The Botanic Garden by Erasmus Darwin

Volume I

Adam Komisaruk

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138691575
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315534633
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The career of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) affords an extraordinary glimpse into the intellectual ferment of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain. As a popular poet, practicing physician, inventor of speaking machines and mechanical birds, essayer of natural history from geology to meteorology, and proponent of an evolutionary theory that inspired his famous grandson Charles, he left a lasting impression on almost every branch of knowledge. His magnum opus, and the synthesis of his myriad interests, is The Botanic Garden (1792) — an epic poem that aims to "enlist the Imagination under the banner of Science." Part I, The Economy of Vegetation, sings the praises of British industry as a dance of supernatural creatures while part II, The Loves of the Plants, wittily employs metaphors of human courtship to describe the reproductive cycles of hundreds of flowers. Darwin supplements his accomplished verses with (often much longer) "philosophical notes" that offer his idiosyncratic perspective on the scholarly controversies of the day.

Despite a recent surge of academic interest in Darwin, however, no authoritative critical edition of The Botanic Garden exists, presenting a barrier to further scholarship. This two volume set comprises a complete, meticulously transcribed, reading text — including all the poetry, prose apparatus, and illustrations — along with extensive commentary that situates Darwin within contemporary debates about the natural sciences. This set will be of interest to readers as the definitive reference edition of The Botanic Garden and due to its efforts to make the work more practically and intellectually accessible to seasoned and novice readers alike.

The first volume presents a wide ranging and authoritative introduction to The Botanic Garden, detailing the background to the work and the various contexts in which it should be understood. These include: aesthetic theory and practice, the science of the mind, love and sexuality, politics, spirituality, the natural sciences, and evolutionary theory and the two Darwins. The full text of Part I of the The Botanic Garden, The Economy of Vegetation, then follows accompanied by the editors' annotations, discussion of illustrations and textual notes.

The
Botanic Garden;

A Poem, in Two Parts.

PART I.

CONTAINING

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

..........

PART II.

THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS.

WITH

Philosophical Notes.

LONDON, PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL’s CHURCH-YARD.

.......

MDCCXCI.

Entered at Stationers Hall.

THE

BOTANIC GARDEN.

PART I.

CONTAINING

The Economy of Vegetation

A POEM.

WITH

Philosophical Notes.

IT VER, ET VENUS; ET VENERIS PRÆNUNCIUS ANTE
PENNTUSA GRADITUR ZEPHYRUS VESTIGIA PROPTER;
FLORA QUIBUS MATER, PRÆSPERGENS ANTE VIAI
CUNCAT, COLORIBUS EGREGIIS ET ODORIBUS OPPLET.

LUCRET.

LONDON, PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL’s CHURCH-YARD.

..........

MDCCXCI.

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1 THE general design of the following sheets is to inlist Imagination under the banner of Science, and to lead her votaries from the looser analogies, which dress out the imagery of poetry, to the stricter ones, which form the ratiocination of philosophy. While their particular design is to induce the ingenious to cultivate the knowledge of BOTANY; by introducing them to the vestibule of that delightful science, and recommending to their attention the immortal works of the celebrated Swedish Naturalist LINNEUS.

2 In the first Poem, or Economy of Vegetation, the physiology of Plants is deliver’d; and the operation of the Elements, as far as they may be supposed to affect the growth of Vegetables. In the second poem, or LOVES OF THE PLANTS, the sexual System of LINNEUS is explain’d, with the remarkable properties of many particular plants.

Apology.

1 IT may be proper here to apologize for many of the subsequent conjectures on some articles of natural philosophy, as not being supported by accurate investigation or conclusive experiments. Extravagant 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 analogies.

2 The Rosicrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders, was thought to afford a proper machinery for a Botanic poem; as it is probable, that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures representing the elements.

3 Many of the important operations of Nature were shadowed or allegorized in the heathen mythology, as the first Cupid springing from the Egg of Night, the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, the Rape of Proserpine, the Congress of Jupiter and Juno, Death and Resuscitation of Adonis, &c. many of which are ingeniously explained in the works of Bacon, Vol. V. p. 47. 4th Edit. London, 1778. The Egyptians were possessed of many discoveries in philosophy and chemistry before the invention of letters; these were then expressed in hieroglyphic paintings of men and animals; which after the discovery of the alphabet were described and animated by the poets, and became first the deities of Egypt, and afterwards of Greece and Rome. Allusions to those fables were therefore thought proper ornaments to a philosophical poem, and are occasionally introduced either as represented by the poets, or preserved on the numerous gems and medallions of antiquity.

To
the Author
of the
Poem on the Loves of the Plants

BY THE REV. W.B. STEPHENS.

OFT tho’ thy genius, D——! amply fraught
With native wealth, explore new worlds of mind;
Whence the bright ores of drossless wisdom brought,
Stampt by the Muse’s hand, enrich mankind;

Tho’ willing Nature to thy curious eye, 5
Involved in night, her mazy depths betray;
Till at their source thy piercing search descry
The streams, that bathe with Life our mortal clay;

Tho’, boldly soaring in sublimer mood
Through trackless skies on metaphysic wings, 10
Thou darest to scan the approachless Cause of Good,
And weigh with steadfast hand the Sum of Things;

Yet wilt thou, charm’d amid his whispering bowers,
Oft with lone step by glittering Derwent stray,
Mark his green foliage, count his musky flowers, 15
That blush or tremble to the rising ray;

While FANCY, seated in her rock-roof’d dell,
Listening the secrets of the vernal grove,
Breathes sweetest strains to thy symphonious shell,
And gives new echoes to the throne of Love. 20

Repton, Nov. 28, 1788.

Argument of the First Canto.

THE genius of the place invites the Goddess of Botany. 1. She descends, is received by Spring, and the Elements, 59. Addresses the Nymphs of Fire. Star-light Night seen in the Camera Obscura, 81. I. Love created the Universe. Chaos explodes. All the stars revolve. God. 97. II. Shooting Stars. Lightning. Rainbow. Colours of the Morning and Evening Skies. Exterior Atmosphere of inflammable Air. Twilight. Fire-balls. Aurora Borealis. Planets. Comets. Fixed Stars. Sun’s Orb, 115. III. 1. Fires at Earth’s Centre. Animal Incubation, 137. 2. Volcanic Mountains. Venus visits the Cyclops, 149. IV. Heat confined on the Earth by the Air. Phosphoric lights in the Evening. Bolognian Stone. Calcined Shells. Memnon’s harp, 173. Ignis fatuus. Luminous Flowers. Glow-worm. Fire-fly. Luminous Sea-insects. Electric Eel. Eagle armed with Lightning, 189. V. 1. Discovery of Fire. Medusa, 209. 2. The chemical Properties of Fire. Phosphorus. Lady in Love, 223. 3. Gunpowder, 237. VI. Steam-engine applied to Pumps, Bellows, Water-engines, Corn-mills, Coining, Barges, Waggons, Flying-chariots, 253. Labours of Hercules. Abyla and Calpe, 297. VII. 1. Electric Machine. Hesperian Dragon. Electric kiss. Halo round the head of Saints. Electric Shock. Fairy-rings, 335. 2. Death of Professor Richman, 371. 3. Franklin draws Lightning from the Clouds. Cupid snatches the Thunder-bolt from Jupiter, 383. VIII. Phosphoric Acid and Vital Heat produced in the Blood. The great Egg of Night, 399. IX. Western Wind unfettered. Naiad released. Frost assailed. Whale attacked, 421. X. Buds and Flowers expanded by Warmth, Electricity, and Light. Drawings with colourless sympathetic Inks; which appear when warmed by the Fire, 457. XI. Sirius. Jupiter and Semele. Northern Constellations. Ice-islands navigated into the Tropic Seas. Rainy Monsoons, 497. XII. Points erected to procure Rain. Elijah on Mount-Carmel, 549. Departure of the Nymphs of Fire like sparks from artificial Fireworks, 587.

The
Economy of Vegetation. Canto I.

“STAY YOUR RUDE STEPS! whose throbbing breasts infold
The legion-fiends of Glory, or of Gold!
Stay! whose false lips seductive simpers part,
While Cunning nestles in the harlot-heart!—-
For you no Dryads dress the roseate bower, 5
For you no Nymphs their sparkling vases pour;
Unmark’d by you, light Graces swim the green,
And hovering Cupids aim their shafts, unseen.

“BUT THOU! whose mind the well-attemper’d ray
Of Taste and Virtue lights with purer day; 10
Whose finer sense each soft vibration owns
With sweet responsive sympathy of tones;
So the fair flower expands it’s lucid form
To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm;—
For thee my borders nurse the fragrant wreath, 15
My fountains murmur, and my zephyrs breathe;
Slow slides the painted snail, the gilded fly
Smooths his fine down, to charm thy curious eye;
On twinkling fins my pearly nations play,
Or win with sinuous train their trackless way; 20
My plumy pairs in gay embroidery dress’d
Form with ingenious bill the pensile nest,
To Love’s sweet notes attune the listening dell,
And Echo sounds her soft symphonious shell.

“And, if with Thee some hapless Maid should stray, 25
Disasterous Love companion of her way,
Oh, lead her timid steps to yonder glade,
Whose arching cliffs depending alders shade;
There, as meek Evening wakes her temperate breeze,
And moon-beams glimmer through the trembling trees, 30
The rills, that gurgle round, shall soothe her ear,
The weeping rocks shall number tear for tear;
There as sad Philomel, alike forlorn,
Sings to the Night from her accustomed thorn;
While at sweet intervals each falling note 35
Sighs in the gale, and whispers round the grot;
The sister-woe shall calm her aching breast,
And softer slumbers steal her cares to rest.—-

“Winds of the North! restrain your icy gales,
Nor chill the bosom of these happy vales! 40
Hence in dark heaps, ye gathering Clouds, revolve!
Disperse, ye Lightnings! and, ye Mists, dissolve!
—Hither, emerging from yon orient skies,
BOaN t iC GOddess! bend thy radiant eyes;
O’er these soft scenes assume thy gentle reign, 45
Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train;
O’er the still dawn thy placid smile effuse,
And with thy silver sandals print the dews;
In noon’s bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold,
And wave thy emerald banner star’d with gold.” 50

Thus spoke the GENIUS, as He stept along,
And bade these lawns to Peace and Truth belong;
Down the steep slopes He led with modest skill
The willing pathway, and the truant rill,
Stretch’d o’er the marshy vale yon willowy mound, 55
Where shines the lake amid the tufted ground,
Raised the young woodland, smooth’d the wavy green,
And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene.—-

She comes!—the GODDESS!—through the whispering air,
Bright as the moon, descends her blushing car; 60
Each circling wheel a wreath of flowers intwines,
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, 65
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 her feather’d quire,
And tunes to softer notes her laughing lyre; 70
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 75
On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair;
Blue NYMPHS emerging leave their sparkling streams,
And FIERY FORMSOrms alight from orient beams;
Musk’d in the rose’s lap fresh dews they shed,
Or breathe celestial lustres round her head. 80

First the fine Forms her dulcet voice requires,
Which bathe or bask in elemental fires;
From each bright gem of Day’s refulgent car,
From the pale sphere of every twinkling star,
From each nice pore of ocean, earth, and air, 85
With eye of flame the sparkling hosts repair,
Mix their gay hues, in changeful circles play,
Like motes, that tenant the meridian ray.—-

So the clear Lens collects with magic power
The countless glories of the midnight hour; 90
Stars after stars with quivering lustre fall,
And twinkling glide along the whiten’d wall.—-
Pleased, as they pass, she counts the glittering bands,
And stills their murmur with her waving hands;
Each listening tribe with fond expectance burns, 95
And now to these, and now to those, she turns.

I. “NYMPHS OF 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; 100
When LOVE DIVINE, with brooding wings unfurl’d,
Call’d from the rude abyss the living world.
“—LET THERE BE LIGHT!” proclaim’d the ALMIGHTY LORD,
Astonish’d Chaos heard the potent word;—-
Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs, 105

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; 110
Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres centres roll,
And form, self-balanced, one revolving Whole.
—Onward they move amid their bright abode,
Space without bound, THE BOSOM OF THEIR GOD!

II. “ETHEREAL POWERS! YOU chase the shooting stars, 115
Or yoke the vollied lightenings to your cars,
Cling round the aërial bow with prisms bright,
And pleased untwist the sevenfold threads of light;
Eve’s silken couch with gorgeous tints adorn,
And fire the arrowy throne of rising Morn. 120
—OR, plum’d with flame, in gay battalions spring
To brighter regions borne on broader wing;
Where lighter gases, circumfused on high,
Form the vast concave of exterior sky;
With airy lens the scatter’d rays assualt, 125
And bend the twilight round the dusky vault;
Ride, with broad eye and scintillating hair,
The rapid Fire-ball through the midnight air;
Dart from the North on pale electric streams,
Fringing Night’s sable robe with transient beams. 130
—OR rein the Planets in their swift careers,
Gilding with borrow’d light their twinkling spheres;
Alarm with comet-blaze the sapphire plain,
The wan stars glimmering through its silver train;
Gem the bright Zodiac, stud the glowing pole, 135
Or give the Sun’s phlogistic orb32to roll.

III. NYMPHS! YOUR fine forms with steps impassive mock
Earth’s vaulted roofs of adamantine rock;

Round her still centre tread the burning soil,
And watch the billowy Lavas, as they boil; 140
Where, in basaltic caves imprison’d deep,
Reluctant fires in dread suspension sleep;
Or sphere on sphere in widening waves expand,
And glad with genial warmth the incumbent land.
So when the Mother-bird selects their food 145
With curious bill, and feeds her callow brood;
Warmth from her tender heart eternal springs,
And pleased she clasps them with extended wings.

“yOU from deep cauldrons and unmeasured caves
Blow flaming airs, or pour vitrescent waves; 150
O’er shining oceans ray volcanic light,
Or hurl innocuous embers35to the night.—-
While with loud shouts to Etna Heccla calls,
And Andes answers from his beacon’d walls;
Sea-wilder’d crews the mountain-stars admire, 155
And Beauty beams amid tremendous fire.

“Thus when of old, as mystic bards presume,
Huge CYCLOPS dwelt in Etna’s rocky womb,
On thundering anvils rung their loud alarms,
And leagued with VULCAN forged immortal arms; 160

Descending VENUS sought the dark abode,
And sooth’d the labours of the grisly God.—-
While frowning Loves the threatening falchion wield,
And tittering Graces peep behind the shield,
With jointed mail their fairy limbs o’erwhelm, 165
Or nod with pausing step the plumed helm;
With radiant eye She view’d the boiling ore,
Heard undismay’d the breathing bellows roar,
Admired their sinewy arms, and shoulders bare,
And ponderous hammers lifted high in air, 170
With smiles celestial bless’d their dazzled sight,
And Beauty blazed amid infernal night.

IV. “EFFULGENT MAIDS! YOU round deciduous day,
Tressed with soft beams, your glittering bands array;
On Earth’s cold bosom, as the Sun retires, 175
Confine with folds of air the lingering fires;
O’er Eve’s pale forms diffuse phosphoric light,
And deck with lambent flames the shrine of Night.

So, warm’d and kindled by meridian skies,
And view’d in darkness with dilated eyes, 180
BOLOGNA’S chalks with faint ignition blaze,
BECCARI’S shells emit prismatic rays.
So to the sacred Sun in MEMNON’S fane,
Spontaneous concords quired the matin strain;
—Touch’d by his orient beam, responsive rings 185
The living lyre, and vibrates all it’s strings;
Accordant ailes the tender tones prolong,
And holy echoes swell the adoring song.

“YOU with light Gas the lamps nocturnal40feed,
Which dance and glimmer o’er the marshy mead; 190

Shine round Calendula at twilight hours,
And tip with silver all her saffron flowers;
Warm on her mossy couch the radiant Worm,
Guard from cold dews her love-illumin’d form,
From leaf to leaf conduct the virgin light, 195
Star of the earth, and diamond of the night.
YOu bid in air the tropic Beetle burn,
And fill with golden flame his winged urn;
Or gild the surge with insect-sparks, that swarm
Round the bright oar, the kindling prow alarm; 200
Or arm in waves, electric in his ire,
The dread Gymnotus with ethereal fire.—-
Onward his course with waving tail he helms,
And mimic lightenings scare the watery realms,
So, when with bristling plumes the Bird of JOVE 205
Vindictive leaves the argent fields above,
Borne on broad wings the guilty world he awes,
And grasps the lightening in his shining claws.

V. 1. “NYMPHS! YOUR soft smiles uncultur’d man subdued,
And charm’d the Savage from his native wood; 210
YOU, while amazed his hurrying Hords retire
From the fell havoc of devouring Fire,
Taught, the first Art! with piny rods to raise
By quick attrition the domestic blaze,
Fan ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Illustration credits
• Editors'introduction
• Editorial principles
• Reading text
• Additional illustrations
• Explanatory notes
• Table of minerals
• Description of the illustrations
• Textual notes
• Bibliography