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- English
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About This Book
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) ā 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 ā including all the poetry, prose apparatus, and illustrations ā 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.
Frequently asked questions
Information
The
Botanic Garden;
The Economy of Vegetation
PENNTUSA GRADITUR ZEPHYRUS VESTIGIA PROPTER;
FLORA QUIBUS MATER, PRĆSPERGENS ANTE VIAI
CUNCAT, COLORIBUS EGREGIIS ET ODORIBUS OPPLET.
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Apology.
To
the Author
of the
Poem on the Loves of the Plants
With native wealth, explore new worlds of mind;
Whence the bright ores of drossless wisdom brought,
Stampt by the Museās hand, enrich mankind;
Involved in night, her mazy depths betray;
Till at their source thy piercing search descry
The streams, that bathe with Life our mortal clay;
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;
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;
Listening the secrets of the vernal grove,
Breathes sweetest strains to thy symphonious shell,
And gives new echoes to the throne of Love. 20
Argument of the First Canto.
The
Economy of Vegetation. Canto I.
The legion-fiends of Glory, or of Gold!
Stay! whose false lips seductive simpers part,
While Cunning nestles in the harlot-heart!ā-
For you no Dryads dress the roseate bower, 5
For you no Nymphs their sparkling vases pour;
Unmarkād by you, light Graces swim the green,
And hovering Cupids aim their shafts, unseen.
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 itās lucid form
To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm;ā
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 dressād
Form with ingenious bill the pensile nest,
To Loveās sweet notes attune the listening dell,
And Echo sounds her soft symphonious shell.
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.ā-
Nor chill the bosom of these happy vales! 40
Hence in dark heaps, ye gathering Clouds, revolve!
Disperse, ye Lightnings! and, ye Mists, dissolve!
āHither, emerging from yon orient skies,
BOaN t iC GOddess! bend thy radiant eyes;
Oāer these soft scenes assume thy gentle reign, 45
Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train;
Oāer the still dawn thy placid smile effuse,
And with thy silver sandals print the dews;
In noonās bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold,
And wave thy emerald banner starād with gold.ā 50
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,
Stretchād oāer the marshy vale yon willowy mound, 55
Where shines the lake amid the tufted ground,
Raised the young woodland, smoothād the wavy green,
And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene.ā-
Bright as the moon, descends her blushing car; 60
Each circling wheel a wreath of flowers intwines,
And gemād with flowers the silken harness shines;
The golden bits with flowery studs are deckād,
And knots of flowers the crimson reins connect.ā-
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.
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;
Muskād in the roseās lap fresh dews they shed,
Or breathe celestial lustres round her head. 80
Which bathe or bask in elemental fires;
From each bright gem of Dayās 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.ā-
The countless glories of the midnight hour; 90
Stars after stars with quivering lustre fall,
And twinkling glide along the whitenād wall.ā-
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.
Hung with gold-tresses oāer the vast inane,
Pierced with your silver shafts the throne of Night,
And charmād young Natureās opening eyes with light; 100
When LOVE DIVINE, with brooding wings unfurlād,
Callād from the rude abyss the living world.
āāLET THERE BE LIGHT!ā proclaimād the ALMIGHTY LORD,
Astonishād Chaos heard the potent word;ā-
Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs, 105
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.
āOnward they move amid their bright abode,
Space without bound, THE BOSOM OF THEIR GOD!
Or yoke the vollied lightenings to your cars,
Cling round the aƫrial bow with prisms bright,
And pleased untwist the sevenfold threads of light;
Eveās silken couch with gorgeous tints adorn,
And fire the arrowy throne of rising Morn. 120
āOR, plumād 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 scatterād 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 Nightās sable robe with transient beams. 130
āOR rein the Planets in their swift careers,
Gilding with borrowād 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 Sunās phlogistic orb32to roll.
Earthās vaulted roofs of adamantine rock;
And watch the billowy Lavas, as they boil; 140
Where, in basaltic caves imprisonād 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.
Blow flaming airs, or pour vitrescent waves; 150
Oāer shining oceans ray volcanic light,
Or hurl innocuous embers35to the night.ā-
While with loud shouts to Etna Heccla calls,
And Andes answers from his beaconād walls;
Sea-wilderād crews the mountain-stars admire, 155
And Beauty beams amid tremendous fire.
Huge CYCLOPS dwelt in Etnaās rocky womb,
On thundering anvils rung their loud alarms,
And leagued with VULCAN forged immortal arms; 160
And soothād the labours of the grisly God.ā-
While frowning Loves the threatening falchion wield,
And tittering Graces peep behind the shield,
With jointed mail their fairy limbs oāerwhelm, 165
Or nod with pausing step the plumed helm;
With radiant eye She viewād the boiling ore,
Heard undismayād the breathing bellows roar,
Admired their sinewy arms, and shoulders bare,
And ponderous hammers lifted high in air, 170
With smiles celestial blessād their dazzled sight,
And Beauty blazed amid infernal night.
Tressed with soft beams, your glittering bands array;
On Earthās cold bosom, as the Sun retires, 175
Confine with folds of air the lingering fires;
Oāer Eveās pale forms diffuse phosphoric light,
And deck with lambent flames the shrine of Night.
And viewād in darkness with dilated eyes, 180
BOLOGNAāS chalks with faint ignition blaze,
BECCARIāS shells emit prismatic rays.
So to the sacred Sun in MEMNONāS fane,
Spontaneous concords quired the matin strain;
āTouchād by his orient beam, responsive rings 185
The living lyre, and vibrates all itās strings;
Accordant ailes the tender tones prolong,
And holy echoes swell the adoring song.
Which dance and glimmer oāer the marshy mead; 190
And tip with silver all her saffron flowers;
Warm on her mossy couch the radiant Worm,
Guard from cold dews her love-illuminād 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.ā-
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.
And charmād 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