of crystal ;
and, tinging every cloud with indigo, sinks to slumber among
beds of amethysts.
Csesar speaks of a military disposition, in the form of a lily.
b Hippocrates and Galen compared youth to summer, and manhood to
winter.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 137
THE IRON AGE THE SILVER AGE THE GOLDEN AGE.
AFTER the same manner, the three first periods of society
were allegorically distinguished by different aspects of Nature,
and fecundity of soil. Thus the IRON AGE was deformed by
clouds and storms ; the bowels of the earth were searched for
minerals ; while its surface was utterly neglected ; untilled by
the husbandman, and ungrazed by the shepherd. Every
morning was gloomy, and every night tempestuous. In the
SILVER AGE, the year was divided into seasons. Then were first
experienced the heat of summer, and the vicissitudes of
winter. Serpents were then endued with poison ; wolves
began to prowl ; and the sea to be agitated by storms.
Honey was shaken from the leaves of trees ; and rivers,
which, in the golden age, ran with wine, overflowed with
water ; and then was invented the art of catching beasts in
toils, birds with lime, and fish with nets. In the GOLDEN AGE,
when men lived on fruits and vegetables, the seasons were
distinguished by perpetual temperature ; the air shone with a
light allied to purple ; the earth was profusely fertile ; and
flowers, vines, olives, and every luxury of Nature, had conse
quent effects upon the minds, manners, and morals of man
kind. In Nature all was blooming and captivating ; among
men all was virtue, security, and happiness. The names of
master and servant were unrecognized ; and every one having
Nature for his guide, love and friendship were inheritances,
and law and property were alike unheard of and unknown.
Grapes grew upon brambles; oaks distilled honey; alders
bloomed with the narcissus ; and tamarisks oozed with amber.
Wolves and sheep drank at the same stream ; owls rivalled
swans ; and sheep dyed their own fleeces. Bees then first
gained their intelligence ; trees produced fruits twice a year ;
milk watered the plains, and rivers rolled with nectar ; while
138 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
lilies covered the wilderness, and fountains fertilized the
desert a .
The golden period, in which the Christian Messiah first
came upon earth, so finely foretold by Isaiah, and so admi
rably described in Virgil s "Pollio," and in Pope s "Messiah,"
is strikingly in character with the first coming of Buddha,
the great god of the Cingalese. The golden age, however,
has not always been rendered attractive by the poets. Juve
nal s picture is neither elegant nor imposing; and that of
Tasso in the " Aminta" is too metaphysical by far. The
general impression on the imagination, however, is delightful
in the fullest extent ; and strongly associates the period with
that happy age, in which our primeval parents b enjoyed the
bounties of Paradise .
NATURAL AND MORAL ANALOGIES RESUMED.
HORTENSIA, who, as you are well aware, is endowed with
every quality of the heart, and with every accomplishment
of the mind ; whose eyes are more beautiful than the eyes
of an antelope ; and in whom are concentrated the polished
breeding of France, the dignity of Spain, the modesty of
England, and the grace of Italy, discerns the likenesses
a In honour of this age, a feast was held among the ancient Latins (Macrob.
Saturn, i. c. 7, &c.) ; and continued for many ages after by the Italians gene
rally. On that day no offender was executed ; children had a holiday ; masters
waited on their servants ; no war was permitted to be declared ; and friends
sent presents to each other. All was harmony and happiness. This festival
was instituted by Janus. The Hindoos have also their golden age. It is called
in Sanscrit Setye Yug.
b Burnet supposes that, in the time of the antediluvians, there was a per
petual equinox, and one continued spring, all over the globe ; the position of
the earth to the sun being perpendicular, and not oblique, as in the present
times. Hence he infers the vigorous constitutions, the strong intellects, and
the long lives of that fortunate race.
c Compare Georg. i Eel. iv. 6. Ma. vii. 202. Met. i. 15. A passage in
Catullus, in Nupt. Thet. et Pelsei. Strabo, lib. xv. With Genesis, and Isaiah,
xi. 1. Vide Grotius de Verit. Relig. Christ, i. sect, xvi St. Jerom, lib. ii.
adv. Jovinian.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 139
of her friends in the features of particular flowers. If,
therefore, she wishes to indulge the pleasure of thinking of
them, she contemplates with satisfaction the flowers, which
bear imaginary resemblances to the objects of her reflections.
When she waters them, therefore, she appears to caress
them. This idea of Hortensia has often reminded me of a
passage in one of the poets, where he inquires the title of
that happy land, where the names of its kings, and ladies, are
engraven on the flowers. It reminds us, too, of that book of
the " Jerusalem Delivered," where Tasso represents Erminia,
when under the protection of the shepherd, driving her flock
into the forest ; and amusing her grief, with engraving on
every tree the name of Tancred and the history of her mis
fortunes. In an Afghaun tale, too, Doorkhaunee is described,
as deriving her only pleasure, during the long absence of
her lover, from cultivating two flowers ; to one of which
she gave the name of her lover, and to the other that of
herself a .
The Princess Czartorinska signalised her love of poetry in
a curious manner. This princess was one of a small party,
who resided in a hamlet, in Poland, and who gave themselves
up to every species of innocent amusement. Among these,
they devoted a considerable portion of time to erecting a
marble pyramid ; on each side of which were inscribed the
names of those writers, who had contributed to their plea
sure, or instruction. Each side was ornamented with appro
priate emblems. On the compartment, which recorded the
a We are also reminded of two passages in Ovid ; where, in reference to the
hyacinth, he says
Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscripsit, et ai ai *
Flos habet inscriptum.
Met. lib. x. 215.
Litera communis mediis, pueroque, viroque
Inscripta est foliis ; hsec nominis, ille querelse.
Lib. xiii. 397.
* On the flower Delphinium Ajacis are the letters AIAIA,
140 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
names of Anacreon, Petrarch, Metastasio, and La Fontaine,
was a myrtle : the cypress, the yew, and the weeping willow,
encircled Shakspeare, Milton, Racine, Young, and Rous
seau : the laurel adorned Tasso : other emblems characterised
Virgil, Gessner, and De Lille : while lilies, roses, jessamines,
and beds of violets, encircled the names of Madame de
Sevigne, Madame Riccobine, Madame de la Fayette, and
Madame des Houlieres. On this pyramid was placed the fol
lowing inscription, written by De Lille :
LES DIEUX DES CHAMPS AUX DIEUX DES ARTS.
In conformity to the analogy we have alluded to, the poets
riot only illustrate intellectual subjects, by references and
allusions to familiar objects and appearances in Nature, but
they draw from the intellectual to embellish the material
This faculty, of itself, is almost sufficient to prove the soul to
be of etherial origin. These allusions are, however, the more
pleasing, when they glance from the former to the latter ; " be
cause," as Gilpin has remarked, " material objects, being fixed
in their appearances, strike every one in the same manner ;
whereas ideas, being different in most persons upon the same
subjects, will seldom serve by way of illustration." Some
instances, however, may be found in Shakspeare, and not a
few in the metaphysic Cowley, where the contrary has been
done with the happiest effect. A Welsh poet has an instance?
too, in one of his pennillions :
To speak of Snowdon s head sublime,
Is far more easy than to climb:
So he, that s free from pain and care,
May bid the sick a smile to wear.
But if the poets occasionally borrow from the intellectual
to illustrate the material world, they repay with interest,
when they borrow of the latter to adorn the former. When
is the father of poetry weary of drawing similes from birds,
insects, lions, and serpents ; from the phenomena of the
heavens, and the more evident appearances of the earth
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 141
When Longinus would give dignity to Homer, speaking
of his " Odyssey," he compares him to the mild lustre of the
setting sun : and when Homer would give force and velocity
to the descent of Hector, he compares it to the fall of a rock
from the top of a mountain. Nothing can be more admi
rable than this fine simile ; which is not only perfect, when
applied to the subject, it would illustrate ; but is also a
true and finished picture from Nature. This simile has been
imitated by most of the epic poets; particularly by Tasso
and Milton : that of Virgil is little less than a translation.
An Eastern poet says of the date-tree, that its head
" reclines languidly, like a beautiful woman, overcome with
sleep." In Milton, what can be more pathetic, than where he
compares blind Thamyris, Tiresias, and Mseonides to the
nightingale? And is there a finer instance of the application
of the works of Nature to illustrate moral reflection, than
where he likens the progress of crime to the lengthening
shadows of a setting sun ? What can be more grand, than
where he compares Satan to Mount Teneriffo, and to the sun
in eclipse ? When Blair says, that men see their friends
drop off like "leaves in autumn;" when Shakspeare com
pares the unfortunate Richard to " the evening sun ; 1 and a
man of high reputation "to a tree, blushing with fruit ;"-
when he likens glory to " a circle in the water;" and the fall
of Wolsey to a " falling meteor ;" how affecting, how instruc
tive do the subjects become !
The Epicureans illustrated their idea of happiness, by
asserting, that a happy life was neither like a pool, nor a tor
rent ; but like a gentle stream, that " glides smoothly and
silently along." Rollin compares the temperate order of elo
quence to a beautiful ruin, embosomed in wood ; and the
sublime order to an impetuous river, rolling with such violence,
as to break down all that is opposed to it. One of the odes,
written by Neyahualcojolt, king of Mexico, the Howel Dha
of that empire, compares the tyrant Fezzomoe to a stately
142 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
tree, which had extended itself into many countries, and
spread the shade of its branches over them; but at last,
being worm-eaten, wasted, fell to the earth, and never reco
vered its verdure.
Sometimes the poets draw similitudes from the phenomena
of the heavens a . Sophocles compares the changeableness of
Menelaus 1 fortune to the frequent waning of the moon b : and
Heliodorus likens Chariclea, clad in a dress of poverty, to the
same luminary, rising among the clouds. Dry den has a fine
metaphor in his play of " All for Love ;" where Antony
compares himself to a meteor ; an idea more than once
adopted by Rowe and Congreve. Haller compares reason to
the moon, and revelation to the sun. Horace affords innu
merable instances.
No poets draw more frequently from Nature than the sacred
writers c . The fact is, there is scarcely a simile in the Scrip
tures, that has not an immediate reference to natural objects.
How beautiful is that passage in St. John, where Christ says
" In ancient hieroglyphic writing," says the right reverend author of that
stupendous monument of misapplied learning, the Divine Legation of Moses,
" the sun and moon were used to represent states and empires, &c. &c. :
insomuch, that in reality the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hiero
glyphic." Vol. ii. b. iv. s. 4. " The Etau rises upon a bad man," said a New
Zealand savage to Nicholas, " like a full moon ; rushes upon him like a falling
star ; and passes him like a shot from a cannon s mouth." Voy. to New Zealand,
vol. i. Ci5.
b What a beautiful passage is that in the Winter s Tale, where Polyxenes,
questioning the shepherd respecting the love which Florizel bears to Perdita,
the shepherd replies
Never did the moon
So gaze upon the waters, as he ll stand
And read my daughter s eyes.
Plutarch also compares the accessions of glory, and the eclipses of the for-
tune of Demetrius, his rises and his falls, to the frequent changes of the
moon.
See the parable of the wasted vine in Ezekiel *, and of the two eagles and
a vine f. An admirable instance, too, occurs in Isaiah J. The parable of the
* Ch. xix. v. 10. f Ch. xvii. v. 1. J Ch. xv.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 143
to the woman of Samaria, " Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of the
water, that I shall give him, shall never thirst."
Most of the similes and illustrations (if we may judge from
translations) of Ferdousee, Hafiz, Sadi, and other oriental
poets a , are also drawn from the natural world. Tasso, too,
has scarcely one that has not a similar derivation. Thus he
compares Argantes to a comet ; the fury of Solyman to a
stormy ocean, seen at intervals through flashes of lightning ;
and the virtues of Rinaldo to a tree, bearing fruit and blos
soms at the same time. Armida, recovering from a swoon, to
a rose restored by the dew ; the archangel Michael to a rain
bow ; the softening of Armida s anger to snows melting in
the sun ; and the sound of soldiers to the distant murmuring
of the waves.
Milton is equally abounding in references to natural objects;
though, in his range, he likewise embraces many arts and
sciences. Thus he compares the legions of Satan to the
autumnal leaves, that " strew the brooks of Vallambrosa ;"
the rising of Pandemonium to an exhalation ; the applause
of the darkened angels to the sound of winds, rushing from
hollow rocks upon the billows ; and the atoms of Chaos to
the unnumbered sands of Barce or Cyrene. The counte
nance of Eve he compares to the first smiles of morning ; the
combat of Michael and Satan to two planets, rushing from
their orbits, and confounding the spheres ; the songs of the
trees and the bramble is well known * ; as is the celebrated passage in Isaiah,
where the glory of Assyria is compared to a cedar. In Numbers, Balaam,
seeing the tents of Jacob pitched in the plains of Moab, bursts out " How
goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel : as the valleys
are spread forth ; as gardens by the river side ; as the trees of aloe, which the
Lord hath planted ; and as cedar trees beside the waters -f."
a This is abundantly shown in the Analysis of the Brata Yiidha, a Javan
epic poem J.
* Judges, oh. ix. v. 8. t Ch. xxiv. v. 5, 6.
J Raffles Java, vol. ii. p. 437, 4to.
144 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
angels to the sound of seas ; and the descent of Michael to
the gliding of an evening mist. Satan to a comet ; his shield
to the moon ; his standard to a meteor ; his frown to a thun
der cloud ; and his recoil from the force of Michael to a
mountain, sinking in an earthquake.
In Virgil, also, references to the animal, the feathered, and
the vegetable world, are perpetual. Those instances where ho
compares Orpheus to a nightingale ; the love of Dido to the
anguish of a wounded stag ; and the engagement of Tarchon
and Venulus to the combat of an eagle and a serpent, are
admirable. The last is, assuredly, the finest simile in Vir
gil a ; as the one, where the ecstacy of a good man, at the
approach of death, is compared to the music of a dying swan,
is the most beautiful in Plato.
Brumoy compares ^Eschylus to a torrent, rolling over rocks
and precipices ; Sophocles to a rivulet flowing through a
delightful garden ; and Euripides to a river, winding among
flowery meads. No illustration, however, do I remember,
that so justly bears upon our subject, as that, where Addison
contrasts the Iliad and the ^Eneid by the different aspects of
grand and beautiful scenery.
But of all writers, ancient or modern, Ossian b is the poet,
who may strictly be styled the Poet of Nature ; since there
is scarcely a single allusion, that does not expressly refer to
the productions of Nature. To quote instances were to quote
the whole of his poetry : but the following passage is so exqui
site, that I assure myself, my dear Lelius, you will not only
forgive its introduction, but hail it with pleasure. " Ullin,
a Virg. lib. iv. 1. 99. Georg. iv. 1. 511. JEn. xi. 751.
b The authenticity of Ossian s poems has been rightly questioned. They
are, strictly, neither ancient nor modern. They are poems, grounded on oral
and traditional fragments in Gaelic; blended with imitations of Homer, Virgil,
Tasso, Shakspeare, and Milton : the whole being amalgamated, by Macpher-
son, with a taste, spirit, and enthusiasm, worthy the aspirations of a superior
genius. Homer s Iliad, and even the Odyssey, were, perhaps, compiled and
amalgamated after a similar manner. The character of Fingal is the finest in
all poetry.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 145
FingaFs bard, was there ; the sweet tree of the Hill of Cona.
He praised the Daughter of Snow, and Morven s high-
descended chief. The Daughter of Snow overheard, and left
the hall of her secret sigh. She came in all her beauty, like
the moon from a cloud in the east. Loveliness was around
her, as light. Her steps were like the music of songs."
Surely Homer has nothing, in its kind, superior to this.
LANDSCAPE PAINTING ; LANDSCAPE PAINTERS.
OF all departments of the pictorial art, none has so great
a power to charm the lover of Nature, as the landscape. For
though he is willing to give all due applause to portrait and
historic painting, and would allow appropriate praise even
to the lodges of Raphael, the drolleries of Brewer, and the
grotesque pieces of Mortuus Feltrensis and Leonardo de Vinci,
he is far less charmed with any efforts of the painter, than
with a full, a clear, and well delineated landscape. In this
department of his art, the painter s subjects are unlimited.
Every object having its varied and appropriate blending of
colour, each tree, flower, and plant gives scope for his talents :
his rocks are green with the living moss, and peopled with
the bounding goat ; his forests are clothed in the shade of
summer, or in the varied foliage of autumn ; his hills are
capped with snow ; his vineyards bend beneath their purple
wealth.
An artist is of every country : he translates the temples,
theatres, and aqueducts of Rome, the pyramids of Egypt,
and the pillars of Heliopolis and Palmyra, on an English wall.
For him, the Pays de Vaud glows with its soft and enchant
ing perspectives ; Engelberg frowns with its masses of rocks ;
St. Gothard bends beneath the weight of its snows; the
bird of paradise hovers in enjoyment, far from her native
Gilolo; and the sensitive Melissa blooms upon a northern
canvas. The vales of Savoy ; the glens of Media ; the savan
nahs of Africa ; the rocks of Norway ; the groves of Italy ;
VOL. II. L
146 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the mountains of the west ; all quit their native soils, and
hang suspended in a British palace.
Ancient painters were not so rich in natural objects with
which to exercise their genius as the modern. They knew
nothing of China, Japan, or the Asiatic islands : Polynesia,
Australasia, or America : and not much of the northern parts
of Europe. They knew no flowers so beautiful as those of
the Cape ; no trees so magnificent as those of South America;
nor any insects so splendid as those of Australia. They were
almost entirely insensible, also, to the pleasure derivable from
the contemplation of ruins ; though Servius Sulpitius, Cicero,
and Pliny the Younger, seem, in some degree, to have been
susceptible of that " divine sensation."
" If your Grace," said Sir John Vanbrugh to the Duchess
of Marlboro ugh, " desire to have a garden, truly elegant,
you. must apply for a plan to the best painters of landscape V
The landscapes of BLOEMEN of Antwerp were generally
decorated with mutilated statues and basso-relievos; with
ruins ; and light and elegant specimens of architecture : objects
which contributed to give additional interest to figures,
habited after oriental fashions, and remarkable for spirited
lightness, and graceful inflexion. MOLYN, in a peculiar man
ner, delighted in exhibiting the ocean, in all its sublime and
terrible forms : and, from his passion for tempests and ship
wrecks, he acquired the appellation of Tempesta. In poetical
delineation of marine landscape, Homer (Odyssey), Virgil,
Camoens, and Falconer, bear the palm from all competitors.
In every instance, landscape painters should tell a striking
history ; and not only ought they to select a fine landscape
for their study and admiration, but a proper time for exhibit
ing it : for man scarcely differs more from man, than one
scene differs from itself. What is lovely in the morning is,
frequently, dull and uninteresting when the sun is in its meri
dian. For in the morning and evening, the shades of sepa-
Harris s Philos. Arrangements, ch. xiv. 353.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. . 147
rate objects act upon each ther, as contrasts : whereas at
noon, the sun shooting its rays perpendicularly rather than
horizontally, even the shadow of Etna, which at intervals
throws itself to the distance of two hundred and twenty miles,
is a comparative dwarf.
This taste for selection characterised LORENESSE ; who,
attending to the varied phenomena of the heavens, and aided
by an Italian climate, produced the richest and most beauti
fully fringed horizons, it is possible to conceive. BERGHEM of
Haerlem had the faculty of exhibiting great variety in his
landscapes. With variety he united beauty, compass, and
grandeur. Mathematically correct in his proportions, he was
no less faithful in the essential requisites of light and shade,
proximity and distance. His colours are luminous, almost to
transparency ; and his clouds suspend in so natural a manner,
that they seem to float at the discretion of the winds. His
pieces, too, are agreeably embellished with figures.
CASTIGLIONE excelled principally in the drawing of castles,
and abbeys ; in which no master has surpassed him. His
sketches of rural scenery are agreeable and faithful ; but they
are far inferior to the bolder efforts of his pencil. SNEYDERS
of Antwerp excelled every artist in the delineation of hunting
pieces. He may be styled the Somerville of painting. EDEMA
of Antwerp painted precipices and cataracts ; and even
voyaged to Norway and Newfoundland to collect subjects for
his pencil. BAMBOCCIO studied at Rome ; but derived more
from the environs of that celebrated city, than from the
works of its greatest masters. He was so minute an observer,
that no scene, which struck him, was ever lost to his memory.
His imagination was in the highest degree elastic ; and, like
JORDAEXS, his faculty in delineating was nearly as active, as
his powers of combination. In looking at BAMBOCCIO S pieces,
the eye is completely deluded ; for the distances being well
preserved, each has its appropriate relief, and every shade its
characteristic tint.
L 2
148 . ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
GIOVANNI BELLA VITE delighted, after the manner of Bam-
boccio, to diversify his pictures with hordes of beggars, groups
of gypseys and hunters ; and in exhibiting the agreeable
variety of pastoral life. This painter is said to have once
drawn the outlines of a picture in his sleep. The muse of
Milton, in the same manner, dictated to him slumbering ;
while Maignanus of Toulouse perfected theorems ; and Caed-
mon, the Saxon poet, wrote verses, while they slept.
HOBBIMA of Antwerp may be styled the " painter of soli
tude ; " since he introduces but few figures into his landscapes.
Nature was his mistress ; and he copied her with precision.
A perfect master of perspective, whether he exhibits the
head of a river or a lake, a temple, a grotto, or a ruin, the
eye is deceived in a very agreeable manner.
In the knowledge of perspective, the Chinese, as well as the
ancient masters, are said to have been strikingly deficient ; yet,
it has been asserted, by several intelligent travellers, that the
art of delineating landscape is in higher perfection than that
of history or portrait in China ; while, on the contrary,
though many treatises on the subject were extant in the time
of Tully, particularly those "written by Agatharcus, Anaxa-
goras, Heliodorus, and Germinus of Rhodes, the Roman
artists had made such little comparative progress, that their
landscapes were greatly inferior to their portrait and his
torical designs. Perspective, however, was consulted in the
coins of Tarsus : Quintilian says, that Zeuxis understood
light and shade ; and Pliny mentions various subjects, which
it would have been impossible to have delineated, had the
ancient painters been so entirely ignorant of lineal and aerial
perspective, as some writers suppose a .
* La Chausse, speaking of the perspective of the Thermae of Titus, says,
" Da questa pittura si cognosce che gli Antichi sono stati alfretanto infelici
nella prospettiva, ch eruditi nel disegno." Pittur. Antich. p. 13. Several
pictures, found at Herculaneum, place the knowledge of Roman artists in
the science of perspective beyond a doubt. The curious reader may, however,
consult with advantage Kircher s Ars magna Lucis et Umbrae. Rom. 1646, fol.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 149
LOTEN painted .in England and in Switzerland : and his
genius led to the delineation of storms and waterfalls. BREU
GHEL studied his art among the mountains of the Tyrol : yet
caprice attached him, principally, to the exhibition of the
humorous and grotesque. His son, however, was so great a
master in his art, that Rubens condescended to employ him,
in touching his celebrated picture of the Terrestrial Paradise.
RUBENS excelled in the picturesque a ; but of his character,
as a landscape painter, it is dangerous to say too much, and
invidious to say too little. His merits have been overvalued
by some, and underrated by others ; according to the respec
tive tastes and prejudices of his critics. He was, beyond all
question, the most eminent of the Flemish school ; and yet
Algarotti is not wide of the truth, when he observes, that his
compositions are not so rich, nor his touches so light, as those
of Paul Veronese. Though more soft in his chiaro-oscuro
than Caravaggio, he has less delicacy than Vandyke ; and
though more dazzling, yet has he less simplicity of design, and
less truth and harmony of colouring, than Titian.
This artist was the favourite painter of the first Duke of
Marlborough; who had eighteen of his best pieces. His
largest picture exhibits a bird s eye view of an extensive
country, which Walpole considers as containing in itself a
perfect school for painters of landscape. It would form a
pleasure of no common order, to compare his picture of the
Deluge with that by Antoine Carrache ; and both with the
descriptions of Milton. Compared with Poussin, Rubens
had a decided advantage ; and their two pictures of the
Deluge afford favourable occasions for comparison. He had a
bold style of pencilling, peculiarly striking. He electrifies by
his brilliancy ; by the violence of his bursts ; and by that pow-
a The works of M. Angelo, Raphael, &c. , appear to me to have nothing of
the picturesque ; whereas Rubens and the Venetian painters may almost be
said to have nothing else. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in a letter to Mr. Gilpin,
April 19, 1791.
150 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
erf ul decision of contrast, which, distinguishing Rembrandt
and Spagniolet in the departments of portrait and history,
gave occasion to Sir Joshua Reynolds to declare, that a single
picture of Rubens were sufficient to illumine the darkest
gallery in Europe. His style, however, though more striking
for the moment, is yet far less permanently attractive than
the magic wand of the mild and fascinating Claude : the one
having all the captivating character of elegy ; the other all
the fire, the strength, and transition of the lyric : Rubens
being the Pindar of landscape ; Claude the Simonides.
WATERLOO was a great admirer of woodland scenery. His
trees are beautifully grouped. His subjects are lanes, copses,
a river with cattle, cottages, a church, a bridge, or a ruin :
but always a tree, and, for the most part, several. RUYSDAEL
was an ardent lover of Nature, in her most beautiful and
picturesque attitudes : his woods, rivers, cottages, mills, and
torrents, being scenes of reality, that had charmed his taste
during his rural and extended rambles. His waterfalls are
beautiful ; and he never painted a picture without a river, or
a pool of water, shaded by trees. GOYEN of Leyden excelled
in rural and marine landscapes. Peasants at their labour
animated the one ; fishermen drawing their nets enlivened the
other. His subjects were well selected ; the perspective was
well managed; and the whole indicated a lightness and a
freedom of touch, which never failed to captivate. Being,
however, too rapid a painter to be always a master, some of
his pieces would scarcely do honour to the worst of his pupils.
Many of this artist s pictures embody to the eye those forms
in pastoral life, which Barthelemy describes so beautifully:
exhibiting " shepherds, seated on a turf, on the brow of a
hill, or beneath the shade of a tree, who sometimes tune their
pipes to the murmurs of the waters ; and sometimes sing their
loves, their innocent disputes, their flocks, and the enchanting
objects by which they are surrounded."
VAN OORT, frequently celebrated above his merits,
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 151
derives his principal claim to the notice of posterity, from
being the master of Jordaens and Rubens. He degraded his
art by painting merely for wealth : and corrupted his taste by
the affectation of aspiring to have a manner of his own. He
was ungrateful to Nature : for though she had endowed him
with a considerable share of talent, he presumed to neglect
her ; and would rather sketch from his own imagination, than
take a lesson from the best study, she could any where present.
To be an imitator of man shows a poverty of fancy, and
serves to the degradation of genius ; to imitate one s self is the
essence of vanity, and one of the worst species of pedantry !
REMBRANDT S landscapes are such as might be expected
from a Dutchman, who had never been out of his own
country. In the wild and awful scenes of Switzerland, MEYER
of Winterthur studied his fascinating profession. He seldom
walked without his pencil ; and it were singular if the romantic
scenes before him had not made him a master of his art.
MURANT of Amsterdam, being a disciple of WOUVERMANS
who introduced into his pieces some admirable subjects of
hunting acquired that harmony and brilliancy of colouring,
by which his master was so eminently distinguished. He was
a minute painter ; minute even to tediousness : yet his
ruins and castles and villages are beautifully conceived, and
naturally executed.
VROOM was made a painter of sea pieces in a singular man
ner. He had finished several scripture pieces, and was on his
voyage from Holland to Spain, when he was wrecked upon
the coast of Portugal. In this distress, he was relieved by
several monks, who resided among the rocks. Having
obtained refreshment, he went to Lisbon ; where a brother
artist engaged him to paint the storm, he described in so
lively a manner. This picture was executed so well, that a
Portuguese nobleman gave him a high price for it ; and this
success flattered him so much, that, upon his return to
Holland, he entirely devoted himself to marine landscape.
152 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
BACKHUYSEN of Embden was, next to Vanderveldt, the
most eminent painter of marine landscapes. His storms are
admirable. It was his practice to hire resolute and un
daunted seamen to take him out in the midst of a tempest ;
or at a time, when he knew it was approaching : and being
tied to the mainmast, he would, like Lamanon, contemplate,
at leisure, the most awful and magnificent scene, it is possible
to behold. In this perilous school he studied : the result was
excellence. As to VANDERVELDT, he was so eminent in the
delineation of marine perspectives, that he acquired the honour
of being associated with Claude.
The paintings of ALBANO, as Malvasia says of him, breathe
nothing but content and joy ! His beautiful and virtuous
wife, Doralice, was his model for graces and nymphs ; and
his children sate for his cherubs and cupids a ; in the drawing
of which he had all the grace and elegance of Correggio.
Gifted with a force of mind, that conquered every uneasy
feeling, his pencil wafted him from Paphos to Cithera ; from
the abodes of love and delight, to those of Apollo and the
Muses.
A favourable opportunity occurs to the Parisian connois
seur, of comparing the relative merits of Albano, Breughel,
and the Carrache, by examining the manner in which they
have respectively treated the subject of the four elements, in
their separate pictures, entitled L Air, La Terre, I/Eau, and
Le Feu.
BOURDON decorated his pieces with objects of Gothic archi
tecture ; POUSSIN, called the Raphael of France, with those of
the Roman; BOUWER of Strasburgh with buildings near Fres-
cati, Tivoli, and Albano. Loveliness prevailed in all the
paintings of GASPAR POUSSIN : the scenes he delineates, there
fore, are truly captivating in their effect. There is an air of
lively tranquillity in some ; of tranquil motion in others ; and
though the objects of architecture, he exhibits, are not equal
* Felibien, torn. iii. p. 524. His best pieces are at Bologna.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 153
to those of Bourdon, he compensates for their regularity, by
shading them with woods and rocks ; and by placing them on
picturesque and agreeable elevations.
MARIA HELENA PANZACCHIA, correct in her outline, fasci
nated by her colouring; while DANDINI of Florence, like
Antigenides, who could suit himself to every musical mode,
had the power of imitating to perfection the style of every
school, and the colouring of every master. Maria Helena
had the faculty of exciting the imagination of her observers
in no common degree. This is one of the most delightful
effects, which the art of painting is capable of producing.
For it is not the actual scenes, presented to the eye, that
constitute the principal charm ; it is the fine conceptions,
which they awake in the mind; and which float, as it were,
in the imagination, in endless variety of forms and fascina
tions of colour.
GIACOMO BASSANO painted villages with happy peasants,
pursuing their various occupations. Without elegance of
manner, or grandeur of conception, his touch was waving,
spirited, and free. A lover of Nature, he painted her as she
generally chooses to exhibit herself; in rural drapery: but,
as he painted, generally, with a violet tint, his morning pieces
were not so faithful as his evening ones ; characterizing, as
they did, that lovely season of the day,
When languid Nature droops her head,
And wakes the tear tis luxury to shed .
WILSON, upon his arrival in Italy, choosing not to confine
himself merely to the study of art, which would have made
him an imitator, or a mannerist, studied Nature in her finest
attitudes, and among her grandest forms : and, having exa
mined a picture in the morning, would compare its fidelity
with Nature in the evening. It was this that enabled him to
acquire his bold and original style. On his return to his
* Helen Maria Williams.
154 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
native country, the imagery of Italy still hovered in his ima
gination ; and he could never, in the sketching of landscapes,
so far forget the lofty character of that lovely country, as to
content himself with delineating English scenes, merely as
they were. The slopes were too tame and uninteresting
for his classic pencil. The result of all which was, that though
he never failed to sketch a good picture, he always failed
to give a faithful portrait of the scene he intended to
portray a .
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS painted only four regular landscapes ;
but it was not unusual with him to decorate the back-grounds
of his portraits with some masterly sketches of rural scenery.
In general landscape, he was, undoubtedly, inferior to GAINS
BOROUGH ; and yet the rural decorations alluded to were far
superior to any similar ornament of that excellent artist. In
clear, well denned landscape, and architectural embellish
ment, Gainsborough was, beyond all question, the first artist
of his age. And so enamoured was he of his art, that on the
bed of death he exclaimed, " we are all going to Heaven, and
Vandyke will be of the party.""
In the exhibition of moonlight pieces, WRIGHT of Derby
had no competitor, worthy of himself. His picture of the
Lady in Comus is one of the finest specimens of modern art.
And here we might indulge in stating the merits of Ambrosio
Lorenzetto, who first carried the art of landscape painting
into repute in Italy ; of Mignon of Frankfort, whose insects
and drops of dew are so exquisitely natural ; of Swaneveldt,
Jordaens, Watteau, and Tintoret; of Paul Brill; Herman of
Italy ; Vandermeulen, Vernet, Julio Romano, and Bourdon :
but we must close our observations with a consideration of
the merits of those three masters, whom we may style the com-
a What English connoisseur can see, without pride and pleasure, the follow
ing works of this excellent artist ? His Phaeton ; the Boar Hunt ; Cicero at
his Villa; Ceyx and Alcione ; Solitude; Celadon and Amelia ; and his Witches
in Macbeth.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 155
manding spirits of landscape. One word, however, in justice to
DOMENICHINO. His pictures are enriched with delightful groups
and beautiful figures. I never remember his Mercury, driv
ing the flocks of Admetus to water, and many other efforts
of his genius, but with pleasure, allied to delight.
SALVATOR ROSA loved rather to stand, as it were, upon the
ruins of Nature, than to wander even among her most beau
tiful combinations : hence his imagination became bold and
creative ; and his pencil elevated and sublime : and hence
over all his works
He throws
A savage grandeur, and sublime repose.
Residing, in the early period of his life, with a band of
robbers, the rocks, caves, dens, and mountains, which they
inhabited, gave a decided impulse to his taste. In the deli
neation of savage grandeur, in magnificence of outline, and
in the details of the wild and the terrible, he stands without
a rival ; his storms and tempests being the finest efforts of
pictorial art. We behold with astonishment, with awe, with
admiration : he \vas the SCHILLER of painting ; as DANTE and
SCHILLER were the ROSAS of poetry.
CLAUDE LE LORRAIN, the greatest of all landscape paint
ers, if we except Titian, studied in the fields. Every vari
ation of shade, formed by the different hours of the day, and
at different seasons of the year, by the refraction of light,
and the morning and evening vapours, he minutely observed.
His distances are admirably preserved; and his designs
broken into a variety of parts : and yet though thus divided,
every group and every compartment form a whole, on which
the fancy loves to pause, and the judgment to linger. " An
air of loveliness and content," says Gessner, " pervades all
the scenes which Lorrain s pencil has created. They excite
in us that rapture, and those tranquil emotions, with which
we contemplate the beauties of Nature. They are rich, with
out wildness and confusion ; and though diversified, they every
156 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
where breathe mildness and tranquillity. His landscapes are
views of a happy land, that lavishes abundance on its inha
bitants, under a sky, beneath which every thing flourishes in
healthy luxuriance a ."
Claude was an ideal painter, as Praxiteles was an ideal
statuary ; his pieces being compositions, for the most part,
formed of detached scenes, which he had observed in Italy,
uniting into one picture. We never see them but with enjoy
ment ; we never think of them but with delight ; and we
never fail to turn to them with new pleasure, even after dwell
ing upon scenes in Nature s loveliest attitudes. Every piece
tells a history ; he selects with grace and with judgment ;
and, being all poetry himself, he seems as if he were born to
make poets, for a time, of all his beholders.
Dr. Beattie says of Corelli, that the harmonies of his Pas
torale are so ravishingly sweet, that it is impossible not to
think of heaven, when we hear them. A female servant,
belonging to the Earl of Radnor, in the same manner, told
a learned friend of mine, that she never looked at the pictures
of Morning and Evening, in his lordship s collection, but she
thought of Paradise ! A compliment even more grateful to
the genius of Claude, than the celebrated exclamation of the
old vicar, when he beheld Grotius.
POUSSIN formed his taste among the landscapes of Tivoli ;
CLAUDE among the Apennines, between Rome and Naples ;
SALVATOR ROSA among the rocks, ruins, forests, and excava
tions of Calabria. Poussin strikes the imagination ; Salvator
rushes upon it ; Claude attracts, rivets, and fascinates it.
Uniting the rich glow of Ariosto with the purity and chastity
of Tasso, his pictures are now invaluable. Speaking to the
a Claude has been accused of not having heen able to draw figures. It has,
therefore, been asserted, that those, which adorn his landscapes, were by another
hand. This assertion is astonishing, when we consider, that in this very metro
polis (at the British Museum), there are not less than one hundred and eighty
drawings by Claude, in which the figures are expressly by the same hand, that
sketched the landscapes.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 157
heart and to the fancy with equal eloquence, every design
indicates the richest taste, and the most luxuriant imagina
tion? The fancy of the spectator riots ; and, while his heart
is the abode of contemplative tranquillity (il riposo di C/audio),
he feels almost tempted to make a pilgrimage to the palace
of Colonna at Rome, where so many of this great master s
pieces are still to be seen. Recalling to our imagination
images of innocence and simplicity, we compare them with
passages of the wise and admirable Fenelon ; whose descrip
tions of the island of Calypso, of Betica, of Egypt, of Cyprus,
of Crete, and of the Elysian Fields, are in the first style of
excellence.
If the imperfections of the Madonnas of Carlo Maratto
are only to be observed, by comparing them with those of
Raphael, as we are taught to believe, the defects of Claude
are only to be discovered by comparing his groups and his
dispositions, with the groups and dispositions of the match
less TITIAN; the Sovereign of Landscape; as Raphael was
the Sovereign of Graceful Attitudes. Studying Nature in
detail, he exemplified the truth of that axiom, which teaches,
that simplicity is the offspring of judgment and genius. Like
the rose-tree of Jericho a , which neither withers nor decays,
and, therefore, the best escutcheon for a painter s monument,
the pictures of Titian still continue to blush with all their
golden tints b ; and are as beautiful, as first they were, when
newly painted. In the union of force and softness of tint ;
in lightness of touch ; in felicity of combination, and in har
mony of colouring, he was unrivalled. He was the Virgil of
landscape : and the back-ground to his picture of the Mar
tyrdom c of St. Peter is said to be the finest landscape, ever
issuing from a mortal s hand !
Anastatica hierochuntica.
b Aureo Titian! radio, qui per totain tabulam gliscens earn vere suam
denunciat.
c In the Lawrence Gallery are several studies for this picture, all showing the
158 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
THE SUPERIORITY OF NATURE OVER ART.
BUT however beautiful the works of the most celebrated
masters may be, when we would compare them with the pro
ductions of Nature, how comparatively feeble do their efforts
appear ! Insipid are the outlines of Salvator Rosa, the
aerial tints of Claude, and the romantic groups of Ruysdael
and Poussin. No wonder ! since language itself has compa
rative poverty, when it would presume to describe the variety
which is observable in almost every prospect that the eye
beholds. Fields, vales, glens, rivers, and mountains, even
when described by the most powerful pen, do but glide before
the imagination in mysterious confusion : if, therefore, one
scene cannot be represented with precision, how shall we
attempt to give even a faint idea of its numerous combina
tions ? And how numerous those combinations are, may be,
in some measure, conceived from the knowledge, we possess,
of the almost infinite combinations of sound.
Winkelmann s antagonist was, assuredly, wrong, when he
asserted, for the honour of the arts, that the mallows of
Veerendel, and a rose of Van Huysum, bewitch us more
than the best favourites of the botanists ; and that a land
scape of Dietrich is more agreeable to the fancy than even
the Thessalian Tempe. To the works of art we can give
length, breadth, and thickness ; we can also colour them with
appropriate shades ; but who can measure the productions of
Nature ? Who sketch with such enchanting skill 2 The
painter may select individual objects, an ivied bridge, a
hanging tower, an embattled castle, and the larger creations
care with which he studied and varied his compositions before he committed
them to canvass. It has been beautifully observed, that there are few more
interesting subjects of contemplation, than the first hints of a magnificent con
ception, the virgin scenery of the mind, the slight and rapid indications of that
which is afterwards, with much study and toil, to be wrought into a perfect work.
Guido has a small picture on the same subject. That of Titian has every essen
tial of magnificence ; that of Guido, delicate, graceful, and exquisitely finished.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 159
of landscape ; these he may, by a judicious disposition of his
materials, form into an entire whole : but the effort is one,
and the effect is one : it changes not with the seasons ; it
knows none of the vicissitudes of winter ; and, therefore,
never glows with the renovation of spring.
NOVELTY, WITH ITS FINAL, CAUSE.
THIS exhaustless variety produces in the mind a continual
thirst after novelty. For were there but few combinations,
and still fewer objects, the mind would recoil upon itself, and
its powers be confined, as it were, in a prison. But as the
variations of natural objects are unlimited, its faculties are
proportionately enlarged ; and, in consequence, bearing an
analogy with magnetical induction, the more it receives, the
more capable is it of the powers of receiving. Thus, man s
appetite for novelty is nothing but the general result of
Nature s unbounded power of gratifying his thirst.
If the final cause of sublimity be to exalt the soul to a
more intimate alliance with its Creator ; and that of beauty
to enable the mind to distinguish perfection and truth : the
love of novelty may, not unreasonably, be supposed to be
planted in our nature, in order to stimulate the mental powers
to that degree of activity, which enables them continually to
feel the effects of beauty and sublimity.
The lover of landscape, therefore, is ever on the watch for
new combinations. Having derived enjoyment from a moun
tainous country, he finds a sensible gratification in traversing
extended plains, boundless heaths, and in permitting his eye
to wander over an interminable tract of ocean. Without
darkness, even the brilliancy of the sun would be no longer
splendid; without discords, the most agreeable melody would
fatigue the ear ; without the interchange of varied objects,
even the finest landscape in Gascony, or Savoy, would pall
upon the sight.
A general love of novelty, however, which is not indulged
160 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
as a beneficial mean for improvement, resembles the rose of
Florida, the bird of Paradise, or the cypress of Greece. The
first, the most beautiful of flowers, emitting no fragrance ;
the second, the most beautiful of birds, yielding no song ;
the third, the finest of trees, yielding no fruit. It has, not
inaptly, been called a species of " adultery." It characterizes
a weak and superficial mind, ill qualifies it for honourable
exertion, and peculiarly unfits its possessor for selecting bril
liant subjects to exercise his fancy ; or furnishing correct and
sound materials to form and elevate the understanding.
To a judicious love of novelty, on the other hand, may we
refer some of the pleasures we derive from contrast ; the
various changes of climate and seasons ; the observance of
manners and customs of nations ; the charms of science ; and
the delights of poetry. Since, by directing the attention to
a diversity of objects, the mind roves, as it were, in an
enchanted theatre ; imbibing rich and comprehensive ideas,
that administer, in a manner the most vivid and impressive,
to the organs of perception and taste. Directed to its proper
end, the enlargement of the understanding, by the acquire
ment of knowledge, it conduces to the improvement of
every art, and contributes to the perfection of every science.
DIFFEKENCE BETWEEN LOVE AND ADMIRATION.
As the passion of legitimate love is engendered and con
firmed by intimacy of connexion, so, on the other hand, the
passion of admiration is awakened by distance, and kept alive
by continual novelty. For these two passions, so often con
founded with each other, are not more different in their
origin, than in their results. What we love becomes more
endeared to us by repetition ; what we admire ceases to please
us, when it ceases to be new. Thus is it with scenery. The
vine in our garden, the oak that shades our cottage, the wooda
that shelter us from the north, are not more high, more shady,
more neat, or more fruitful, than other oaks, vines, cottages,
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 16
and woods ; but, from long familiarity, they acquire a title to
our preference, by the interesting associations with which they
are connected ; and having acquired that title, we should be
unwilling to exchange them for the most beautiful vale of the
South, or the proudest mountain of the North. On the other
hand, let us climb the triple Cader-Idris, Ben Lomond, or
Ben Nevis ; and, after viewing with admiration their several
wonders, let us inquire of our own feelings, if we do not look
around for other objects to gratify our desires. Novelty once
satisfied, admiration ceases ; and when we cease to admire,
we become weary.
Such is the difference between love and admiration in
scenery. The one, begetting tranquillity and content, re
quires no aliment ; the other, continually searching for food,
engenders restlessness. Hence the poet, wandering among
the rocks of Pelion, and the vales of Olympus, hails with
pleasure the plains of Larissa, decked with all the riches
of a fertile soil. The traveller, who has long been indulg
ing in the more elevated scenery of the Orisons, feels
himself relieved, when he enters the green valleys of Pied
mont, and the extended vales of Tuscany; and the white
summits of St. Bernard, the glaciers of the Rhetian, and
the wonders of the Pennine Alps, are exchanged, with
satisfaction, for the calm and fertile meads of Novorese
and Aosta.
Distance gives mysterious beauty to landscape, as it does
to human greatness : and when we have quitted scenes, hal
lowed to our feelings by the moral treasures they possess,
the greater the distance, the greater the pleasure we derive
from a remembrance of them.
Admiration requiring something ever new to gratify its
appetite, those objects, which excite the wonder and admiration
of strangers, are viewed with indifference, bordering on fri
gidity, by the natives of the country, in which they are
situated. Humboldt relates, that at Schauffhausen he knew
162 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
many persons, who had never seen the fall of the Rhine ; and
while at Santa Cruz, ho could find only one person, who had
ascended the Peak of Teneriffe.
Totally unconscious, and sometimes utterly unworthy of the
beautiful country, in which they live, men of this kind re
quire some one to point out to them the lovely scenes, by
which they are surrounded ; in the same manner, as many
a nobleman of England, Germany, and Italy, know the
value of their paintings and sculptures, only by the applause,
bestowed on them by learned and enlightened strangers.
They are the bodies of insects, buried in amber ! Thus
was it when Petrarch visited Rome, in the fourteenth cen
tury. While viewing the fragments of temples, the remnants
of statues, the falling porticoes, the baths, the aqueducts,
the tesselated pavements, and, above all, the gigantic ruins of
the Coliseum, he was indignant to find, that the tribune
Rienzi, and his friend Colonna, were alone conversant in the
history of, and appeared alone to sympathize with, those noble
and magnificent ruins. " No one," said he, " were more
ignorant of Rome, than the Romans themselves."
MYSTERY IN LANDSCAPE.
SOME scenes there are, which acquire an increased inte
rest, from being only partially revealed to us. Landscape has
its secrets, as well as women. We must not see every thing
at once ; nor must we see every thing, there is to be seen.
The rose, in full display of beauty, is not so captivating, as,
when opening her paradise of leaves, she speaks to the
fancy, rather than the sight. Thus the imagination, which
so frequently borrows from Nature, repays her obligations,
by giving additional grace and splendour to her beauties.
In poetry, the light touches of Anacreon fire the fancy, in
a much higher degree, than the minute descriptions of
Ovid ; the nervous brevity of Lucretius defines more clearly
to the mental eye, than all the profuse delineations of Cow-
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 163
ley : and the obscure image of death, in Milton, is even more
horrific than the Ugolino of Dante.
The observation holds good in reference to landscape ;
and hence arises the cause, why straight lines are so pecu
liarly offensive ; why landscape admits of no symmetry; and
why Alpine views are not so agreeable for any length of
time, as those, that are observed from the sides, or at the
feet of high and woody mountains. Lakes must wind, and
trees must hide, or the beauties of the finest scene will pall
upon the sight. Had we the Venus de Medicis always un
veiled before us, we should soon cease to be moved by the
whiteness of her bosom, or the symmetry of her contour.
EFFECTS OF CONTRAST.
FROM novelty springs the pleasure, which is ever atten
dant on judicious contrast. The earth, and " all that it
inhabits," animals, birds, fishes, and insects ; flowers, plants,
trees, and rivers; the air, the clouds, the stars, nay, the
whole universal region of infinity, are all one vast, one
interminable tissue of decided contrast. So also are the
feelings, the opinions, and passions of man ; the form of his
external frame, as well as the organic principles of his mind.
In music and in painting; in architecture and mechanics;
indeed, throughout the whole circle of the sciences and the
arts, are the laws of contrast also acknowledged and con
firmed. Hen-p is it, that, as in the formation of beauty, the
most opposite colours are frequently employed, so in the
architecture of governments, those constitutions, which pre
sent the most nicely opposed contrasts or balances, have
universally been found to be the best in theory, and the
most reducible to practice : even the contrasts of contend
ing interests, in a state, contribute to the proper administra
tion of a government.
It is not a little remarkable, that Ferdinand, king of Cas-
M 2
ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
tile, should have have been sensible, in some measure, of the
truth of this remark ; as we may learn from his answer to
those Castilians, who solicited him to deprive the states of
Arragon of their independence. This he refused to do ;
alleging as his reason, "that the equilibrium of power, en
joyed by the king and people, contributed to public safety ;
and that whenever the one preponderated over the other, ruin
was the consequence to one, if not to both." And yet the
benefits of these balances were neither observable to Tacitus
nor Bonaparte. Tacitus was of opinion, that a constitu
tion, consisting of three estates, could have no long dura
tion a ; and when La Fayette returned thanks to Bonaparte,
for his liberation from the dungeon of Olmutz, the First
Consul presumed to assert, that Mons. La Fayette had en
deavoured to establish a solecism, in appointing a monarch,
at the head of a republic b .
* Annal. iv. c. 33. Cicero, however, speaks of the three estates with appro
bation. De Republica, lib. ii.
b This is very well for a man who began his career in the midst of anarchy,
and finished by establishing a despotism. But the British constitution might
have taught him better grace, and a wiser argument. This constitution, founded,
in the first instance, upon a passage of only five lines *, it 4s our duty, not by
words artfully adapted to the purpose of undermining its best principles, to
protect : each man" in his sphere, and every man to the best of his ability:
And, should necessity require, each man, peer as well as peasant, and peasant
as well as peer, is bound to fight for it. The cheapest and most effective method
of preservation, however, is to elect discreet and enlightened men to represent
the country in parliament, and to pay them for their services. " I always
thought any of the simple, unbalanced governments bad," said Mr. Fox, in his
speech on the army estimates, Feb. 9, 1790. " Simple monarchy, simple
aristocracy, simple democracy ; I hold them all imperfect or vicious ; all are
bad by themselves. The composition alone is good. These have been my
sentiments always ; in which I have agreed with my friend, Mr. Burke."
* It is difficult to say too much in praise of these lines ; and as language is
scarcely able to express the admiration and the reverence with which they ought
to be regarded, it would be well if they were inscribed in large capitals on every
church, chapel, and house throughout the empire. " Nullus liber homo capi-
atur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseisiatur de libero tenemento suo, vel liber tatibus
vel liberis consuetudinis suis, aut utlagetur, aut exulet, aut aliquo modo de-
struatur, nee super eum ibimus, nee super eum mittenms, nisi per legale
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 165
Aware of the results of contrast, epic, dramatic, and pas
toral poets are in the constant habit of exercising their skill
in exhibiting them. Virgil and Sannazarius frequently con
trast the labours of the mariner with the amusements of. the
husbandman and the shepherd. Claude understood this
secret of affecting the heart ; and the inscription of Et in Arca
dia ego, in a picture of Poussin a , has been agreeably alluded
to by the Abbe Du Bois, and described by De Lille in his
" Man of the Fields." The original hint is from Virgil, who
decorates one of his pastoral scenes with the rustic sepulchre
of Bianor b .
In a picture of horror, some beautiful object should inva
riably be exhibited, on which the eye may be delighted to
repose. Thus in a picture, painted by Moore, for the Earl
of Breadalbane, at Rome, an eruption of Vesuvius is ren
dered peculiarly engaging by the introduction of the story of
two brothers ; one carrying his father, and the other his
mother. And in Shidone s Massacre of the Innocents, the
painter heightens the general effect of his picture by one of
the simplest and most affecting of contrasts. Instead of
representing the* soldiers of Herod, in the actual commission
of their horrible crime, he exhibits one of them, imparting
the fatal tidings to a group of mothers ; the terror and
a " The sepulchral inscription," says Du Bois, " contains those few Latin
words, Et ego in Arcadia ; but this short inscription draws the most serious
reflections from two youths and two young virgins, decked with garlands, who
seem to be struck with their having thus accidentally met with so melancholy
a scene, in a place where one might naturally suppose they had not been in
pursuit of an object of sorrow. One of them points with his finger to the
inscription, to make the rest observe it ; whilst the remains of an expiring joy
may yet be discerned through the gloominess of grief, which begins to diffuse
itself over their countenances." b Buc. ix. 1. 59.
judicium parium suorum vel per legem terree : Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus,
aut differemus rectum vel justitiam." Magna Charta, c. xxix. There was
only one. error in this ; and that, I grieve to say, was premeditated. The
commonalty were villeins : the resolution, therefore, applied only to those,
who were already free. Those, who were slaves, and attached to the soil,
remained in slavery still !
166 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
anguish in whoso countenances and attitudes form a strong
and heart-rending contrast to the exquisite serenity of the
sleeping children. How much superior to the Massacre
des Innocens even of Guido ! Poussin, also, has selected
this subject for the exercise of his genius. In this pic
ture he represents only one mother, and one child ; and
the shrieks of the mother are so violent as to frighten her
friends away a !
Some pictures have no resemblance in the figures, and yet
have a unity of effect in the design ; as Carraccfs Assump
tion of the Virgin, and Raphael s Transfiguration. AVhile
others have a striking variety even in the expression of the
same character; a quality for which Julio Romano s Martyr
dom of St. Stephen has been much and most deservedly
celebrated.
Rubens was a great master in this art ; and Parrhasius
appears to have attended so minutely to the subject of con
trast, that he is said to have been able to delineate, in the
countenance of one subject, firmness and fickleness ; mild
ness and cruelty; bravery and timidity. In this, however,
there appears to be more of poetry than of truth. In respect
to poetical contrasts, no instances more affecting are to be
found, than in Virgil s imitation of Apollonius b ; in the
Hypsipyle of Statius ; and in the Danae of Simonides.
What a fine example, too, is that in Lucan, where he con
trasts the fallen condition of his hero, after the battle of
Pharsalia, with the happy state of his more prosperous
fortune ; when, at the head of the commonwealth, he was
esteemed, by his party, the greatest general and the best
citizen Rome had ever produced. " He, who had triumphed
* Bell, of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes, by Domenichino : " The serene and
beautiful countenance of the saint is irradiated by an expression of rapt holi
ness and heavenly resignation infinitely touching, and finely contrasting with
the terror and amazement, described with admirable skill and effect in the
attitudes of the surrounding multitude."
b Argon, iii. 743. c Theb. vi.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 167
at three several times," says Paterculus, " for conquests, in
three different quarters of the world, and who had not only
doubled the Roman revenue, but the Roman empire ! Tho
whole earth," continues he, " which had been small sphere
enough for his victories, could now scarcely afford himagrave a ."
Let us now turn to a contrast exhibited, in the British
House of Commons on the memorable night in which the
traffic in slaves was, by a vote of the House, declared to be
for ever illegal, and the persons engaged in the trade for ever
infamous. After many distinguished characters had delivered
their opinions, the solicitor-general rose from his seat ; and,
after a long and argumentative speech, in which he took
occasion to recapitulate, and to combat many of the objec
tions, that had been urged to the measure, he concluded with
an eloquent representation of the gratitude, the vote of the
House would call from posterity ; and of the happiness, which
many of the younger members, who were present, would have
in beholding, what they had anticipated with all the generous
ardour of youth, expressed by some of them in a corre
sponding glow of language, the benign effects of this measure
upon the negroes, the whole property of the colonies, and the
prosperity of the country at large. " When I look to the
man, now at the head of the French monarchy, surrounded,
as he is, with all the pomp of power, and all the pride of vic
tory ; distributing kingdoms to his family, and principalities
to his followers ; seeming, when he sits upon his throne, to
have reached the summit of human ambition, and the pinnacle
of earthly happiness : and when I follow that man into his
closet, or to his bed ; and consider the pangs, with which his
solitude must be tortured, and his repose banished, by the
recollection of the blood he has spilled, and the oppressions he
has committed ; and when I contrast those pangs of remorse
with the feelings, which must accompany my honourable friend,
MR. WILBERFOJRCE, from this House, to his home ; after
* Lib. ii. 40.
168 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
the vote of the night shall have confirmed the object of his
humane and unceasing labours ; when ho shall retire into
the bosom of his happy and delighted family ; when he shall
lay himself down in his bed, reflecting on the innumerable voices,
that will be raised in every quarter of the globe to bless him ;
how much more pure and perfect felicity must he enjoy in the
consciousness of having preserved so many of his fellow-crea
tures, than the man, with whom I have compared him, on the
throne, to which he has waded through crimes, through
slang] iter and oppression !" No one, my friend, will be sur
prised, that the honourable member should sit down amid
three distinct and universal cheers.
CONTRASTS OF SOVEREIGNS.
AT early morning, when we are observing images of rural
happiness, and recalling to mind the pastoral and hunting
ages, when the woods and glens echoed with the twang of the
horn, or the reed of the shepherd, how melancholy do our
reflections become, when, by virtue of association, wo contrast
them with a country, wasted by want, or depopulated by a
successfully invading army ! Let us illustrate the subject of
contrast, as it affects the human race, and as it serves to show
the wide and lamentable difference between man and man, by
exhibiting a CONTRAST of SOVEREIGNS.
Nothing more dreadful can be conceived, than the horrors,
which ensued during the conquest, and after the subjugation
of the Crimea, by Catherine of Russia. Ah ! my friend, what
a contrast do the consequences, arising from those fatal
events, produce to the cheerful and happy scenes, we have the
satisfaction of witnessing every day ! Of the conquest let us
say nothing ; its consequences were too great for human sym
pathy to read without feelings of indignant horror. The fates
of Ismael, of Warsaw, and of Prague, were scarcely less
dreadful : and, as a suitable afterpiece to the fatal tragedy,
after the desolation of towns and villages, without number,
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 169
75,000 Christians were expelled their country, of whom
50,000 perished in the deserts !
Although the waves of all the northern sea
Should flow for ages ! through thy guilty hands,
Yet the same bloody stains would extant be a I
Now let us compare this conduct of the Empress Catherine,
with that of the late Emperor of China. In the year 1782,
the island of Formosa was visited by a dreadful calamity. A
violent tempest raged for several hours ; the sea rose in
mountains, and covered the whole face of the island ; sweep
ing away every moveable ; and leaving the shops, houses, and
out-buildings, a confused heap of ruins. The crops were
entirely destroyed ; and the unfortunate inhabitants reduced
to beggary and want. When this terrible event was signified
to the emperor, he wrote to his minister, Tsong-tou, the fol
lowing letter: " I command you to get the best information
you can, of the different losses, sustained by the inhabitants
of the island ; and to transmit the particulars to me, in order
that I may give them every assistance to repair them. My
intention is, that all the houses which have been thrown down
shall be rebuilt, entirely at my expense ; that those be
repaired, which are only damaged ; and that provisions, and.
every thing, which the people stand in immediate want of, be
supplied them. I should feel much pain, were even one
among them to be neglected. I, therefore, recommend the
utmost diligence, and the strictest inquiry ; as I am desirous,
that none of my subjects should entertain the least doubt of
the tender affection I have for them ; and that they should
know that they are all under my eyes, and that I will myself
provide for their wants." The former of these sovereigns is
usually called the Great : the latter has received no peculiar
appellation b .
a Marston, Insatiate Countess.
b The above account reminds one of Antoninus, who, when Coos and Rhodes
were destroyed by an earthquake, restored the buildings, and repeopled the
islands. Vid. Pausauias, lib. viii. c. 44,
170 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Alas ! what is the description of persons we dignify by the
name of Great ? For my own part, my Lelius, I have never
insulted the virtues of William Penn. by admiring Alexander
or Borgia ; nor did I ever drop a tear of regret upon the
tomb of the most celebrated warrior in Westminster Abbey.
Those men, whom the generality of mankind call HEROES ; and
who have so often stained the hearths and the thresholds of
palaces and cottages with native blood, fret a dangerous hour
upon the public stage : thousands shout to them applauses ;
while the truly great, good, and illustrious, hide their faces
with their robes, and wait a surer and a nobler recompense,
than the honour or applause of man, in a distant, but in a far
more comprehensive portion of the universe than this.
Since we are upon the imposing subject of greatness, let
us call to our recollection the names of a few of those men,
whom the writers of history designate GREAT. Doubtless they
were the fathers of their country ; and it will give you plea
sure to reflect on the memory of so many excellent men : for
greatness, of course, has reference to goodness ; since the one
and the other are the distinguishing characteristics of the
ETERNAL himself. And it is not, for one moment, to be sup
posed, that historians have been guilty of such impiety to the
Deity, or have been such traitors to the general welfare of
mankind, as to call those great, who were only worthy of a
public scaffold !
Every good man is not a great one, it is true ; but every great
one must, of necessity, be a good one : and yet, who are the
wretches, whom historians exalt to the admiration of the
world? Who are they, but Alexander and Antiochus and
Mahomet and Frederick and Peter and Catherine and
Charles XII. and Tamerlane, and a host of monsters, equally
base and equally detestable ? Shades of the immortal Pho-
cion, Alfred, Piastus, and Stanislaus ; in what ignominious
society are your honoured memories associated ! These
these, my friend, were men, who would have dignified the
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 171
lowest condition of life ; and whose names form, of themselves,
the noblest epitaphs for royal sepulchres. As to Frederick !
the following lines, written by that blood-stained monarch,
prove too truly, that some kings are no more to be known by
their poems, than they are by their proclamations.
See the world s victor mounts his car ;
Blood marks his progress wide and far ;
Sure he shall reign while ages fly !
No! vanish d like a morning cloud,
The hero was but just allow d
To fight, to conquer, and to die.
And is it true, I ask with dread,
That nations, heaped on nations, bled
Beneath his chariot wheel ;
With trophies to adorn the spot,
Where his pale corse was left to rot,
And doom d the hungry reptile s meal ?
Yes 1 Fortune, wearied with her play,
Her toy, this hero, cast away ;
And scarce the form of man is seen.
Awe chills my breast ; my eyes o erflow ;
Around my brows no roses glow ;
The cypress mine, funereal green 1
So much for the " serpent s tongue and crocodile s tears"
of this detested man ; whose mother, like what is fabled of the
pelican, seems to have fed him from her veins, instead of her
bosom.
How different from the character of Simon, king of Judea !
While Syria was desolated by wars, the Jews, in the reign of
Simon, lived in ease and tranquillity : every man enjoyed the
fruit of his labours ; and every man, sitting under his own fig-
tree a , augmented his private felicity, by dwelling on the
flourishing state of his country.
As to the science of government, it is like that of geo
logy, still in its infancy ! For the utmost, that governors
have hitherto done for the major part of mankind, has been
to " form men for governments, rather than governments for
men ; " and being both priestly and military, the art of legis-
* Maccabees.
172 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
lation, if it over revive again, must rise out of the ruin of
lawyers, petty magistrates, and time-serving representatives.
Unlimited power is the mental pestilence of many men s
idolatry. It is one of the scrophulas of the human mind.
In the place of that deep, sagacious, and combining mind,
so necessary to constitute a great statesman, theirs prompts
them to draw outlines of conquests, which at length finish in
the acquirement of an empire in which to build the sepulchre
of liberty. Such was the ambition of Rome in the time of
the Csesars. " When the enemy is rich," said Galgacus to
the Caledonians, " the prize for which the Romans fight, is
wealth : when poor, it is ambition. Neither the east, nor
the west, is sufficient for them. They covet the poverty, as
well as the wealth of the world ; and with equal appetite.
Murder and pillage they dignify with the name of govern
ment ; and where they have made a solitude, they proclaim
to the world, they have established peace." These very
Romans, however, met the fate, they had, for so many ages,
entailed upon the rest of the world. They were not like the
Psylli of antiquity, who, presuming to make war upon the
wind, because it had dried up their fountains, were over
whelmed in the sands, and perished ; but they perished at
home : leaving the glory of their republican forefathers to
cover the ignominy arising out of their vices and crimes.
And yet, perhaps, the cruelty of a conqueror is less to be
admired, than his impertinence ! Tamerlane, one of the
greatest robbers the world ever saw, presumed to punish the
smallest theft, that was committed in his own camp. Charles
the Twelfth, too, practised the same rigour. A peasant one
day having thrown himself at his feet, and complained of
having been robbed by a grenadier ; the king ordered the
soldier into his presence. " And have you, indeed, robbed
this poor man of a dinner, which he had provided for himself
and his family?" sternly inquired the king. " I have,"
answered the soldier. " But in doing so, I have not treated
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 173
him so badly, as your majesty has treated Augustus: for while
I have robbed this man only of a dinner, you have robbed
Augustus of a whole kingdom !"
Charles the Twelfth, Frederic of Prussia, Napoleon, and
indeed all other warriors, seem to act upon the principle,
lately allowed, of wager of battle a . It were the most difficult
of all difficult conquests to charm such monsters into men !
And what do they get by their tyranny, their rapine, and
their extravagance ? Read the letter of Phalaris, one of the
worst tyrants that Sicily, the nurse of tyrants, ever groaned
under. " After no small pains to obtain a knowledge of man
kind, I am of opinion, that the Lybian deserts, or the wild
dens of Numidia, are infinitely preferable to a habitation
among men. And I account it more safe to sleep among
lions, and to crawl with the reptiles of the earth, than to live
with them b ."
What a noble and dignified employment it would be to
live in the exercise of a power, and a will, to administer
to the comforts of an honourable people ! To drop manna in
their fields ; to awaken a sense of charity and felicity, by
uniting profound policy to genius ; and thereby shedding the
sunshine of glory over a useful life. Happy, pre-eminently
happy, shall we account ourselves, when there shall arise
among the nations a prince, formed in the schools of Plato
and Fenelon ; who shall say to his family, his friends, his
B Trial by wager of battle was common among the ancient Germans *, the
Burgundi -f-, and the Swedes J. William of Normandy introduced it into
England : it was practised in the reign of Elizabeth , and the law allowing its
efficacy is still unrepealed. Our -legislators, therefore, still countenance the
plea of its first adoption ; viz. that Heaven will at all times protect the
righteoxis, and give victory to him to whom victory is due ; and that, too, in
direct opposition to the Christian acknowledgment, that the race is not always
to the swift, nor the victory to the strong. b Phal. Epist. xxxiv.
* Paterculus, Hist. lib. ii. c. 118. f Selden.
J Stiernh. de Jure Sueno. i. c. 7.
1631 1638. Comment, b. iii. ch. 22. Dante allows its efficacy. De
Monarchia, p. 51.
174 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
subjects, and the world, " Hitherto ye have felt little of the
comforts of life ! Your years have been full of trouble ;
your youth was wasted in suffering ; your manhood in con
tentions ; but your age shall be spent in repose. The worst
passions of the human heart have been too long in conspiracy
against the nobler ones : you shall now have not only respite,
but tranquillity. Feed your flocks and prune your vines :
the corn you sow, no one but yourselves shall reap : give your
selves up, therefore, to the milder and far more manly occu
pations of life ; since I am a king, that idolize true glory ;
and, therefore, love peace better than war."
In the relative estimate of ability mere warriors are mere
emmets. In an army of twenty thousand, not less than two thou
sand would make good generals, if they had the opportunity.
But, as to pre-eminent statesmen ! There is not one born in
five centuries. " The world is undone," says Sir Wm. Temple,
" by looking at things at a distance." The virtues of states
men are courage, disinterestedness, humanity, justice, magna
nimity, and a love of their country. Warriors ! Let them
die, and let them be forgotten. Holding up the head of
Medusa, as it were, before the gaze of prostrate nations, they
are unknown in the great volume of wisdom. Nature recog
nizes them, as she does the serpent and the alligator. They
are discords in this world of harmony ; and, converting a land
of honey into a land of tears, they are deformities in this
universe of beauty. We will shed no tear in honour of their
memories ; nor will we plant one rose, jessamine, or ivy, over
their monuments.
History, as it is usually written, is, after all that can be
said in its favour, a most disgusting tale for human patience !
A mere recital of the origin of wars ; their calamities ; their
progress ; their boyish beginnings, and boyish terminations.
When a Persian minister was advising his monarch not to
wage war for the sake of a province, which would never be of
any service to him, the king replied, " It certainly is of no
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 175
use ; but it is an ornament ! " And when Nadir Shah, who
was of low origin, claimed for his son a princess of the house
of Delhi, he was required to give his pedigree for seven gene
rations. Nadir said to his ambassador, " Tell them that my
son is tho son of Nadir Shah ; the son of the Sword ; the
grandson of the sword ; the great-grandson of the sword ;
and thus continue, till you have claimed a descent not only
of seven generations, but seventy." As to modern wars !
They are as vulgar and as pitiful in their origin as all the
rest.
Lord Kaimes for the most part so wise and so intelli
gent, has a reflection curiously wild and mischievous.
" Perpetual war is bad," says his lordship ; " because it con
verts men into beasts of prey. Perpetual peace is worse,
because it converts them into beasts of burden." What a
monstrous position is this ! A position to which his lordship
seems to have been seduced merely for the sake of forming a
sonorous climax. No ! Bad as it is to be a beast of burden,
it is better, far better, to be a beast of burden, than a beast
of prey. At least, such a beast of prey as man is, when he
becomes such. But perpetual peace has no such crime to
answer for. In Europe, perpetual peace has never yet "been
tried : where it has, as among the Loo-choos, the result has
been not less fortunate to the inhabitants, than it is beautiful
to the imaginations of those who never have enjoyed it. But
the time seems to be approaching, though in a complicated
line, in which admiration for warlike enterprise will melt
into vapour, like the bubble, which excited it. The world
may yet constitute one great vineyard : hence warriors may
meditate with awe and repentance, when they reflect that
Alva, after murdering many thousands, received his only
sustenance, at the close of life, from the breast of a woman !
17C ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
HEROES AND LITERATI.
IN the estimate of the happiness, which attends others, wo
are too apt to judge of its effects by the standard of our own
feelings ; and to consider that man happy or miserable, who
dissents, or complies, with our tastes, our manners, and our
opinions. Admirably was it observed by Epictetus, that we
ought not to consider, who is prince, or who is mendicant, but
who acts the prince or beggar best. To those, whose
unbounded desires have never been curbed by prudence or
virtue, how vain will appear the philosophic spirit of Adrian,
who calculated those years, which he passed at the Villa
Adriana, as only belonging to life ; or that of Corcutus, son
of Bajazet the Second. Upon the death of Mahomet, Cor
cutus was, by the unanimous consent of the army and nobility,
elected, after various struggles, in preference to his father.
Upon Bajazefs arrival at Constantinople, however, he resigned
the imperial purple, and retired, with a yearly pension, to the
government of the delightful provinces of Lycia, Caria, and
Ionia, where he lived, free and content, in the quiet studies
of philosophy. " I esteem it," said he, in an oration to his
father, " unbecoming the resolution of a calm and settled
mind, to pant for those worldly possessions ; when, in the
sweet meditations of heavenly things, my ravished mind is
feasted with objects of far more worth and majesty, than all
the kingdoms and monarchies in the world."
And now, my Lelius, perhaps you will pardon a few
remarks upon the comparative pretensions of those men, who
have the power of acquiring for themselves a splendid immor
tality ; statesmen, heroes, and literati ! Of these, the two
first are dependent on the last for their eternity ; the last are
dependent only on themselves. For who would have heard of
Grecian, or of Roman heroes and statesmen, had such men
as Herodotus and Thucydidcs never existed ; or if there had
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE, 177
not been a Polybius, a Sallust, a Livy, or a Tacitus ? Illus
trious deeds lose half their value, unless they are recorded by
men, who can give them life and remembrance. When we
meditate on the memories of Charles of Spain and Frederic
of Prussia ; or on the names of Suwarrow and Napoleon,
with what disgust do we trace their routes by the stains of
purple, which discolour the fields i And with what horror
do we recognize their effigies, by hearts cased with mail ;
eyes prominent with military lust ; and ears, fingers, and
bosoms, dropping with blood ! The outcast, who beheaded
Mary of Scotland, was not so vile, so worthless, and detest
able.
Statesmen essenced warriors! Men, who, gliding through
an avenue of courtiers, frequently palsy the energies of a
whole people; and with all the cowardice of security, devote
provinces to destruction with a stroke of the pen; and depo
pulate whole nations without drawing a sword ! I speak
not of such men as Solon, Sully, Bernstorff, Colbert, or Chat
ham ; men, who, having a beauty and a grandeur in all their
sentiments, were the pride of their respective nations, and
the glory of the whole earth ! But of * * of * * and
of * *.
When we speak, or think, of such men as these, (for the
weakness of human nature permits us not to guard our
thoughts against sometimes thinking of such men, any more
than our eyes are privileged against disgusting objects in
the streets), our thoughts wear the character of disgraceful
uniformity. The same moral disgust affects us, whether we
speak of Catharine of Russia, or Catharine de Medicis ;
of John of England, Alva of Spain, or Philip of France.
Associating Csesar with Borgia, * * * with Sejanus, and * * *
with Alvarez de Luna, who would not prefer the silence
of the most obscure hamlet of the Hebrides, to the ignomi
nious immortality of such creatures as these ? Men and
women, towards whom history will operate as a perpetual
VOI. II. N
1/8 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
gallow-tree ! Men and women, who made all others " beauti
ful to look upon. 1
Warfare of defence alone is justifiable. The rest is infamy :
and the man who urges it, proclaims it, or assists in it, be he
prince, minister, or counsellor, is entitled to the united hisses
of an injured world.
But who are those, niched in the eternal amphitheatre,
who live from age to age, and who, to the utmost limits of
time, will charm and instruct, not only a nation, but a world?
Who are those, of whom enlightened men are speaking every
hour I Who are they, who walk with us, accompany us in
long journeys, advise us in secrecy, and reprove us without
a frown ? Who are they, who dry the tears of the widow,
and cheer the bosoms of the wretched ? Whose birth-places
do we visit with sympathy and delight ? Over whose tombs
do we bend with all that fascinating awe, with which a Tasso
would pause among the ruins of a venerable temple ? Who
teach us to derive happiness from ourselves; and thrill us
with all those delicate emotions, of which our nature is sus
ceptible ? And to whom hear it, ye vulgar ? to whom do
kings and warriors, and statesmen, look for consolation,
when they are foiled, defeated, and disgraced ? To whom,
but to men of learning, talents,"and genius : men, who pos
sess the power of imparting all the colours of the rainbow
to the dull mosaic of a spider s web: men, who glide through
life unobserved and unknown ; whose merits are only acknow
ledged in death ; and whose coruscations are allowed only
to emanate from the grave : Men, whose memories live,
not on pillars, on monuments, or on obelisks ; but in the
bosom of every amiable and enlightened man : whose images
are multiplied, in proportion to the extension of the human
race ; and whose honourable names are echoed with rapture,
even through the universe.
By fairy hands their knell is rung ;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ;
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 179
There Fancy comes, at twilight grey,
To bless the turf, that wraps their clay ;
And Pity does a while repair,
To mourn, a weeping pilgrim, there.
After the expiration of several ages, the Portuguese have at
length attempted to cover the ignominy of their forefathers^
by erecting a monument over the ashes of Camb ens. Illus
trious shade ! rise from thy bed of earth ; pulverize the
monument ; and strew it to the winds !
CONTRASTS THE SPRINGS OF OUR HAPPINESS.
CONTRASTS are the springs of our happiness. Without a
knowledge of the muriatic, we should be ignorant of the
sweet ; without the sweet, we should be incapable of the pun
gent. Had noon no excess, we should never enjoy the tem
perature of evening ; were there no darkness, we could never
appreciate the value of light : without labour, who could
be sensible of the enjoyments of rest ? and were we not some
times visited by pain, where would be found the captivations
of pleasure \ Such is the organization of man. That we
could have been formed in a manner to have a continual
appetite for enjoyment, without any of the contrasts arising
from vicissitude, is as certain, as that we possess a general
appetite for food, even though we feel no pain from partial
hunger, or from temperate thirst. But it has pleased the
Eternal thus to frame us. He has decreed, also, a tempo
rary success to vice, and a temporary depression to virtue.
Regardless of the means he employs, the VILLAIN prospers !
He rolls in wealth, and becomes the petty despot of his vil
lage; the Napoleon of his neighbourhood. His will is his
logic ; power is his mistress ; and money his god. He dies !
unpitied, unlamented, he is almost hissed and hooted into his
grave. The hatred of his relatives is signified by the nettles
growing over his monument ; and the joy of the poor is the
best epitaph he deserves.
The GOOD MAN, on the other hand, frequently pines from
N 2
180 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
day to day. His efforts are unavailing : to him industry
brings no harvest of profit : every object he touches crumbles
into ashes ! Weary and fainting, he droops into the mid
night of the grave ; after having borne, with meekness and
resignation,
The strife of little tongues,
And coward insults of the base-born crowd.
His body consigned to the earth, his friends weep over his
monument ; and lament the hard destiny of a man, adorned
with all the embellishments of education, and animated with
all the impulses of virtue. They look at each other, in all
the amiable ignorance of grief ; and appear to anticipate the
unanimous question, whether, indeed, there is an all-governing
Providence ! In the mean time, the soul of their friend has
separated from its tenement of clay ; it has passed through
its aurelia state ; and has awaked to landscapes of matchless
beauty, and to scenes of endless happiness.
As a knowledge of the mechanism of the visual organ
affords no conclusive explanation how visual sensation arises,
so, though we are conscious of the goodness of our original,
yet are we no more permitted to fathom the purposes of our
Creator, than the meanest soldier of an army is permitted to
know the secrets of his general. Continual movements are
ordered without any visible design ; long and weary marches
are made in the dead of night ; fortresses of little apparent
importance are invested ; he breaks down bridges ; moves
along narrow defiles ; animates his troops at one time, while
he restrains their impatience at another. Wild and angry
conjectures, ceaseless murmurs, and innumerable complaints,
are echoed through the camp. The moment, however, at
length arrives. The trumpet sounds ; the signal is given ;
the charge is made. It is irresistible ! The place, the time,
and manner, having been well chosen. The ranks of the
enemy are broken ; thousands join in the pursuit ; the notes
of victory sound from hill to hill ; murmurs, and conjectures,
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 181
and complaints, all are at an end ; the whole design is cleared
up ; every one gives himself to joy ; every one celebrates and
resounds the praises of his general.
ANALOGIES BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANIMALS.
As there -are in Nature many contrasts, there are, also,
many resemblances, though there are no likenesses. Some of
these resemblances constitute the best media, by which the
several portions of Nature may be associated, or contrasted,
with each other. The sciences become simplified by this
method. Since illustrations of excursion, if the term may be
allowed, impart beauty to strength, colour to form, variety to
monotony, and render more evident Nature s unison of syste
matic accordance. The perfume of the citron, for instance,
may be imparted to less favoured fruits, by infusing its essence
into the sap of their roots.
Plants claim some affinity with animals. The stalk of the
former resembles the body of the latter ; the root the
stomach ; the bark the skin ; the pith the marrow ; and the
juice the blood. Like animals, too, plants are subject to a
great variety of disorders. They imbibe air and moisture by
their leaves ; and food by their roots ; both being transub
stantiated into their own substance : as theirs is afterwards
employed in the structure of animals : for the entire frame of
animated being derives its form and its consistence from
vegetable organisations.
Some writers confound sensation with the power of motion :
and if no motion is perceived, they cannot imagine the exist
ence of sensation. Oysters have no more the locomotive
power than thistles ; and they can no more forsake the beds,
in which they are deposited by the tide, than fishes can swim
without water, or birds and insects fly without air. Vegetable
sensation, however, is not animal sensation ; and it is no
superficial mode of supporting this argument to observe, that,
as Nature has given compensations to all, she would never
182 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
have ordained so cruel a result as animal sensation to plants,
without giving in return the power of defence. A few plants,
it is true, seem to bo endued with this faculty : some by the
noxiousness of their qualities ; and others by the peculiarity
of their structures : as the nettle, the thistle, the noli me tan-
gere, the thorn, the rose, the holly, the kamadu of Japan,
with the deadly nightshade, and other poisonous plants. Yet
these plants, armed as some of them are against attacks, and
as others are against animal use, support innumerable insects.
Some plants open their petals to receive rain : others avoid it.
Some contract on the approach of a storm ; and others at the
approach of night ; while some expand and blossom only to
the evening air. Near the Cape, certain flowers form a spe
cies of chronometer. The Morsea unguiculata a and undulata
open at nine in the morning, and close at four ; the Ixia cin-
namonea b opens at the time the other closes ; and sheds a
delicious perfume during the night. The Mexican marvel of
Peru c also closes at four.
The stamina of the flowers of sorrel thorn are so peculiarly
irritable, that, when touched, they will incline almost two
inches ; and the upper joint of the leaf of the Dionsea is
formed like a machine to catch food. When an insect, there
fore, settles upon its glands, the tender parts become irri
tated ; the two lobs rise up, grasp the insect, and crush it to
death. The sensitive plant shrinks back and folds its leaves
upon being touched, after the manner of a snail ; and a
species of the hedysarum of Bengal has its leaves during the
day in continual motion ; on the approach of night these
leaves sink from their erect posture and seem to repose. Nor
is this motion confined to the time of being in full perfection ;
for if a branch is cut off and placed in water, the leaves will,
for the space of an entire day, continue the same motion ; and
if any thing is placed to stop it, no sooner is the obstacle
* Bot. Mag. 712. b Hesperantha, ibid. 1054.
c Mirabilis dichotuma.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 183
removed, than the plant resumes its activity with greater
velocity than it did before ; as if it endeavoured to recover the
time it had previously lost.
Mons. Descernet a and other writers suppose, that this irri
tability is ordained by Nature for promoting generation. As
the motion is constant during the day, this reason is insuffi
cient : unless we can suppose, that the organs of generation
are in a constant state of irritable excitement. But these
instances are exceptions to the general rule, and form links
serving to connect the sensation of vegetables with those of
animals ; for it is not unreasonable to suppose, that plants may
differ in sensation as well as in appearance ; and that trees,
shrubs, flowers, and roots, may have distinct gradations of sen
sibility. They eat, drink, and sleep ; secrete, transpire, and
have their dying moments, like other organized living bodies ;
they have, therefore, doubtless, not only their share of incon
veniences, but a positive sense of pleasurable existence.
The plane-tree exhibits the power of exercising a sagacity
for securing food, not unworthy of an animal. Lord Kaimes
relates, that among the ruins of New Abbey, in the county of
Galway, there grew, in his time, on the top of one of its walls,
a plane-tree, upwards of twenty feet in height. Thus situ
ated, it became straitened for food and moisture, and,
therefore, gradually directed its roots down the side of the
wall, till they reached the ground, at the distance of ten feet.
When they had succeeded in this attempt, the upper roots no
longer shot out fibres, but united in one ; and shoots vigo
rously sprang up from the root, that had succeeded in
reaching the earth.
The island of St. Lucia b presents a still more curious phe
nomenon in the animal flower. This organisation lives in a
large bason, the water of which is brackish. It is more bril
liant than the marygold, which it resembles. But when the
hand is extended towards it, it recoils and retires, like a
* Annales de Cliimie, No. 80. b Phil. Mag. vol. li. p. 152.
J84 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONICS;
snail, into the water. It is supposed to live upon the spawn
of fish. Some caterpillars in China burrow in the ground, at
the approach of winter, to the roots of plants, and fasten
there. Hence for many ages 1 it was supposed, in that
country, that it was a worm in summer and a plant in winter.
Humboldt, in sounding the channel between Alegranga and
Clara Montana 6 , brought up a substance, of which he was
unable to determine whether it was a sea-weed or a zoophyte ;
for it exhibited no sign of irritability, even on the application
of galvanic electricity. He supposed it, therefore, to occupy
the space between the vegetable and zoophyte kingdoms.
Some years since, a lady resided in a small village in the
county of Carmarthen, w r hose conversation was distinguished
by an unusual degree of elegance. She was a little disordered
in her mind ; a malady, which was supposed to have origi
nated from an attachment to the late Sir W. Jones. This
derangement, however, was partial ; being chiefly exhibited in
her eating little or nothing but herbs ; in walking on high
pattens in the midst of summer ; in holding a rod, six feet
high, in her hand by way of walking-stick ; and in fastening a
large muff beneath her bosom with a leathern strap. " I am
convinced," said she to me, one day, as we were walking on
the borders of the Towy, " I am convinced that these mosses,
on which we are now walking, have sensation : for last night I
put some of them into a glass among other flowers ; and this
morning I find them much more lively in appearance, than
when I plucked them from their parent roots. I have no
doubt, they derived comfort from the delicious perfumes of
the violets, which the glass contained ; as well as from the
water, in which I put their stalks."
This idea, extravagant as it may appear to some, does not
appear equally so to me ; for that some flowers thrive or fade
in proportion to the assimilation of plants, near which they
grow, I have had many opportunities of observing ; at first
" Thunbcrg, vol. iii. p. 70. v > Voy. Equinoct. Regions, vol. i. p. 8f>.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 385
with doubt, but at length with an assurance amounting to
conviction.
Some of the ancients imagined vegetables to have souls
distinct from their bodies ; and the priests of Siam extended
to them even the principle of transmigration and immortality.
Some have even regarded them as deities. The Egyptians
worshipped the lotus, and a veneration for plants prevailed
formerly in Peru. Virgil a , in the height of poetical excur
sion, has given plants the power even to speak ; a figure
sufficiently extravagant ; and yet it ha& had the honour of
captivating no less poets than Tasso b , Ariosto, and Spenser c .
There is only one species of the tamarind-tree ; and that is a
native, not only of Egypt^ Arabia, and Hindostan, but of Ame
rica. Of the Barringtonia, also, only one species has yet been
discovered ; and that is equally indigenous in China and Ota-
heite. These, and other instances, would seem, at first view, to
confirm an opinion, generated by LinnEeus, viz. : that plants
were originally created with a power of producing their own
species only, without any admixture of kinds ; and that they
will continue so to procreate to the end of time. Subse
quent experience, however, has proved, that the farina of
one plant, fecundating the pystillum of another, produces
varieties capable of procreating sons and daughters ; as well
as the different plants of which they were themselves com
posed. New plants, also, are created by engrafting. The
bergamot citron, for instance, was produced by an Italian hav
ing accidentally engrafted a citron on the stock of a bergamot
pear. From this plant is distilled the essence of bergamot.
Some animals have an analogous origin. Foxes will copu
late with dogs ; horses with asses ; pheasants with turkeys ;
and the whole tribe of pigeons came originally from the stock
dove. The cassican bears so great an affinity with the rollers t
toucans, and orioles, that it is reasonable to suppose it to
a Ma. iii. b Jer. Lib. xiii. st. 41.
c Faerie Queene, c. ii. st. 30.
186 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES
have originally sprung from an union between some of those
birds. The lama proceeded from the guanaco, with which it
is still observed to herd : and though some suppose the do
mestic goat to be descended from the ibex, or the caucasan,
Buffon is perhaps justified in believing, that all the goat genus
proceeded originally from the wild goat and chamois antelope.
Plants produce not only plants, but they are mothers, as it
were, to innumerable insects ; almost equally invisible to us
as to them. Myriads live and die Upon the small capacity of
a rose leaf ! In the flowers of thyme, St. Pierre, through a
small microscope, noted what he calls flagons, from which
seemed to flow ingots of liquid gold. But had he put a few
leaves of the same plant into a glass of pure water, he would
have beheld, within the short space of five days, in a single
globule, millions of animalcules of infusion ; darting, turning,
and swimming with a celerity, animation, and velocity, that
baffle both the eye and the judgment. Almost equal results
may be observed in the infusions of barley, oats, wheat,
pepper, and bay-leaves. At Batavia, if a glass of water is
taken out of the canal, in a few hours a a mass of animated
matter is seen moving in endless divisions and subdivisions,
and with a most astonishing celerity.
The arctic raspberry is so diminutive a plant b , that a phial,
capable of holding only six ounces of alcohol, will contain not
only its fruit and its leaves, but its branches. The smallest
of birds in Europe is the golden-crested wren ; the smallest
in America is the humming-bird ; while the most diminutive
of all quadrupeds is the pigmy mouse of Siberia. But the
number of these animals is comparatively small. The asto
nishing increase of insects is caused by the short period
intervening between impregnation and parturition. In the
human species, the period is nine months ; and yet the power
of progressive numbers is so great, that it has been calculated,
" Barrow, Cochin China, 231, -Ito. b Clarke, Scandinavia, 451).
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 187
and with truth a , that, at the distance of twenty generations,
every man has not less than 1,048,576 ancestors; and at the
end of forty generations, even the square of that number ; viz.
one million millions.
The fructification of plants is exceedingly curious. Among
insects, one female is married to a multitude of males ; among
quadrupeds, polygamy chiefly predominates ; but among
plants, the polyandrian system prevails almost universally ;
one female having often more than twenty husbands, attended
by two remarkable phenomena : 1st. That no plant, tree,
shrub, or flower, has yet been discovered, in which the corolla
has eleven males. The number eleven, indeed, seems to be
totally unknown in botany. 2ndly. That, out of 11,500 spe
cies of plants, enumerated in the first thirteen classes of the
Cambridge collection, there is not a single hermaphrodite
plant, in which the females exceed the males. The females
of some flowers depend upon the wind, others upon insects,
for their impregnation ; since the pollen of the male is wafted
to the stigmata on the wings, the thorax, the abdomen, the
proboscis, or the antennae of those flies, wasps, bees, and other
insects, that rob them of their nectar.
But some plants, even of the most general classes, produce
seeds without receiving pollen from the male. Hens, in the
same manner, lay eggs without being visited by the cock :
but seeds, thus formed, will never fructify; nor will eggs,
thus laid, produce living animals. Some plants, too, grow
upon other plants. The misseltoe rises out of the oak and
the apple ; and the mountain ash frequently springs from a
berry, deposited by a bird in the chink of a yew-tree. The
American loranthus climbs the Coccoloba grandiflora, and
other high trees, in Jamaica, Hayti, Martinico, and Barba-
does ; and its roots, like ivy, fixing firmly to their bark, like
other parasitical plants, they borrow nourishment from the
trees to which they cling. There is a mushroom which grow
A Blackstone s Comment, b. ii. ch. 14, p. 204.
188 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
on the upper extremities of the white pines of Canada ; and
in the forest of Geltsdalo, the Earl of Carlisle has an ash, an
alder, and a mountain ash growing out of the same solid trunk.
Here, too, we may note some resemblance with the man
ners of birds and insects. The cuckoo lays its eggs in the
nest of a hedge-sparrow; the long- eared owl lays its eggs
in the old nest of a magpie ; and the hornet-fly deposits hers
in the cells of an humble bee. Some birds, as the American
goat-sucker, make no nest at all ; but drop their eggs, as
many fishes shed their spawn, careless what becomes of them.
Birds, however, are for the most part assiduous in their
parental duties. Some plants bear analogies even with these :
the tamarind closes upon its fruit, when the sun has set, in
order to preserve it from the dew; and in Ceylon and in
Java there is a plant a remarkable for having a small vege
table bag attached to the base of its leaves. This bag is
covered with a lid, which moves on a strong fibre, answering
the purpose of a hinge. When dews rise, or rains descend,
this lid opens ; when the bag is saturated, the lid falls, and
closes so tightly that no evaporation can take place. The
moisture, thus imbibed, cherishes the seed, and is gradually
absorbed into the body of the plant. Sharks permit their
young ones to retreat, in times of danger, into their stomachs ;
and there are some land animals, also, that possess the power
of resisting the action of the gastric juice.
Some flowers are even viviparous ; but I know of none that
bear even a distant relation to the toad ; which impregnates
the eerers of the female as they issue from her anus. The
oO *
potatoe, on the other hand, claims a peculiarity, on behalf
of vegetables, not unworthy of observation. It produces
more abundantly from a small portion of its fruit, than from
the seed itself. There is nothing in animals associating with
this. Some plants, too, have not even so much as a root.
The Nepenthes distillutoria. Voy. Cochin China, 189, 4to. Vid. Jactjuin,
Flora Austriaca, 73. //.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 189
The fucus natans and the conferva vagabundi, for instance,
swim on the surface of the sea like a nautilus. They may,
therefore, not inaptly be styled plants of passage. The former
swims upon the grassy sea ; and the latter among the estua
ries of Carnarvon ,ind Merioneth, and not uhfrequently in
Milford Haven. Some plants may, also, be propagated by
being engrafted or inoculated. Thus by inoculating one tree
with the buds of others, several fruits may be made to grow
upon one tree. Engrafting is performed either by insinu
ating: a bud or scion into the stock, into the rind, into the
O 7
bark, between the rind and the bark, cr into the root
itself.
In general economy, the internal structure of viviparous
and oviparous animals are different ; but in serpents the con
formation of both is the same. In the leech there seems to
be no passage, by which it can eject the blood it has taken
into its body. It will remain clotted, but not putrified, for
months; and little altered either in texture or consistence. It
probably exudes by the medium of pores.
Insects have no bones: their blood is not red: their
mouths open lengthwise : they have no eyelids : and their
lungs open at their sides. They seem to have the capacity of
hearing, but they have no ears. Lizards, also, exhibit re
markable phenomena. They are neither beast, fish, bird,
serpent, nor insect; and yet, in some measure, they share the
natures of them all. Some are viviparous, like beasts ; as the
Lophius piscatorius; others oviparous, like birds: some shed
spawn like fishes ; some have teeth like serpents ; and others
none, like many insects.
Some plants bear fruit on the backs of their leaves : as
spleenwort, maidenhair, fern, brake, pepper-grass, and many
species of moss. After the same manner, the Lapland mar
mot, the spider, and the American scorpion, carry their
young upon their backs, wherever they go, in case of alarm.
The monoculus insect carries its young on its back even in the
1 ( JO ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
water ; but the Surinam toad exhibits a still more wonderful
phenomenon : its eggs are buried in the skin of its back.
When the animals, enclosed in those eggs, burst from their
shells, the mother is seen crawling, with her family riding on
her person ; some still in the egg ; others just emerging out
of it ; and some clinging to various parts of her body. In
animals an abundant supply of food tends to early produc
tion ; but in vegetables, the more scanty the nourishment,
the earlier will a plant propagate its kind.
ELECTRICAL AND OTHER AFFINITIES, &C.
AFFINITIES of electricity may be traced in marine sub
stances, in insects, vegetable oils, and mineral essences. In
40 degrees SO minutes south of the Line a are seen a multi
tude of minute sea animals, emitting colours equal to those
of the most brilliant sapphires and rubies. When observed
by candle-light, they appear of a pale green. In the Gulf
of Guinea, ships seem frequently to sail, at night, in a sea of
milk b ; a whiteness, which is occasioned by pellucid salpse,
and crustaceous animals of the scyllarus genus, attached to
them. Other oceans contain a particular species of sea ane
mones, so brilliant, that the terms white, carmine, and ultra
marine, are c insufficient to express their beauty. In the River
St. Lawrence d , luminous appearances are caused by a vast
number of porpoises darting and crossing each other with
great velocity. Star-fishes, also, float on the surface of the
sea in summer, and emit light like phosphorus. By land
these luminous appearances are far from being unknown ;
though in instances more detached.
When Misson 6 was in Italy, he observed the hedges,
" Cook. b Tuckey, p. 48, 4to.
Abbt Dieguemarre, Phil. Trans, for 1773, art. 37.
d Aubcry s Travels iu Amer. vol. i. p. 2fi.
" Misson s Travels, vol. ii. p. 234.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 191
bushes, fields, and trees, covered with innumerable flies (luci-
cole), which gave great splendour to the evening air. The ful-
goria candelaria, and the diadema, give equal brilliancy to
many parts of China and India. In the Torrid Zone, also,
countless multitudes of phosphorescent insects a fly in all
directions, and give light to groves of palms and mimosas.
The elata noctilucus of South America emits a light so bril
liant, that ten of them are equal to the effulgence of a candle :
while the Peruvian fulgoria, having a head nearly as large as
its entire body, is so luminous, that four, tied to the branch
of a tree, are carried, near Surinam, to guide travellers by
night. Light is emitted, also, by dead plants, and rotten
carcasses: while sulphuric acid, if mixed with water, emits a
heat more violent than even boiling water.
Under the influence of fire, coal elicits a red flame ; jet a
green, and amber a white one. The Siberian topaz becomes
white ; the Brazilian topaz red ; the chrysolite fades of its
green ; and Oriental sapphires, from a deep blue, become so
brilliant, that they are frequently taken for diamonds. At
Ancliff, in Lancashire, there is a well, the vapour of which is
so impregnated with sulphur, that, by applying a light to it,
it burns like the flame of spirits. In the Grotto del Cane,
on the road from Naples to Puzzuoli, carbonic acid gas exists
in a state of purity, unmixed with the atmosphere. It rises,
however, only three feet from the bottom of the grotto ; so
that a man may enter the cave without danger. But if an
animal is held to the floor, for a short space of time, it loses
all appearance of life ; a state, however, from which it soon
recovers if it be thrown into the adjoining lake. A torch,
taken into this cave, blazes with brilliancy ; but if held within
three feet of the floor, it becomes immediately extinguished.
In Germany there is an odoriferous plant belonging to the
Decandria monogynia class and order, which blossoms in June
" Lampyris Italica, L. noctiluea.
]J)2 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
and July ; and which, when approached of a calm night, with
a candle, becomes luminous : this arises from the finer parts
of its essential oil dissolving in the atmospherical air; and
impregnating it.
Kircher relates, that, near the village of Pietra Mala, in
Tuscany, he observed the air frequently to sparkle in the
night-time. This fire was called Fuogo del Legno : and pro
bably proceeded, like the ignis fatuus, from phosphorated
hydrogen gas : since that combination fires spontaneously at
any temperature of the atmosphere. Salt produced from a
solution of copper in nitric acid, if sprinkled with water over
tinfoil, and wrapt up suddenly, will elicit sparks of fire from
the tinfoil : and filings of zinc, mixed with gunpowder, pro
duce those stars and spangles, in artificial fireworks, which it
is impossible not to admire.
If some vegetables exist without roots, there are animated
beings, in return, which are propagated after the manner of
plants. The earthworm may be divided into two parts; upon
which each part becomes a perfect worm. The head por
tion acquires a tail; and the tail portion acquires a head. The
star-fish may be divided into many parts with similar effects:
but the polypus may be divided and subdivided into 500; and
thus by compulsion become the parent of 500 others. Indeed
polypi exhibit the most wonderful phenomena, in respect to
propagation, of any objects in nature; for they propagate
like quadrupeds ; like insects ; like fishes; and like plants.
Some are viviparous ; and some issue from an egg ; some are
multiplied by cuttings, and others grow out of the bodies of their
parent like buds out of trees : and from which they fall, much
after the manner of the testuca ovina of northern latitudes.
It may hero be remarked, that, though in general plants are
extremely regular in producing their relative and respective
number of males and females, they do not do so always. In
the flower called the TurkVcap I have observed corollas con-
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 19:5
taining seven, and even eight stamens, growing on the
same branch with corollas having only their usual number
of six.
Lizards, serpents, lobsters, and some insects, have no
apparent organs of generation : they are, therefore, supposed
to have the wonderful faculty of secret generation. In
this they bear some affinity with the attica-tree of Ceylon,
which produces fruit from the trunk and branches without
flowering. The cryptogamia class of plants, also, entirely
conceal their fructification. Indeed it is impossible to deter
mine where the separate species of life and being begin and
terminate. I am persuaded that even the hairs of the head,
and other parts of the frame, are animal vegetables distinct
from, though growing out of the body a . They have roots like
the bulbs of plants ; and, being nourished by the blood vessels,
as vegetables are nourished by the earth, they have some
times grown, as Malpighi confesses, so thick and strong
as to exude blood. Hair may, also, be transplanted from one
part of the body to another 5 . I am persuaded, also, that
every stamen, every pistyl, every petal, and every leaf, how
ever small, arc distinct beings from each other : though of
similar natures. The corolla of a flower is a collection of
petals, forming a house for the males and the females : they
all rise and have their being from one seed ; but the seed, from
which they rise, contains in its embryo the rudiments of every
portion of the future plant,
a I am not certain that the remark may not be extended to the teeth and nails
The teeth are, next to hair and nails, the most independent part of our frame.
They decay (often) long before the rest of the body ; and their presence is fre
quently more painful than agreeable. As to the nails, they are in a perpetual
state of increase. They even grow after the body has been deposited in the
grave. Though growing on the body, and of use to it, they may, therefore, I
think, be regarded as distinct : so, also, the horns of quadrupeds, the feathers
of birds, and the scales of fishes.
b Vid. Letter from Signor Dottore Nardo to the Academy of Padua, in
Giornale di Litteratura Italiana.
VOL. II. O
194 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE ANOMALIES.
WHETHER minerals grow and propagate has not been ascer
tained, either in the negative or the affirmative. Signor di
Gimbernat has discovered lately in the thermal waters of
Baden and Ischia, a substance, similar to skin and flesh : he
calls it zoogene ; being a species of mineral animal matter.
Future investigation will lead to some important results, in
respect to the connection, which this substance has with other
portions of the kingdom of Nature. Indeed, wonderful disco
veries are yet in store for learned men ; since potash has been
discovered in gehlente, needle-stone, and datolite ; all of which
yield a transparent jelly, when acted upon by acids. Tourne-
fort believed that minerals emanated from seeds, as plants do :
and the Otahcitans once were so extravagant as to think, that
rocks were male and female, and begat soil. Milton, in the
range of his vivid imagination, imparts the sexual properties
even to the particles of light a . Globes, also, have been said
to be animated bodies ; whence have emanated planets and
satellites, as stars issue out of rockets, when let off in a serene
atmosphere. Upon this principle the sun itself is an animal.
These ideas, however, must, for the present, be esteemed
poetical. If minerals grow, they grow differently from plants ;
as well as from all other organised bodies.
If Nature has her resemblances, she has also her anomalies.
The naked eye can discern in truffles neither root, stem,
leaves, flower, nor fruit. The osyris japonica b has flowers
upon the middle of its leaves ; club -moss has two kinds of
seeds growing on the same plant ; and the same has been sup
posed to be the case in the genera fucus and conferva. These
are wonderful phenomena ! They were first observed by Dil-
lenius ; and their separate germinations were afterwards
described by Brotero.
" P. L. b. viii. 1. ir-,0. ] > Thunberg, vol. iii. 101.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 195
The parasitical epidendrum monile a lives years with only
the imbibings of rain and dew. It does not fasten its roots in
the ground ; and is, therefore, frequently hung upon pegs.
Some plants of the desert have been taken up, and kept with
out moisture even for three years ; and yet have vegetated b .
The phoke c of the Caubul deserts has flowers, but no leaves ;
its branches are green, and run into twigs, terminating in
branches, soft and full of sap. Camels are partial to it.
It is remarkable, that in Asia and Africa, where grass will
not grow, the most beautiful flowers and shrubs flourish
luxuriantly. In Australia, where vegetable and mineral pro
ductions run- in veins nearly north and south d , timber dege
nerates as the land improves ; and the most nourishing e of all
vegetables in the range of the Arctic circle grows best in
sterile places. The " King of Candia f " has red clusters of
flowers, which grow close to the ground. Before -these
clusters unfold, the leaves wither, and do not renew till the
fruit falls. In all countries where the champaka g grows, its
colour is yellow ; except in Sumatra, where it is blue. This
exception is so remarkable, that the Bramins believe that it
once grew in Paradise. On the banks of the Ganges, near
Hurdwar, is a grass h , which, when trampled upon, diffuses a
grateful perfume ; and in the territory of Istakhar there is
said to be an apple, one half of which is sour, and the other
sweet. These instances are very remarkable ; but in the olive
and potatoe are peculiarities still more curious. The olive is
propagated by cuttings, and by procuring wild plants from
the woods ; and it will not grow from the seed, unless it first
passes through the intestines of some bird, which divests it of
those oily particles, which prevent water penetrating it and
causing the kernel to expand. The same effect may, pro-
a Thunberg, vol. iii. p. 212. b Ibid. vol. iv. 269. c Elphinstone, p. 4, 4to.
d Oxley, p. 268, 4to. K Lichen rangiferinus, Flor. Jap. 332.
f Hremanthus coccineus. E Marsden, Sumatra.
h Jones on the Ancient Spikenard.
o 2
196 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
bably, be produced by macerating the seed in an alkaline
lixivium. In respect to the potatoe, what can be more
curious in fecundation, than the circumstance, that when this
plant is propagated by cuttings, those cuttings will produce
roots of the same quality ; but when it is propagated by seed,
scarcely two roots resemble each other in form, in size, colour,
or flavour. In animated beings, too, it is not incurious to
remark one or two of those peculiarities, which exemplify the
boundless variety of Nature. The eggs of poultry, near
Oojain in the Mahratta states, frequently contain two yolks :
their bones, too, are black ; while in Europe they are white,
and in Malabar red. In London may, at this moment,
be seen a redbreast with red eyes, yellow bill and legs, white
feathers, and white claws. The species of colymbus, known in
Sweden by the name of the lomm a , has feet ; but as they are
turned towards the tail b , it is unable to walk.
In the genus lytta, the Spanish female fly courts the male ;
and usurps the station in fecundation, which, in other animals,
is taken by the male. This is, I believe, the only instance
of the kind, that has yet been observed in natural economy,
In minerals many anomalies and resemblances have, also, been
observed : and as an analogy between vegetables and minerals
is indicated by some remarkable coincidences, observable in
the effects of metallic and vegetable galvanic batteries c , future
experience will probably account for those peculiarities, which
at present baffle the subtlety of the human mind.
How many species of sensation Nature has created, it were
impossible even to conjecture : but, by all the rules of ana
logy, it is evident that there are at least two ; the vegetable,
and the animal. These " species are subdivided into orders ;
each of which are experienced in regular gradation, according
to the body to which it belongs. Some extend sensation even
to minerals ; and, according to them, earths have a less
Clarke, Scandinavia, 310. b Scheffer de Avibus, 349.
c Proved by Baronio of Naples.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 197
perfect sensation than bitumen and sulphur ; these yield to
metals ; metals to vitriols ; vitriols to lower salts ; these
to lower species of crystallizations ; and those to what are
called stones. The mineral is connected to the vegetable
world by the amianthes and lytophites. Here a new species
of sensation begins ; a sensation partaking of the united quali
ties of mineral and vegetable ; having the former in a much
greater degree than the latter. Vegetable is more acute
than mineral sensation ; therefore more delicate. Its degrees
and qualities aspire, in regular order, from the root to the
moving plant. The polypus unites plants to insects ; the
tube-worm seems to connect insects with shells and reptiles ;
the sea-eel and the water-serpent connect reptiles with fishes ;
the flying-fish form the link between fishes and birds ; bats
associate quadrupeds with birds ; and the various gradations
of monkeys and apes fill up the space between quadrupeds
and men.
CHARACTERS AND HABITS OF ANIMALS.
IT is curious, also, to observe the analogies of animals, in
respect to their construction, capabilities, manners, and habits.
Let us allude to a few of them. Wild horses live in com
munities, consisting of from ten to twenty, in the deserts of
Western Tartary, and in the southern regions of Siberia.
Each community is governed by a chief. The females bring
forth one at a birth ; which, if a male, is chased from the
herd, when he arrives at maturity ; and then he wanders
about till he has assembled a few mares, to establish an
empire of his own. While feeding, or sleeping, the tribe
place a sentinel, who is ever on the watch ; and who, on all
occasions for alarm, gives signals by neighing ; on hearing
which the whole party set off with a speed equal to that of
the wind. Wild asses congregate in the same manner. Ante
lopes associate in bodies, frequently to the number of three
thousand. The wild lamas of the Cordilleras herd, also, in
IDS ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
large flocks ; and appoint sentinels, who stand upon the sum
mit of a precipice. In their habits they bear a great affinity
with antelopes. The Arctic walrus sleeps with a herd, con
sisting of many hundreds, on the islands of ice along the
coast of Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, Hudson s Bay, the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Icy Sea. Ursine seals, too,
are gregarious : each family consisting of from ten to fifty
females, besides their young ; commanded by the father, who
exercises despotic authority.
Violet crabs live in communities among the mountains of
the Carribee islands ; whence they emigrate, in immense
bodies, every year, to the sea shore, in order to deposit their
eggs. Green turtles, too, are gregarious. On shore they
prefer the mangrove and the black-wood tree : but in the
sea they feed upon weeds, as land animals do upon grass.
When the sun shines, they are seen, many fathoms deep,
feeding in flocks, like deer. Bees, wasps, and ants, congre
gate together in a manner still more wonderful.
In some animals we observe a propensity to hoard, for the
satisfaction of the next day s appetite : in others for the
entire winter s supply. This useful instinct is possessed by
the beaver ; the striped dormouse ; the earless marmot ; and
the Alpine mole. Some birds have the same foresight ; as
the nuthatch and the tanager of the Mississippi : the former
hoarding nuts, the latter maize. Some animals there are,
which take pleasure in hoarding what can never be of use
to them ; as the raven, the jackdaw, the magpie, and the
nut-cracker of Lorraine. Some quadrupeds assimilate in the
custom of sleeping by day, and being active by night ; as the
Egyptian jerboa ; the wandering mouse ; the hedge-hog ; the
six-banded armadillo ; the great ant-eater ; the tapir ; the
Brazilian porcupine ; the flying squirrel of North and South
America ; and the hippopotamus of the Nile and the Niger.
This curious propensity is observed, also, among some birds,
insects, and fishes ; as the owl, the finch of Hudson s Bay,
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 199
the white-throat, the goat-sucker, the eel, the turtle, and the
moth.
With these we may associate those flowers, which expand
their blossoms during the evening and the night ; as the
Pomeridian pink ; nocturnal catchfly ; several species of
moss ; the nightshade of Peru ; the nightingale flower of the
Cape ; the cereus grandiflorus ; and the tree of melancholy,
growing in the Moluccas : the numerous family of the con-
fervse ; charas ; many kinds of ranunculi ; and almost every
species of aquatic plant. The Triste geranium, also, (first
brought into this country in 1632), has little or no scent in
the middle of the day ; but in the night it sheds an exquisite
perfume.
Many beautiful flowers have no scent ; many beautiful
birds have no song ; and many animals of symmetrical shapes
are of no use to mankind. Some plants will exist for months
without water ; serpents are equally abstinent ; and sloths
will live forty days without any description of food. Ana
logies may be traced even in contrasts. Thus the most
medicinal roots, the best gums, and the most odoriferous
spices, are from countries producing the most destructive of
animals : as the condor, the dodo, the cassowary ; alligators,
crocodiles, and serpents; leopards, panthers, tigers, locusts,
land-crabs, and rattlesnakes.
Few animals require habitations ; they being sufficiently
protected by their wool, hair, or scales. The soldier-crab,
however, clothes himself in the discarded shell of a lobster.
On the banks of the Congo, the African ants erect mushroom-
like habitations, sometimes forming whole villages. Beavers
show more intellect, in respect to their securities, than any
other animal : and not only build in a manner more conso
nant with reason, than the savage by whom they are pur
sued from one rivulet to another, but are more than equal to
him in providing against the intensity of cold and the vicissi
tudes of want. The huts of New Caledonia were nothing
200 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
more than sticks, set up closely together ; on which were
placed flags and coarse grass. Their parallels may, occa
sionally, be seen in Gloucester and Momnouth-shires ; where
wood is cut for charcoal. In the Manillas, trees budding,
blossoming, and bearing fruit all the year, the inhabitants in
past ages had only trees for their houses ; and removed from
one place to another, as they consumed the fruit.
Some insects form nests for their young ; others have
methods still more curious for their protection. The ichneu
mon fly deposits its eggs in the body of a caterpillar with the
point of its sting. These become maggots, and feed upon
the live body of the caterpillar that matured them. The
sphix genus of insects are less cruel : for they deposit theirs
only in spiders and caterpillars that are already dead. The
ox-fly lays its eggs in the skins of oxen : another species in
the nostrils of sheep ; and another upon the manes and hair
of horses ; which the horse licking, takes into its stomach ;
where they become bots, and not unfrequently cause the
horse s death. The chegoe of the West Indies lays its eggs
even under the skin of men s legs ; and unless the bag is
removed, a mortification frequently ensues.
ANIMAL AFFINITIES.
ANIMALS of different genera resemble each other, not unfre
quently, in the attitudes they respectively assume. The
leech, when touched, rolls itself into a spherical form. The
gally-worm, also, rolls itself up like a ball : so does the onis-
cus armadillo : and the domesticus dermestes, when alarmed
in the least degree, draws its feet under its abdomen, and its
head under its thorax, and seems to be dead. Thus these
insects have an affinity in manners with the hedge-hog and
the three-banded armadillo. This latter animal, armed with
a shell, is almost invulnerable : but, when pursued by hunters,
it throws itself down, coils itself up, and rolls down preci-
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 201
pices ; leaving the hunter, while lamenting its escape, to
admire its courage. The drum-fish of Peru, in the same
manner, inflates itself, when alarmed, till it is round : when
none of its enemies can either bite or swallow it. Its size
prevents the latter, and its shape the former.
Curious affinities may be also traced in the language of
animals. The Hindustan antelope chews the cud like a lama,
lies down and rises up like a camel, croaks like a raven, and,
at a certain time of the year, has a rattling in its throat,
like a deer. The eared owl of Brazil sports and frolics like
a monkey ; Leonine seals roar like angry bulls ; the female
lows like a calf, and the young ones bleat like sheep : while
the raven fowls like a hawk ; fetches and carries like a dog ;
steals like a jay ; smells like a stork ; whistles like a boy ;
speaks like a man ; and sings like a woman.
Similarities may be observed, too, in the separate parts of
particular animals. Thus the camelopard has horns like a
deer ; and a neck, in some measure, like a camel : it is spot
ted like a leopard ; and it has a tongue and ears like a cow.
The Nhu antelope has the mane of a horse ; the head of a
heifer ; and its hind parts resemble those of a mule. The bar-
byrousa of Boura has the shape of a stag ; a nose and tail like
a boar ; feet like those of a goat ; the legs of a roe-buck ; and
hair like that of a greyhound.
Some animals bear resemblances to each other in having
olfactory partialities and antipathies. The olfactory power of
rein-deer is so great, that they can ascertain where the
lichen rangiferinus lies, though buried under the snow. When
they come to a spot where it is concealed, they smell it, and
dig for it. The Polar bear has a great antipathy to the
smell of burnt feathers. Several ostriches lay eggs in one
nest. If they are touched by any one, they discover it on
their return by the smell : they break the eggs : and never
again lay in the same nest. Even insects enjoy the olfactory
sense. Bees and flics love the perfume of flowers ; ants
202 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
hate cajeput oil ; and cock-roaches have an aversion to
camphor.
Some animals are peculiarly sensitive to particular sounds.
Horses become animated at the sound of trumpets, and at
the cry of dogs in the chase ; elephants delight in music ;
the camel, when fatigued with a long journey over the De
serts, will revive in an instant, if its master sing loudly, or
play upon a musical instrument. Bees are soothed by tim
brels; and mullets are attracted to the hooks of African
negroes, by clappers, which the waves knock against pieces of
wood to which they are attached.
CHARACTERS OF MEN TRACED IN ANIMALS.
WE may even recognize human characters in animals :
Nature frequently translating the same sentence, as it were,
into various languages. Ventenat seems inclined to extend
these analogies even to the external character of plants.
Hence he calls a flower of New South Wales, Josephina,
from the beauty of its corolla, and the elevation of its stalk :
and a tree from Owara M. do Beauvais named Napoleon,
from its splendour, and from the circumstance of its present
ing the figure of a double crown. Animal resemblances are,
however, more positive. In the jay we may trace the airs of
a petulant girl; the magpie has all the restlessness, flippancy,
vanity, and intrusion of the beau : while in the young bull
finch we recognize a young woman, modest and good-
humoured, imitating the manners and virtues of her mother.
The caprices and propensities of a goat the debauchee acknow
ledges for his own : and the selfish we may compare to the
one-horned rhinoceros, since it is incapable either of grati
tude or attachment : the intemperate to the rougette bat,
intoxicating itself with the juice of a palm-tree : a man easy
of forgiveness resembles the Cape antelope : fierce when
assailed ; yet taking food within a minute, even from the
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 203
hand which struck it : while a man, who derives his enjoy
ments from his family, seems animated with the same spirit
as the antelope of Scythia, which will seldom eat, unless
surrounded by its mate and her little ones. Envious men
and calumniating women we may compare to serpent- eaters ;
such as porcupines a , the deer of Afgaunistan b ; the ciconia
of the Arctic regions, and the secretary bird c . In the cou
rage of the shrike, we acknowledge the courage of man.
Eagles attack animals they feel certain to conquer ; but
shrikes attack, and not unfrequently subdue, birds more than
three times larger than themselves. Man, however, is the
most courageous of animals ; since he encounters dangers of
every species ; not from hunger, instinct, or an ignorance of
their nature and extent, but from reason and calculation.
Indian antelopes, like old men, sequester themselves, and
become solitary in age. The green maccaw is a perfect em
blem of a jealous wife. If its master caress a dog, a cat, a
bird, or even a child, nothing can exceed its anxiety and
fury : nor can it be appeased, till its master forsakes the new
favourite and returns to it.
In respect to colour, it is remarkable, that while red is the
most agreeable to the eyes of women, it is a colour, which
provokes the greatest possible abhorrence in turkeys, bulls,
buffaloes, bisons, and several other animals. Some men
resemble the great bat of Java. This bat, when wounded
and unable to revenge the injury, wreaks its vengeance on its
own wounded limb d . The Japanese, out of revenge to
others, will, in the same spirit, not unfrequently rip up their
own bellies e . Other men resemble the tavoua f parrot of
Guinea. This parrot is one of the most beautiful of its tribe ;
but it is the most ferocious in its intentions, when it exhibits
a disposition to caress. A negro slave, mild, faithful, and
8 Pallas, South Russ. vol. i. 150, 4to. b Elphinstone, Caubul, 142, 4to.
r Barrow, Cochin China, 146, 4to. d Abel s Journey in China, p. 43.
" Kaimes Sketches, vol. i. p. 67, 2nd ed. f Psittacus festivus.
204 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
prudent, may be associated with the Javan buffalo : since,
though intractable with a stranger, that animal will permit
itself to be guided and governed a by the smallest child of a
Javan family, in which it has been domesticated.
Wise men sometimes appear blind, and then the fool fan
cies them unable to see. He is ignorant, that some birds, by
means of the nictilating membrane, cover their eyes without
shutting their eye-lids. Obstinate men may read their own
characters in those of the Arctic puffin and the Lapland
mouse. The former seizes the end of a bough, thrust into its
hole, and will not leave its hold till it is drawn out and
killed. The latter, in wandering from the mountains, descend
in vast bodies, and in their progress will move out of a direct
line for nothing. They have eyes, and yet they run against
stones, rocks, and animals ; and bite and contend with every
object that they meet. They pass rivers and cross lakes ;
and when they arrive at the sea, plunge in and become lost in
the waters. Men, who are solitary from bad passions, resem
ble the Tenebrio beetle ; .which is of such a solitary nature,
that two of them are seldom or never seen together. How
many men are there who resemble the laurus arcticus ? This
bird never fishes itself, but lives upon fish caught by other
birds, which it pursues. They drop their prey from fear, and
the larus seizes it before it falls into the ocean.
Even inanimate objects have their contrasts and resem
blances to the human character. An elegant and good
woman may be associated with the pine-apple, which has the
flavour of many exquisite fruits. In retirement she resem
bles an opaz, emeralds, and sapphires, glowing in silence in
their native quarries. Men of learning, who waste their
knowledge without communicating it to others, may be com
pared to the Caspian Sea; which not only receives the
seventy channels of the Wolga, but of many other rivers,
without having any visible outlet for its waters. There is an
* Raffles Hist, of Java, 4to., vol. i. p. 112.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 205
animal in Hindostan called the siaygush, which attacks, with
incessant hostility, wolves, tigers, and all other ferocious
animals ; and yet lives upon roots and fruits. In this we
recognize a resemblance to a wise governor. Warriors, on
the other hand, resemble that celebrated mountain, the sum
mit of which blazes with volcanoes, whose less elevated regions
are inhabited by lions, its girdle by goats, and its feet by
serpents.
Bees and wasps die soon after losing their stings. The
American loranthus steals all its juice and sap from the tree,
on which it climbs ; and on the day after the bough, upon
which it has lived, is cut off, it withers and dies. Another
species of loranthus causes the upper branch of its support to
perish. It atones for this destructive influence, however, in
some degree, by imparting grace and beauty : for its flowers,
resembling the honeysuckle, are numerous, and it blossoms
great part of the year.
ANIMAL ADORATION.
JOSEPHUS believed, that, before the fall, every animal had
reason and speech. They certainly have, even now, after
their own manner and species : and many attempts have been
made in France, as well as in Germany and Britain, to ascer
tain their organs of eloquence. Crows have not less than
twenty -five a different modulations. Animals have even been
raised by the folly and impiety of mankind to the rank of
deities. " It is better," says Lord Bacon b , " to have no
opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy
of him: for the one is merely unbelief ; the other is con
tumely.""
a Cra, ere, cro, crou, croou.
Grass, gress, gross, grouss, grououss.
Crue, crtia, croa, croua, grouass.
Crao, creo, cro, croue, grouess.
Craou, creou, croo, crouo, grouous. Anon.
b Essay xvii.
206 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
The pyramids are the tombs of bulls. In a sarcophagus,
found in the second pyramid by Belzoni, were discovered
bones, which at first were supposed to be those of king
Cephrenes : but, upon a scientific survey, they proved to be
those of an animal, belonging to the bos genus. Hence it
has reasonably been supposed, that the pyramid was erected,
not for the interment of kings, but for the deposition of Apis.
Belzoni also believed, that the most magnificent of the tombs
at Thebes was destined for the same purpose. How far
human folly has gone, and can yet go, may be estimated by
the following facts : Though trees, rocks, and rivers, have
been worshipped in almost all countries ; and absurd as this
species of adoration may appear in these days of enlight
ened Christianity ; it must be acknowledged, that animal
worship is far more impertinent than vegetable worship. For
in the one there is mystery ; in the other none. Herodotus
asserts, and from him Strabo, that the first temples in
Egypt were for the reception of the insects, fishes, rep
tiles, birds, and quadrupeds, the inhabitants worshipped.
Swine were adored in Crete ; weasels at Thebes ; rats and
mice in Troas ; porcupines in Persia ; and some writers even
assure us, that the Thessalians and Arcanians dedicated bul
locks to ants and flies. The custom of worshipping animals
prevailed, also, among the Egyptians, Syrians, Scythians,
Hindoos, Chinese, Tonquinese, Tibetians, and Siberians,
Greeks, Romans, and Celts.
Anaximenes a believed air to be the principal deity; and St.
Augustin b esteemed it the secondary parent of all earthly
objects. The invisibility of this element may operate as an
apology for this species of idolatry ; but to worship beings,
that we can take up in our hands and crush with our fingers,
is preposterous in the highest degree. Hero worship is mag
nificent when compared with it. Hero worship was general
a Cic. de Natura Deor. lib. ii. c. 20.
b De Civitate Dei, lib. viii. c. 2.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 207
in ancient times. Rollin a conceives that Moses and Bacchus
were the same ; and Clarke b seems to think, that Serapis
was no other than Joseph. The modern Buharians pay
divine honours to the memory of their forefathers c ; and in
some provinces of Pegu, they offer sacrifices to their dead
bodies. Agesilaus d , when the Thracians reported to him,
that they had entered his name among the deities, coolly
replied, " What ! have the people of your nation the privi
lege and the power of making gods of whom they please I 1
When the ancient writers inform us, that a particular god
was born in a particular place, they mean, that he was first
worshipped there. But some nations have adored dogs e ,
wolves f , apes, hawks, cocks g , fishes h , and monkeys . The
Tonquinese worship horses and elephants ; and the Egyp
tians k embalmed the bodies of wolves and crocodiles ; they
also worshipped beetles ; as we learn from Isaiah , Pliny m ,
and St. Jerome n . The Hebrews worshipped a golden calf ;
and even paid divine honours to the head of an ox P.
Some of the Malabarese adore the Pondicherry eagle, the
most rapacious of birds. In Madura they venerate the ass ;
and suppose the whole tribe to be animated with the souls
of their nobility. The inhabitants of Benin regard certain
animals as mediators between them and the Deity ; and the
natives of Siam and Pegu believe white elephants to have the
souls of their deceased monarchs residing in them. The
Sandwich Islanders earnestly entreated the Europeans not
to injure their ravens. " They are Eatoos of deceased chiefs,"
said they. In many islands of the South Seas the owl is
tt Belles Lettres, vol. iv. 159. b Travels in Egypt, Syria, &c.
c Bosnian s Guinea Coast, 350-8-60-61. d Plutarch. In Vit. Ages.
e Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. f Diod. Siculus.
8 Lord s Relig. Parsis, c. i. h Juvenal, sat. Iv. v. 4.
The Pooleahs of Malabar.
k Diod. xii. c. 17. Ch. vii. v. 10. m Nat. Hist. xxx. c. 11.
n Murcas autem J5gyptos vocat, propter sordes Idolatriae.
Gen. xxxiii. p Lactantius de Vera Sapientia, lib. iv.
208 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
venerated ; in Mexico the lapwing ; storks in Morocco ; bulls
in Benares. The serpent was worshipped by the Lithuanians,
the Samogitians, the Africans of Mozambique, and the natives
of Calicut. In Surinam this reptile is still sacred ; and its
visits are regarded as highly fortunate : Its colours are
resplendently beautiful. The serpent was once also wor
shipped in Greece ; and Vishnu, the Indian god, is frequently
represented under its form. In May, 1819, a golden image
with five heads, made of pure gold of Ophir, was discovered
among the Paishwa s family deities. It weighed 370 tolas ;
and the serpent-headed god was represented in the act of
contemplating the creation of the world. The Hindoos never
molest snakes. They call them fathers, brothers, friends, and
all manner of endearing names ; and, on the coast of Guinea,
snakes are reverenced so highly, that, in Bosnian s time, a hog
happening to kill one, the king ordered all the swine to be
destroyed.
BEASON IN ANIMALS.
THAT beasts have reason has been argued by Plutarch*,
Montaigne 5 , and many other writers, with great force of
argument. That it extends to birds and insects, and even to
fishes, is equally probable. Nor was the poet so excursive as
he has been esteemed, when he fabled fish to be able to com
municate to each other, that the waters of the Euxine were
more pure, soft, and agreeable, than those of any other sea.
It is impossible, at present, to state how far animal reason
extends ; since even leeches are endowed with retrospective
faculties. For when salt has been sprinkled over their
backs, in order to make them disgorge, salt being a poison
to most insects, they retain its impression so firmly, that
they will not, till they have recovered perfect health, stick
De Solertia Animal, c. xii.
b Apology for Raymond de Sebonde, b. ii. ch. 12.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 209
to a wound afterwards with any pertinacity. Serpents will
even obey the voice of their masters : the trumpeter bird
of America will follow its owner like a spaniel : and the
jacana frequently acts as a shepherd to poultry. It pre
serves them in the fields all the day from birds of prey, and
brings them home regularly at night. In the Shetland
Islands there is a gull, which defends the flock from eagles ;
it is, therefore, regarded as a privileged bird. The chamois,
bounding among the snowy mountains of the Caucasus, are
indebted for their safety, in some degree, to a peculiar species
of pheasant. This bird acts as their sentinel ; for as soon as
it gets sight of a man it whistles ; upon hearing which the cha
mois, knowing the hunter is not far distant, sets off with the
greatest activity ; and seeks the highest precipices or the
deepest recesses of the mountains.
Eagles, and some other birds, not only live in pairs, but
procreate, year after year : they hunt together ; and the male
feeds the female, during the time of incubation. What is
this but a species of marriage ? Man has the power neither
to eat, to walk, nor to speak, until he is taught. Being the
most helpless of animals, the utmost of his earliest power is to
suck, to move his limbs, and to weep. Nor is he the only
animal, that has the divine faculty of contemplation. Though
the most intimate acquaintance with vegetable anatomy
discovers no organ, that bears any analogy with the seat of
animal sensation, it would nevertheless betray a species of
ignorance to deny sensation to plants. It would betray a
still greater to deny reason to animals ; since the faculty of
imagination is proved by their capacity of dreaming.
In the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, was a
crane, which Mons. Valentin brought from Senegal. This
bird was attended by that merchant, during the voyage, with
the most assiduous care ; but, upon landing in France, it was
sold, or given, to the Museum of Natural History. Several
months after its introduction, Valentin, arriving at Paris,
VOL. n. p
210 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
went to the menagerie, and walked up to the cage in which
the bird was confined. The crane instantly recognised him ;
and when Valentin went into its cage, lavished upon him
every mark of affectionate attachment.
That animals possess parental and filial affections, friendly
dispositions, and generous sympathies, is known even to
superficial observers. The artifices, which partridges and
plovers employ to delude their enemies from the nest of their
young, are equally known. The hind, when she hears the
sound of dogs, puts herself in the way of her hunters ; and,
choosing her ground, takes an opposite direction to that in
which she left her fawns. The love of this animal, too, for its
native haunts, is not unfrequently exemplified. A farmer at
Mount Vernon, in the state of Kentucky, having domesti
cated a female deer, lost her during one whole spring and
summer. After an absence of several months, however, she
returned with a young fawn by her side ; and, on her arrival,
seemed to take great pleasure in showing her young.
Grief, too, works in a lively manner upon animals. I knew
a dog that died for the loss of its master ; and a bullfinch,
that abstained from singing ten entire months on account of
the absence of its mistress. On her return it resumed its
song. Lord Kaimes a relates an instance of a canary, which,
in singing to his mate, hatching her eggs in a cage, fell dead.
The female quitted her nest ; and, finding him dead, rejected
all food, and died by his side. Homer was not so extra
vagant, as some may be .inclined to esteem him, when he
makes the proud horses of the proud Achilles weep for the
loss of their master : for horses, I have little doubt, can
regret ; and their countenances frequently exhibit evident
marks of melancholy.
Some animals are more truly sensitive to the value of
liberty than men. Vipers, when in a state of bondage, never
take their annual repose ; and leeches will breed in con-
1 Sketches, vol. ii. p. 19.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 211
finement only when placed in situations, somewhat resembling
their natural positions a . But, without recurring to many of
those instances, which the page of nature so copiously records,
we may borrow an instance from the borders of the Delaware.
The mocking birds of that region will not live in cages ; and so
entirely free are they, by nature, that when a nest is procured,
placed in a cage, and hung out, the parents will come, indeed,
three or four times to feed their young; but, finding them
incapable of release, they will give them poisonous food, in
order to release them from captivity. I will not vouch for the
truth of this ; but the Delawarians believe, and Captain
Aubury b has recorded it.
Democritus contended, that men learnt music and archi
tecture from birds ; and weaving from spiders. The hippo
potamus is said to have taught the art of bleeding ; goats the
uses of dittany ; snakes the properties of fennel : and the ibis
the use of clysters. The wild hog of the West Indies, when
wounded, repairs to the balsam tree ; and, rubbing itself till
the turpentine exudes, cures itself. To this animal, there
fore, the Indians esteem themselves indebted for a knowledge
of the healing powers of balsam.
Animals have many of their faculties superior to men.
Birds, in general, have a quicker sight ; dogs, camels, and
storks a livelier scent ; and fishes an acuter sense of touch :
though some blind men are said to have the faculty of feeling
colours. Frogs and bees perceive the approach of rain long
before it comes. The bee has, also, a very peculiar instinct,
in returning from the distance of several miles to its own hive ;
though it can see only three inches before it. The nautilus, too
(it is said c ), will quit its shell in the deep, and return to it
again. But the superior reason of man not only enables
him to surpass the strength of lions, as in the instances of
a They will breed, for instance, in a trough, the bottom of which is covered,
to a certain thickness, with clay. b Trav. vol. ii. p. 248.
e The fluctuation of the waves, one may reasonably suppose, will admit this
but seldom. Some naturalists, indeed, deny the phenomenon altogether.
p 2
212 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Samson a ; David b : Benaiah c ; and Hercules : but even to
guard against the collective hostility of the entire animated
world.
That fishes have the sense of hearing has been proved by
Rondeletius, Abbe Nollet, and other naturalists. The Bra-
mins calling to the fish in many of the sacred streams of
India, they come from their recesses, feed out of their bene
factors 1 hands, and even suffer them to handle them. I had
once the pleasure of shaking a seal by the fin in one of the
most public streets of London. This animal had a lively
sense of hearing, and would do various things its master
desired it to do. It was of a cold day in November, and yet
it absolutely panted with heat. Renard d says, he had a fish,
of the lophius genus, which followed him about like a dog.
This, however, is not only dubious and improbable, but, I
should suppose, impossible.
Spiders also have the auricular sense, and they are not in
sensible to music. Other insects have the olfactory power.
In some parts of the Arctic circle the air is impregnated with
the fragrance of the linnea borealis, round the twin blossoms
of which myriads of mosquitoes e , hover, as if enchanted with
its odour, and " inflict," says a recent traveller, " the most
envenomed stings upon the hand of any one who presumes to
pluck them." Some insects exercise no little ingenuity in
robbing those flowers, the nectar of which they find a diffi
culty in procuring. Those, which have not a proboscis suf
ficiently long to penetrate the honeysuckle from within, tap
it below, and suck the honey as it flows at the bottom.
Locusts and summer flies display an astonishing method in
their flight. There is nothing in nature to compare with
them. The former fly in bodies, generally the eighth part of
a mile square in extent ; and yet, such is the order and regu-
H Judges, xiv. v. 6. b 1 Sam. chap. xvii. v. 3. 5.
c 2 Sam. xxiii. v. 20.
d Hist, des Poissons, torn. ii. * Clarke, Scandinavia, 309, 4to.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 213
larity with which they fly, they never incommode each other ;
and when they approach a vineyard, they send out spies a , in
order to explore places for them on which to settle.
Some birds are artisans. The razor-bill fastens the only
egg, which it lays, to the bare cliff with cement ; but the
East Indian tailor-bird sews together the leaves of trees. To
effect this its bill serves as a needle, and the small fibres of
plants as thread. The loxia of Bengal is also a remarkable
bird, and has no disinclination to an intercourse with man
kind. In a wild state it sits and builds upon the Indian fig-
tree, and suspends its nest from the branches, in a manner
that prevents all injury from the wind. Its nest consists of
two, and sometimes of three, chambers, in which fire-flies are
occasionally found. These insects, the Hindoos believe, the
bird cherishes for the purpose of illuminating its nest. It is
of a nature so docile, that if a ring is dropped into the cavity
of a well, it will dart down with celerity, seize the ring before
it reaches the water, and return it to its master. Birds of
this species frequently carry letters to a short distance, after
the manner of pigeons.
The Loxia pensilis of Madagascar fastens its nest to the
extreme branches of a tree, hanging over a river, and sus
pends the nest of this year to that of the last, frequently even
to the amount of five. What a wonderful instance of reason
ing, too, is sometimes exhibited by sparrows : they will even
pierce the craws of young pigeons for the corn they contain !
Falcons conquer eagles by attacking them under the pinion ;
and eagles b attack deer in a manner which shows they have
mind as well as swiftness and strength. They soak their
wings in a river, cover them with sand or light gravel, and
then fly in the faces of the deer, flap their wings, and blind
their eyes with dust. The deer, smarting with pain, run and
roll about after a curious manner ; and, coming at length to
a precipice, fall headlong into a gulf below ; where, torn
* Shaw ; Pococke. b Pontoppidan.
214 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
and mangled by the fall, they become easy preys to the eagle,
who picks out their eyes, and feasts upon their bodies.
Some animals live in one continued scene of opposition and
combat with those of their own species : in this, also, they
bear a remarkable affinity with the human character. When
humming birds meet with a withered flower, or one that con
tains no nectar, they pluck it off, and throw it to the ground
with the greatest fury : and when they meet with one of
their own tribe upon the flower, in which they wish to insert
their bills, they never part without fighting. Eagles, when
pressed with hunger, will prey upon eagles of less force than
themselves : wild horses, found in the great Mongolian deserts,
and in the southern parts of Siberia, will feed upon tame
horses : and large pike will feed upon smaller ones. The sea,
indeed, is one vast arena of destruction ; and the elder fishes
are by far the most dangerous of enemies to the young of their
own tribe. Nor is this abhorrent nature confined to fishes ;
even swine and rabbits, if pressed for water, devour frequently
their own young. Scorpions and spiders have a similar pro
pensity; and ostriches sometimes eat their young as they
issue from the egg.
A hundred scorpions were placed by Maupertuis under
the same glass. " Nothing," says he, " was seen, but one uni
versal carnage : and, in a few days, they had so mangled, and
afterwards eaten each other, that only fourteen remained."
Even tadpoles will eat each other. I put between thirty and
forty in a large bason, and kept them for several weeks : dur
ing that time, I chanced to wound one of them with a pair
of scissors. As soon as the other tadpoles found he was
wounded, two or three fastened upon the wound : then a
third : a fourth ; and, lastly, ten tadpoles fastened upon him
like a cluster of bees : every now and then rising to the top
of the water to get air. The injured tadpole made many
struggles ; but they conquered ; peeled his back ; and at last
entirely devoured him. The hare-tailed mouse of Yaik and
AND SUBLIMITIES OP- NATURE. 215
Janesei, too, and the hedge-hog, urged by hunger, will fre
quently devour their own young. Even caterpillars will prey
upon each other ; particularly that species which attaches
itself to the oak. But the violet crabs of the Carribbee
Islands have a propensity even more disgusting than this :
for in their annual peregrinations to the sea shore, all those
which become accidentally maimed, are fastened upon by
the others, and devoured with the most ferocious rapacity.
They never attack a fellow crab, until it is incapable of
resistance.
The propensity of some men for their own species, as food,
has been, of late years, so decisively proved, that nothing but
the profoundest ignorance, in respect to the analogies of
Nature, can doubt of its truth. In civilized states, what can
be more disgusting than the antipathies which neighbouring
nations, and even provinces, entertain for each other \ Such
as that between the French and English ; the Tuscans and
Venetians ; the Piedmontese and Genoese ; the Neapolitans
and Romans ; the Spaniards and Portuguese. But instances
may be produced, in which animals forget their natural anti
pathies. In Cairo, vultures, crows, kites, and dogs, all equally
rapacious, feed amicably upon the same carcase. Even turtle
doves are allowed to live with them in peace. Sir Thomas
Wilmington s gamekeeper brought up a brace of partridges ;
a brace of pheasants ; and a couple of spaniels. These ani
mals mixed with the greatest harmony, and frequently laid
down together by the gamekeeper s fireside. But instances
far more remarkable than these occur in the page of expe
rience. That lions will permit dogs to live with them in the
same cage is well ascertained : but that they will reside in har
mony with bears, is not so generally known. An ancient writer,
however, assures us, that a dog, a bear, and a lion, lived
together, not only in peace, but in affection. At length the
dog, having by accident offended the bear, the bear killed
him : upon which the lion, who had been more particularly
216 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
attached to the dog, revenged his death by destroying the
bear. I have, also, seen living in perfect harmony in one
cage, a dog, a cat, a mouse, a white mouse, a rat, three spar
rows, and two Guinea pigs.
Tn the temple of the chief goddess, in Syria, were horses,
lions, eagles, and a multitude of tame animals ; in the lake
sacred fishes. The kings of Babylon, too, had large mena
geries. The Romans kept camelopards, rhinoceroses, hip
popotami, elephants, lions, leopards, tigers, hyaenas, and
crocodiles in large numbers ; for the purpose of exhibiting
them in the public shows. Augustus exhibited no less than
thirty-six crocodiles at one time ; and Pompey five hundred
lions. But the largest show of wild beasts, ever witnessed,
was at the cost of Probus ; in which were exhibited a thousand
fallow deer, a thousand stags, a thousand chamois, and a
thousand wild boars : two hundred lions and lionesses ; two
hundred Lybian and Syrian leopards ; and three hundred
bears.
Since the menageries of Regent s Park and the Surrey
Gardens have been established, the display of Nature, added
to the splendour of the company, on gala days, is beyond any
thing of a similar kind, I should suppose, the earth can
exhibit. In the latter we had the pleasure of seeing a lion, a
lioness, and a tigress, at peace in one den, and lapping,
harmoniously, out of the same vessel.
The joy of the hyaenas, at the sight of water, was scarcely
to be conceived ; nor the shrieks and cries, which followed, on
their keepers disappointing their thirst. The joy of the
lions, at the sight of their meat, was more moderate ; but
when the keeper taunted them with it, putting it near the
bars, withdrawing it, and then showing it them again, their
rage was unbounded ! They sprang, gnawed, snarled, and
roared ; giving a true and awful picture of what they are, in
moments of their fiercest passion, in the wilderness and the
desert. " Had man, with his reason," thought I, " the might
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 217
and awful passions of the lion, what an horrific arena would
this world become ! " It was, indeed, the sublimes! picture
of passion, we had ever seen ; and so powerful was its effect
upon our feelings, that we all felt an impression, almost to
tears.
Moses has a fine passage : " And the fear of you, and the
dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and
upon every bird of the air." To ensure this result, the eyes
of animals are created with lenses, which make every object
appear many times larger than it really is.
A curious spectacle was, some time since, presented at our
theatres. It was entitled " The Lions of Mysore. The tale
is this. Sudhusing, being pursued by Hyder Ali with all the
fury of an Oriental despot, forms a league with the beasts of
the forest. He sleeps with a lion, and has two other lions to
guard him. These lions were not (as is usual on the stage)
stuffed, but real ones (Pumas) ; who were as much under the
command of their master, and as zealous in his defence, as if
they had been dogs. The master, in the same manner,
regarded his lions as he would the most faithful of dogs.
Had Pliny related such a matter, we should be tempted, per
haps, to have regarded the whole as a fable a . That the
ancients, however, brought animals on the stage, is evidenced
from the passage, where Cicero inquires of Marcus Marius
what pleasure it could afford a judicious spectator to see a
thousand mules prancing about the stage, in the tragedy of
Clytemnestra. But I think they had never an exhibition
equal to this.
A friend, the other day, confessed that, in his opinion,
animals were happier than men ; because they had many of
the faculties of man ; and yet, unattended by sin. " If, how
ever," continued he, " we are angry with Nature for having
made certain descriptions of men, we may bo equally so, for
* Tasso has a similar picture in his Rinaldo, can. viii.
218 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
having made the poppy, the nightshade, the lion and the
crocodile."
St. Pierre informs us, that he, one day, expressed his
astonishment to Rousseau, that philosophers should have been
so unfaithful to their reason and conscience, as to insist, that
animals are mere machines, without will, choice or sensibility.
" The solution is this," answered Rousseau ; " when man
begins to reason, he ceases to feel."
A dispute once existed among the stoics a , whether or not
vices and virtues w r ere animals ! The idea appears ridi
culous ; yet it is certain, that one vice will beget other vices ;
and one virtue other virtues. They had, therefore, one of the
rules of analogy to justify the opinion. Locke asserts b , that
perception is the faculty, which puts the grand distinction
between the animal kingdom and the inferior parts of nature.
Perception, then, is allowed to animals. Plutarch had, pre
viously, extended this measure ; and his Dialogue between
Ulysses, Circe, and Gryllus, is intended to prove, that beasts
have not only reason ; but that they extend it into use.
There can be little doubt of it ! They have memory ; they
compound; they compare ; and have the power of abstraction.
Experience teaches these things even to superficial observers ;
shall they, then, be less evident to the wise ? Locke
admits them c . Who, then, can read of the martyrdoms of
animals, so frequent in the history of Rome, without disdain
for their oppressors ?
Quodcunque tremendum est
Dentibus, aut insigne jubis, aut nobile cornu,
Auc rigidum setis capitur, decus onme limorque
Sylvarum, non cavite latent, non mole resistunt.
Lord Erskine would never allow animals to be called the
brute creation ; he called them the mute creation. In some
* Vid. Seneca, Ep. cxiii.
b Essay on the Human Understanding, ch. ix. s. 11.
c Essay, x. s. 10 ; xi. s. 5 ; xvi. a. 10.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 219
respects, man is in a far worse condition than any other
animal ; for he has superior reason sometimes, in appearance,
only to render him more miserable.
In Charron s de la Sagesse, the author insists, that beasts
have reason, discipline, and judgment ; that they are more
moderate in their pleasures, than men ; and, therefore, far
more happy. If this is correct, we may, perhaps, call in
question Akenside s assertion, in regard to the peculiar
privilege of man :
Of all
Th inhabitants of earth, to man alone
Creative wisdom gave to lift his eye
To truth s eternal measures.
Milton says, that God takes no account of the actions of
animals a ; but I am, by no means certain, that man is the
only animal, that recognises a Deity b . I sometimes think
otherwise c .
Blumenbach informs us, that though the situation of the
heart in animals is different from that in man, the internal
structure is the same d ; that the tongue is not the organ of
taste in all animals e ; that the sense of touch is possessed by
only four classes : mammalia ; a few birds ; serpents ; and,
probably, insects f : and that insects have also the senses of
smelling and hearing ? , though the organs have not yet been
decisively pointed out.
There is nothing in animals to be compared with the human
hand h . Yet some quadrupeds, many insects, many fishes,
" Paradise Lost, b. iv.
b Cicero says he is : " Ex tot generibus nullum est animal prseter hominem
quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei." De Legibus.
Some authors believe in three orders of souls ; the vegetable, sensible,
and natural for vegetables, brutes, and man.
d Manual of Comparative Anatomy, p. 155. e P. 264.
f P. 259. B P. 277. 286.
h The human hand is so beautifully formed, every effort of the will is
answered so instantly, as if the hand itself were the seat of that will, that the
very perfection of the instrument makes us insensible to its use ; we use it as
220 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
some reptiles, and most birds, excel man in speed. The dog
and the vulture exceed him in scent ; the eagle surpasses him
in sight ; the lion in minuteness of hearing ; and some fishes
in delicacy of touch. To this may be added, that bees ?
pigeons, and swallows, possess one faculty, if not more, in
regard to which man has never yet been able to express even
a probable conjecture. All we know is, that bees can wander,
for hours, amid the intricacies of myriads of flowers, and yet
return to their hives, from a distance of many miles ; though
their faculty of sight is so limited, that they can scarcely see
three inches before them. Pigeons, also, will return to their
cotes, after having been taken in a dark basket many hun
dreds of miles.
That some fishes have a method of communication is very
certain ; and that some have even a species of language may,
perhaps, be inferred from the circumstance, that a skull is
still preserved, in the London College of Physicians, of a
dolphin, which lived several hours after it was caught, and
made a noise, all the time, like the bellowing of a calf.
Madame d Epinay wrote thus to the Abbe Galiani : " I
have asked myself, why all animals are born with the perfect
ibility belonging to them ; while the human race labour,
from the moment of their birth, quite to their death, without
ever obtaining that, of which they are capable." The Abbe
answered, " This subject has more than once occupied my
mind. It seems to be, that each species of animal has some
predominant organ, by which alone it is directed ; and that
man has all, that belong to him, in a degree, and com
bined together ; the head and thought being the centre
of all."
All animals, however, are not born with such perfection of
faculty, as Madame d Epinay seems to suppose : but, like
we draw our breath, unconsciously ; we have lost all recollection of the feeble
and ill-directed efforts of its exercise, by which it has been perfected ; and we
are insensible of the advantages we derive from it. Sir Charles Bell s
Bridgewater Treatise.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 221
man, they die without being able to do, or to acquire, all
that they might. Circumstances operate upon them, as well
as upon men ; and they are equally persecuted by fortune.
They have, however, two advantages over man : they com
mit no crimes ; and are, doubtless, unendowed with any pre
science in regard to misfortune.
That animals have reasoning powers, few, I think, who
have reasoning faculties themselves, and sufficient knowledge
of natural history to form an opinion, will venture to deny.
Their great want is the faculty of teaching, beyond a certain
extent.
See to what point their labours tend ;
And how in death their talents end !
Perfect the bird and beast we find,
Advance not here their several kind ;
From race to race no wiser grow,
No gradual perfection know ;
To increasing knowledge void their claim,
Still their specific powers the same,
In th individual centred all,
Though generations rise and fall a .
There is, however, a species of tuition, which many ani
mals are equal to. Old birds, for instance, teach their young
ones to sing and to fly ; and a long and curious process both of
them are; while ants not only instruct -their little ones to
draw sustenance from the aphis, but to carry other ants upon
their backs, and make slaves of them.
That some animals have, also, the capacity to improve
their instincts, appears certain : and Blumenbach confirms the
observation, by showing b , that beavers are capable of direct-
ting their operations, according to circumstances, in a man
ner far superior to the unvarying mechanical instinct of
other creatures. That some birds, too, vary their methods of
building, according to the materials, with which they have to
build, is very evident from what Wilson, the American
a Philosophical and Moral Epistles. b Elements, p. 73.
222 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
ornithologist, says in regard to the Baltimore oriole a , and
the ferruginous thrush b .
Whether animals can actually count has not yet been accu
rately determined. Cond iliac believed, that they have lan
guages, proportionate to their faculties, and peculiar to their
species. This is certain ; but Le Hoi goes farther ; he says,
they can count. " Magpies," says he, " can number to three ;"
and Dupont de Nemours believed, that they can number even
as high as nine.
That most quadrupeds have all the bodily senses, that man
has ; and that many of them feel all the passions, by which
man is distinguished, is as certain, as that many even of
those, who style themselves philosophers, deny them every
thing but instinct. In fact, it is impossible to watch them
minutely, without perceiving, that their feelings and passions
greatly assimilate with our own ; and that they exhibit indi
cations of sentiment, feeling, and active minds. Even insects
exhibit fear, anger, sorrow, joy, and desire; and many of
them express all those passions by noises, peculiar to them
selves.
Milton makes Adam master of the language of animals :
and the Deity to speak thus :
What call st thou solitude ? Is not the earth
With various living creatures, and the air
Replenished, and all these at thy command,
To come and play before thee ? Know st thou not
Their language and their ways ? They, also, knoiv
And reason not contemptibly c .
Instinct may be proved in a thousand different ways 1 : but,
* Ornithology, i. 25.
b Ib. ii. 85, 6. See, also, White of Selborne, p. 274.
c Paradise Lost, viii. 169.
d When we consider the infinite variety of instincts, their nice and striking
adaptation to the circumstances, wants, and station of the several animals that
are endowed with them, we see such evident marks of design, and such varied
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 223
because instinct can be proved, does it follow, that reason
cannot be proved as well ? If instinct direct a lamb to the
udder of its dam ; does it not, also, teach a child to open its
lips, and adapt them, in a manner, to draw milk from its
mother ?
Instinct may teach a caterpillar to select that particular
species of leaf, which, though it gives no sustenance to itself,
is destined to afford food to its offspring : but does instinct
only give to a bullfinch the faculty of singing notes, never
heard in the woods ? Can the child never possess reason,
because it has an ab origine instinct ? The existence of in
stinct does not preclude reason, any more than hearing pre
cludes the sensation arising from sight. Reason, in fact, is
founded on instinct ; as the five senses are grounded on the
faculty of touch. Instinct, indeed, appears to me to be the
root, out of which all power of reasoning vegetates.
When an instinct is improved by culture, it ceases to be
instinct, and partakes of reason. This reason, or improved
instinct, is shown by animals, when they perform actions dif
ferent from what Nature requires them. An animal, there
fore, may be said to exhibit reason, when it does something,
when taught, which it never does in a state of nature. This
power, however, no animal, as before stated, possesses in
a degree sufficient to enable it to communicate it to others of
its species. I saw the dog of Montargis do wonderful things ;
but he could not have taught another dog, even so much as to
lift up his head.
There is an instinct peculiar to insects and reptiles; and
attention to so many particulars, such a conformity between the organs and
instruments of each animal, and the work it has to do, that we cannot hesi
tate a moment to ascribe it to some Power who planned the machine with a
view to accomplish a certain purpose ; and when we further consider that all
the different animals combine to fulfil one great end, and to effect a vast pur
pose, all the details of which the human intellect cannot embrace, we are led
further to acknowledge that the whole was planned and executed by a Being
whose essence is unfathomable, and whose power is irresistible. Kirby,
224 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
an instinct peculiar to fishes, to birds, to quadrupeds, and
to men.
Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier !
For ever separate, yet for ever near.
Reason in man is not always so complete a faculty as in
stinct is in animals. One would, indeed, sometimes almost
believe instinct to be the very perfection of reason; for
instinct never errs.
Instinct serves always ; Reason never long ;
One must go right ; the other may go wrong.
Pereira^s Antoniana Margarita a is a very curious and
remarkable work : for the author, with no small share of
ingenuity, insists, that animals are mere machines ; having
no feeling whatever ; and never acting, in any instance, from
reflection. Pereira was a Spanish physician ; and the sub
ject was thirty years under his hands. Bayle says, that he
was the first author who dared to make such an assertion.
But in this Bayle was mistaken : for that there were some,
who maintained the same doctrine before, and even during
the time of St. Augustin, is very evident from what that
holy father says, in his treatise De quantitate animi b . Nay,
if Baillet c be correct, it must have been entertained even so
early as in the time of the Stoics.
Maximus Tyrius says, that animals delight in, and are guided
by sense; they having strength of body ; but no understanding :
but we must here be awake to the circumstance, that many of
the ancient philosophers confounded sensation with reason d .
Huetius considered animals in the light of mere automata 6 . And
First printed in MDLIII- You may also consult, if you wish to be amused,
1. La Description Philosophale de la Nature et Condition des Animau.v.
Lyon, 1561. 2. Amusemens Philosophiques sur le Langage des Betes. A la
Haye, 1739. 3. Essai Philosophique sur tAme des Bites. Amsterdam, 1728.
b C. xxx. c Life of Des Cartes, ii. 537.
d See what Vossius says in his elaborate essay, De Orig. et Progress. Idolat.
iii. c. 41. See, also, a book, written by a physician of Rochelle, entitled
Traiti de la Connoissance des Animaux, p. 261.
e Cens. Philos. Cartesianse, c. viii.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 225
that Aristotle thought animals have motions from springs,
like those of automata, is very evident from his work on
animals. That he gave them sensation and passions, but
denied them the faculties of meditation, reflection, and deli
beration, is equally evident.
Vigneul de Marville speaks a of another opinion, still more
inconsistent ; embracing the idea, that there exist certain
elementary spirits, whose office in the creation is to put in
motion all the machines of beasts, and those, too, not only in
harmony with external circumstances, but according to cer
tain fixed rules of mechanics.
It is exceedingly curious, that two of the most celebrated
writers on man (La Bruyere and Des Cartes), should make
the assertion, that animals consist of nothing but matter b .
Rorarius was of a different opinion, as may be seen in his
rare, but delightful work, Quod Anima.Ua bruta ratione utantur
melius homine c . Porphyry also says d , that animals have not
only reason, but the faculty of making themselves under
stood ; and that the cause why men are superior to them
arises merely from the circumstance of their reasoning facul
ties being of a more refined order : and this he infers from
the certainty which exists, in their being able to impart to
each other. Sextus Empiricus also believed, that there is no
animated being whatever, but enjoys the faculty of know
ledge and understanding ; and it is, assuredly, very remark
able, that the nearer an animal approaches to man, the fewer
are the species ; and it is equally wonderful, that all animals
are formed after one general model of organization.
The celebrated Jew, Maimonides, gives them a species of
free-will ; and extends to them the Mahometan e doctrine,
Melanges d Histoire et Litterature, i. 100.
b Nouvelles de la Re publique des Lettres, p. 433.
1 Amsterdam, 1566. d De Abstinentia.
Mahomet inculcated the doctrine, that, at the last day, the unarmed cattle
will take vengeance on the horned, till entire satisfaction shall be given to the
injured.
VOL. II. Q
226 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
that beasts, in a future state, will have rewards as well as
men, for what they suffer in this. Indeed, there have not
been wanting some a to imagine, that the actions of beasts
may be ascribed to an external reason, which is more excel
lent than the internal one of man. Even Grotius b gives into
this idea : at least, such a construction may be given to one
or two of his arguments.
Lactantius insists, that, except in religion, beasts imitate
man in all things, and partake of his privileges. " They have
souls, too," says he c , " though those souls are not immortal,
as ours are." There have not been wanting some, however,
to insist, that animals have not only a distinct knowledge of
men, whom they see ; but of God, whom they cannot see :
and of this opinion was Xenocrates of Carthage c .
It is probable, that while some animated beings have
instincts only; some may have instincts and faculties, so
mixed, that it is not only difficult, but impossible, to show
the line between them : while others may have intellectual
faculties, susceptible of cultivation to a certain extent, in the
same manner that man has ; each having a circle, the boun
daries of which it is impossible for any of them to overpass.
It is probable, too, that if we are answerable for our conduct
to man, we are also answerable to animals ; and that, if the
souls of men perish not, the souls of animals perish not. Mar
lowe says
All beasts are happy ; for when they die
Their souls are soone dissolved in elements.
How know we that ? Why should we presume to set
bounds to the justice, and the benevolence of the Creator ?
The greatest argument for the futurity of man arises out of
the inconceivable injuries he suffers here. Do not animals
a Essais Nouveaux de Morale, 30. 32.
De Jure Belli et Pacis, Proleg. 7. c Vid. Strom, v.
d Clemens Alexand., De Optificio Dei, c. 2. Also, De Ira Dei, c. 7. Wallis
seems inclined to the opinion, that the soul of an animal is of the figure and
extent of the body it informs. Vid. De Anii:ia Brutorum, c. 2.
AND SUBLIMITIES OP NATURE. 227
suffer injuries too ? not only daily, but hourly a . The Creator
is, assuredly, the never-forsaking parent not of man only, but
of all his creatures. Let me intreat you, then, my dear
Lelius, to continue to instruct your children, to extend their
sympathies to the animal creation, even so far as to regard
each member of it as entitled to be hailed almost as a friend
and a brother.
MAN THE GREATEST OF MIRACLES.
THOUGH time, power, motion, and space, are the most awful
subjects, that can engage the meditative faculties of man ; yet,
being the most abstruse, it were wise to let them engage but
little of our time : a few observations in respect to the relative
connexions of men with the mineral, vegetable, and animal
kingdoms, are, however, imperative. In respect to the first,
it may be sufficient to observe, that minerals are the media,
whence civilised life derives all its varieties and comforts ; and
that vegetables not only enable man to exist, but that they
constitute the very scope and basis of his form.
The relation, that man bears to animals, has already been
noticed in various passages of our work. The ourang outang
resembles him in figure and form ; it has the external organs
of speech, but not the faculty of availing itself of their use.
Parrots, ravens, and starlings, however, can imitate his
voice ; though they know nothing of the design and extent of
its meaning. No machine has yet been discovered, that can
imitate the voice at all : the stop of the organ, called
the human voice, having no resemblance to speech ; though it
bears a distant analogy with the voice in singing. Even the
flute is powerless.
The eye, the ear, and the voice, are the great master-pieces
a There is a curious coincidence in regard to the happiness and misery of
animals and man : one horse, for instance, leads a life of hunger, labour, and
disease ; another that of comfort, hilarity, and enjoyment. One man The
argument may be easily anticipated.
Q 2
228 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
of Nature. The construction of the eye and ear is so beau
tiful, and their mechanism so admirably adapted to the offices
they have to perform, that they alone are sufficient to indicate
the hand of an all-powerful Being. The rays of light imprint
on the optic nerve, not only in all their variety of form and
colour, but in one instant of time, a vast assemblage of
external objects. The ear is not more to be admired for its
use, than for the exquisite beauty of its mechanism ; and that
the loss of the power of exercising its functions is more
sensibly felt, than the loss of those appertaining to sight, is
proved by the circumstance of blind persons being, for the
most part, far more cheerful than deaf ones. The eye and
the ear are allied more intimately to the soul, than any of the
other organs ; since they are the chief media by which we
receive : and until we receive we cannot communicate. They
are, therefore, more important than the organs of speech : and
yet speech has been, and may well be called, the greatest
miracle of Nature. To be capable of eliciting 2,400 different
tones is, indeed, a wonderful faculty : but to possess that of
expressing every feeling, and of conveying every mental
impression to the mind of others, is a miracle ; the association
of which is lost in the contemplation of eternal excellence.
No bee has ever introduced a single improvement in the con
struction of its cell ; no beaver in the style of its architecture ;
and no bird in the formation of its nest. They respectively
arrive at perfection by intuition. Man could form a cell as
geometrically as a bee ; but he can collect neither the honey
nor the wax. He surpasses the beaver ; and can collect the
materials for the nest of a bird : but the utmost effort of his
art will not enable him to put it together. He can neither
make the leaf of a tree, nor the petal of a flower ; nor can he,
when he finds them already formed to his hand, inclose the
one in a calyx, or fold the other in a bud.
Beasts are covered with hair, with wool, and with fur ;
birds with feathers ; fishes with scales ; and insects with a skin
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 229
so hard, that it not only supplies their want of bones, but pre
serves their warmth. Of these the coverings of birds and
fishes are the most perfect. There is a species of crab, which,
as we have observed before, clothes itself in the discarded
shell of a lobster ; but man is the only animal, that can regu
larly form a covering for itself. He is the only animal, also,
to whom Nature has intrusted the element of fire ; an agent,
which is the most wonderful of the elements ; and which
still baffles, by its opposite effects, the researches of phi
losophy.
Whether we consider man as one complete bodily machine,
or in his relative parts of head, arms, hands, fingers, thighs,
legs, and feet ; bones, ligaments, and membranes ; veins, arte
ries, glands, muscles, tendons, and nerves; the heart, the
blood, the stomach, and the mechanism, by which all those
members are connected, and the nice expedients, employed to
convert the food into chyle, to blend it with the blood, and to
diffuse it through the entire system ; it may truly be said,
that man presents to the astonished imagination, an attesting
wonder ! But if we extend the contemplation to his sensa
tions in youth, his reason in age, and his capacities in every
stage of manhood, the visible signs, by which speech is embo
died, and by which sounds are realised, are found to be
inadequate of media, by which to express the excellence of the
wonderful machine.
In fact, man needs not blush to be proud ; since he is
capable of expressing all his wants and all his ideas by the
medium of four and twenty characters ; of calculating
numbers to comparative infinity with only nine numerical
figures ; and with only seven separate notes, to elicit, on
musical instruments, almost innumerable combinations of
sound.
But the universe is replete with miracles : from the first
source of caloric to the simple grain of sand, which contains
animals, to which it is a world, as large as the whole circum-
230 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
ference of the globe is to us. For Nature constitutes a
mirror, in which the Eternal seems to allow himself to be
seen greatest in his smallest works : while, though a sublime
mystery envelops and conceals, in awful solitudes, the first
principles of life and reason ; yet, as it is the privilege of a
great mind to be capable of seeing much, where common
minds see little, the most apparently insignificant object will
frequently present to an enlarged imagination more than all
the associations, connected with Raphael s school of Athens.
COMPARATIVE QUALITIES.
IF charms are elicited from resemblances, Nature, too,
exhibits contrasts; which, in their harmonies, present exqui
site beauty. The solitudes of the Alps frequently afford
instances of this in respect to colours. The ice is blue ; the
rocks of a dark brown ; and the sky of a deep serene azure :
while the crocus, the snowdrop, and the laurustinus derive
no little of their beauty from the snow, that surrounds them.
The almond-tree of Africa, the finest flowering tree on that
continent, delicate as are its blossoms, derives, also, additional
beauty from the circumstance, that it blows when few other
trees are even ornamented with leaves.
Contrasts are also exhibited in the manners and capacities
of animals in the effects of plants. The horse can feed upon
hemlock; the Egyptian parrot upon the seeds of the car-
thamus; the pholas, the most humble of insects, has the
power of boring into the hardest marble ; and though the
body of a star-fish is of a nature as soft as water, yet it swal
lows and digests objects, as hard as are the shells of muscles :
and herons, though large and awkward, take a perpendicular
flight ; while hawks in pursuit of them, though apparently
more capable of the action, take a circuitous one.
Some plants, which are poisonous in moist soils and situ
ations, in dry ones are resolvent, carminative, and aromatic :
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 231
such are the sea holly, and the water navel-wort. But one
of the greatest vegetable wonders, in respect to contrast, is
presented in the root of the cassada : since, though in its
crude state it is highly poisonous ; by washing, pressure, and
evaporation, it not only loses all its noxious qualities, but in
tropical climates constitutes the bread of thousands.
In Europe, mineral impregnations are fatal to vegetable
productions. In Chili, however, they have no effect upon
them whatever : while near the south cape of Africa iron, or
its oxyds, mixed with clay, moistened with water, produces a
most exuberant vegetation. In the northern regions the pha-
laena a tribe of insects, which, in the south, fly about in the
evening, reverse their habits in Lapland by flying in the day,
and reposing in the night. In Sweden the raspberry grows
best among ruing and conflagrated woods b ; and the epilobium
angustifolium, a native of every country in Europe, flourishes
no where in such magnificence, as in a country where every
plant diminishes in size. Cork, which is the bark of a tree,
has a multitude of pores : wood itself comparatively few : yet
water and spirit will exude through wood, which has larger
pores, sooner than they will through cork. Water elicits
heat from lime ; and clay, which is of a ductile nature,
will become so hard with heat, as to strike fire with steel.
Flint, the covering of which is rough, presents a smooth sur
face in whatever manner it is struck ; and though to the touch
it is as cold as snow, when struck with iron it elicits gems of
fire. Sand, when mixed with lime, hardens into mortar ;
when mixed with soda and potash it will soften into glass.
Lime makes water solid, and metals fluid. Bismuth, which is
brittle, will, when combined with other metals, give them
hardness : and though platina is remarkably ductile, yet it
cannot be heated in a forge. The diamond, the hardest of
bodies, is yet susceptible of the most brilliant polish ; and the
a Acerbi, ii. 248, 4to. b Clarke, Scandinavia, 524, 4to.
c Flora Lappouica.
232 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
oxyde of arsenic, which is a deadly poison, is frequently used
in medicine for a beneficial purpose : while sulphur, one of the
most combustible of substances, enters into combination with
silver, copper, iron, pyrites, zinc, and other metals : it even
enters into the composition of sea water.
COMPARATIVE FECUNDATION.
CONTRASTS, too, may be observed in the relative fecundities
of animals and vegetables. An orange tree generally yields
from 1,500 to 2,400 oranges ; but an elm, living a hundred
years, produces not less than 33,000,000 of grains. I once
counted in a single plant of the purpura digitalis 107,000
seeds. Some plants are, indeed, so prolific, that one flower
producing only four seeds, would, if left to itself, in a very
short space of time, spread from one end of the globe to the
other. Rapacious birds generally lay but four eggs : some,
however, only two : as the eagle, the cinerous vulture, and
the great horned owl. The merlin and the kestril lay six.
Pigeons, on the other hand, are so prolific, that the produce
of two pairs in four years may amount to 29,200. Vipers
lay from six to ten eggs ; the sea-tortoise ninety ; the cro
codile a hundred ; spiders a thousand ; and frogs eleven
hundred.^ The termes bellicosus even lays 80,000 eggs in
four-and-twenty hours ! The muscaria carnaria increase so
fast, that some have not hesitated even to assert, that
three^ of them] will devour a horse, as quickly as a lion :
while a single aphis, if undisturbed for five generations, will
amount to 5,904,000,000. Fishes are equally wonderful in
their relative powers of production : for though some large
fishes produce only one, carps spawn 342,144 ovila; and cod
not unfrequently 9,384,000 !
In the relative appetites of plants and animals, also, we
may trace remarkable contrasts. The earthworm lives upon
a small portion of very fine earth : but the caterpillar eats
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 233
double its weight in a day : and the dragon-fly more than
three times its weight in an hour. The leech weighs only a
scruple ; but when gorged, two drachms. The leech never
eats; and the house cricket never drinks : while the roughette
bat drinks so copiously of the juice of the palm-tree, that it
becomes intoxicated ; when it is easily caught- If we recur
to vegetables, we find similitudes equally extraordinary. The
sunflower imbibes and perspires, in one day and night, six
teen times more than a man of moderate growth and firm
constitution.
COMPARATIVE WEIGHTS.
EQUAL weights always imply equal quantities, let the rela
tive dimensions be ever so disproportionate. A column of
air from the earth to the upper regions of the atmosphere is
equal, in weight, to a column of water of thirty-three feet ;
and to a column of mercury of twenty-nine inches and a half.
On a knowledge of this is constructed the barometer. Some
substances have no sensible weight ; as caloric, light, electri
city, the magnetic fluid, and the effluence of flowers. Next
to these are animalcules of infusion ; some of which are so
small, that two hundred of them are contained in a space,
occupied by the minutest grain of sand. Then we may pro
ceed to visible seeds ; thence to invisible ones ; contrasting
them, at the same time, with the vegetables they respectively
produce.
Cesalpini first compared the seeds of plants to the eggs
of animals a . Their relative increase in weight, from their em
bryos to perfect animals and plants, has never been ascer
tained in a general way : but Desaguliers found the root of a
turnip to be 438,000 times heavier than its seed : and Mons.
du Petit Thouars exhibited an onion to the Royal Society of
* Vid. de Plantis, Romse, 1603, 4to. ; also Appendix ad Libros de Plantis,
4to, Florence, 1583.
234 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
France, which weighed three pounds seven ounces. Cal
culating the weight of the seeds, and the periods of their
respective growths, a result was found, that the onion gained
three times its original weight, every minute, and the turnip
seven !
If we calculate the height of Trajan s column, and the
dome of St. Peter s, we find they do not reach so high as the
rocks of Dover: while Solomon s temple was not higher than
a sugar maple-tree. If we proceed to length, there is no
work of art longer than the wall of China : but Nature has
one mineral (gold), one single ounce of which is capable of
being extended to a distance, not less than 13,000 miles. It
may be beaten into 159,092 times its original space ; and to
a thinness of Ty^W part of an inch.
DESERTS.
AN attentive investigator observes little or no monotony in
Nature. Day succeeds to morning ; evening to noon ; and
night to evening : summer to spring, and winter to autumn.
Even the sea itself changes frequently in the course of a day.
When the sun shines, its colour is cerulean ; when it gleams
through a mist, it is yellow ; and as the clouds pass over, it not
unfrequently assumes the tintings of the clouds themselves.
The same uniformity may be observed throughout the whole of
Nature; even the glaciers of the Orisons presenting varied
aspects, though clad in perpetual snow. At dawn of day they ap
pear saffron ; at noon their whiteness is that of excess ; and as
the sun sinks in the west, the lakes become as yellow as bur
nished gold : while their convex and peaked summits reflect,
with softened lustre, the matchless tintings of an evening sky.
Hence Virgil applies the epithet purpureum a to the sea ; and
not unfrequently to mountains: while Statius 1 colours the
Georg. iv. 373. t> Theb. iii. 440.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 235
earth with the splendour of Aurora. The effect is beautifully
alluded to by Mallet. The sun
glorious from amidst
A pomp of golden clouds, th Atlantic flood
Beheld oblique ; and o er its azure breast
Wav d one unbounded blush.
These alternations cause a perpetual variety in the same
objects. Hence the frequent interchanges, which exhibit
themselves in a mountainous country, give it a decided
advantage over open and campaign regions ; since the de
grees of light and shade, as the hills and valleys incline
towards each other, are blended, reflected, and contrasted,
in a thousand different ways. These contrasted scenes are
perpetually exhibited in Italy, in Sicily, among the Carpa
thian mountains, and, more particularly, among the vales
and lakes of Switzerland. At Spitzbergen the scenery is
composed of bleak rocks and mountains : icebergs fill the val
leys ; and the whole is most romantically contrasted with the
whiteness of the snow and the green colour of the ice a . The
voyager is never weary of gazing. The total want of con
trast, on the other hand, fatigues a traveller over the Step
pes of Asia, the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and Chaco, the
Savannahs of North America, the Llanos of Varinas and
Caraccas b , and the deserts of Africa, almost as much as the
actual distances themselves.
The ancients, ignorant of the magnetic powers of the
needle, were able to travel over deserts only by night : when
the sun appeared, therefore, they were obliged to halt.
Quintius Curtius, in describing the deserts of Bactria c , says,
* A similar scene is described, as having been exhibited in one of the ice
bergs, in Amsterdam Island, by D Auvergne.
b The only desert in America is that in the low part of Peru, stretching to
the Pacific. It is not very broad, but in length it is 440 leagues.
c Lib. iv. c. 7.
23C ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
that a great part of them were covered with barren sands,
parched by heat ; affording nourishment for neither men,
beasts, nor vegetables. When the wind blew from the
Pontic Sea, they swept before them immense quantities of
sand, which, when heaped together, appeared like mountains.
All tracks of former travellers were thus totally obliterated.
The only resource left, therefore, was to travel by night,
guiding their course by the direction of the stars. Silius
Italicus thus describes the journey of Hannibal s ambassadors
to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, situated in the deserts of
Lybia.
Ad finem coeli medio tenduntur ab ore
Squalentes campi. Tumulum natura negavit
Immensis spatiis, nisi quern cava nubila torquens
Construxit Turbo, impacta glomeratus arena :
Vel, si perfracto populatus carcere terras
Africus, aut pontum spargens per sequora Corus,
Invasere truces capientem proelia campum,
Inque vicem ingesto cumularunt pulvere montes.
Has observatis valles enavimus astris :
Namque dies confundit iter, perditemque profundo
Errantem campo, et semper media arva videntem,
Sidoniis Cynosura regit ndissima nautis.
Lucan, whose description of the march of Cato, over the
deserts, is, unquestionably, the finest portion of the Pharsa-
lia, adds a circumstance, that must have considerably aug
mented the difficulties of the march.
Qui millas videre domos, vidfire ruinas ;
Jamque iter omne latet ; nee sunt discrimina terra
Ulla, nisi ^Etheriae medio velut sequore flammse.
Sideribus nove re vias : nee Sidera tota
Ostendit Lybicce finitor circulus orae
Multaque devexo terrarum margine celat .
At the North Cape, Acerbi felt as if all the cares of life
had vanished ; worldly pursuits assumed the character of
a Pharsal. ix. v. 404.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 237
dreams ; the forms and energies of animated Nature seemed
to fade ; and the earth appeared as if it were susceptible of
being analysed into its original elements. Naturalists behold
with delight, bees entering the cups of flowers, and robbing
them of their nectar ; the anxious solicitude with which ewes
permit lambs to draw milk from their udders ; and the affec
tion of turtles, sitting under a leafy canopy with their mates.
In the northern regions no objects like these present them
selves. There is nothing which can remind the traveller of
Cashmere, of Circassia, the valleys of Madagascar, or the
perfumed shores of Arabia Felix. A solemn magnificence,
an interminable space, wearing the aspect of infinity, charac
terise the scene. The billows dash in awful grandeur against
rocks, coeval with the globe ; marine birds, wild in character,
and dissonant in language, skim along their girdles ; the
moon sheds her solemn lustre on their dark and frowning
pyramids ; the stars glow with burnished brilliancy ; and the
Aurora Borealis adds terrific interest to the melancholy
majesty of the scene. And yet, magnificent as these scenes
assuredly are, the nerves chill in their contemplation ; the
heart sinks with sullen melancholy ; and the soul deepens
into an awful sadness : for man stands in the midst an alien
and alone.
What contrasted pictures to these are presented from the
Monthenon, near the city of Lausanne ! To the north stands
the chateau de Beaulieu, immortalised by the residence of
Neckar and his celebrated daughter, when escaped from the
intrigues and tumults of Paris. There, too, is seen a weep
ing willow, standing in a garden, planted by the taste of the
illustrious Gibbon. To the east rise three mountains covered
with snow, and towering to a height of more than 10,000
feet : Clarens, the beautiful Clarens, lying below, with the
chateau de Chillon on one side, and the small town of
Villeneuve on the other. Pursuing the curve of the lake,
the Rhone is beheld issuing, as it were, from the womb of a
238 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
long range of rocks, harmonized with aerial tints ; and
seeming to flow out of a secret valley, for the purpose of
mingling its waters with the deep azure of one of the love
liest lakes beneath the canopy of heaven. To the south,
over the mountains of Savoy, Mont Blanc is seen lifting its
white head like a speck amid the clouds : below, are the
towns of St. Gingoulph, and the rocks and buildings of
Meillerie. The lake then stretches towards the neighbour
hood of Geneva ; and a distant glimmering of the water
denotes the spot where the Rhone, through an opening of
the Jura range, flows into France. If at the North Cape
we behold, as it were, the birth-place of Scandinavian genius,
the neighbourhood of Lausanne may be recognised as the
residence of true poetical enthusiasm.
Hark ! with what ecstatic fire
She strikes the deep-resounding lyre.
Wake ! all ye powers of earth and air,
Or great, or grand, or mild, or fair ;
" Wake ! winds and waters, vocal be,
And mingle with the melody.
On every rock the echo rung,
On every hill the cadence hung :
And universal Nature smil d
On scenes so fair, on notes so wild.
So soft she sung, she smil d so fair,
So sweetly wav d her radiant hair,
The Passions, ling ring on their way,
Hung o er the soft seraphic lay;
While Rapture rais d her hands on high,
And roll d her eyes in ecstacy. Neele.
Deserts, from their expansion, sterility, privations, and
unbroken silence, are terrific and sublime to the last degree.
The deserts of America are said to have a character, pro
ducing a melancholy, which no language can adequately
express. Those of Asia and Africa afflict the mind with still
more powerful emotions. A stillness, like that of the grave,
pervades the whole scene, from the northern horizon to the
southern. A sea of sand stretches from the east to the west :
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 239
not a tree, nor a blade of grass, relieves the eye : amplitude
of space gives an amplitude to the mind ; and a sublimity is
imparted to the imagination, which promises a surety of
immortality to the soul.
With deserts we associate the camel and the ostrich : The
former exhibiting a curious instance of the use of animals to
the human race ; the latter, leading with its mate a secure,
innocent, and social life a : and so far from leaving her eggs or
her young, as many have supposed, to the mercy of the ele
ments, she pays them an earnest and a strict, but, from the
nature of the climate in which she lives, a divided attention.
Her mate and herself watch them alternately.
With deserts are also associated serpents ; and as the tra
veller wanders over the wastes, he may amuse his imagination
with recalling the powerful scene in the tragedy b of ^Eschylus,
where Orestes is described as being stained with blood and
supplicating protection ; while women, whose hair consists of
serpents, lie sleeping around him. Then he may rest on the
Laocoon of the Vatican ; Virgil s simile of a combat between
a serpent and an eagle ; Satan s return to the infernal regions c ;
or the illustration of a converted African. " The serpent,
by pressing against two bushes, shifts himself every year of
his skin. When we see this skin, we do not say, the serpent
is dead ; no ! the serpent lives ; and has only cast his skin.
This skin we may compare to our body ; the serpent itself
to the soul."
Many of these deserts, like the vale in Persia, called the
Valley of the Angel of Death, are lands that " no man passes
through, and where no man dwells d ." Wastes of glowing
sand, they bear for their character the deep and majestic
stillness of the wilderness ; with no habitation ; no motion ;
not a trace of animal or vegetable existence ; and where
a Parsons Trav. in Asia and Africa, 146, 4to.
b The Furies. c Paradise Lost, b. x.
d Jerem. xi. v. 6.
240 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
Nature seems herself to be dead ! This is, nevertheless, the
paradise of a wayward poet :
Oh ! that the desert were my dwelling place,
With one sweet spirit for my minister ;
That I might all forget the human race,
And hating no one, love but only her a .
In deserts we have true personifications of silence. The
Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, paid divine honours to silence.
Nature is never more awful than in its exemplification : whe
ther in a convent ; in a cathedral ; in a retired glen ; in a
forest ; or in a starless night. In woman it is affecting ; in
man dignified.
The inhabitants of deserts have, for the most part, been
always as much separated from the pleasures, as from the
habits of civilized life. The Mauritanians and Gsetulians b
knew little or nothing of husbandry : they roved after the
manner of the Scythians ; sleeping on their garments ; and
using poisoned arrows for the purposes of guarding themselves
from the wild beasts, that infested them on all sides. Like
the Nigritise, living near the Niger, they carried bottles of
water under the bellies of their horses.
The deserts of Zara were once peopled with a nation, who
had all things in common. They are mentioned by Lucan c ,
Pliny d , and Silius Italicus e . The picture, sketched of the
ancient inhabitants of the country beyond the Numidian
deserts, exhibits, also, a contrast to the intervening regions,
highly agreeable to the imagination ; since Leo Africanus
assures us, that they lived in a partial state of equality, hunt
ing wild animals ; tending their flocks and herds ; and pre
serving the honey of bees : the natural fertility of their soil
enabling them to live without toil, ambition, or any other
violent passion. They never went to war ; and never tra
velled out of their own country.
1 Childe Harold, canto iv. st. xxvi. b Lucan. Phars. lib. iv.
* Phars. iv. v. 334. > Lib. v. c. 8. Lib. i. v. 142 ; ii. v. 181.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 2-11
The inhabitants of the Arabian deserts are descendants of
Ismael, the son of Abraham and Hagar; of whom Moses
relates, that the God of the Jews declared, before his birth,
that " he should be a wild man ; that his hand should be
against every man, and that every man s hand should be
against him a ." Ismael became an archer b , and dwelt in the
wilderness, where his descendants remain even to this day ;
living in clans or tribes. As Ismael was an archer, so were
his descendants, in the age of Isaiah c ; and, till the time when
fire-arms were introduced, they were the most skilful archers
in the world. From age to age have these Ismaelites been
in perpetual hostility with the surrounding nations ; and yet
they occupy the same wilderness still. They retain the same
manners, habits, and customs. Savage in character, they are
social only to those of their own tribe. Intractable, they
wander from spring to spring ; subsisting chiefly on their
herds of cattle and camels ; and living in tents covered with
skins. Like the Jews, they refer to twelve original tribes ;
they practise circumcision ; marry only among themselves ;
and retain with equal pertinacity their peculiar manners and
prejudices. In one remarkable circumstance, however, they
differ : the Jews still adhere to the dispensations of Moses ;
the Ismaelites have adopted those of Mahomet : and while
all the countries, which surround them, have been subject to
storms and revolutions beyond those of any other quarter of the
globe, and while the Jews are scattered through all the nations
of the earth, they have subsisted through every species of
vicissitude. And though Sesostris, the Persians, Alexander,
Pompey, Gallus, Trajan, and Severus, raised large armies,
and in part executed designs of extirpation against them, yet
were they -never able to do them any very serious injury.
They rode without bridles or saddles d ; and in the hottest of
Gen. xvi. v. 12. b Gen. xxii. v. 20. c Isaiah, xx : . v. 17.
d Two passages in Livy seem to contradict this : lib. xxi. c. 44. 45 ; also
Sallust, in Jugurtho.
VOL. II, R
242 ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES,
engagements managed their horses only with their whips a ;
charging their enemies generally in the night b . They were
a healthy, long-lived people c ; they clad themselves in loose
garments ; had a plurality of wives ; and seldom indulged in
meat ; living chiefly on herbs, roots, milk, cheese, and honey.
If the Numidians were superior to the Nigritise, Getulians,
and Mauritanians, the inhabitants of the deserts of Petra
seem as much to have surpassed the Numidians. When
Demetrius d , by order of his father, Antigonus, sate down
before Petra with an army, and began an attack upon it, an
Arab accosted him after the following manner : " King
Demetrius : what is it you would have ? What madness can
have induced you to invade a people, inhabiting a wilderness,
where neither corn, nor wine, nor any other thing, you can
subsist upon, are to be found ? We inhabit these desolate
plains for the sake of liberty ; and submit to such inconve
niences, as no other people can bear, in order to enjoy it.
You can never force us to change our sentiments, nor way of
life ; therefore, we desire you to retire out of our country, as
we have never injured you ; to accept some presents from us ;
and to prevail with your father to rank us among his friends."
Upon hearing this, Demetrius accepted their presents, and
raised the siege.
In the great desert of Sahara, so extensive and so
waste is the prospect, that Adams travelled with the Moors
nine-and- twenty days, without seeing a single plant; not even
a blade of grass ! and Sidi Hamet reported to Riley, that
he journeyed over the same desert twenty-eight days, in
another direction, with the same aspect of sterility. During
ten days of this journey, the ground was as hard, as the floor
of a house. He was on his way to Timbuctoo, in a caravan,
consisting of eight hundred men, and three thousand camels.
a Oppian de Venat., lib. iv. Herodian, lib. vii.
b Vide Nic. Damascene, in Excerpt. Vales., p. 518.
c Appian, in Lybic., c. vi. 39. 64. d Plut. in Vit. Demct.
AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. 243
In a subsequent journey, with a thousand men and four thou
sand camels, they encountered the burning blast of the
desert. For two days they lay down with their faces to the
ground. Two hundred camels, and upwards of three hun
dred men perished.
The wildest waste but this can show
Some touch of Nature s genial glow ;
But here, above, around, below,
On mountain or on glen,
Nor tree, nor shrub, nor plant, nor flower,
Nor aught of vegetative power,
The weary eye can ken a .
This desert is equal in extent to the one-half of Europe b :
it is the largest in the wo 
