Erasmus Darwin, philosopher, poet, and physician : a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Whitby / by John Dowson.

  • Dowson, John, 1820-1881.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Erasmus Darwin, philosopher, poet, and physician : a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Whitby / by John Dowson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    22/66 (page 18)
    And gem’d with flowers the silken harness shines; The golden bits with flowery studs are deck’d, And knots of flowers the crimson reins connect.— % And now on earth the silver axle rings, And the shell sinks upon its slender springs; Light from her airy seat the Goddess bounds, And steps celestial press the pansied grounds. Fair spring advancing calls the feather’d quire, And tunes to softer notes her laughing lyre ; Bids her gay hours on purple pinions move, And arms her Zephyrs with the shafts of love ; Pleased Gnomes, ascending from their earthy beds, Play round her graceful footsteps as she treads ; Gay Sylphs attendant beat the fragrant air On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair; Blue Nymphs emerging leave their sparkling streams. And Fieby Forms alight from orient beams.” The Goddess of Botany having thus got hearers, she pro- ceeds to address them in succession, and first the Nymphs of Fire. “ Nymphs op primeval Fire ! your vestal train Hung with gold-tresses o’er the vast inane, Pierced with your silver shafts the throne of Night, And charm’d young Nature’s opening eyes with light; When Love Divine, with brooding wings unfurl’d, Call’d from the rude abyss the living world. —‘ Let there be light ! ’ proclaimed the Almighty Lobd, Astonish’d Chaos heard the potent word; Through all his realms the kindling ether runs, And the mass starts into a million suns ; Earths round each sun with quick explosions burst, And second planets issue from the first; Bend, as they journey with projectile force, In bright ellipses their reluctant course;