The botanic garden. A poem in two parts. Containing the Economy of vegetation; and the loves of the plants; with philosophical notes / / by Erasmus Darwin.

  • Darwin, Erasmus, 1731-1802.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The botanic garden. A poem in two parts. Containing the Economy of vegetation; and the loves of the plants; with philosophical notes / / by Erasmus Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    While Fays and Graces beckoning smooth their way, And hand in hand with Flora follows Love. Well may such radiant state increase thy pride, Delighted stream ! though rich in native charms, Though inborn worth and honour still reside, Where thy chill banks the glow of Chats- worth warms. Though here her new found art, as that of yore, The spinster goddess to thy rule assigns ; Her new-found art, fyc. Alluding to the nu- merous cotton mills on and near the river Der- went. Though, where her temples crowd thy peopled shore, Wealth gilds thy urn, and Fame thy chaplet twines. Ah, while thy nymphs in Derby’s tower’d vale Lead their sad quires around Milcena’s bier, What soothing sweetness breathes along the gale, Comes o’er the consort’s heart, and balms a brother’s tear ! Milcena’s bier. Mrs. French, sister to Mr. Mundy. Part I. Canto III. L 308. .\%V\VW\V^%%\WW\WWV\\^%\V\WVA, Q Gentle Reaper, LO, here a Camera Obscura is presented to thy view, in which are lights and shades dancing on a whited canvass, and magnified into apparent life!—if thou art perfectly at leisure for such trivial amusement, walk in and view the wonders of my Enchanted Garden. Whereas P. Ovidius Naso, a great necromancer in the famous Court of Augustus Caesar, did by art poetic transmute men, women, and even gods and goddesses, into trees and flowers ; I have undertaken by similar art to restore some of them to their original animality, after having remained prisoners so long in their respective vegetable mansions ; and have here exhibited them before thee : which thou mayest contemplate as divers little pictures suspended over the chimney of a lady’s dressing room, connected only by the slight festoon of ribbons; and which, though thou mayest not be acquainted with the originals, may amuse thee by the beauty of their persons, their graceful attitudes, or the brilliance of their dress. FAREWELL. kV\WWWV\^1 APOLOGY. It may be proper here to apologize for many of the subsequent conjectures on some articles of na- tural philosophy, as not being supported by accurate investigation or conclusive experiments. Ex- travagant theories however in those parts of philosophy, where our knowledge is yet imperfect, are not without their use; as they encourage the'execution of laborious experiments, or the investigation of ingenious deductions, to confirm or refute them. And since natural objects are allied to each other by many affinities, every kind of theoretic distribution of them adds to our knowledge by developing some of their anologies.