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.

    26/66 (page 22)
    “ Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ; Wave over wave the driving desert swims. Bursts o’er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs; Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush. Hosts march o’er hosts, and nations nations crush,— Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, And one great earthy ocean covers all!— Then ceased the storm,—Night bow’d his Ethiop brow To earth, and listen’d to the groans below— Grim Horror shook,—awhile the living hill Heaved with convulsive throes—and all was still! (I. 116.) From the address to the Aquatic Nymphs in the third canto, the following passage on the action of a pump is taken :— “Nymphs ! you first taught to pierce the secret caves Of humid earth, and lift her ponderous waves ; Bade with quick stroke the sliding piston bear The viewless columns of incumbent air;— Press’d by the incumbent air the floods below, Through opening valves in foaming torrents flow, Foot after foot with lessen’d impulse move, And rising seek the vacancy above.— So when the Mother, bending o’er his charms, Clasps her fair nurseling in delighted arms; Throws the thin kerchief from her neck of snow, And half unveils the pearly orbs below; With sparkling eye the blameless plunderer owns Her soft embraces, and endearing tones, Seeks the salubrious fount writh opening lips, Spreads his inquiring hands, and smiles, and sips. (I, 164.) At the close of tlie first part of the poem, the Goddess of Botany is raised by the Zephyrs into the clouds, and disap- pears, after a short apostrophe to the Goddess of Health.