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diff --git a/17882-h/17882-h.htm b/17882-h/17882-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb27363 --- /dev/null +++ b/17882-h/17882-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5206 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Consolations in Travel</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Consolations in Travel, by Humphrey Davy</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Consolations in Travel, by Humphrey Davy, +Edited by Henry Morley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Consolations in Travel + or, the Last Days of a Philosopher + + +Author: Humphrey Davy + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: February 28, 2006 [eBook #17882] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSOLATIONS IN TRAVEL*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>CONSOLATIONS IN TRAVEL;<br /> +OR, THE LAST DAYS OF A PHILOSOPHER.</h1> +<p>BY SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, <span class="smcap">Bart.</span>,<br /> +<i>Late President of the Royal Society</i>.</p> +<p>CASSELL & COMPANY, <span class="smcap">limited</span>:<br /> +<i>LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE</i>. 1889</p> +<h2><!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>INTRODUCTION.</h2> +<p>Humphry Davy was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 17th of December, +1778, and died at Geneva on the 29th of May, 1829, at the age of fifty. +He was a philosopher who turned knowledge to wisdom; he was one of the +foremost of our English men of science; and this book, written when +he was dying, which makes Reason the companion of Faith, shows how he +passed through the light of earth into the light of heaven.</p> +<p>His father had a small patrimony at Varfell, in Ludgvan. His +mother had lost in early childhood both her parents within a few hours +of each other, and had been adopted by John Tonkin, an eminent surgeon +in Penzance, to whom, therefore, so to speak, Humphry Davy became grandson +by adoption. There were five such grandchildren—Humphry, +the elder of two boys, the other boy being named John, and three girls.</p> +<p>At a preparatory school and at the Penzance Grammar School Humphry +Davy was a noticeable boy. He read eagerly and showed great quickness +of imagination, delighted in legends, when eight years old told stories +to his companions, and as a boy wrote verse. There was a Quaker +saddler who made for himself an electrical machine and mechanical models, +in which young Davy took keen interest, and from that saddler, Robert +Dunkin, came the first impulse towards experiments in science. +At fifteen Davy was placed for further education at a school in Truro. +A year later his father died, and John Tonkin apprenticed him, on the +10th of February, 1795, to Dr. Borlase, a surgeon in large practice +at Penzance. Medical practitioners in those days dispensed their +own medicines, and the inquiring mind of this young apprentice being +let loose upon a store-room of chemicals, experimental chemistry became +his favourite pursuit. His grandfather, by adoption, allowed him +to fit up a garret as a laboratory, notwithstanding <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>the +fears of the household that “This boy, Humphry, will blow us all +into the air.”</p> +<p>Activity and originality of mind, with a persistent habit of inquiry +and experiment, brought Davy friends who could appreciate and help him. +When Dr. Beddoes, of Bristol, was examining the Cornish coast, in 1798, +he came upon young Humphry Davy, was told of researches made by him, +and urged to engage him as laboratory assistant in a Pneumatic Institution +that he was then establishing in Bristol. Davy went in October, +1798, then in his twentieth year; but his good friend, and grandfather +by adoption, had set his heart upon Humphry’s becoming an eminent +burgeon, and even altered his will when his boy yielded to the temptation +of a laboratory for research. Men also know something of the trouble +of the hen who has a chance duckling in her brood, and sees that contumacious +chicken run into the water deaf to all the warnings of her love.</p> +<p>At Bristol Humphry Davy came into companionship with Coleridge and +Southey, who were then also at the outset of their career, and there +are poems of his in the Poetical Anthology then published by Southey. +But at the same time Davy contributed papers on “Heat, Light, +and the Combinations of Light,” on “Phos-Oxygen and its +Combinations,” and on “The Theory of Respiration,” +to a volume of West Country Collections, that filled more than half +the volume. He was experimenting then on gases and on galvanism, +and one day by experiment upon himself, in the breathing of carburetted +hydrogen, he almost put an end to his life.</p> +<p>In 1799 Count Rumford was founding the Royal Institution, and its +home in Albemarle Street was then bought for it. The first lecturer +appointed was in bad health, and in 1801 he was obliged to resign. +Young Davy was now known to men of science for the number and freshness +of his experiments, and for the substantial value of his chemical discoveries. +It was resolved by the managers, in July, 1801, that Humphry Davy be +appointed Assistant-Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the Chemical +Laboratory, and assistant-editor of the journals of the Royal Institution. +His first remuneration was a room in the house, coals and candles, and +£100 a year. Count Rumford held out the prospect of a professorship +with £300 a <!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>year, +and the certainty of full support in the use of the laboratory for his +own private research. His age then was twenty-three. He +at once satisfied men of science and amused people of fashion. +His energy was unbounded; there was a fascination in his personal character +and manner. He was a genial and delightful lecturer, and his inventive +genius was continually finding something new. A first suggestion +of the process of photography was dropped incidentally among the records +of researches that attracted more attention. Davy had been little +more than a year at the Royal Institution when he was made its Professor +of Chemistry. After another year he was made a Fellow. Dr. +Paris, his biographer, says that “the enthusiastic admiration +which his lectures obtained is at this period scarcely to be imagined. +Men of the first rank and talent—the literary and the scientific, +the practical, the theoretical—blue-stockings and women of fashion, +the old and the young, all crowded—eagerly crowded—the lecture-room.” +At the beginning of the year 1805 his salary was raised to £400 +a year. In May of that year the Royal Society awarded to him the +Copley Medal. Within the next two years he was elected Secretary +of the Royal Society. Since 1800 he had been advancing knowledge +by experiments with galvanism. The Royal Institution raised a +special fund to place at his disposal a more powerful galvanic battery +than any that had been constructed. The fame of his discoveries +spread over Europe.</p> +<p>The Institute of France gave Davy the Napoleon Prize of three thousand +francs for the best experiments in galvanism. Dublin, in 1810, +paid Davy four hundred guineas for some lectures upon his discoveries. +The Farming Society of Ireland gave him £750 for six lectures +on chemistry applied to agriculture. In the following year he +received more than a thousand pounds for two courses of lectures at +Dublin, and was sent home with the honorary degree of LL.D. In +April, 1812, he was knighted, resigned his professorship at the Royal +Institution, and “in order more strongly to mark the high sense +of his merits” he was elected Honorary Professor of Chemistry. +In the same month Davy married a young and rich widow, who had charmed +all Edinburgh by her beauty and her wit. Two months after marriage +Sir Humphry Davy dedicated to his wife his “Elements of <!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>Chemical +Philosophy.” In March, 1813, he published his “Elements +of Agricultural Chemistry.” He travelled abroad, and was +received with honour by the chief men of science in all places that +he visited. When, at Pavia, he first met Volta: he found that +Volta had put on full-dress to receive him.</p> +<p>In August, 1815, Davy’s attention was drawn to the loss of +life by explosions of fire-damp, and by the end of the year he had devised +his safety-lamp. The coal owners subscribed £1,500 for a +testimonial, gave him also a dinner and a service of plate. In +October, 1818, he was made a baronet. In November, 1820, he was +elected President of the Royal Society.</p> +<p>His next researches were chiefly on electro-magnetism and the protection +of the copper sheathing on ships’ bottoms. At the end of +1826 his health failed seriously. He went to Italy; resigned, +in July, 1827, the Presidency of the Royal Society; came back to England, +longing for “the fresh air of the mountains;” wrote and +published his “Salmonia, or Days of Fly-fishing.” +In the spring of 1828 he left England again. He was at Rome in +the winter of 1829, still engaged in quiet research, and it was then +that he wrote his “Consolations in Travel; or, the Last Days of +a Philosopher.” His wife, who shone in London society, did +not go with him upon this last journey, but travelled day and night +to reach him when word came to her and to his brother John, who was +a physician, that he had again been struck with palsy and was dying. +That stroke of palsy followed immediately upon the finishing of the +book now in the reader’s hand. Davy lived to see again his +wife and brother, rallied enough to leave Rome with them, and had got +as far as Geneva on the 28th of May, 1829. He died in the next +night.</p> +<p>H. M.</p> +<h2><!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>A +NOTE,</h2> +<p><i>Prefixed to the First Edition, by Sir Humphry Davy’s Brother</i>.</p> +<p>As is stated in the Preface which follows, this work was composed +during a period of bodily indisposition;—it was concluded at the +very moment of the invasion of the Author’s last illness. +Had his life been prolonged, it is probable that some additions and +some changes would have been made. The editor does not consider +himself warranted to do more than give to the world a faithful copy, +making only a few omissions and a few verbal alterations. The +characters of the persons of the dialogue were intended to be ideal, +at least in great part such they should be considered by the reader; +and, it is to be hoped, that the incidents introduced, as well as the +persons, will be viewed only as subordinate and subservient to the sentiments +and doctrines. The dedication, it may be specially noticed, is +the author’s own, and in the very words dictated by him, at a +time when he had lost the power of writing except with extreme difficulty, +owing to the paralytic attack, although he retained in a very remarkable +manner all his mental faculties unimpaired and unclouded.</p> +<p>JOHN DAVY.<br /> +<i>London</i>,<br /> +<i>January 6th</i>, 1830.</p> +<p><!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>TO +THOMAS POOLE, ESQ. OF NETHER STOWEY<br /> +IN REMEMBRANCE OF<br /> +THIRTY YEARS OF CONTINUED AND FAITHFUL<br /> +FRIENDSHIP.</p> +<h2><!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>AUTHOR’S +PREFACE.</h2> +<p>Salmonia was written during the time of a partial recovery from a +long and dangerous illness. The present work was composed immediately +after, under the same unfavourable and painful circumstances, and at +a period when the constitution of the Author suffered from new attacks. +He has derived some pleasure and some consolation, when most other sources +of consolation and pleasure were closed to him, from this exercise of +his mind; and he ventures to hope that these hours of sickness may be +not altogether unprofitable to persons in perfect health.</p> +<p><i>Rome</i>,<br /> +<i>February</i> 21, 1829.</p> +<h2><!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>DIALOGUE +THE FIRST. THE VISION.</h2> +<p>I passed the autumn and the early winter of the years 18-- and 18-- +at Rome. The society was, as is usual in that metropolis of the +old Christian world, numerous and diversified. In it there were +found many intellectual foreigners and amongst them some distinguished +Britons, who had a higher object in making this city their residence +than mere idleness or vague curiosity. Amongst these my countrymen, +there were two gentlemen with whom I formed a particular intimacy and +who were my frequent companions in the visits which I made to the monuments +of the grandeur of the old Romans and to the masterpieces of ancient +and modern art. One of them I shall call Ambrosio: he was a man +of highly cultivated taste, great classical erudition, and minute historical +knowledge. In religion he was of the Roman Catholic persuasion; +but a Catholic of the most liberal school, who in another age might +have been secretary to Ganganelli. His views upon the subjects +of politics and religion were enlarged; but his leaning was rather to +the power of a single magistrate than to the authority of a democracy +or even of an <!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>oligarchy. +The other friend, whom I shall call Onuphrio, was a man of a very different +character. Belonging to the English aristocracy, he had some of +the prejudices usually attached to birth and rank; but his manners were +gentle, his temper good, and his disposition amiable. Having been +partly educated at a northern university in Britain, he had adopted +views in religion which went even beyond toleration and which might +be regarded as entering the verge of scepticism. For a patrician +he was very liberal in his political views. His imagination was +poetical and discursive, his taste good and his tact extremely fine, +so exquisite, indeed, that it sometimes approached to morbid sensibility, +and disgusted him with slight defects and made him keenly sensible of +small perfections to which common minds would have been indifferent.</p> +<p>In the beginning of October on a very fine afternoon I drove with +these two friends to the Colosæum, a monument which, for the hundredth +time even, I had viewed with a new admiration; my friends partook of +my sentiments. I shall give the conversation which occurred there +in their own words. Onuphrio said, “How impressive are those +ruins!—what a character do they give us of the ancient Romans, +what magnificence of design, what grandeur of execution! Had we +not historical documents to inform us of the period when this structure +was raised and of the purposes for which it was designed, it might be +imagined the work of a race of giants, a Council Chamber for those Titans +fabled to have warred against the gods of the pagan mythology. +The size of the masses of travertine of which it is composed is in harmony +with the immense magnitude of the building. It is hardly to be +wondered <!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>at +that a people which constructed such works for their daily sports, for +their usual amusements, should have possessed strength, enduring energy, +and perseverance sufficient to enable them to conquer the world. +They appear always to have formed their plans and made their combinations +as if their power were beyond the reach of chance, independent of the +influence of time, and founded for unlimited duration—for eternity!”</p> +<p>Ambrosio took up the discourse of Onuphrio, and said, “The +aspect of this wonderful heap of ruins is so picturesque that it is +impossible to regret its decay; and at this season of the year the colours +of the vegetation are in harmony with those of the falling ruins, and +how perfectly the whole landscape is in tone! The remains of the +palace of the Cæsars and of the golden halls of Nero appear in +the distance, their gray and tottering turrets and their moss-stained +arches reposing, as it were, upon the decaying vegetation: and there +is nothing that marks the existence of life except the few pious devotees, +who wander from station to station in the arena below, kneeling before +the cross, and demonstrating the triumph of a religion, which received +in this very spot in the early period of its existence one of its most +severe persecutions, and which, nevertheless, has preserved what remains +of that building, where attempts were made to stifle it almost at its +birth; for, without the influence of Christianity, these majestic ruins +would have been dispersed or levelled to the dust. Plundered of +their lead and iron by the barbarians, Goths, and Vandals, and robbed +even of their stones by Roman princes, the Barberini, they owe what +remains of their relics to the sanctifying influence of that faith which +has preserved for the world all <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>that +was worth preserving, not merely arts and literature but likewise that +which constitutes the progressive nature of intellect and the institutions +which afford to us happiness in this world and hopes of a blessed immortality +in the next. And, being of the faith of Rome, I may say, that +the preservation of this pile by the sanctifying effect of a few crosses +planted round it, is almost a miraculous event. And what a contrast +the present application of this building, connected with holy feelings +and exalted hopes, is to that of the ancient one, when it was used for +exhibiting to the Roman people the destruction of men by wild beasts, +or of men, more savage than wild beasts, by each other, to gratify a +horrible appetite for cruelty, founded upon a still more detestable +lust, that of universal domination! And who would have supposed, +in the time of Titus, that a faith, despised in its insignificant origin, +and persecuted from the supposed obscurity of its founder and its principles, +should have reared a dome to the memory of one of its humblest teachers, +more glorious than was ever framed for Jupiter or Apollo in the ancient +world, and have preserved even the ruins of the temples of the pagan +deities, and have burst forth in splendour and majesty, consecrating +truth amidst the shrines of error, employing the idols of the Roman +superstition for the most holy purposes and rising a bright and constant +light amidst the dark and starless night which followed the destruction +of the Roman empire!”</p> +<p>Onuphrio now resumed the discourse. He said, “I have +not the same exalted views on the subject which our friend Ambrosio +has so eloquently expressed. Some little of the perfect state +in which these ruins exist may <!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>have +been owing to causes which he has described; but these causes have only +lately begun to operate, and the mischief was done before Christianity +was established at Rome. Feeling differently on these subjects, +I admire this venerable ruin rather as a record of the destruction of +the power of the greatest people that ever existed, than as a proof +of the triumph of Christianity; and I am carried forward in melancholy +anticipation to the period when even the magnificent dome of St. Peter’s +will be in a similar state to that in which the Colosæum now is, +and when its ruins may be preserved by the sanctifying influence of +some new and unknown faith; when, perhaps, the statue of Jupiter, which +at present receives the kiss of the devotee, as the image of St. Peter, +may be employed for another holy use, as the personification of a future +saint or divinity; and when the monuments of the papal magnificence +shall be mixed with the same dust as that which now covers the tombs +of the Cæsars. Such, I am sorry to say, is the general history +of all the works and institutions belonging to humanity. They +rise, flourish, and then decay and fall; and the period of their decline +is generally proportional to that of their elevation. In ancient +Thebes or Memphis the peculiar genius of the people has left us monuments +from which we can judge of their arts, though we cannot understand the +nature of their superstitions. Of Babylon and of Troy the remains +are almost extinct; and what we know of these famous cities is almost +entirely derived from literary records. Ancient Greece and Rome +we view in the few remains of their monuments; and the time will arrive +when modern Rome shall be what ancient Rome now is; and ancient Rome +and Athens <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>will +be what Tyre or Carthage now are, known only by coloured dust in the +desert, or coloured sand, containing the fragments of bricks or glass, +washed up by the wave of a stormy sea. I might pursue these thoughts +still further, and show that the wood of the cross, or the bronze of +the statue, decay as quickly as if they had not been sanctified; and +I think I could show that their influence is owing to the imagination, +which, when infinite time is considered, or the course of ages even, +is null and its effect imperceptible; and similar results occur, whether +the faith be that of Osiris, of Jupiter, of Jehovah, or of Jesus.”</p> +<p>To this Ambrosio replied, his countenance and the tones of his voice +expressing some emotion: “I do not think, Onuphrio, that you consider +this question with your usual sagacity or acuteness; indeed, I never +hear you on the subject of religion without pain and without a feeling +of regret that you have not applied your powerful understanding to a +more minute and correct examination of the evidences of revealed religion. +You would then, I think, have seen, in the origin, progress, elevation, +decline and fall of the empires of antiquity, proofs that they were +intended for a definite end in the scheme of human redemption; you would +have found prophecies which have been amply verified; and the foundation +or the ruin of a kingdom, which appears in civil history so great an +event, in the history of man, in his religious institutions, as comparatively +of small moment; you would have found the establishment of the worship +of one God amongst a despised and contemned people as the most important +circumstance in the history of the early world; you would have found +the Christian dispensation naturally arising out of the <!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>Jewish, +and the doctrines of the pagan nations all preparatory to the triumph +and final establishment of a creed fitted for the most enlightened state +of the human mind and equally adapted to every climate and every people.”</p> +<p>To this animated appeal of Ambrosio, Onuphrio replied in the most +tranquil manner and with the air of an unmoved philosopher:—“You +mistake me, Ambrosio, if you consider me as hostile to Christianity. +I am not of the school of the French Encyclopædists, or of the +English infidels. I consider religion as essential to man, and +belonging to the human mind in the same manner as instincts belong to +the brute creation, a light, if you please of revelation to guide him +through the darkness of this life, and to keep alive his undying hope +of immortality: but pardon me if I consider this instinct as equally +useful in all its different forms, and still a divine light through +whatever medium or cloud of human passion or prejudice it passes. +I reverence it in the followers of Brahmah, in the disciple of Mahomet, +and I wonder at in all the variety of forms it adopts in the Christian +world. You must not be angry with me that I do not allow infallibility +to your Church, having been myself brought up by Protestant parents, +who were rigidly attached to the doctrines of Calvin.”</p> +<p>I saw Ambrosio’s countenance kindle at Onuphrio’s explanation +of his opinions, and he appeared to be meditating an angry reply. +I endeavoured to change the conversation to the state of the Colosæum, +with which it had begun. “These ruins,” I said, “as +you have both observed, are highly impressive; yet when I saw them six +years ago they had a stronger effect on my imagination; whether it was +the charm of novelty, <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>or +that my mind was fresher, or that the circumstances under which I saw +them were peculiar, I know not, but probably all these causes operated +in affecting my mind. It was a still and beautiful evening in +the end of May; the last sunbeams were dying away in the western sky +and the first moonbeams shining in the eastern; the bright orange tints +lighted up the ruins and as it were kindled the snows that still remained +on the distant Apennines, which were visible from the highest accessible +part of the amphitheatre. In this glow of colouring, the green +of advanced spring softened the grey and yellow tints of the decaying +stones, and as the lights gradually became fainter, the masses appeared +grander and more gigantic; and when the twilight had entirely disappeared, +the contrast of light and shade in the beams of the full moon and beneath +a sky of the brightest sapphire, but so highly illuminated that only +Jupiter and a few stars of the first magnitude were visible, gave a +solemnity and magnificence to the scene which awakened the highest degree +of that emotion which is so properly termed the sublime. The beauty +and the permanency of the heavens and the principle of conservation +belonging to the system of the universe, the works of the Eternal and +Divine Architect, were finely opposed to the perishing and degraded +works of man in his most active and powerful state. And at this +moment so humble appeared to me the condition of the most exalted beings +belonging to the earth, so feeble their combinations, so minute the +point of space, and so limited the period of time in which they act, +that I could hardly avoid comparing the generations of man, and the +effects of his genius and power, to the swarms <!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>of +luceoli or fire-flies which were dancing around me and that appeared +flitting and sparkling amidst the gloom and darkness of the ruins, but +which were no longer visible when they rose above the horizon, their +feeble light being lost and utterly obscured in the brightness of the +moonbeams in the heavens.”</p> +<p>Onuphrio said: “I am not sorry that you have changed the conversation. +You have given us the history of a most interesting recollection and +well expressed a solemn though humiliating feeling. In such moments +and among such scenes it is impossible not to be struck with the nothingness +of human glory and the transiency of human works. This, one of +the greatest monuments on the face of the earth, was raised by a people, +then its masters, only seventeen centuries ago; in a few ages more it +will be but as dust, and of all the testimonials of the vanity or power +of man, whether raised to immortalise his name, or to contain his decaying +bones without a name, no one is known to have a duration beyond what +is measured by the existence of a hundred generations; and it is only +to multiply centuple for instance the period of time, and the memorials +of a village and the monuments of a country churchyard may be compared +with those of an empire and the remains of the world.”</p> +<p>Ambrosio, to whom the conversation seemed disagreeable, put us in +mind of an engagement we had made to spend the evening at the conversazione +of a celebrated lady, and proposed to call the carriage. The reflections +which the conversation and the scene had left in my mind little disposed +me for general society. I requested them to keep their engagement, +and said I was resolved to spend an hour amidst the <!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>solitude +of the ruins, and desired them to send back the carriage for me. +They left me, expressing a hope that my poetical or melancholy fancy +might not be the occasion of a cold, and wished me the company of some +of the spectres of the ancient Romans.</p> +<p>When I was left alone, I seated myself in the moonshine, on one of +the steps leading to the seats supposed to have been occupied by the +patricians in the Colosæum at the time of the public games. +The train of ideas in which I had indulged before my friends left me +continued to flow with a vividness and force increased by the stillness +and solitude of the scene; and the full moon has always a peculiar effect +on these moods of feeling in my mind, giving to them a wildness and +a kind of indefinite sensation, such as I suppose belong at all times +to the true poetical temperament. It must be so, I thought to +myself; no new city will rise again out of the double ruins of this; +no new empire will be founded upon these colossal remains of that of +the old Romans. The world, like the individual, flourishes in +youth, rises to strength in manhood, falls into decay in age; and the +ruins of an empire are like the decrepit frame of an individual, except +that they have some tints of beauty which nature bestows upon them. +The sun of civilisation arose in the East, advanced towards the West, +and is now at its meridian; in a few centuries more it will probably +be seen sinking below the horizon even in the new world, and there will +be left darkness only where there is a bright light, deserts of sand +where there were populous cities, and stagnant morasses where the green +meadow or the bright cornfield once appeared. I called up images +of this kind <!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>in +my imagination. “Time,” I said, “which purifies, +and as it were sanctifies the mind, destroys and brings into utter decay +the body; and, even in nature, its influence seems always degrading. +She is represented by the poets as eternal in her youth, but amongst +these ruins she appears to me eternal in her age, and here no traces +of renovation appear in the ancient of days.” I had scarcely +concluded this ideal sentence when my reverie became deeper, the ruins +surrounding me appeared to vanish from my sight, the light of the moon +became more intense, and the orb itself seemed to expand in a flood +of splendour. At the same time that my visual organs appeared +so singularly affected, the most melodious sounds filled my ear, softer +yet at the same time deeper and fuller than I had ever heard in the +most harmonious and perfect concert. It appeared to me that I +had entered a new state of existence, and I was so perfectly lost in +the new kind of sensation which I experienced that I had no recollections +and no perceptions of identity. On a sudden the music ceased, +but the brilliant light still continued to surround me, and I heard +a low but extremely distinct and sweet voice, which appeared to issue +from the centre of it. The sounds were at first musical like those +of a harp, but they soon became articulate, as if a prelude to some +piece of sublime poetical composition. “You, like all your +brethren,” said the voice, “are entirely ignorant of every +thing belonging to yourselves, the world you inhabit, your future destinies, +and the scheme of the universe; and yet you have the folly to believe +you are acquainted with the past, the present, and the future. +I am an intelligence somewhat superior to you, though there are <!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>millions +of beings as much above me in power and in intellect as man is above +the meanest and weakest reptile that crawls beneath his feet; yet something +I can teach you: yield your mind wholly to the influence which I shall +exert upon it, and you shall be undeceived in your views of the history +of the world, and of the system you inhabit.” At this moment +the bright light disappeared, the sweet and harmonious voice, which +was the only proof of the presence of a superior intelligence, ceased; +I was in utter darkness and silence, and seemed to myself to be carried +rapidly upon a stream of air, without any other sensation than that +of moving quickly through space. Whilst I was still in motion, +a dim and hazy light, which seemed like that of twilight in a rainy +morning, broke upon my sight, and gradually a country displayed itself +to my view covered with forests and marshes. I saw wild animals +grazing in large savannahs, and carnivorous beasts, such as lions and +tigers, occasionally disturbing and destroying them; I saw naked savages +feeding upon wild fruits, or devouring shell-fish, or fighting with +clubs for the remains of a whale which had been thrown upon the shore. +I observed that they had no habitations, that they concealed themselves +in caves, or under the shelter of palm trees, and that the only delicious +food which nature seemed to have given to them was the date and the +cocoa-nut, and these were in very small quantities and the object of +contention. I saw that some few of these wretched human beings +that inhabited the wide waste before my eyes, had weapons pointed with +flint or fish-bone, which they made use of for destroying birds, quadrupeds, +or fishes, that they fed upon raw; but their greatest delicacy <!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>appeared +to be a maggot or worm, which they sought for with great perseverance +in the buds of the palm. When I had cast my eyes on the varied +features of this melancholy scene, which was now lighted by a rising +sun, I heard again the same voice which had astonished me in the Colosæum, +and which said,—“See the birth of Time! Look at man +in his newly created state, full of youth and vigour. Do you see +aught in this state to admire or envy?” As the last words +fell on my ear, I was again, as before, rapidly put in motion, and I +seemed again resistless to be hurried upon a stream of air, and again +in perfect darkness. In a moment, an indistinct light again appeared +before my eyes and a country opened upon my view which appeared partly +wild and partly cultivated; there were fewer woods and morasses than +in the scene which I had just before seen; I beheld men who were covered +with the skins of animals, and who were driving cattle to enclosed pastures; +I saw others who were reaping and collecting corn, others who were making +it into bread; I saw cottages furnished with many of the conveniences +of life, and a people in that state of agricultural and pastoral improvement +which has been imagined by the poets as belonging to the golden age. +The same voice, which I shall call that of the Genius, said, “Look +at these groups of men who are escaped from the state of infancy: they +owe their improvement to a few superior minds still amongst them. +That aged man whom you see with a crowd around him taught them to build +cottages; from that other they learnt to domesticate cattle; from others +to collect and sow corn and seeds of fruit. And these arts will +never be lost; another generation will see them more perfect; the houses, +in a <!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>century +more, will be larger and more convenient; the flocks of cattle more +numerous; the corn-fields more extensive; the morasses will be drained, +the number of fruit-trees increased. You shall be shown other +visions of the passages of time, but as you are carried along the stream +which flows from the period of creation to the present moment, I shall +only arrest your transit to make you observe some circumstances which +will demonstrate the truths I wish you to know, and which will explain +to you the little it is permitted me to understand of the scheme of +the universe.” I again found myself in darkness and in motion, +and I was again arrested by the opening of a new scene upon my eyes. +I shall describe this scene and the others in the succession in which +they appeared before me, and the observations by which they were accompanied +in the voice of the wonderful being who appeared as my intellectual +guide. In the scene which followed that of the agricultural or +pastoral people, I saw a great extent of cultivated plains, large cities +on the sea-shore, palaces—forums and temples ornamenting them; +men associated in groups, mounted on horses, and performing military +exercises; galleys moved by oars on the ocean; roads intersecting the +country covered with travellers and containing carriages moved by men +or horses. The Genius now said, “You see the early state +of civilisation of man; the cottages of the last race you beheld have +become improved into stately dwellings, palaces, and temples, in which +use is combined with ornament. The few men to whom, as I said +before, the foundations of these improvements were owing, have had divine +honours paid to their memory. But look at the <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>instruments +belonging to this generation, and you will find that they are only of +brass. You see men who are talking to crowds around them, and +others who are apparently amusing listening groups by a kind of song +or recitation; these are the earliest bards and orators; but all their +signs of thought are oral, for written language does not yet exist.” +The next scene which appeared was one of varied business and imagery. +I saw a man, who bore in his hands the same instruments as our modern +smiths, presenting a vase, which appeared to be made of iron, amidst +the acclamations of an assembled multitude engaged in triumphal procession +before the altars dignified by the name of Apollo at Delphi; and I saw +in the same place men who carried rolls of papyrus in their hands and +wrote upon them with reeds containing ink made from the soot of wood +mixed with a solution of glue. “See,” the Genius said, +“an immense change produced in the condition of society by the +two arts of which you here see the origin; the one, that of rendering +iron malleable, which is owing to a single individual, an obscure Greek; +the other, that of making thought permanent in written characters, an +art which has gradually arisen from the hieroglyphics which you may +observe on yonder pyramids. You will now see human life more replete +with power and activity.” Again, another scene broke upon +my vision. I saw the bronze instruments, which had belonged to +the former state of society, thrown away; malleable iron converted into +hard steel, this steel applied to a thousand purposes of civilised life; +I saw bands of men who made use of it for defensive armour and for offensive +weapons; I saw these iron-clad men, in small numbers <!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>subduing +thousands of savages, and establishing amongst them their arts and institutions; +I saw a few men on the eastern shores of Europe, resisting, with the +same materials, the united forces of Asia; I saw a chosen band die in +defence of their country, destroyed by an army a thousand times as numerous; +and I saw this same army, in its turn, caused to disappear, and destroyed +or driven from the shores of Europe by the brethren of that band of +martyred patriots; I saw bodies of these men traversing the sea, founding +colonies, building cities, and wherever they established themselves, +carrying with them their peculiar arts. Towns and temples arose +containing schools, and libraries filled with the rolls of the papyrus. +The same steel, such a tremendous instrument of power in the hands of +the warrior, I saw applied, by the genius of the artist, to strike forms +even more perfect than those of life out of the rude marble; and I saw +the walls of the palaces and temples covered with pictures, in which +historical events were portrayed with the truth of nature and the poetry +of mind. The voice now awakened my attention by saying, “You +have now before you the vision of that state of society which is an +object of admiration to the youth of modern times, and the recollections +of which, and the precepts founded on these recollections, constitute +an important part of your education. Your maxims of war and policy, +your taste in letters and the arts, are derived from models left by +that people, or by their immediate imitators, whom you shall now see.” +I opened my eyes, and recognised the very spot in which I was sitting +when the vision commenced. I was on the top of an arcade under +a <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>silken +canopy, looking down upon the tens of thousands of people who were crowded +in the seats of the Colosæum, ornamented with all the spoils that +the wealth of a world can give; I saw in the arena below animals of +the most extraordinary kind, and which have rarely been seen living +in modern Europe—the giraffe, the zebra, the rhinoceros, and the +ostrich from the deserts of Africa beyond the Niger, the hippopotamus +from the Upper Nile, and the royal tiger and the gnu from the banks +of the Ganges. Looking over Rome, which, in its majesty of palaces +and temples, and in its colossal aqueducts bringing water even from +the snows of the distant Apennines, seemed more like the creation of +a supernatural power than the work of human hands; looking over Rome +to the distant landscape, I saw the whole face, as it were, of the ancient +world adorned with miniature images of this splendid metropolis. +Where the Roman conquered, there he civilised; where he carried his +arms, there he fixed likewise his household gods; and from the deserts +of Arabia to the mountains of Caledonia there appeared but one people, +having the same arts, language, and letters—all of Grecian origin. +I looked again, and saw an entire change in the brilliant aspect of +this Roman world—the people of conquerors and heroes was no longer +visible; the cities were filled with an idle and luxurious population; +those farms which had been cultivated by warriors, who left the plough +to take the command of armies, were now in the hands of slaves; and +the militia of freemen were supplanted by bands of mercenaries, who +sold the empire to the highest bidder. I saw immense masses of +warriors collecting in the north and east, carrying with them <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>no +other proofs of cultivation but their horses and steel arms; I saw these +savages everywhere attacking this mighty empire, plundering cities, +destroying the monuments of arts and literature, and, like wild beasts +devouring a noble animal, tearing into pieces and destroying the Roman +power. Ruin, desolation, and darkness were before me, and I closed +my eyes to avoid the melancholy scene. “See,” said +the Genius, “the melancholy termination of a power believed by +its founders invincible, and intended to be eternal. But you will +find, though the glory and greatness belonging to its military genius +have passed away, yet those belonging to the arts and institutions, +by which it adorned and dignified life, will again arise in another +state of society.” I opened my eyes again, and I saw Italy +recovering from her desolation—towns arising with governments +almost upon the model of ancient Athens and Rome, and these different +small states rivals in arts and arms; I saw the remains of libraries, +which had been preserved in monasteries and churches by a holy influence +which even the Goth and Vandal respected, again opened to the people; +I saw Rome rising from her ashes, the fragments of statues found amidst +the ruins of her palaces and imperial villas becoming the models for +the regeneration of art; I saw magnificent temples raised in this city +become the metropolis of a new and Christian world, and ornamented with +the most brilliant masterpieces of the arts of design; I saw a Tuscan +city, as it were, contending with Rome for pre-eminence in the productions +of genius, and the spirit awakened in Italy spreading its influence +from the South to the North. “Now,” the Genius said, +“society has taken its modern and <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>permanent +aspect. Consider for a moment its relations to letters and to +arms as contrasted with those of the ancient world.” I looked, +and saw, that in the place of the rolls of papyrus, libraries were now +filled with books. “Behold,” the Genius said, “the +printing-press; by the invention of Faust the productions of genius +are, as it were, made imperishable, capable of indefinite multiplication, +and rendered an unalienable heritage of the human mind. By this +art, apparently so humble, the progress of society is secured, and man +is spared the humiliation of witnessing again scenes like those which +followed the destruction of the Roman Empire. Now look to the +warriors of modern times; you see the spear, the javelin, the shield, +and the cuirass are changed for the musket and the light artillery. +The German monk who discovered gunpowder did not meanly affect the destinies +of mankind; wars are become less bloody by becoming less personal; mere +brutal strength is rendered of comparatively little avail; all the resources +of civilisation are required to maintain and move a large army; wealth, +ingenuity, and perseverance become the principal elements of success; +civilised man is rendered in consequence infinitely superior to the +savage, and gunpowder gives permanence to his triumph, and secures the +cultivated nations from ever being again overrun by the inroads of millions +of barbarians. There is so much identity of feature in the character +of the two or three centuries that are just passed, that I wish you +only to take a very transient view of the political and military events +belonging to them. You will find attempts made by the chiefs of +certain great nations to acquire predominance and empire; you will <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>see +those attempts, after being partially successful, resisted by other +nations, and the balance of power, apparently for a moment broken, again +restored. Amongst the rival nations that may be considered as +forming the republic of modern Europe, you will see one pre-eminent +for her maritime strength and colonial and commercial enterprise, and +you will find she retains her superiority only because it is favourable +to the liberty of mankind. But you must not yet suffer the vision +of modern Europe to pass from your eyes without viewing some other results +of the efforts of men of genius, which, like those of gunpowder and +the press, illustrate the times to which they belong, and form brilliant +epochs in the history of the world. If you look back into the +schools of regenerated Italy, you will see in them the works of the +Greek masters of philosophy; and if you attend to the science taught +in them, you will find it vague, obscure, and full of erroneous notions. +You will find in this early period of improvement branches of philosophy +even applied to purposes of delusion; the most sublime of the departments +of human knowledge—astronomy—abused by impostors, who from +the aspect of the planetary world pretended to predict the fortunes +and destinies of individuals. You will see in the laboratories +alchemists searching for a universal medicine, an elixir of life, and +for the philosopher’s stone, or a method of converting all metals +into gold; but unexpected and useful discoveries you will find, even +in this age, arise amidst the clouds of deception and the smoke of the +furnace. Delusion and error vanish and pass away, and truths seized +upon by a few superior men become permanent, and the property of an +enlightening world. <!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>Amongst +the personages who belong to this early period, there are two whom I +must request you to notice—one an Englishman, who pointed out +the paths to the discovery of scientific truths, and the other a Tuscan, +who afforded the happiest experimental illustrations of the speculative +views of his brother in science. You will see academies formed +a century later in Italy, France, and Britain, in which the sciences +are enlarged by new and varied experiments, and the true system of the +universe developed by an illustrious Englishman taught and explained. +The practical results of the progress of physics, chemistry, and mechanics, +are of the most marvellous kind, and to make them all distinct would +require a comparison of ancient and modern states: ships that were moved +by human labour in the ancient world are transported by the winds; and +a piece of steel, touched by the magnet, points to the mariner his unerring +course from the old to the new world; and by the exertions of one man +of genius, aided by the resources of chemistry, a power, which by the +old philosophers could hardly have been imagined, has been generated +and applied to almost all the machinery of active life; the steam-engine +performs not only the labour of horses, but of man, by combinations +which appear almost possessed of intelligence; waggons are moved by +it, constructions made, vessels caused to perform voyages in opposition +to wind and tide, and a power placed in human hands which seems almost +unlimited. To these novel and still extending improvements may +be added others, whish, though of a secondary kind, yet materially affect +the comforts of life, the collecting from fossil materials the elements +of combustion, and applying them so as to illuminate, by <!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>a +single operation, houses, streets, and even cities. If you look +to the results of chemical arts you will find new substances of the +most extraordinary nature applied to various novel purposes; you will +find a few experiments in electricity leading to the marvellous result +of disarming the thunder-cloud of its terrors, and you will see new +instruments created by human ingenuity, possessing the same powers as +the electrical organs of living animals. To whatever part of the +vision of modern times you cast your eyes you will find marks of superiority +and improvement, and I wish to impress upon you the conviction that +the results of intellectual labour or of scientific genius are permanent +and incapable of being lost. Monarchs change their plans, governments +their objects, a fleet or an army effect their purpose and then pass +away; but a piece of steel toached by the magnet preserves its character +for ever, and secures to man the dominion of the trackless ocean. +A new period of society may send armies from the shores of the Baltic +to those of the Euxine, and the empire of the followers of Mahomet may +be broken in pieces by a northern people, and the dominion of the Britons +in Asia may share the fate of that of Tamerlane or Zengiskhan; but the +steam-boat which ascends the Delaware or the St. Lawrence will be continued +to be used, and will carry the civilisation of an improved people into +the deserts of North America and into the wilds of Canada. In +the common history of the world, as compiled by authors in general, +almost all the great changes of nations are confounded with changes +in their dynasties, and events are usually referred either to sovereigns, +chiefs, heroes, or their armies, which do, in fact, originate from entirely +different <!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>causes, +either of an intellectual or moral nature. Governments depend +far more than is generally supposed upon the opinion of the people and +the spirit of the age and nation. It sometimes happens that a +gigantic mind possesses supreme power and rises superior to the age +in which he is born, such was Alfred in England and Peter in Russia, +but such instances are very rare; and, in general, it is neither amongst +sovereigns nor the higher classes of society that the great improvers +or benefactors of mankind are to be found. The works of the most +illustrious names were little valued at the times when they were produced, +and their authors either despised or neglected; and great, indeed, must +have been the pure and abstract pleasure resulting from the exertion +of intellectual superiority and the discovery of truth and the bestowing +benefits and blessings upon society, which induced men to sacrifice +all their common enjoyments and all their privileges as citizens to +these exertions. Anaxagoras, Archimedes, Roger Bacon, Galileo +Galilei, in their deaths or their imprisonments, offer instances of +this kind, and nothing can be more striking than what appears to have +been the ingratitude of men towards their greatest benefactors; but +hereafter, when you understand more of the scheme of the universe, you +will see the cause and the effect of this, and you will find the whole +system governed by principles of immutable justice. I have said +that in the progress of society all great and real improvements are +perpetuated; the same corn which four thousand years ago was raised +from an improved grass by an inventor worshipped for two thousand years +in the ancient world under the name of Ceres, still forms the principal +food <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>of +mankind; and the potato, perhaps the greatest benefit that the Old has +derived from the New World, is spreading over Europe, and will continue +to nourish an extensive population when the name of the race by whom +it was first cultivated in South America is forgotten.</p> +<p>“I will now call your attention to some remarkable laws belonging +to the history of society, and from the consideration of which you will +be able gradually to develop the higher and more exalted principles +of being. There appears nothing more accidental than the sex of +an infant, yet take any great city or any province and you will find +that the relations of males and females are unalterable. Again, +a part of the pure air of the atmosphere is continually consumed in +combustion and respiration; living vegetables emit this principle during +their growth; nothing appears more accidental than the proportion of +vegetable to animal life on the surface of the earth, yet they are perfectly +equivalent, and the balance of the sexes, like the constitution of the +atmosphere, depends upon the principles of an unerring intelligence. +You saw in the decline of the Roman empire a people enfeebled by luxury, +worn out by excess, overrun by rude warriors; you saw the giants of +the North and East mixing with the pigmies of the South and West. +An empire was destroyed, but the seeds of moral and physical improvement +in the new race were sown; the new population resulting from the alliances +of the men of the North with the women, of the South was more vigorous, +more full of physical power, and more capable of intellectual exertion +than their apparently ill-suited progenitors; and the moral effects +or final causes of the migration of races, the plans of conquest and +ambition which have led to <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>revolutions +and changes of kingdoms designed by man for such different objects have +been the same in their ultimate results—that of improving by mixture +the different families of men. An Alaric or an Attila, who marches +with legions of barbarians for some gross view of plunder or ambition, +is an instrument of divine power to effect a purpose of which he is +wholly unconscious—he is carrying a strong race to improve a weak +one, and giving energy to a debilitated population; and the deserts +he makes in his passage will become in another age cultivated fields, +and the solitude he produces will be succeeded by a powerful and healthy +population. The results of these events in the moral and political +world may be compared to those produced in the vegetable kingdom by +the storms and heavy gales so usual at the vernal equinox, the time +of the formation of the seed; the pollen or farina of one flower is +thrown upon the pistil of another, and the crossing of varieties of +plants so essential to the perfection of the vegetable world produced. +In man moral causes and physical ones modify each other; the transmission +of hereditary qualities to offspring is distinct in the animal world, +and in the case of disposition to disease it is sufficiently obvious +in the human being. But it is likewise a general principle that +powers or habits acquired by cultivation are transmitted to the next +generation and exalted or perpetuated; the history of particular races +of men affords distinct proofs of this. The Caucasian stock has +always preserved its superiority, whilst the negro or flat-nosed race +has always been marked for want of intellectual power and capacity for +the arts of life. This last race, in fact, has never been cultivated, +and a hundred generations, <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>successively +improved, would be required to bring it to the state in which the Caucasian +race was at the time of the formation of the Greek republics. +The principle of the improvement of the character of races by the transmission +of hereditary qualities has not escaped the observations of the legislators +of the ancient people. By the divine law of Moses the Israelites +were enjoined to preserve the purity of their blood, and there was no +higher crime than that of forming alliances with the idolatrous nations +surrounding them. The Brahmins of Hindostan have established upon +the same principle the law of caste, by which certain professions were +made hereditary. In this warm climate, where labour is so oppressive, +to secure perfection in any series of operations it seems essential +to strengthen the powers by the forces acquired from this principle +of hereditary descent. It will at first perhaps strike your mind +that the mixing or blending of races is in direct opposition to this +principle of perfection; but here I must require you to pause and consider +the nature of the qualities belonging to the human being. Excess +of a particular power, which in itself is a perfection, becomes a defect; +the organs of touch may be so refined as to show a diseased sensibility; +the ear may become so exquisitely sensitive as to be more susceptible +to the uneasiness produced by discords than to the pleasures of harmony. +In the nations which have been long civilised the defects are generally +those dependent on excess of sensibility—defects which are cured +in the next generation by the strength and power belonging to a ruder +tribe. In looking back upon the vision of ancient history, you +will find that there never has been an instance of a migration to any +<!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>extent +of any race but the Caucasian, and they have usually passed from the +North to the South. The negro race has always been driven before +these conquerors of the world; and the red men, the aborigines of America, +are constantly diminishing in number, and it is probable that in a few +centuries more their pure blood will be entirely extinct. In the +population of the world, the great object is evidently to produce organised +frames most capable of the happy and intellectual enjoyment of life—to +raise man above the mere animal state. To perpetuate the advantages +of civilisation, the races most capable of these advantages are preserved +and extended, and no considerable improvement made by an individual +is ever lost to society. You see living forms perpetuated in the +series of ages, and apparently the quantity of life increased. +In comparing the population of the globe as it now is with what it was +centuries ago, you would find it considerably greater; and if the quantity +of life is increased, the quantity of happiness, particularly that resulting +from the exercise of intellectual power, is increased in a still higher +ratio. Now, you will say, ‘Is mind generated, is spiritual +power created; or are those results dependent upon the organisation +of matter, upon new perfections given to the machinery upon which thought +and motion depend?’ I proclaim to you,” said the Genius, +raising his voice from its low and sweet tone to one of ineffable majesty, +“neither of these opinions is true. Listen, whilst I reveal +to you the mysteries of spiritual natures, but I almost fear that with +the mortal veil of your senses surrounding you, these mysteries can +never be made perfectly intelligible to your mind. Spiritual natures +are eternal and <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>indivisible, +but their modes of being are as infinitely varied as the forms of matter. +They have no relation to space, and, in their transitions, no dependence +upon time, so that they can pass from one part of the universe to another +by laws entirely independent of their motion. The quantity, or +the number of spiritual essences, like the quantity or number of the +atoms of the material world, are always the same; but their arrangements, +like those of the materials which they are destined to guide or govern, +are infinitely diversified; they are, in fact, parts more or less inferior +of the infinite mind, and in the planetary systems, to one of which +this globe you inhabit belongs, are in a state of probation, continually +aiming at, and generally rising to a higher state of existence. +Were it permitted me to extend your vision to the fates of individual +existences, I could show you the same spirit, which in the form of Socrates +developed the foundations of moral and social virtue, in the Czar Peter +possessed of supreme power and enjoying exalted felicity in improving +a rude people. I could show you the monad or spirit, which with +the organs of Newton displayed an intelligence almost above humanity, +now in a higher and better state of planetary existence drinking intellectual +light from a purer source and approaching nearer to the infinite and +divine Mind. But prepare your mind, and you shall at least catch +a glimpse of those states which the highest intellectual beings that +have belonged to the earth enjoy after death in their transition to +now and more exalted natures.” The voice ceased, and I appeared +in a dark, deep, and cold cave, of which the walls of the Colosæum +formed the boundary. From above a bright and rosy light broke +into this cave, so <!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>that +whilst below all was dark, above all was bright and illuminated with +glory. I seemed possessed at this moment of a new sense, and felt +that the light brought with it a genial warmth; odours like those of +the most balmy flowers appeared to fill the air, and the sweetest sounds +of music absorbed my sense of hearing; my limbs had a new lightness +given to them, so that I seemed to rise from the earth, and gradually +mounted into the bright luminous air, leaving behind me the dark and +cold cavern, and the ruins with which it was strewed. Language +is inadequate to describe what I felt in rising continually upwards +through this bright and luminous atmosphere. I had not, as is +generally the case with persons in dreams of this kind, imagined to +myself wings; but I rose gradually and securely as if I were myself +a part of the ascending column of light. By degrees this luminous +atmosphere, which was diffused over the whole of space, became more +circumscribed, and extended only to a limited spot around me. +I saw through it the bright blue sky, the moon and stars, and I passed +by them as if it were in my power to touch them with my hand. +I beheld Jupiter and Saturn as they appear through our best telescopes, +but still more magnified, all the moons and belts of Jupiter being perfectly +distinct, and the double ring of Saturn appearing in that state in which +I have heard Herschel often express a wish he could see it. It +seemed as if I was on the verge of the solar system, and my moving sphere +of light now appeared to pause. I again heard the low and sweet +voice of the Genius, which said, “You are now on the verge of +your own system: will you go further, or return to the earth?” +I replied, “I have left an abode which is damp, dreary, <!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>dark +and cold; I am now in a place where all is life, light, and enjoyment; +show me, at least before I return, the glimpse which you promised me +of those superior intellectual natures and the modes of their being +and their enjoyments.” “There are creatures far superior,” +said the Genius, “to any idea your imagination can form in that +part of the system now before you, comprehending Saturn, his moons and +rings. I will carry you to the verge of the immense atmosphere +of this planet. In that space you will see sufficient to wonder +at, and far more than with your present organisation it would be possible +for me to make you understand.” I was again in motion, and +again almost as suddenly at rest. I saw below me a surface infinitely +diversified, something like that of an immense glacier covered with +large columnar masses, which appeared as if formed of glass, and from +which were suspended rounded forms of various sizes, which, if they +had not been transparent, I might have supposed to be fruit. From +what appeared to me to be analogous to masses of bright blue ice, streams +of the richest tint of rose-colour or purple burst forth and flowed +into basins, forming lakes or seas of the same colour. Looking +through the atmosphere towards the heavens, I saw brilliant opaque clouds +of an azure colour that reflected the light of the sun, which had to +my eyes an entirely new aspect, and appeared smaller, as if seen through +a dense blue mist. I saw moving on the surface below me immense +masses, the forms of which I find it impossible to describe; they had +systems for locomotion similar to those of the morse or sea-horse, but +I saw with great surprise that they moved from place to place by six +extremely thin membranes, which they used as wings. Their colours +<!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>were +varied and beautiful, but principally azure and rose-colour. I +saw numerous convolutions of tubes, more analogous to the trunk of the +elephant than to anything else I can imagine, occupying what I supposed +to be the upper parts of the body, and my feeling of astonishment almost +became one of disgust, from the peculiar character of the organs of +these singular beings; and it was with a species of terror that I saw +one of them mounting upwards, apparently flying towards those opaque +clouds which I have before mentioned. “I know what your +feelings are,” said the Genius; “you want analogies and +all the elements of knowledge to comprehend the scene before you. +You are in the same state in which a fly would be whose microscopic +eye was changed for one similar to that of man; and you are wholly unable +to associate what you now see with your former knowledge. But +those beings who are before you, and who appear to you almost as imperfect +in their functions as the zoophytes of the Polar Sea, to which they +are not unlike in their apparent organisation to your eyes, have a sphere +of sensibility and intellectual enjoyment far superior to that of the +inhabitants of your earth. Each of those tubes which appears like +the trunk of an elephant is an organ of peculiar motion or sensation. +They have many modes of perception of which you are wholly ignorant, +at the same time that their sphere of vision is infinitely more extended +than yours, and their organs of touch far more perfect and exquisite. +It would be useless for me to attempt to explain their organisation, +which you could never understand; but of their intellectual objects +of pursuit I may perhaps give you some notion. They have used, +<!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>modified, +and applied the material world in a manner analogous to man; but with +far superior powers they have gained superior results. Their atmosphere +being much denser than yours and the specific gravity of their planet +less, they have been enabled to determine the laws belonging to the +solar system with far more accuracy than you can possibly conceive, +and any one of those beings could show you what is now the situation +and appearance of your moon with a precision that would induce you to +believe that he saw it, though his knowledge is merely the result of +calculation. Their sources of pleasure are of the highest intellectual +nature; with the magnificent spectacle of their own rings and moons +revolving round them, with the various combinations required to understand +and predict the relations of these wonderful phenomena their minds are +in unceasing activity and this activity is a perpetual source of enjoyment. +Your view of the solar system is bounded by Uranus, and the laws of +this planet form the ultimatum of your mathematical results; but these +beings catch a sight of planets belonging to another system and even +reason on the phenomena presented by another sun. Those comets, +of which your astronomical history is so imperfect, are to them perfectly +familiar, and in their ephemerides their places are shown with as much +accurateness as those of Jupiter or Venus in your almanacks; the parallax +of the fixed stars nearest them is as well understood as that of their +own sun, and they possess a magnificent history of the changes taking +place in the heavens and which are governed by laws that it would be +vain for me to attempt to give you an idea of. They are acquainted +with the revolutions and <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>uses +of comets; they understand the system of those meteoric formations of +stones which have so much astonished you on earth; and they have histories +in which the gradual changes of nebulas in their progress towards systems +have been registered, so that they can predict their future changes. +And their astronomical records are not like yours which go back only +twenty centuries to the time of Hipparchus; they embrace a period a +hundred times as long, and their civil history for the same time is +as correct as their astronomical one. As I cannot describe to +you the organs of these wonderful beings, so neither can I show to you +their modes of life; but as their highest pleasures depend upon intellectual +pursuits, so you may conclude that those modes of life bear the strictest +analogy to that which on the earth you would call exalted virtue. +I will tell you however that they have no wars, and that the objects +of their ambition are entirely those of intellectual greatness, and +that the only passion that they feel in which comparisons with each +other can be instituted are those dependent upon a love of glory of +the purest kind. If I were to show you the different parts of +the surface of this planet, you would see marvellous results of the +powers possessed by these highly intellectual beings and of the wonderful +manner in which they have applied and modified matter. Those columnar +masses, which seem to you as if arising out of a mass of ice below, +are results of art, and processes are going on in them connected with +the formation and perfection of their food. The brilliant coloured +fluids are the results of such operations as on the earth would be performed +in your laboratories, or more properly in your refined <!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>culinary +apparatus, for they are connected with their system of nourishment. +Those opaque azure clouds, to which you saw a few minutes ago one of +those beings directing his course, are works of art and places in which +they move through different regions of their atmosphere and command +the temperature and the quantity of light most fitted for their philosophical +researches, or most convenient for the purposes of life. On the +verge of the visible horizon which we perceive around us, you may see +in the east a very dark spot or shadow, in which the light of the sun +seems entirely absorbed; this is the border of an immense mass of liquid +analogous to your ocean, but unlike your sea it is inhabited by a race +of intellectual beings inferior indeed to those belonging to the atmosphere +of Saturn, but yet possessed of an extensive range of sensations and +endowed with extraordinary power and intelligence. I could transport +you to the different planets and show you in each peculiar intellectual +beings bearing analogies to each other, but yet all different in power +and essence. In Jupiter you would see creatures similar to those +in Saturn, but with different powers of locomotion; in Mars and Venus +you would find races of created forms more analogous to those belonging +to the earth; but in every part of the planetary system you would find +one character peculiar to all intelligent natures, a sense of receiving +impressions from light by various organs of vision, and towards this +result you cannot but perceive that all the arrangements and motions +of the planetary bodies, their satellites and atmospheres are subservient. +The spiritual natures therefore that pass from system to system in progression +towards power and knowledge <!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>preserve +at least this one invariable character, and their intellectual life +may be said to depend more or less upon the influence of light. +As far as my knowledge extends, even in other parts of the universe +the more perfect organised systems still possess this source of sensation +and enjoyment; but with higher natures, finer and more ethereal kinds +of matter are employed in organisation, substances that bear the same +analogy to common matter that the refined or most subtle gases do to +common solids and fluids. The universe is everywhere full of life, +but the modes of this life are infinitely diversified, and yet every +form of it must be enjoyed and known by every spiritual nature before +the consummation of all things. You have seen the comet moving +with its immense train of light through the sky; this likewise has a +system supplied with living beings and their existence derives its enjoyment +from the diversity of circumstances to which they are exposed; passing +as it were through the infinity of space they are continually gratified +by the sight of new systems and worlds, and you can imagine the unbounded +nature of the circle of their knowledge. My power extends so far +as to afford you a glimpse of the nature of a cometary world.” +I was again in rapid motion, again passing with the utmost velocity +through the bright blue sky, and I saw Jupiter and his satellites and +Saturn and his ring behind me, and before me the sun, no longer appearing +as through a blue mist but in bright and unsupportable splendour, towards +which I seemed moving with the utmost velocity; in a limited sphere +of vision, in a kind of red hazy light similar to that which first broke +in upon me in the Colosæum, I saw <!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>moving +round me globes which appeared composed of different kinds of flame +and of different colours. In some of these globes I recognised +figures which put me in mind of the human countenance, but the resemblance +was so awful and unnatural that I endeavoured to withdraw my view from +them. “You are now,” said the Genius, “in a +cometary system; those globes of light surrounding you are material +forms, such as in one of your systems of religious faith have been attributed +to seraphs; they live in that element which to you would be destruction; +they communicate by powers which would convert your organised frame +into ashes; they are now in the height of their enjoyment, being about +to enter into the blaze of the solar atmosphere. These beings +so grand, so glorious, with functions to you incomprehensible, once +belonged to the earth; their spiritual natures have risen through different +stages of planetary life, leaving their dust behind them, carrying with +them only their intellectual power. You ask me if they have any +knowledge or reminiscence of their transitions; tell me of your own +recollections in the womb of your mother and I will answer you. +It is the law of divine wisdom that no spirit carries with it into another +state and being any habit or mental qualities except those which may +be connected with its new wants or enjoyments; and knowledge relating +to the earth would be no more useful to these glorified beings than +their earthly system of organised dust, which would be instantly resolved +into its ultimate atoms at such a temperature; even on the earth the +butterfly does not transport with it into the air the organs or the +appetites of the crawling worm from which it sprung. There is, +however, one sentiment or passion which the <!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>monad +or spiritual essence carries with it into all its stages of being, and +which in these happy and elevated creatures is continually exalted; +the love of knowledge or of intellectual power, which is, in fact, in +its ultimate and most perfect development the love of infinite wisdom +and unbounded power, or the love of God. Even in the imperfect +life that belongs to the earth this passion exists in a considerable +degree, increases even with age, outlives the perfection of the corporeal +faculties, and at the moment of death is felt by the conscious being, +and its future destinies depend upon the manner in which it has been +exercised and exalted. When it has been misapplied and assumed +the forms of vague curiosity, restless ambition, vain glory, pride or +oppression, the being is degraded, it sinks in the scale of existence +and still belongs to the earth or an inferior system, till its errors +are corrected by painful discipline. When, on the contrary, the +love of intellectual power has been exercised on its noblest objects, +in discovering and in contemplating the properties of created forms +and in applying them to useful and benevolent purposes, in developing +and admiring the laws of the eternal Intelligence, the destinies of +the sentient principle are of a nobler kind, it rises to a higher planetary +world. From the height to which you have been lifted I could carry +you downwards and show you intellectual natures even inferior to those +belonging to the earth, in your own moon and in the lower planets, and +I could demonstrate to you the effects of pain or moral evil in assisting +in the great plan of the exaltation of spiritual natures; but I will +not destroy the brightness of your present idea of the scheme of the +universe by degrading <!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>pictures +of the effects of bad passions and of the manner in which evil is corrected +and destroyed. Your vision must end with the glorious view of +the inhabitants of the cometary worlds; I cannot show you the beings +of the system to which I, myself, belong, that of the sun; your organs +would perish before our brightness, and I am only permitted to be present +to you as a sound or intellectual voice. <i>We</i> are likewise +in progression, but we see and know something of the plans of infinite +wisdom; we feel the personal presence of that supreme Deity which you +only imagine; to you belongs faith, to us knowledge; and our greatest +delight results from the conviction that we are lights kindled by His +light and that we belong to His substance. To obey, to love, to +wonder and adore, form our relations to the infinite Intelligence. +We feel His laws are those of eternal justice and that they govern all +things from the most glorious intellectual natures belonging to the +sun and fixed stars to the meanest spark of life animating an atom crawling +in the dust of your earth. We know all things begin from and end +in His everlasting essence, the cause of causes, the power of powers.”</p> +<p>The low and sweet voice ceased; it appeared as if I had fallen suddenly +upon the earth, but there was a bright light before me and I heard my +name loudly called; the voice was not of my intellectual guide—the +genius before me was my servant bearing a flambeau in his hand. +He told me he had been searching me in vain amongst the ruins, that +the carriage had been waiting for me above an hour, and that he had +left a large party of my friends assembled in the Palazzo F---.</p> +<h2><!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>DIALOGUE +THE SECOND. DISCUSSIONS CONNECTED WITH THE VISION IN THE COLOSÆUM.</h2> +<p>The same friends, Ambrosio and Onuphrio, who were my companions at +Rome in the winter, accompanied me in the spring to Naples. Many +conversations occurred in the course of our journey which were often +to me peculiarly instructive, and from the difference of their opinions +generally animated and often entertaining. I shall detail one +of these conversations, which took place in the evening on the summit +of Vesuvius, and the remembrance of which from its connection with my +vision in the Colosæum has always a peculiar interest for me. +We had reached with some labour the edge of the crater and were admiring +the wonderful scene around us. I shall give the conversation in +the words of the persons of the drama.</p> +<p><i>Philalethes</i>.—It is difficult to say whether there is +more of sublimity or beauty in the scene around us. Nature appears +at once smiling and frowning, in activity and repose. How tremendous +is the volcano, how magnificent this great laboratory of Nature in its +unceasing fire, its subterraneous lightnings and thunder, its volumes +of smoke, its showers of stones and its rivers of ignited lava! +How contrasted the darkness of the scoriæ, the ruins and the desolation +round the crater with the scene below! There we see the rich field +covered with flax, or maize, or millet, and intersected by rows of trees +which support the green and graceful festoons of the vine; the orange +and lemon tree covered with golden fruit appear in the sheltered glens; +the olive trees cover the lower hills; islands <!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>purple +in the beams of the setting sun are scattered over the sea in the west, +and the sky is tinted with red softening into the brightest and purest +azure; the distant mountains still retain a part of the snows of winter, +but they are rapidly melting and they absolutely seem to melt reflecting +the beams of the setting sun, glowing as if on fire. And man appears +emulous of Nature, for the city below is full of activity; the nearest +part of the bay is covered with boats, busy multitudes crowd the strand, +and at the same time may be seen a number of the arts belonging to civilised +society in operation—house-building, ship-building, rope-making, +the manipulations of the smith and of the agriculturist, and not only +the useful arts, but even the amusements and luxuries of a great metropolis +may be witnessed from the spot in which we stand; that motley crowd +is collected round a policinello, and those smaller groups that surround +the stalls are employed in enjoying the favourite food and drink of +the lazzaroni.</p> +<p><i>Ambrosio</i>.—We see not only the power and activity of +man, as existing at present, and of which the highest example may be +represented by the steam-boat which is now departing for Palermo, but +we may likewise view scenes which carry us into the very bosom of antiquity, +and, as it were, make us live with the generations of past ages. +Those small square buildings, scarcely visible in the distance, are +the tombs of distinguished men amongst the early Greek colonists of +the country; and those rows of houses, without roofs, which appear as +if newly erecting, constitute a Roman town restored from its ashes, +that remained for centuries as if it had been swept from the face of +the <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>earth. +When you study it in detail you will hardly avoid the illusion that +it is a rising city; you will almost be tempted to ask where are the +workmen, so perfect art the walls of the houses, so bright and uninjured +the painting upon them. Hardly anything is wanting to make this +scene a magnificent epitome of all that is most worthy of admiration +in Nature and art; had there been in addition to the other objects a +fine river and a waterfall the epitome would, I think, have been absolutely +perfect.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—You are most unreasonable in imagining additions +to a scene which it is impossible to embrace in one view, and which +presents so many objects to the senses, the memory, and to the imagination; +yet there is a river in the valley between Naples and Castel del Mare; +you may see its silver thread and the white foam of its torrents in +the distance, and if you were geologists you would find a number of +sources of interest, which have not been mentioned, in the scenery surrounding +us. Somma which is before us, for instance, affords a wonderful +example of a mountain formed of marine deposits, and which has been +raised by subterraneous fire, and those large and singular veins which +you see at the base and rising through the substance of the strata are +composed of volcanic porphyry, and offer a most striking and beautiful +example of the generation and structure of rocks and mineral formations.</p> +<p><i>Onuphrio</i>.—As we passed through Portici, on the road +to the base of Vesuvius, it appeared to me that I saw a stone which +had an ancient Roman inscription upon it, and which occupied the place +of a portal in the modern palace of the Barberini.</p> +<p><!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span><i>Phil</i>.—This +is not an uncommon circumstance: Most of the stones used in the palaces +of Portici had been employed more than two thousand years before in +structures raised by the ancient Romans or Greek colonists; and it is +not a little remarkable that the buildings of Herculaneum, a town covered +with ashes, tufa, and lava, from the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius +more than seventeen hundred years ago, should have been constructed +of volcanic materials produced by some antecedent igneous action of +the mountain in times beyond the reach of history; and it is still more +remarkable that men should have gone on for so many ages making erections +in spots where their works have been so often destroyed, inattentive +to the voice of time or the warnings of nature.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—This last fact recalls to my recollection an idea +which Philalethes started in the remarkable dream which he would have +us believe occurred to him in the Colosæum, namely—that +no important facts which can be useful to society are ever lost; and +that, like these stones, which though covered with ashes or hidden amongst +ruins, they are sure to be brought forward again and made use of in +some new form.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—I do not see the justness of the analogy to which +Onuphrio refers; but there are many parts of that vision on which I +should wish to hear the explanations of Philalethes. I consider +it in fact as a sort of poetical epitome of his philosophical opinions, +and I regard this vision or dream as a mere web of his imagination in +which he intended to catch us, his summer-flies and travelling companions.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—There, Ambrosio, you do me wrong. I will +acknowledge, if you please, that the vision in the <!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>Colosæum +is a fiction; but the most important parts of it really occurred to +me in sleep, particularly that in which I seemed to leave the earth +and launch into the infinity of space under the guidance of a tutelary +genius. And the origin and progress of civil society form likewise +parts of another dream which I had many years ago, and it was in the +reverie which happened when you quitted me in the Colosæum that +I wove all these thoughts together, and gave them the form in which +I narrated them to you.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Of course we may consider them as an accurate representation +of your waking thoughts.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I do not say that they strictly are so, for I +am not quite convinced that dreams are always representations of the +state of the mind modified by organic diseases or by associations. +There are certainly no absolutely new ideas produced in sleep, yet I +have had more than one instance, in the course of my life, of most extraordinary +combinations occurring in this state, which have had considerable influence +on my feelings, my imagination, and my health.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—Why Philalethes, you are becoming a visionary, +a dreamer of dreams. We shall perhaps set you down by the side +of Jacob Behmen or of Emanuel Swedenbourg, and in an earlier age you +might have been a prophet, and have ranked perhaps with Mahomet. +But pray give us one of these instances in which such a marvellous influence +was produced on your imagination and your health by a dream that we +may form some judgment of the nature of your second sight or inspirations; +and whether they have any foundation, or whether they are not, as I +<!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>believe, +really unfounded, inventions of the fancy, dreams respecting dreams.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I anticipate unbelief, and I expose myself to +your ridicule in the statement I am about to make, yet I shall mention +nothing but a simple fact. Almost a quarter of a century ago, +as you know, I contracted that terrible form of typhus-fever known by +the name of gaol-fever, I may say, not from any imprudence of my own, +but whilst engaged in putting in execution a plan for ventilating one +of the great prisons of the metropolis. My illness was severe +and dangerous. As long as the fever continued, my dreams or delirium +were most painful and oppressive; but when the weakness consequent to +exhaustion came on, and when the probability of death seemed to my physicians +greater than that of life, there was an entire change in all my ideal +combinations. I remained in an apparently senseless or lethargic +state, but in fact my mind was peculiarly active; there was always before +me the form of a beautiful woman, with whom I was engaged in the most +interesting and intellectual conversation.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—The figure of a lady with whom you were in love.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—No such thing; I was passionately in love at the +time, but the object of my admiration was a lady with black hair, dark +eyes, and pale complexion; this spirit of my vision, on the contrary, +had brown hair, blue eyes, and a bright rosy complexion, and was, as +far as I can recollect, unlike any of the amatory forms which in early +youth had so often haunted my imagination. Her figure for many +days was so distinct in my mind, as to form almost a visual image. +As I gained strength, the visits of my good angel (for so I <!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>called +it) became less frequent, and when I was restored to health they were +altogether discontinued.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I see nothing very strange in this—a mere +reaction of the mind after severe pain—and, to a young man of +twenty-five, there are few more pleasurable images than that of a beautiful +maiden with blue eyes, blooming cheeks, and long nut-brown hair.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—But all my feelings and all my conversations with +this visionary maiden were of an intellectual and refined nature.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—Yes, I suppose, as long as you were ill.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I will not allow you to treat me with ridicule +on this point till you have heard the second part of my tale. +Ten years after I had recovered from the fever, and when I had almost +lost the recollection of the vision, it was recalled to my memory by +a very blooming and graceful maiden, fourteen or fifteen years old, +that I accidentally met during my travels in Illyria; but I cannot say +that the impression made upon my mind by this female was very strong. +Now comes the extraordinary part of the narrative. Ten years after, +twenty years after my first illness, at a time when I was exceedingly +weak from a severe and dangerous malady, which for many weeks threatened +my life, and when my mind was almost in a desponding state, being in +a course of travels ordered by my medical advisers, I again met the +person who was the representative of my visionary female, and to her +kindness and care I believe I owe what remains to me of existence. +My despondency gradually disappeared, and though my health still continued +weak, life began to possess charms for me which I had thought were for +ever gone; and I could not help identifying the living angel <!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>with +the vision which appeared as my guardian genius during the illness of +my youth.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I really see nothing at all in this fact, whether +the first or the second part of the narrative be considered, beyond +the influence of an imagination excited by disease. From youth, +even to age, women are our guardian angels, our comforters; and I dare +say any other handsome young female, who had been your nurse in your +last illness, would have coincided with your remembrance of the vision, +even though her eyes had been hazel and her hair flaxen. Nothing +can be more loose than the images represented in dreams following a +fever, and with the nervous susceptibility produced by your last illness, +almost any agreeable form would have become the representative of your +imaginary guardian genius. Thus it is, that by the power of fancy, +material forms are clothed in supernatural attributes; and in the same +manner imaginary divinities have all the forms of mortality bestowed +upon them. The gods of the pagan mythology were in all their characters +and attributes exalted human beings; the demon of the coward, and the +angelic form that appears in the dream of some maid smitten by devotion, +and who, having lost her earthly lover, fixes her thoughts on heaven, +are clothed in the character and vestments of humanity changed by the +dreaminess of passion.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—With such a tendency, Philalethes, as you have +shown to believe in something like a supernatural or divine influence +on the human mind, I am astonished there should be so much scepticism +belonging to your vision in the Colosæum. And your view +of the early state of man, after his first creation, is not <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>only +incompatible with revelation, but likewise with reason and everything +that we know respecting the history or traditions of the early nations +of antiquity.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—Be more distinct and detailed in your statements, +Ambrosio, that I may be able to reply to them; and whilst we are waiting +for the sunrise we may discuss the subject, and for this, let us seat +ourselves on these stones, where we shall be warmed by the vicinity +of the current of lava.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You consider man, in his early or first created +state, a savage, like those who now inhabit New Holland or New Zealand, +acquiring by the little use that they make of a feeble reason the power +of supporting and extending life. Now, I contend, that if man +had been so created, he must inevitably have been destroyed by the elements +or devoured by savage beasts, so infinitely his superiors in physical +force. He must, therefore, have been formed with various instinctive +faculties and propensities, with a perfection of form and use of organs +fitting him to become the master of the earth; and, it appears to me, +that the account given in Genesis of the first parents of mankind having +been placed in a garden fitted with everything necessary to their existence +and enjoyment, and ordered to increase and multiply there, is strictly +in harmony with reason, and accordant with all just metaphysical views +of the human mind. Man as he now exists can only be raised with +great care and difficulty from the infant to the mature state; all his +motions are at first automatic, and become voluntary by association; +he has to learn everything by slow and difficult processes, many months +elapse before he is able to stand, and many years before he is able +to provide for the common <!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>wants +of life. Without the mother or the nurse in his infant state, +he would die in a few hours; and without the laborious discipline of +instruction and example, he would remain idiotic and inferior to most +other animals. His reason is only acquired gradually, and when +in its highest perfection is often uncertain in its results. He +must, therefore, have been created with instincts that for a long while +supplied the want of reason, and which enabled him from the first moment +of his existence to provide for his wants, to gratify his desires, and +enjoy the power and the activity of life.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I acknowledge that your objection has some weight, +but not so much as you would attribute to it. I will suppose that +the first created man or men had certain powers or instincts, such as +now belong to the rudest savages of the southern hemisphere; I will +suppose them created with the use of their organs for defence and offence +and with passions and propensities enabling them to supply their own +wants. And I oppose the fact of races who are now actually in +this state to your vague historical or traditionary records; and their +gradual progress or improvement from this early state of society to +that of the highest state of civilisation or refinement may, I think, +be easily deduced from the exertions of reason assisted by the influence +of the moral powers and of physical circumstances. Accident, I +conceive, must have had some influence in laying the foundations of +certain arts; and a climate in which labour was not too oppressive, +and in which the exertion of industry was required to provide for the +wants of life must have fixed the character of the activity of the early +improving people; where nature is too kind a mother, man is generally +a <!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>spoiled +child; where she is severe, and a stepmother, his powers are usually +withered and destroyed. The people of the south and the north +and those between the tropics offer, even at this day, proof of the +truth of this principle; and it is even possible now to find on the +surface of the earth, all the different gradations of the states of +society, from that in which man is scarcely removed above the brute, +to that in which he appears approaching in his nature to a divine intelligence. +Besides, reason being the noblest gift of God to man, I can hardly suppose +that an infinitely powerful and all-wise Creator would bestow upon the +early inhabitants of the globe a greater proportion of instinct than +was at first necessary to preserve their existence, and that he would +not leave the great progress of their improvement to the development +and exaltation of their reasoning powers.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You appear to me in your argument to have forgotten +the influence that any civilised race must possess over savages; and +many of the nations which you consider as in their original state, may +have descended from nations formerly civilised; and, it is quite as +easy to trace the retrograde steps of a people as their advances; the +savage hordes who now inhabit the northern coast of Africa are probably +descended from the opulent, commercial, and ingenious Carthaginians +who once contended with Rome for the empire of the world; and even nearer +home, we might find in Southern Italy and her islands, proofs of a degradation +not much inferior. What I contend for is the civilisation of the +first patriarchal races who peopled the East, and who passed into Europe +from Armenia, in which paradise is supposed to have been placed. +The early <!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>civilisation +of this race could only have been in consequence of their powers and +instincts having been of a higher character than those of savages. +They appear to have been small families—a state not at all fitted +for the discovery of arts by the exercise of the mind; and they professed +the most sublime form of religion, the worship of one Supreme Intelligence—a +truth which, after a thousand years of civilisation, was with difficulty +attained by the most powerful efforts of reasoning by the Greek sages. +It appears to me, that in the history of the Jews, nothing can be more +in conformity to our ideas of just analogy than this series of events. +Our first parents were created with everything necessary for their wants +and their happiness; they had only one duty to perform, by their obedience +to prove their love and devotion to their Creator. In this they +failed, and death—or the fear of death—became a curse upon +their race; but the father of mankind repented, and his instinctive +or intellectual powers given by revelation were transmitted to his offspring +more or less modified by their reason, which they had gained as the +fruit of their disobedience. One branch of his offspring, however, +in whom faith shone forth above reason, retained their peculiar powers +and institutions and preserved the worship of Jehovah pure, whilst many +of the races sprung from their brethren became idolatrous, and the clear +light of heaven was lost through the mist of the senses; and that Being, +worshipped by the Israelites only as a mysterious word, was forgotten +by many of the nations who lived in the neighbouring countries, and +men, beasts, the parts of the visible universe, and even stocks and +stones, were set up as objects of adoration. <!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>The +difficulty which the divine legislators of the Jewish people had to +preserve the purity of their religion amongst the idolatrous nations +by whom they were surrounded, proves the natural evil tendency of the +human mind after the fall of man. And, whoever will consider the +nature of the Mosaical or ceremonial law and the manner in which it +was suspended before the end of the Roman Empire, the expiatory sacrifice +of the Messiah, the fear of death destroyed by the blessed hopes of +immortality established by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the destruction +of Jerusalem by Titus, and the triumphs of Christianity over paganism +in the time of Constantine, can I think, hardly fail to acknowledge +the reasonableness of the truth of revealed religion as founded upon +the early history of man; and whoever acknowledges this reasonableness +and this truth, must I think be dissatisfied with the view which Philalethes +or his genius has given of the progress of society, and will find in +it one instance, amongst many others that might be discovered, of the +vague and erring results of his so much boasted human reason.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I fear I shall shock Ambrosio, but I cannot help +vindicating a little the philosophical results of human reason, which +it must be allowed are entirely hostile to his ideas. I agree +with Philalethes that it is the noblest gift of God to man; and I cannot +think that Ambrosio’s view of the paradisaical condition and the +fall of man and the progress of society is at all in conformity with +the ideas we ought to form of the institutions of an infinitely wise +and powerful Being. Besides, Ambrosio speaks of the reasonableness +of his own opinions; of course his notions of reason must be different +from mine, or we have adopted different forms <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>of +logic. I do not find in the biblical history any idea of the supreme +Intelligence conformable to those of the Greek philosophers; on the +contrary, I find Jehovah everywhere described as a powerful material +being, endowed with organs, feelings, and passions similar to those +of a great and exalted human agent. He is described as making +man in His own image, as walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, +as being pleased with sacrificial offerings, as angry with Adam and +Eve, as personally cursing Cain for his crime of fratricide, and even +as providing our first parents with garments to hide their nakedness; +then He appears a material form in the midst of flames, thunder and +lightning, and was regarded by the Levites as having a fixed residence +in the Ark. He is contrasted throughout the whole of the Old Testament +with the gods of the heathens, only as being more powerful; and in the +strange scene which took place in Pharaoh’s court He seemed to +have measured His abilities with those of certain seers or magicians, +and to have proved His superiority only by producing greater and more +tremendous plagues. In all the early history of the Jewish nation +there is no conception approaching to the sublimity of that of Anaxagoras, +who called God the Intelligence or <i>νους</i>. +He appears always, on the contrary, like the genii of Arabian romance, +living in clouds, descending on mountains, urging His chosen people +to commit the most atrocious crimes, to destroy all the races not professing +the same worship, and to exterminate even the child and the unborn infant. +Then, I find in the Old Testament no promise of a spiritual Messiah, +but only of a temporal king, who, as the Jews believe, is yet to come. +The serpent in Genesis <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>has +no connection with the spirit of evil, but is described only as the +most subtle beast of the field, and, having injured man, there was to +be a perpetual enmity between their races—the serpent when able +was to bite the heel of the man, and the man when an opportunity occurred +was to bruise the head of the serpent. I will allow, if you please, +that an instinct of religion or superstition belongs to the human mind, +and that the different forms which this instinct assumes depend upon +various circumstances and accidents of history and climate; but I am +not sure that the religion of the Jews was superior to that of the Sabæans +who worshipped the stars, or the ancient Persians who adored the sun +as the visible symbol of divine power, or the eastern nations who in +the various forms of the visible universe worshipped the powers and +energies of the Divinity. I feel like the ancient Romans with +respect to toleration; I would give a place to all the gods in my Pantheon, +but I would not allow the followers of Brahmah or of Christ to quarrel +about the modes of incarnation or the superiority of the attributes +of their trien God.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You have mistaken me, Onuphrio, if you think I +am shocked by your opinions; I have seen too much of the wanderings +of human reason ever to be surprised by them, and the views you have +adopted are not uncommon amongst young men of very superior talents, +who have only slightly examined the evidences of revealed religion. +But I am glad to find that you have not adopted the code of infidelity +of many of the French revolutionists and of an English school of sceptics, +who find in the ancient astronomy all the germs of the worship of the +Hebrews, who identify the <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>labours +of Hercules with those of the Jewish heroes, and who find the life, +death and resurrection of the Messiah in the history of the solar day. +You, at least, allow the existence of a peculiar religious instinct, +or, as you are pleased to call it, superstition, belonging to the human +mind, and I have hopes that upon this foundation you will ultimately +build up a system of faith not unworthy a philosopher and a Christian. +Man, with whatever religious instincts he was created, was intended +to communicate with the visible universe by sensations and act upon +it by his organs, and in the earliest state of society he was more particularly +influenced by his gross senses. Allowing the existence of a supreme +Intelligence and His beneficent intentions towards man, the ideas of +His presence which He might think fit to impress upon the mind, either +for the purpose of veneration, or of love, of hope or fear, must have +been in harmony with the general train of His sensations—I am +not sure that I make myself intelligible. The same infinite power +which in an instant could create a universe, could of course so modify +the ideas of an intellectual being as to give them that form and character +most fitted for his existence; and I suppose in the early state of created +man he imagined that he enjoyed the actual presence of the Divinity +and heard His voice. I take this to be the first and simplest +result of religious instinct. In early times amongst the patriarchs +I suppose these ideas were so vivid as to be confounded with impressions; +but as religious instinct probably became feebler in their posterity, +the vividness of the impressions diminished, and they then became visions +or dreams, which with the prophets seem to have constituted inspiration. +I do not suppose <!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>that +the Supreme Being ever made Himself known to man by a real change in +the order of Nature, but that the sensations of men were so modified +by their instincts as to induce the belief in His presence. That +there was a divine intelligence continually acting upon the race of +Seth as his chosen people, is, I think, clearly proved by the events +of their history, and also that the early opinions of a small tribe +in Judæa were designed for the foundation of the religion of the +most active and civilised and powerful nations of the world, and that +after a lapse of three thousand years. The manner in which Christianity +spread over the world with a few obscure mechanics or fishermen for +its promulgators; the mode in which it triumphed over paganism even +when professed and supported by the power and philosophy of a Julian; +the martyrs who subscribed to the truth of Christianity by shedding +their blood for the faith; the exalted nature of those intellectual +men by whom it has been professed who had examined all the depths of +nature and exercised the profoundest faculties of thought, such as Newton, +Locke, and Hartley, all appear to me strong arguments in favour of revealed +religion. I prefer rather founding my creed upon the fitness of +its doctrines than upon historical evidences or the nature of its miracles. +The Divine Intelligence chooses that men should be convinced according +to the ordinary train of their sensations, and on all occasions it appears +to me more natural that a change should take place in the human mind +than in the order of nature. The popular opinion of the people +of Judæa was that certain diseases were occasioned by devils taking +possession of a human being; the disease was cured by our Saviour, and +this <!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>in +the Gospel is expressed by his casting out devils. But without +entering into explanations respecting the historical miracles belonging +to Christianity, it is sufficient to say that its truth is attested +by a constantly existing miracle, the present state of the Jews, which +was predicted by Jesus; their temple and city were destroyed, and all +attempts made to rebuild it have been vain, and they remain the despised +and outcasts of the world.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—But you have not answered my objections with respect +to the cruelties exercised by the Jews under the command of Jehovah, +which appear to me in opposition to all our views of divine justice.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—I think even Philalethes will allow that physical +and moral diseases are hereditary, and that to destroy a pernicious +unbelief or demoniacal worship it was necessary to destroy the whole +race root and branch. As an example, I will imagine a certain +contagions disease which is transmitted by parents to children, and +which, like the plague, is communicated to sound persons by contact; +to destroy a family of men who would spread this disease over the whole +earth would unquestionably be a mercy. Besides, I believe in the +immortality of the sentient principle in man; destruction of life is +only a change of existence, and supposing the new existence a superior +one it is a gain. To the Supreme Intelligence the death of a million +of human beings is the mere circumstance of so many spiritual essences +changing their habitations, and is analogous to the myriad millions +of larvæ that leave their coats and shells behind them and rise +into the atmosphere, as flies in a summer day. When man measures +the works of the Divine Mind by his own <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>feeble +combinations, he must wander in gross error; the infinite can never +be understood by the finite.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—As far as I can comprehend your reasoning, the +priests of Juggernaut might make the same defence for their idol, and +find in such views a fair apology for the destruction of thousands of +voluntary victims crushed to pieces by the feet of the sacred elephant.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Undoubtedly they might, and I should allow the +justness of their defence if I saw in their religion any germs of a +divine institution fitted to become, like the religion of Jehovah, the +faith of the whole civilised world, embracing the most perfect form +of theism and the most refined and exalted morality. I consider +the early acts of the Jewish nation as the lowest and rudest steps of +a temple raised by the Supreme Being to contain the altar of sacrifice +to His glory. In the early periods of society rude and uncultivated +men could only be acted upon by gross and temporal rewards and punishments; +severe rites and heavy discipline were required to keep the mind in +order, and the punishment of the idolatrous nation served as an example +for the Jews. When Christianity took the place of Judaism the +ideas of the Supreme Being became more pure and abstracted, and the +visible attributes of Jehovah and His angels appear to have been less +frequently presented to the mind; yet even for many ages it seemed as +if the grossness of our material senses required some assistance from +the eye in fixing or perpetuating the character of religious instinct, +and the Church to which I belong, and I may say the whole Christian +Church in early times, allowed visible images, pictures, statues, and +relics as the means of awakening the stronger devotional feelings. +We have been accused of worshipping <!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>merely +inanimate objects, but this is a very false notion of the nature of +our faith; we regard them merely as vivid characters representing spiritual +existences and we no more worship them than the Protestant does his +Bible when he kisses it under a solemn religious adjuration. The +past, the present, and the future being the same to the infinite and +divine Intelligence, and man being created in love for the purposes +of happiness, the moral and religious discipline to which he was submitted +was in strict conformity to his progressive faculties and to the primary +laws of his nature. It is but a rude analogy, yet it is the only +one I can find, that of comparing the Supreme Being to a wise and good +father who, to secure the well-being of his offspring, is obliged to +adopt a system of rewards and punishments in which the senses at first +and afterwards the imagination and reason are concerned; he terrifies +them by the example of others, awakens their love of glory by pointing +out the distinction and the happiness gained by superior men by adopting +a particular line of conduct; he uses at first the rod, and gradually +substitutes for it the fear of immediate shame; and having awakened +the fear of shame and the love of praise or honour with respect to temporary +and immediate actions he extends them to the conduct of the whole of +life, and makes what was a momentary feeling a permanent and immutable +principle. And obedience in the child to the will of such a parent +may be compared to faith in and obedience to the will of the Supreme +Being; and a wayward and disobedient child who reasons upon and doubts +the utility of the discipline of such a father is much in the same state +in which the adult man is who doubts if there be good in <!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>the +decrees of Providence and who questions the harmony of the plan of the +moral universe.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—Allowing the perfection of your moral scheme of +religion and its fitness for the nature of man, I find it impossible +to believe the primary doctrines on which this scheme is founded. +You make the Divine Mind, the creator of infinite worlds, enter into +the form of a man born of a virgin, you make the eternal and immortal +God the victim of shameful punishment and suffering death on the cross, +recovering His life after three days, and carrying His maimed and lacerated +body into the heaven of heavens.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You, like all other sceptics, make your own interpretations +of the Scriptures and set up a standard for divine power in human reason. +The infinite and eternal mind, as I said before, fits the doctrines +of religion to the minds by which they are to be embraced. I see +no improbability in the idea that an integrant part of His essence may +have animated a human form; there can be no doubt that this belief has +existed in the human mind, and the belief constitutes the vital part +of the religion. We know nothing of the generation of the human +being in the ordinary course of nature; how absurd then to attempt to +reason upon the acts of the Divine Mind! nor is there more difficulty +in imagining the event of a divine conception than of a divine creation. +To God the infinite, little and great, as measured by human powers, +are equal; a creature of this earth, however humble and insignificant, +may have the same weight with millions of superior beings inhabiting +higher systems. But I consider all the miraculous parts of our +religion as effected by changes in the sensations or ideas of the human +mind, and not <!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>by +physical changes in the order of nature; a man who has to repair a piece +of machinery, as a clock, must take it to pieces, and, in fact, re-make +it, but to infinite wisdom and power a change in the intellectual state +of the human being may be the result of a momentary will, and the mere +act of faith may produce the change. How great the powers of imagination +are, even in ordinary life, is shown by many striking facts, and nothing +seems impossible to this imagination when acted upon by divine influence. +To attempt to answer all the objections which may be derived from the +want of conformity in the doctrines of Christianity to the usual order +of events would be an interminable labour. My first principle +is, that religion has nothing to do with the common order of events; +it is a pure and divine instinct intended to give results to man which +he cannot obtain by the common use of his reason, and which at first +view often appear contradictory to it, but which when examined by the +most refined tests, and considered in the most extensive and profound +relations, are, in fact, in conformity with the most exalted intellectual +knowledge, so that, indeed, the results of pure reason ultimately become +the same with those of faith—the tree of knowledge is grafted +upon the tree of life, and that fruit which brought the fear of death +into the world, budding on an immortal stock, becomes the fruit of the +promise of immortality.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—You derive Christianity from Judaism; I cannot +see their connection, and it appears to me that the religion of Mahomet +is more naturally a scion from the stock of Moses. Christ was +a Jew, and was circumcised; this rite was continued by Mahomet, and +is to this day adopted by his disciples, though rejected by <!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>the +Christians; and the doctrines of Mahomet appear to me to have a higher +claim to divine origin than those of Jesus; his morality is as pure, +his theism purer, and his system of rewards and punishments after death +as much in conformity with our ideas of eternal justice.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—I will willingly make the decision of the general +question dependent upon the decision of this particular one. No +attempts have been made by the Mahometans to find any predictions respecting +their founder in the Old Testament, and they have never pretended even +that he was the Messiah; therefore, as far as prophecy is concerned, +there is no ground for admitting the truth of the religion of Mahomet. +It has been the fashion with a particular sect of infidels to praise +the morality of the Mahometans, but I think unjustly; they are said +to be honest in their dealings and charitable to those of their own +persuasion; but they allow polygamy and a plurality of women, and are +despisers and persecutors of the nations professing a different faith. +And what a contrast does this morality present to that of the Gospel +which inculcates charity to all mankind, and orders benevolent actions +to be performed even to enemies! and the purity and simplicity of the +infant is held up by Christ as the model of imitation for His followers. +Then, in the rewards and punishments of the future state of the Mahometans, +how gross are all the ideas, how unlike the promises of a divine and +spiritual being; their paradise is a mere earthly garden of sensual +pleasure, and their Houris represent the ladies of their own harems +rather than glorified angelic natures. How different is the Christian +heaven, how sublime in its idea, indefinite, yet well suited to a being +of intellectual and progressive <!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>faculties; +“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the +heart of man to conceive the joys that He hath prepared for those who +love Him.”</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I confess your answer to my last argument is a +triumphant one; but I cannot allow a question of such extent and of +such a variety of bearings to be decided by so slight an advantage as +that which you have gained by this answer. I will now offer another +difficulty to you. The law of the Jews, you will allow, was established +by God Himself and delivered to Moses from the seat of His glory amongst +storms, thunder, and lightnings, on Mount Sinai; why should this law, +if pure and divine, have been overturned by the same Being who established +it? And all the ceremonies of the Hebrews have been abolished +by the first Christians.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—I deny that the divine law of Moses was abolished +by Christ, who Himself says, “I came to confirm the law, not to +destroy it.” And the Ten Commandments form the vital parts +of the foundation of the creed of the true Christian. It appears +that the religion of Christ was the same pure theism with that of the +patriarchs; and the rites and ceremonies established by Moses seem to +have been only adjuncts to the spiritual religion intended to suit a +particular climate and a particular state of the Jewish nation, rather +a dress or clothing of the religion than forming a constituent part +of it, a system of discipline of life and manners rather than an essential +part of doctrine. The rites of circumcision and ablution were +necessary to the health and perhaps even to the existence of a people +living on the hottest part of the shores of the Mediterranean. +And in the sacrifices made of the first fruits <!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>and +of the chosen of the flock, we may see a design not merely connected +with the religious faith of the people but even with their political +economy. To offer their choicest and best property as a proof +of their gratitude to the Supreme Being was a kind of test of devotedness +and obedience to the theocracy; and these sacrifices by obliging them +to raise more produce and provide more cattle than were essential to +their ordinary support, preserved them from the danger of famine, as +in case of a dearth it was easy for the priests under the divine permission +to apply those offerings to the necessities of the people. All +the pure parts of the faith which had descended from Abraham to David +were preserved by Jesus Christ; but the ceremonial religion was fitted +only for a particular nation and a particular country; Christianity, +on the contrary, was to be the religion of the world and of a civilised +and improving world. And it appears to me to be an additional +proof of its divine nature and origin, that it is exactly in conformity +to the principles of the improvement and perfection of the human mind. +When given to a particular race fixed in a peculiar climate, its objects +were sensible, its discipline was severe, and its rites and ceremonies +numerous and imposing, fitted to act upon weak, ignorant, and consequently +obstinate men. In its gradual development it threw off its local +character and its particular forms, and adopted ceremonies more fitted +for mankind in general; and in its ultimate views, it preserves only +pure, spiritual, and I may say philosophical doctrines, the unity of +the divine nature and a future state, embracing a system of rewards +and punishments suited to an accountable and immortal being.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I have been attentively listening to your <!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>discussion. +The views which Ambrosio has taken of Christianity certainly throw a +light over it perfectly new to me; and, I must say in candour, that +I am disposed to adopt his notion of the early state of society rather +than that of my Genius. I have always been accustomed to consider +religious feeling as instinctive; but Ambrosio’s arguments have +given me something approaching to a definite faith for an obscure and +indefinite notion. I am willing to allow that man was created, +not a savage, as he is represented in my vision, but perfect in his +faculties and with a variety of instinctive powers and knowledge; that +he transmitted these powers and knowledge to his offspring; but that +by an improper use of reason in disobedience to the divine will, the +instinctive faculties of most of his descendants became deteriorated +and at last lost, but that these faculties were preserved in the race +of Abraham and David, and the full power again bestowed upon or recovered +by Christ. I am ready to allow the importance of religion in cultivating +and improving the world; and Ambrosio’s view appears to me capable +of being referred to a general law of our nature; and revelation may +be regarded not as a partial interference but as a constant principle +belonging to the mind of man, and the belief in supernatural forms and +agency, the results of prophecies and the miracles, as one only of the +necessary consequences of it. Man, as a reasoning animal, must +always have doubted of his immortality and plan of conduct; in all the +results of faith, there is immediate submission to a divine will, which +we are sure is good. We may compare the destiny of man in this +respect to that of a migratory bird; if a slow flying bird, as a landrail +in the Orkneys in autumn, <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>had +reason and could use it as to the probability of his finding his way +over deserts, across seas, and of securing his food in passing to a +warm climate 3,000 miles off, he would undoubtedly starve in Europe; +under the direction of his instinct he securely arrives there in good +condition. I have allowed the force of your objections to that +part of my vision relating to the origin of society, but I hope you +will admit that the conclusion of it is not inconsistent with the ideas +derived from revelation respecting the future state of the human being.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Revelation has not disclosed to us the nature of +this state, but only fixed its certainty. We are sure from geological +facts, as well as from sacred history, that man is a recent animal on +the globe, and that this globe has undergone one considerable revolution, +since the creation, by water; and we are taught that it is to undergo +another, by fire, preparatory to a new and glorified state of existence +of man; but this is all we are permitted to know, and as this state +is to be entirely different from the present one of misery and probation, +any knowledge respecting it would be useless and indeed almost impossible.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—My Genius has placed the more exalted spiritual +natures in cometary worlds, and this last fiery revolution may be produced +by the appulse of a comet.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Human fancy may imagine a thousand manners in which +it may be produced, but upon such notions it is absurd to dwell. +I will not allow your Genius the slightest approach to inspiration, +and I can admit no verisimility in a reverie which is fixed on a foundation +you now allow to be so weak. But see, the twilight is beginning +to appear in the orient sky, and <!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>there +are some dark clouds on the horizon opposite to the crater of Vesuvius, +the lower edges of which transmit a bright light, showing the sun is +already risen in the country beneath them. I would say that they +may serve as an image of the hopes of immortality derived from revelation; +for we are sure from the light reflected in those clouds that the lands +below us are in the brightest sunshine, but we are entirely ignorant +of the surface and the scenery; so, by revelation, the light of an imperishable +and glorious world is disclosed to us; but it is in eternity, and its +objects cannot be seen by mortal eye or imaged by mortal imagination.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I am not so well read in the Scriptures as I hope +I shall be at no very distant time; but I believe the pleasures of heaven +are mentioned more distinctly than you allow in the sacred writings. +I think I remember that the saints are said to be crowned with palms +and amaranths, and that they are described as perpetually hymning and +praising God.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—This is evidently only metaphorical; music is the +sensual pleasure which approaches nearest to an intellectual one, and +probably may represent the delight resulting from the perception of +the harmony of things and of truth seen in God. The palm as an +evergreen tree and the amaranth a perdurable flower are emblems of immortality. +If I am allowed to give a metaphorical allusion to the future state +of the blest, I should image it by the orange grove in that sheltered +glen, on which the sun is now beginning to shine, and of which the trees +are at the same time loaded with sweet golden fruit and balmy silver +flowers. Such objects may well portray a state in which hope and +fruition become one eternal feeling.</p> +<p><!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span><i>Onu</i>.—This +glorious sunrise seems to have made you both poetical. Though +with the darkest and most gloomy mind of the party I cannot help feeling +its influence, I cannot help believing with you that the night of death +will be succeeded by a bright morning; but, as in the scene below us, +the objects are nearly the same as they were last evening, with more +of brightness and brilliancy, with a fairer prospect in the east and +more mist in the west, so I cannot help believing that our new state +of existence must bear an analogy to the present one, and that the order +of events will not be entirely different.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Your view is not an unnatural one; but I am rejoiced +to find some symptoms of a change in your opinions.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I wish with all my heart they were stronger; I +begin to feel my reason a weight and my scepticism a very heavy load. +Your discussions have made me a Philo-Christian, but I cannot understand +nor embrace all the views you have developed, though I really wish to +do so.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Your wish, if sincere, I doubt not will be gratified. +Fix your powerful mind upon the harmony of the moral world, as you have +been long accustomed to do upon the order of the physical universe, +and you will see the scheme of the eternal intelligence developing itself +alike in both. Think of the goodness and mercy of omnipotence, +and aid your contemplation by devotional feelings and mental prayer +and aspirations to the source of all knowledge, and wait with humility +for the light which I doubt not will be so produced in your mind.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—You again perplex me; I cannot believe that <!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>the +adorations or offerings of so feeble a creature can influence the decrees +of omnipotence.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You mistake me: as to their influencing or affecting +the supreme mind it is out of the question, but they affect your own +mind, they perpetuate a habit of gratitude and of obedience which may +gradually end in perfect faith, they discipline the affections and keep +the heart in a state of preparation to receive and preserve all good +and pious feelings. Whoever passes from utter darkness into bright +sunshine finds that he cannot at first distinguish objects better in +one than in the other, but in a feeble light he acquires gradually the +power of bearing a brighter one, and gains at last the habit not only +of supporting it, but of receiving delight as well as instruction from +it. In the pious contemplations that I recommend to you there +is the twilight or sober dawn of faith which will ultimately enable +you to support the brightness of its meridian sun.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I understand you, but your metaphor is more poetical +than just; your discipline, however, I have no doubt, is better fitted +to enable me to bear the light than to contemplate it through the smoked +or coloured glasses of scepticism.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Yes, for they not only diminish its brightness +but alter its nature.</p> +<h2>DIALOGUE THE THIRD. THE UNKNOWN.</h2> +<p>The same persons accompanied me in many journeys by land and water +to different parts of the Phlegræan fields, and we enjoyed in +a most delightful season, the <!-- page 83--><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>beginning +of May, the beauties of the glorious country which encloses the Bay +of Naples, so rich, so ornamented with the gifts of nature, so interesting +from the monuments it contains and the recollections it awakens. +One excursion, the last we made in southern Italy, the most important +both from the extraordinary personage with whom it made me acquainted +and his influence upon my future life, merits a particular detail which +I shall now deliver to paper.</p> +<p>It was on the 16th of May, 18-- that we left Naples at three in the +morning for the purpose of visiting the remains of the temples of Pæstum, +and having provided relays of horses we found ourselves at about half-past +one o’clock descending the hill of Eboli towards the plain which +contains these stupendous monuments of antiquity. Were my existence +to be prolonged through ten centuries, I think I could never forget +the pleasure I received on that delicious spot. We alighted from +our carriage to take some refreshment, and we reposed upon the herbage +under the shade of a magnificent pine contemplating the view around +and below us. On the right were the green hills covered with trees +stretching towards Salerno; beyond them were the marble cliffs which +form the southern extremity of the Bay of Sorento; immediately below +our feet was a rich and cultivated country filled with vineyards and +abounding in villas, in the gardens of which were seen the olive and +the cypress tree connected as if to memorialise how near to each other +are life and death, joy and sorrow; the distant mountains stretching +beyond the plain of Pæstum were in the full luxuriance of vernal +vegetation; and in the extreme distance, as if in the midst of a desert, +<!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>we +saw the white temples glittering in the sunshine. The blue Tyrrhene +sea filled up the outline of this scene, which, though so beautiful, +was not calm; there was a heavy breeze which blew full from the southwest; +it was literally a zephyr, and its freshness and strength in the middle +of the day were peculiarly balmy and delightful; it seemed a breath +stolen by the spring from the summer. I never saw a deeper, brighter +azure than that of the waves which rolled towards the shore, and which +was rendered more striking by the pure whiteness of their foam. +The agitation of nature seemed to be one of breathing and awakening +life; the noise made by the waving of the branches of the pine above +our heads and by the rattling of its cones was overpowered by the music +of a multitude of birds which sung everywhere in the trees that surrounded +us, and the cooing of the turtle-doves was heard even more distinctly +than the murmuring of the waves or the whistling of the winds, so that +in the strife of nature the voice of love was predominant. With +our hearts touched by this extraordinary scene we descended to the ruins, +and having taken at a farmhouse a person who acted as guide or cicerone, +we began to examine those wonderful remains which have outlived even +the name of the people by whom they were raised, and which continue +almost perfect whilst a Roman and a Saracen city since raised have been +destroyed. We had been walking for half an hour round the temples +in the sunshine when our guide represented to us the danger that there +was of suffering from the effects of malaria, for which, as is well +known, this place is notorious, and advised us to retire into the interior +of the temple of Neptune. We followed <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>his +advice, and my companions began to employ themselves in measuring the +circumference of one of the Doric columns, when they suddenly called +my attention to a stranger who was sitting on a camp-stool behind it. +The appearance of any person in this place at this time was sufficiently +remarkable, but the man who was before us from his dress and appearance +would have been remarkable anywhere. He was employed in writing +in a memorandum book when we first saw him, but he immediately rose +and saluted us by bending the head slightly though gracefully; and this +enabled me to see distinctly his person and dress. He was rather +above the middle stature, slender, but with well-turned limbs; his countenance +was remarkably intelligent, his eye hazel but full and strong, his front +was smooth and unwrinkled, and but for some grey hairs, which appeared +silvering his brown and curly locks, he might have been supposed to +have hardly reached the middle age; his nose was aquiline, the expression +of the lower part of his countenance remarkably sweet, and when he spoke +to our guide, which he did with uncommon fluency in the Neapolitan dialect, +I thought I had never heard a more agreeable voice, sonorous yet gentle +and silver-sounded. His dress was very peculiar, almost like that +of an ecclesiastic, but coarse and light; and there was a large soiled +white hat on the ground beside him, on which was fastened a pilgrim’s +cockle shell, and there was suspended round his neck a long antique +blue enamelled phial, like those found in the Greek tombs, and it was +attached to a rosary of coarse beads. He took up his hat, and +appeared to be retiring to another part of the building, when I apologised +for <!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>the +interruption we had given to his studies, begged him to resume them, +and assured him that our stay in the building would be only momentary, +for I saw that there was a cloud over the sun, the brightness of which +was the cause of our retiring. I spoke in Italian; he replied +in English, observing that he supposed the fear of contracting the malaria +fever had induced us to seek the shelter of the shade: but it is too +early in the season to have much reasonable fear of this insidious enemy; +yet, he added, this bottle which you may have observed here at my breast, +I carry about with me, as a supposed preventive of the effects of malaria, +and as far as my experience, a very limited one, however, has gone, +it is effectual. I ventured to ask him what the bottle might contain, +as such a benefit ought to be made known to the world. He replied, +“It is a mixture which slowly produces the substance called by +chemists chlorine, which is well known to be generally destructive to +contagious matters; and a friend of mine who has lived for many years +in Italy, and who has made a number of experiments with it, by exposing +himself to the danger of fever in the worst seasons and in the worst +places, believes that it is a secure preventive. I am not convinced +of this; but it can do no harm; and in waiting for more evidence of +its utility, I employ it without putting the least confidence in its +power; nor do I expose myself to the same danger as my friend has done +for the sake of an experiment.” I said, “I believe +several scientific persons—Brocchi amongst others—have doubted +the existence of any specific matter in the atmosphere producing intermittent +fevers in marshy countries and hot climates; and have been more disposed +<!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>to +attribute the disease to physical causes, dependent upon the great differences +of temperature between day and night and to the refrigerating effects +of the dense fogs common in such situations in the evening and morning; +and, on this hypothesis, they have recommended warm woollen clothing +and fires at night as the best preventives against these destructive +diseases, so fatal to the peasants who remain in the summer and autumn +in the neighbourhood of the maremme of Rome, Tuscany, or Naples.” +The stranger said, “I am acquainted with the opinions of the gentlemen, +and they undoubtedly have weight; but that a specific matter of contagion +has not been detected by chemical means in the atmosphere of marshes +does not prove its non-existence. We know so little of those agents +that affect the human constitution, that it is of no use to reason on +this subject. There can be no doubt that the line of malaria above +the Pontine marshes is marked by a dense fog morning and evening, and +most of the old Roman towns were placed upon eminences out of the reach +of this fog. I have myself experienced a peculiar effect upon +the organs of smell in the neighbourhood of marshes in the evening after +a very hot day; and the instances in which people have been seized with +intermittents by a single exposure in a place infested by malaria in +the season of fevers gives, I think, a strong support to something like +a poisonous material existing in the atmosphere in such spots; but I +merely offer doubts. I hope the progress of physiology and of +chemistry will at no very distant time solve this important problem.” +Ambrosio now came forward, and bowing to the stranger, said he took +the liberty, as he saw from his familiarity with the <!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>cicerone +that he was well acquainted with Pæstum, of asking him whether +the masses of travertine, of which the Cyclopean walls and the temples +were formed, were really produced by aqueous deposition from the River +Silaro, as he had often heard reported. The stranger replied, +“that they were certainly produced by deposition from water; and +such deposits are made by the Silaro. But I rather believe,” +he said, “that a lake in the immediate neighbourhood of the city +furnished the quarry from which these stones were excavated; and, in +half an hour, if you like, after you have finished your examinations +of the temples with your guide, I will accompany you to the spot from +which it is evident that large masses of the travertine, marmor tiburtinum, +or calcareous tufa, have been raised.” We thanked him for +his attention, accepted his invitation, took the usual walk round the +temples, and returned to our new acquaintance, who led the way through +the gate of the city to the banks of a pool or lake a short distance +off. We walked to the borders on a mass of calcareous tufa, and +we saw that this substance had even encrusted the reeds on the shore. +There was something peculiarly melancholy in the character of this water; +all the herbs around it were grey, as if encrusted with marble; a few +buffaloes were slaking their thirst in it, which ran wildly away on +our approach, and appeared to retire into a rocky excavation or quarry +at the end of the lake; there were a number of birds, which, on examination, +I found were sea swallows, flitting on the surface and busily employed +with the libella or dragon-fly in destroying the myriads of gnats which +rose from the bottom and were beginning to be very troublesome by their +bites to us. “There,” <!-- page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>said +the stranger, “is what I believe to be the source of those large +and durable stones which you see in the plain before you. This +water rapidly deposits calcareous matter, and even if you throw a stick +into it, a few hours is sufficient to give it a coating of this substance. +Whichever way you turn your eyes you see masses of this recently-produced +marble, the consequence of the overflowing of the lake during the winter +floods, and in that large excavation where you saw the buffaloes disappear +you may observe that immense masses have been removed, as if by the +hand of art and in remote times. The marble that remains in the +quarry is of the same texture and character as that which you see in +the ruins of Pæstum, and I think it is scarcely possible to doubt +that the builders of those extraordinary structures derived a part of +their materials from this spot.” Ambrosio gave his assent +to this opinion of the stranger; and I took the liberty of asking him +as to the quantity of calcareous matter contained in solution in the +lake, saying that it appeared to me, for so rapid and considerable an +effect of deposition, there must be an unusual quantity of solid matter +dissolved by the water or some peculiar circumstance of solution. +The stranger replied, “This water is like many, I may say most +of the sources which rise at the foot of the Apennines: it holds carbonic +acid in solution which has dissolved a portion of the calcareous matter +of the rock through which it has passed. This carbonic acid is +dissipated in the atmosphere, and the marble, slowly thrown down, assumes +a crystalline form and produces coherent stones. The lake before +us is not particularly rich in the quantity of calcareous matter that +it contains, for, as I have found by experience, <!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>a +pint of it does not afford more than five or six grains; but the quantity +of fluid and the length of time are sufficient to account for the immense +quantities of tufa and rock which in the course of ages have accumulated +in this situation.” Onuphrio’s curiosity was excited +by this statement of the stranger, and he said, “May I take the +liberty of asking if you have any idea as to the cause of the large +quantity of carbonic acid which you have been so good as to inform us +exists in most of the waters in this country?” The stranger +replied, “I certainly have formed an opinion on this subject, +which I willingly state to you. It can, I think, be scarcely doubted +that there is a source of volcanic fire at no great distance from the +surface in the whole of southern Italy; and, this fire acting upon the +calcareous rocks of which the Apennines are composed, must constantly +detach from them carbonic acid, which rising to the sources of the springs, +deposited from the waters of the atmosphere, must give them their impregnation +and enable them to dissolve calcareous matter. I need not dwell +upon Etna, Vesuvius, or the Lipari Islands to prove that volcanic fires +are still in existence; and there can be no doubt that in earlier periods +almost the whole of Italy was ravaged by them; oven Rome itself, the +eternal city, rests upon the craters of extinct volcanoes; and I imagine +that the traditional and fabulous record of the destruction made by +the conflagration of Phæton in the chariot of the sun and his +falling into the Po had reference to a great and tremendous igneous +volcanic eruption, which extended over Italy and ceased only near the +Po at the foot of the Alps. Be this as it may, the sources of +carbonic acid are numerous, not merely in the Neapolitan, <!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>but +likewise in the Roman and Tuscan states. The most magnificent +waterfall in Europe, that of the Velino, near Terni, is partly fed by +a stream containing calcareous matter dissolved by carbonic acid, and +it deposits marble, which crystallises even in the midst of its thundering +descent and foam in the bed in which it falls. The Anio or Teverone, +which almost approaches in beauty to the Velino in the number and variety +of its falls and cascatelle, is likewise a calcareous water; and there +is still a more remarkable one which empties itself into this river +below Tivoli, and which you have probably seen in your excursions in +the campagna of Rome, called the lacus Albula or the lake of the Solfatara.” +Ambrosio said, “We remember it well, we saw it this very spring; +we were carried there to examine some ancient Roman baths, and we were +struck by the blue milkiness of the water, by the magnitude of the source, +and by the disagreeable smell of sulphuretted hydrogen which everywhere +surrounded the lake.” The stranger said, “When you +return to Latium I advise you to pay another visit to a spot which is +interesting from a number of causes, some of which I will take the liberty +of mentioning to you. You have only seen one lake, that where +the ancient Romans erected their baths, but there is another a few yards +above it, surrounded by very high rushes, and almost hidden by them +from the sight. This lake sends down a considerable stream of +tepid water to the larger lake, but this water is less strongly impregnated +with carbonic acid; the largest lake is actually a saturated solution +of this gas, which escapes from it in such quantities in some parts +of its surface that it has the appearance of being actually in ebullition. +<!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>I +have found by experiment that the water taken from the most tranquil +part of the lake, even after being agitated and exposed to the air, +contained in solution more than its own volume of carbonic acid gas +with a very small quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen, to the presence +of which, I conclude, its ancient use in curing cutaneous disorders +may be referred. Its temperature, I ascertained, was in the winter +in the warmest parts above 80° of Fahrenheit, and it appears to +be pretty constant, for I have found it differ a few degrees only, in +the ascending source, in January, March, May, and the beginning of June; +it is therefore supplied with heat from a subterraneous source, being +nearly twenty degrees above the mean temperature of the atmosphere. +Kircher has detailed in his “Mundus Subterraneus” various +wonders respecting this lake, most of which are unfounded, such as that +it is unfathomable, that it has at the bottom the heat of boiling water, +and that floating islands rise from the gulf which emits it. It +must certainly be very difficult, or even impossible, to fathom a source +which rises with so much violence from a subterraneous excavation, and, +at a time when chemistry had made small progress, it was easy to mistake +the disengagement of carbonic acid for an actual ebullition. The +floating islands are real, but neither the Jesuit nor any of the writers +who have since described this lake had a correct idea of their origin, +which is exceedingly curious. The high temperature of this water, +and the quantity of carbonic acid that it contains, render it peculiarly +fitted to afford a pabulum or nourishment to vegetable life. The +banks of travertine are everywhere covered with reeds, lichens, confervæ, +and various <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>kinds +of aquatic vegetables, and, at the same time that the process of vegetable +life is going on, the crystallisations of the calcareous matter, which +is everywhere deposited in consequence of the escape of carbonic acid, +likewise proceed, giving a constant milkiness to what, from its tint, +would otherwise be a blue fluid. So rapid is the vegetation, owing +to the decomposition of the carbonic acid, that, even in winter, masses +of confervæ and lichens, mixed with deposited travertine, are +constantly detached by the currents of water from the bank and float +down the stream, which being a considerable river is never without many +of these small islands on its surface; they are sometimes only a few +inches in size, and composed merely of dark-green confervæ or +purple or yellow lichens, but they are sometimes even of some feet in +diameter, and contain seeds and various species of common water-plants, +which are usually more or less encrusted with marble. There is, +I believe, no place in the world where there is a more striking example +of the opposition or contrast of the laws of animate and inanimate Nature, +of the forces of inorganic chemical affinity and those of the powers +of life. Vegetables in such a temperature, and everywhere surrounded +by food, are produced with a wonderful rapidity, but the crystallisations +are formed with equal quickness, and they are no sooner produced than +they are destroyed together. Notwithstanding the sulphureous exhalations +from the lake, the quantity of vegetable matter generated there and +its heat make it the resort of an infinite variety of insect tribes, +and even in the coldest days in winter numbers of flies may be observed +on the vegetables surrounding its banks or on its floating island’s, +and a <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>quantity +of their larvæ may be seen there sometimes encrusted and entirely +destroyed by calcareous matter, which is likewise often the fate of +the insects themselves, as well as of various species of shell-fish +that are found amongst the vegetables, which grow and are destroyed +in the travertine on its banks. Snipes, ducks, and various water-birds, +often visit those lakes, probably attracted by the temperature and the +quantity of food in which they abound; but they usually confine themselves +to the banks, as the carbonic acid disengaged from the surface would +be fatal to them if they ventured to swim upon it when tranquil. +In May, 18--, I fixed a stick on a mass of travertine covered by the +water, and I examined it in the beginning of the April following for +the purpose of determining the nature of the depositions. The +water was lower at this time, yet I had some difficulty, by means of +a sharp-pointed hammer, in breaking the mass which adhered to the bottom +of the stick; it was several inches in thickness. The upper part +was a mixture of light tufa and the leaves of confervæ; below +this was a darker and more solid travertine, containing black and decomposed +masses of confervæ; in the inferior part the travertine was more +solid and of a grey colour, but with cavities which I have no doubt +were produced by the decomposition of vegetable matter. I have +passed many hours, I may say many days, in studying the phenomena of +this wonderful lake; it has brought many trains of thought into my mind +connected with the early changes of our globe, and I have sometimes +reasoned from the forms of plants and animals preserved in marble in +this warm source to the grander depositions in the secondary rocks, +where the <!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>zoophytes +or coral insects have worked upon a grand scale, and where palms, and +vegetables now unknown are preserved with the remains of crocodiles, +turtles, and gigantic extinct animals of the <i>sauri genus</i>, and +which appear to have belonged to a period when the whole globe possessed +a much higher temperature. I have, likewise, often been led, from +the remarkable phenomena surrounding me in that spot, to compare the +works of man with those of Nature. The baths, erected there nearly +twenty centuries ago, present only heaps of ruins, and even the bricks +of which they were built, though hardened by fire, are crumbled into +dust, whilst the masses of travertine around it, though formed by a +variable source from the most perishable materials, have hardened by +time, and the most perfect remains of the greatest ruins in the eternal +city, such as the triumphal arches and the Colosæum, owe their +duration to this source. Then, from all we know, this lake, except +in some change in its dimensions, continues nearly in the same state +in which it was described 1,700 years ago by Pliny, and I have no doubt +contains the same kinds of floating islands, the same plants, and the +same insects. During the fifteen years that I have known it it +has appeared precisely identical in these respects, and yet it has the +character of an accidental phenomenon depending upon subterraneous fire. +How marvellous then are those laws by which even the humblest types +of organic existence are preserved though born amidst the sources of +their destruction, and by which a species of immortality is given to +generations floating, as it were, like evanescent bubbles, on a stream +raised from the deepest caverns of the earth, and instantly losing what +may be <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>called +its spirit in the atmosphere.” These last observations of +the stranger recalled to my recollection some phenomena which I had +observed many years ago, and of which I could then give no satisfactory +explanation. I was shooting in the marshes which surround the +ruins of Gabia, and where there are still remains supposed to be of +the Alexandrine aqueduct; I observed a small insulated hill, apparently +entirely composed of travertine, and from its summit there were formations +of tufa which had evidently been produced by running water, but the +whole mass was now perfectly dry and encrusted by vegetables. +At first I suspected that this little mountain had been formed by a +jet of calcareous water, a kind of small fountain analogous to the Geiser, +which had deposited travertine and continued to rise through the basin +flowing from a higher level; but the irregular form of the eminence +did not correspond to this idea, and I remained perplexed with the fact +and unable to satisfy myself as to its cause. The views of the +stranger appeared to me now to make it probable that the calcareous +water had issued from ancient leaks in the aqueduct and formed a hillock +that had encased the bricks of the erection, which in other parts, where +not encrusted by travertine, had become entirely decayed, degraded, +and removed from the soil. I mentioned the circumstance and my +suspicion of its nature. The stranger said: “You are perfectly +correct in your idea. I know the spot well, and if you had not +mentioned it I should probably have quoted it as an instance in which +the works of art are preserved, as it were, by the accidents of Nature. +I was so struck by this appearance last year that I had the travertine +partially removed by <!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>some +workmen, and I found beneath it the canal of the aqueduct in a perfect +state, and the bricks of the arches as uninjured as if freshly laid.” +The stranger had hardly concluded this sentence when he was interrupted +by Onuphrio, who said, “I have always supposed that in every geological +system water is considered as the cause of the destruction or degradation +of the surface, but in all the instances that you have mentioned it +appears rather as a conservative power, not destroying but rather producing.” +“It is the general vice of philosophical systems,” replied +the stranger, “that they are usually founded upon a few facts, +which they well explain, and are extended by the human fancy to all +the phenomena of Nature, to many of which they must be contradictory. +The human intellectual powers are so feeble that they can with difficulty +embrace a single series of phenomena, and they consequently must fail +when extended to the whole of Nature. Water by its common operation, +as poured down from the atmosphere in rain and torrents, tends to level +and degrade the surface, and carries the material of the land into the +bosom of the ocean. Fire, on the contrary, in volcanic eruptions +usually raises mountains, exalts the surface, and creates islands even +in the midst of the sea. But these laws are not invariable, as +the instances to which we have just referred prove, and parts of the +surface of the globe are sometimes destroyed even by fire, of which +examples may be seen in the Phlegræan fields, and islands raised +by one volcanic eruption have been immerged in the sea by another. +There are, in fact, no accidents in Nature; what we call accidents are +the results of general laws in particular operation, but we cannot deduce +these laws from <!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>the +particular operation or the general order from the partial result.” +Ambrosio said to the stranger: “You appear, sir, to have paid +so much attention to physical phenomena that few things would give us +more pleasure than to know your opinion respecting the early changes +and physical history of the globe, for I perceive you do not belong +to the modern geological schools.” The stranger said, “I +have certainly formed opinions or rather speculations on these subjects, +but I fear they are hardly worth communicating; they have sometimes +amused me in hours of idleness, but I doubt if they will amuse others.” +I said, “The observations which you have already been so kind +as to communicate to us, on the formation of the travertine, lead us +not only to expect amusement but likewise instruction.”</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—On these matters I had facts to communicate; +on the geological scheme of the early history of the globe there are +only analogies to guide us, which different minds may apply and interpret +in different ways; but I will not trifle with a long preliminary discourse. +Astronomical deductions and actual measures by triangulation prove that +the globe is an oblate spheroid flattened at the poles, and this form +we know, by strict mathematical demonstrations, is precisely the one +which a fluid body revolving round its axis, and become solid at its +surface by the slow dissipation of its heat or other causes, would assume. +I suppose, therefore, that the globe, in the first state in which the +imagination can venture to consider it, was a fluid mass with an immense +atmosphere revolving in space round the sun, and that by its cooling +a portion of its atmosphere was condensed in water which occupied a +part of the surface. In this state no forms of life such as <!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>now +belong to our system could have inhabited it; and, I suppose, the crystalline +rocks (or, as they are called by geologists, the primary rocks), which +contain no vestiges of a former order of things, were the results of +the first consolidation on its surface. Upon the further cooling +the water which more or less had covered it contracted, depositions +took place, shell-fish and coral insects of the first creation began +their labours, and islands appeared in the midst of the ocean raised +from the deep by the productive energies of millions of zoophytes. +Those islands became covered with vegetables fitted to bear a high temperature, +such as palms and various species of plants similar to those which now +exist in the hottest parts of the world; and the submarine rocks or +shores of these new formations of land became covered with aquatic vegetables, +on which various species of shell-fish and common fishes found their +nourishment. The fluids of the globe in cooling deposited a large +quantity of the materials they held in solution, and these deposits +agglutinating together the sand, the immense masses of coral rocks, +and some of the remains of the shells and fishes found round the shores +of the primitive lands, produced the first order of secondary rocks. +As the temperature of the globe became lower, species of the oviparous +reptiles were created to inhabit it; and the turtle, crocodile, and +various gigantic animals of the sauri kind, seem to have haunted the +bays and waters of the primitive lands. But in this state of things +there was no order of events similar to the present; the crust of the +globe was exceedingly slender, and the source of fire a small distance +from the surface. In consequence of contraction in one part of +the mass, cavities were opened, which <!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>caused +the entrance of water, and immense volcanic explosions took place, raising +one part of the surface, depressing another, producing mountains, and +causing new and extensive depositions from the primitive ocean. +Changes of this kind must have been extremely frequent in the early +epochas of nature, and the only living forms of which the remains are +found in the strata that are the monuments of these changes, are those +of plants, fishes, birds, and oviparous reptiles, which seem most fitted +to exist in such a war of the elements. When these revolutions +became less frequent, and the globe became still more cooled, and the +inequalities of its temperature preserved by the mountain chains, more +perfect animals became its inhabitants, many of which, such as the mammoth, +megalonix, megatherium, and gigantic hyena, are now extinct. At +this period the temperature of the ocean seems to have been not much +higher than it is at present, and the changes produced by occasional +eruptions of it have left no consolidated rocks. Yet one of these +eruptions appears to have been of great extent and some duration, and +seems to have been the cause of those immense quantities of water-worn +stones, gravel and sand, which are usually called diluvian remains; +and it is probable that this effect was connected with the elevation +of a new continent in the southern hemisphere by volcanic fire. +When the system of things became so permanent that the tremendous revolutions +depending upon the destruction of the equilibrium between the heating +and cooling agencies were no longer to be dreaded, the creation of man +took place; and since that period there has been little alteration in +the physical circumstances of our globe. Volcanoes sometimes occasion +the rise of <!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>new +islands, portions of the old continent are constantly washed by rivers +into the sea; but these changes are too insignificant to affect the +destinies of man, or the nature of the physical circumstances of things. +On the hypothesis that I have adopted, however, it must be remembered +that the present surface of the globe is merely a thin crust surrounding +a nucleus of fluid ignited matter, and consequently we can hardly be +considered as actually safe from the danger of a catastrophe by fire.</p> +<p>Onuphrio said: “From the view you have taken, I conclude that +you consider volcanic eruptions as owing to the central fire; indeed, +their existence offers, I think, an argument for believing that the +interior of the globe is fluid.” The stranger answered: +“I beg you to consider the views I have been developing as merely +hypothetical, one of the many resting places that may be taken by the +imagination in considering this subject. There are, however, distinct +facts in favour of the idea that the interior of the globe has a higher +temperature than the surface; the heat increasing in mines the deeper +we penetrate, and the number of warm sources which rise from great depths +in almost all countries, are certainly favourable to the idea. +The opinion that volcanoes are owing to this general and simple cause +is, I think, likewise more agreeable to the analogies of things than +to suppose them dependent upon partial chemical changes, such as the +action of air and water upon the combustible bases of the earths and +alkalies, though it is extremely probable that these substances may +exist beneath the surface, and may occasion some results of volcanic +fire; and on this subject my notion may, perhaps, be more trusted, as +<!-- page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>for +a long while I thought volcanic eruptions were owing to chemical agencies +of the newly discovered metals of the earths and alkalies, and I made +many, and some dangerous, experiments in the hope of confirming this +notion, but in vain.”</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—We are very much obliged to you for your geological +illustrations; but they remind me a little of some of the ideas of our +friend Philalethes in his remarkable vision, and with which we may at +some time amuse you in return for your geology should we be honoured +with more of your company. You are obliged to have recourse to +creations for all the living beings in your philosophical romance. +I do not see why you should not suppose creations or arrangements of +dead matter by the same laws of infinite wisdom, and why our globe should +not rise at once a divine work fitted for all the objects of living +and intelligent natures.</p> +<p>The stranger replied: “I have merely attempted a philosophical +history founded upon the facts known respecting rocks and strata and +the remains they contain. I begin with what may be considered +a creation, a fluid globe supplied with an immense atmosphere, and the +series of phenomena which I imagine consequent to the creation, I supposed +produced by powers impressed upon matter by Omnipotence.”</p> +<p>Ambrosio said: “There is this verisimility in your history, +that it is not contradictory to the little we are informed by Revelation +as to the origin of the globe, the order produced in the chaotic state, +and the succession of living forms generated in the days of creation, +which may be what philosophers call the ‘epochas of nature,’ +for a day with Omnipotence is as a thousand years, and a thousand years +as one day.”</p> +<p><!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>“I +must object,” Onuphrio said, “to your interpretation of +the scientific view of our new acquaintance, and to your disposition +to blend them with the cosmogony of Moses. Allowing the divine +origin of the Book of Genesis, you must admit that it was not intended +to teach the Jews systems of philosophy, but the laws of life and morals; +and a great man and an exalted Christian raised his voice two centuries +ago against this mode of applying and of often wresting the sense of +the Scriptures to make them conformable to human fancies; ‘from +which,’ says Lord Bacon, ‘arise not only false and fantastical +philosophies, but likewise heretical religions.’ If the +Scriptures are to be literally interpreted and systems of science found +in them, Gallileo Gallilei merited his persecution, and we ought still +to believe that the sun turns round the earth.”</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You mistake my view, Onuphrio, if you imagine I +am desirous of raising a system of geology on the Book of Genesis. +It cannot be doubted that the first man was created with a great variety +of instinctive or inspired knowledge, which must have been likewise +enjoyed by his descendants; and some of this knowledge could hardly +fail to have related to the globe which he inhabited, and to the objects +which surrounded him. It would have been impossible for the human +mind to have embraced the mysteries of creation, or to have followed +the history of the moving atoms from their chaotic disorder into their +arrangement in the visible universe, to have seen dead matter assuming +the forms of life and animation, and light and power arising out of +death and sleep. The ideas therefore transmitted to or presented +by Moses <!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>respecting +the origin of the world and of man were of the most simple kind, and +such as suited the early state of society; but, though general and simple +truths, they were divine truths, yet clothed in a language and suited +to the ideas of a rude and uninstructed people. And, when I state +my satisfaction in finding that they are not contradicted by the refined +researches of modern geologists, I do not mean to deduce from them a +system of science. I believe that light was the creation of an +act of the Divine will; but I do not mean to say that the words, “Let +there be light, and there was light,” were orally spoken by the +Deity, nor do I mean to imply that the modern discoveries respecting +light are at all connected with this sublime and magnificent passage.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—Having resided for a long time in Edinburgh, and +having heard a number of discussions on the theory of Dr. Hutton, or +the plutonic theory of geology, and having been exceedingly struck both +by its simplicity and beauty, its harmony with existing facts, and the +proofs afforded to it by some beautiful chemical experiments, I do not +feel disposed immediately to renounce it for the views which I have +just heard explained; for the principal facts which our new acquaintance +has stated are, I think, not inconsistent with the refined philosophical +systems of Professor Playfair and Sir James Hall.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I have no objection to the refined plutonic +view, as capable of explaining many existing phenomena; indeed, you +must be aware that I have myself had recourse to it. What I contend +against is, its application to explain the formations of the secondary +rocks, which I think clearly belong to an <!-- page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>order +of facts not at all embraced by it. In the plutonic system there +is one simple and constant order assumed, which may be supposed eternal. +The surface is constantly imagined to be disintegrated, destroyed, degraded, +and washed into the bosom of the ocean by water, and as constantly consolidated, +elevated, and regenerated by fire, and the ruins of the old form the +foundations of the new world. It is supposed that there are always +the same types, both of dead and living matter; that the remains of +rocks, of vegetables, and animals of one age are found embedded in rocks +raised from the bottom of the ocean in another. Now, to support +this view, not only the remains of living beings which at present people +the globe might be expected to be found in the oldest secondary strata, +but even those of the arts of man, the most powerful and populous of +its inhabitants, which is well known not to be the case. On the +contrary, each stratum of the secondary rocks contains remains of peculiar +and mostly now unknown species of vegetables and animals. In those +strata which are deepest, and which must consequently be supposed to +be the earliest deposited, forms even of vegetable life are rare; shells +and vegetable remains are found in the next order; the bones of fishes +and oviparous reptiles exist in the following class; the remains of +birds, with those of the same genera mentioned before, in the next order; +those of quadrupeds of extinct species, in a still more recent class; +and it is only in the loose and slightly consolidated strata of gravel +and sand, and which are usually called diluvian formations, that the +remains of animals such as now people the globe are found, with others +belonging to extinct species. But in none of <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>these +formations, whether called secondary, tertiary, or diluvial, have the +remains of man or any of his works been discovered. It is, I think, +impossible to consider the organic remains found in any of the earlier +secondary strata, the lias-limestone and its congenerous formations +for instance, without being convinced that the beings, whose organs +they formed, belonged to an order of things entirely different from +the present. Gigantic vegetables, more nearly allied to the palms +of the equatorial countries than to any other plants, can only be imagined +to have lived in a very high temperature; and the immense reptiles, +the megalosauri with paddles instead of legs and clothed in mail, in +size equal or even superior to the whale; and the great amphibia, plethiosauri, +with bodies like turtles, but furnished with necks longer than their +bodies, probably to enable them to feed on vegetables growing in the +shallows of the primitive ocean, seem to show a state in which low lands +or extensive shores rose above an immense calm sea, and when there were +no great mountain, chains to produce inequalities of temperature, tempests, +or storms. Were the surface of the earth now to be carried down +into the depths of the ocean, or were some great revolution of the waters +to cover the existing land, and it was again to be elevated by fire, +covered with consolidated depositions of sand or mud, how entirely different +would it be in its characters from any of the secondary strata. +Its great features would undoubtedly be the works of man—hewn +stones, and statues of bronze and marble, and tools of iron—and +human remains would be more common than those of animals on the greatest +part of the surface; the columns of Pæstum or of Agrigentum, or +the immense <!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>iron +and granite bridges of the Thames, would offer a striking contrast to +the bones of the crocodiles or sauri in the older rocks, or even to +those of the mammoth or elephas primogenius in the diluvial strata. +And whoever dwells upon this subject must be convinced that the present +order of things, and the comparatively recent existence of man as the +master of the globe, is as certain as the destruction of a former and +a different order and the extinction of a number of living forms which +have now no types in being, and which have left their remains wonderful +monuments of the revolutions of Nature.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I am not quite convinced by your arguments. +Supposing the lands of New Holland were to be washed into the depths +of the ocean, and to be raised according to the Huttonian view, as a +secondary stratum, by subterraneous fire, they would contain the remains +of both vegetables and animals entirely different from any found in +the strata of the old continents; and may not those peculiar formations +to which you have referred be, as it were, accidents of Nature belonging +to peculiar parts of the globe? And you speak of a diluvian formation, +which I conclude you would identify with that belonging to the catastrophe +described in the sacred writings, in which no human remains are found. +Now, you surely will not deny that man existed at the time of this catastrophe, +and he consequently may have existed at the period of the other revolutions, +which are supposed to be produced in the Huttonian views by subterraneous +fire.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I have made use of the term “diluvian,” +because it has been adopted by geologists, but without meaning to identify +the cause of the formations with <!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>the +deluge described in the sacred writings. I apply the term merely +to signify loose and water-worn strata not at all consolidated, and +deposited by an inundation of water, and in these countries which they +have covered man certainly did not exist. With respect to your +argument derived from New Holland, it appears to me to be without weight. +In a variety of climates, and in very distant parts of the globe, secondary +strata of the same order are found, and they contain always the same +kind of organic remains, which are entirely different from any of those +now afforded by beings belonging to the existing order of things. +The catastrophes which produced the secondary strata and diluvian depositions +could not have been local and partial phenomena, but must have extended +over the whole, or a great part of the surface, of the globe. +The remains of similar shell-fishes are found in the limestones of the +old and new continents; the teeth of the mammoth are not uncommon in +various parts of Europe; entire skeletons have been found in America, +and even the skin covered with hair and the entire body of one of these +enormous extinct animals has been discovered in Siberia preserved in +a mass of ice. In the oldest secondary strata there are no remains +of such animals as now belong to the surface; and in the rocks which +may be regarded as more recently deposited, these remains occur but +rarely, and with abundance of extinct species. There seems, as +it were, a gradual approach to the present system of things, and a succession +of destructions and creations preparatory to the existence of man. +It will be useless to push these arguments farther. You must allow +that it is impossible to defend the proposition, that the present order +of things <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>is +the ancient and constant order of Nature, only modified by existing +laws, and, consequently, the view which you have supported must be abandoned. +The monuments of extinct generations of animals are as perfect as those +of extinct nations; and it would be more reasonable to suppose that +the pillars and temples of Palmyra were raised by the wandering Arabs +of the desert, than to imagine that the vestiges of peculiar animated +forms in the strata beneath the surface belonged to the early and infant +families of the beings that at present inhabit it.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I am convinced. I shall push my arguments +no further, for I will not support the sophisms of that school which +supposes that living nature has undergone gradual changes by the effects +of its irritabilities and appetencies; that the fish has in millions +of generations ripened into the quadruped, and the quadruped into the +man; and that the system of life by its own inherent powers has fitted +itself to the physical changes in the system of the universe. +To this absurd, vague, atheistical doctrine, I prefer even the dream +of plastic powers, or that other more modern dream, that the secondary +strata were created, filled with remains, as it were, of animal life, +to confound the speculations of our geological reasoners.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I am glad you have not retreated into the +desert and defenceless wilderness of scepticism, or of false and feeble +philosophy. I should not have thought it worth my while to have +followed you there; I should as soon think of arguing with the peasant +who informs me that the basaltic columns of Antrim or of Staffa were +the works of human art and raised by the giant Finmacoul.</p> +<p><!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>At +this moment, one of our servants came to inform me that a dinner which +had been preparing for us at the farmhouse was ready; we asked the stranger +to do us the honour to partake of our repast; he assented, and the following +conversation took place at table.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—In reflecting upon our discussions this morning, +I cannot help being a little surprised at their nature; we have been +talking only of geological systems, when a more natural subject for +our conversation would have been these magnificent temples, and an inquiry +into the race by whom they were raised and the gods to whom they wore +dedicated. We are now treading on a spot which contains the bones +of a highly civilised and powerful people; yet we are almost ignorant +of the names they bore, and the period of their greatness is lost in +the obscurity of time.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—There can be no doubt that the early inhabitants +of this city were Grecians and a maritime and commercial people; they +have been supposed to belong to the Sybarite race, and the roses producing +flowers twice a year in the spring and autumn in ancient times here, +might sanction the idea that this balmy spot was chosen by a colony +who carried luxury and refinement to the highest pitch.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—To attempt to form any opinion with respect to +the people that anciently inhabited these now deserted plains is useless +and a vain labour. In the geological conversation which took place +before dinner, some series of interesting facts were presented to us; +and the monuments of Nature, though they do not speak a distinct language, +yet speak an intelligible one; but with respect to Pæstum, there +is neither history nor tradition to guide us; and we shall do wisely +to resume <!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>our +philosophical inquiries, if we have not already exhausted the patience +of our new guest by doubts or objections to his views.</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—One of you referred in our conversation +this morning to a vision, which had some relation to the subject of +our discussion, and I was promised some information on this matter.</p> +<p>I immediately gave a sketch of my vision, and of the opinions which +had been expressed by Ambrosio on the early history of man, and the +termination of our discussions on religion.</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—I agree with Ambrosio in opinion on the +subjects you have just mentioned. In my youth, I was a sceptic; +and this I believe is usually the case with young persons given to general +and discursive reading, and accustomed to adopt something like a mathematical +form in their reasonings; and it was in considering the nature of the +intellectual faculties of brutes, as compared with those of man, and +in examining the nature of instinctive powers, that I became a believer. +After I had formed the idea that Revelation was to man in the place +of an instinct, my faith constantly became stronger; and it was exalted +by many circumstances I had occasion to witness in a journey that I +made through Egypt and a part of Asia Minor, and by no one more than +by a very remarkable dream which occurred to me in Palestine, and which, +as we are now almost at the hour of the siesta, I will relate to you, +though perhaps you will be asleep before I have finished it. I +was walking along that deserted shore which contains the ruins of Ptolemais, +one of the most ancient ports of Judæa. It was evening; +the sun was sinking in the sea; I seated myself on a rock, <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>lost +in melancholy contemplations on the destinies of a spot once so famous +in the history of man. The calm Mediterranean, bright in the glowing +light of the west, was the only object before me. “These +waves,” I said to myself, “once bore the ships of the monarch +of Jerusalem which were freighted with the riches of the East to adorn +and honour the sanctuary of Jehovah; here are now no remains of greatness +or of commerce; a few red stones and broken bricks only mark what might +have been once a flourishing port, and the citadel above, raised by +the Saracens, is filled with Turkish soldiers.” The janissary, +who was my guide, and my servant, were preparing some food for me in +a tent which had been raised for the purpose, and whilst waiting for +their summons to my repast, I continued my reveries, which must gradually +have ended in slumber. I saw a man approaching towards me, whom, +at first, I took for my janissary, but as he came nearer I found a very +different figure. He was a very old man with a beard as white +as snow; his countenance was dark but paler than that of an Arab, and +his features stern, wild, and with a peculiar savage expression; his +form was gigantic, but his arms were withered and there was a large +scar on the left side of his face which seemed to have deprived him +of an eye. He wore a black turban and black flowing robes, and +there was a large chain round his waist which clanked as he moved. +It occurred to me that he was one of the santons or sacred madmen so +common in the East, and I retired as he approached towards me. +He called out: “Fly not, stranger; fear me not, I will not harm +you. You shall hear my story, it may be useful to you.” +He spoke in Arabic but in a peculiar dialect and to me <!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>new, +yet I understood every word. “You see before you,” +he said, “a man who was educated a Christian, but who renounced +the worship of the one supreme God for the superstitions of the pagans. +I became an apostate in the reign of the Emperor Julian, and I was employed +by that Sovereign to superintend the re-erection of the temple of Jerusalem, +by which it was intended to belie the prophecies and give the deathblow +to the holy religion. History has informed you of the result: +my assistants were most of them destroyed in a tremendous storm, I was +blasted by lightning from heaven (he raised his withered hand to his +face and eye), but suffered to live and expiate my crime in the flesh. +My life has been spent in constant and severe penance, and in that suffering +of the spirit produced by guilt, and is to be continued as long as any +part of the temple of Jupiter, in which I renounced my faith, remains +in this place. I have lived through fifteen tedious centuries, +but I trust in the mercies of Omnipotence, and I hope my atonement is +completed. I now stand in the dust of the pagan temple. +You have just thrown the last fragment of it over the rock. My +time is arrived, I come!” As he spake the last words, he +rushed towards the sea, threw himself from the rock and disappeared. +I heard no struggling, and saw nothing but a gleam of light from the +wave that closed above him. I was now roused by the cries of my +servant and of the janissary, who were shaking my arm, and who informed +me that my sleep was so sound that they were alarmed for me. When +I looked on the sea, there was the same light, and I seemed to see the +very spot in the wave where the old man had sunk. I was so struck +by the vision, that I asked if they had <!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>not +seen something dash into the wave, and if they had not heard somebody +speaking to me as they arrived. Of course their answers were negative. +In passing through Jerusalem and in coasting the Dead Sea I had been +exceedingly struck by the present state of Judæa and the conformity +of the fate of the Jewish nation to the predictions of our Saviour; +I had likewise been reading Gibbon’s eulogy of Julian, and his +account of the attempts made by that Emperor to rebuild the temple: +so that the dream at such a time and in such a place was not an unnatural +occurrence. Yet it was so vivid, and the image of the subject +of it so peculiar, that it long affected my imagination, and whenever +I recurred to it, strengthened my faith.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I believe all the narratives of apparitions and +ghost stories are founded upon dreams of the same kind as that which +occurred to you: an ideal representation of events in the local situation, +in which the person is at the moment, and when the imaginary picture +of the place in sleep exactly coincides with its reality in waking.</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—I agree with you in your opinion. +If my servant had not been with me, and my dream had been a little less +improbable, it would have been difficult to have persuaded me that I +had not been visited by an apparition.</p> +<p>I mentioned the dream of Brutus, and said, “His supposed evil +genius appeared in his tent; had the philosophical hero dreamt that +his genius had appeared to him in Rome, there could have been no delusion.” +I cited the similar vision, recorded of Dion before his death, by Plutarch, +of a gigantic female, one of the fates or furies, who was supposed to +have been seen <!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>by +him when reposing in the portico of his palace. I referred likewise +to my own vision of the beautiful female, the guardian angel of my recovery, +who always seemed to me to be present at my bedside.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—In confirmation of this opinion of Onuphrio, I +can mention many instances. I once dreamt that my door had been +forced, that there were robbers in my room, and that one of them was +actually putting his hand before my mouth to ascertain if I was sleeping +naturally. I awoke at this moment, and was some minutes before +I could be sure whether it was a dream or a reality. I felt the +pressure of the bedclothes on my lips, and still in the fear of being +murdered continued to keep my eyes closed and to breathe slowly, till, +hearing nothing and finding no motion, I ventured to open my eyes; but +even then, when I saw nothing, I was not sure that my impression was +a dream till I had risen from my bed and ascertained that the door was +still locked.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—I am the only one of the party unable to record +any dreams of the vivid and peculiar nature you mention from my own +experience; I conclude it is owing to the dulness of my imagination. +I suppose the more intense power of reverie is a symptom of the poetical +temperament; and perhaps, if I possessed more enthusiasm, I should always +have possessed more of the religious instinct. To adopt the idea +of Philalethes of hereditary character, I fear my forefathers have not +been correct in their faith.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—Your glory will be greater in establishing a new +character, and I trust even the conversation of this day has given you +an additional reason to adopt <i>our</i> faith.</p> +<p><!-- page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>Ambrosio +spoke these words with an earnestness unusual in him, and with something +of a tone which marked a zeal for proselytism, and at the same time +he cast his eyes on the rosary which was suspended round the neck of +the stranger, and said, “I hope I am not indiscreet in saying +<i>our</i> faith.”</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—I was educated in the ritual of the church +of England; I belong to the Church of Christ; the rosary which you see +suspended round my neck is a memorial of sympathy and respect for an +illustrious man. I will, if you will allow me, give you the history +of it, which, I think from the circumstances with which it is connected, +you will not find devoid of interest. I was passing through France +in the reign of Napoleon, by the peculiar privilege granted to a sçavan, +on my road into Italy. I had just returned from the Holy Land, +and had in my possession two or three of the rosaries which are sold +to pilgrims at Jerusalem as having been suspended in the Holy Sepulchre. +Pius VII. was then in imprisonment at Fontainebleau. By a special +favour, on the plea of my return from the Holy Land, I obtained permission +to see this venerable and illustrious Pontiff. I carried with +me one of my rosaries. He received me with great kindness. +I tendered my services to execute any commissions, not political ones, +he might think fit to entrust me with in Italy, informing him that I +was an Englishman. He expressed his thanks, but declined troubling +me. I told him I was just returned from the Holy Land, and bowing +with great humility, offered to him my rosary from the Holy Sepulchre. +He received it with a smile, touched it with his lips, <!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>gave +his benediction over it, and returned it into my hands, supposing, of +course, that I was a Roman Catholic. I had meant to present it +to his Holiness, but the blessing he had bestowed upon it and the touch +of his lips, made it a precious relic to me and I restored it to my +neck, round which it has ever since been suspended. He asked me +some unimportant questions respecting the state of the Christians at +Jerusalem; and on a sudden, turned the subject, much to my surprise, +to the destruction of the French in Russia, and in an exceedingly low +tone of voice, as if afraid of being overheard, he said, “The +<i>nefas</i> has long been triumphant over the <i>fas</i>, but I do +not doubt that the balance of things is even now restoring; that God +will vindicate his Church, clear his polluted altars, and establish +society upon its permanent basis of justice and faith. We shall +meet again. Adieu!” and he gave me his paternal blessing. +It was eighteen months after this interview, that I went out with almost +the whole population of Rome, to receive and welcome the triumphal entry +of this illustrious father of the Church into his capital. He +was borne on the shoulders of the most distinguished artists, headed +by Canova; and never shall I forget the enthusiasm with which he was +received—it is impossible to describe the shouts of triumph and +of rapture sent up to heaven by every voice. And when he gave +his benediction to the people, there was an universal prostration, a +sobbing and marks of emotions of joy almost like the bursting of the +heart. I heard, everywhere around me, cries of “The holy +Father! The most holy Father! His restoration is the work +of God!” I saw tears streaming from the eyes of almost all +the women <!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>about +me, many of them were sobbing hysterically, and old men were weeping +as if they had been children. I pressed my rosary to my breast +on this occasion, and repeatedly touched with my lips that part of it +which had received the kiss of the most venerable Pontiff. I preserve +it with a kind of hallowed feeling, as the memorial of a man whose sanctity, +firmness, meekness and benevolence are an honour to his Church and to +human nature; and it has not only been useful to me, by its influence +upon my own mind, but it has enabled me to give pleasure to others, +and has, I believe, been sometimes beneficial in insuring my personal +safety. I have often gratified the peasants of Apulia and Calabria +by presenting them to kiss a rosary from the Holy Sepulchre which had +been hallowed by the touch of the lips and benediction of the Pope; +and it has been even respected by and procured me a safe passage through +a party of brigands who once stopped me in the passes of the Apennines.</p> +<p><i>Onu</i>.—The use you have made of this relic puts me in +mind of a device of a very ingenious geological philosopher now living. +He was on Etna and busily employed in making a collection of the lavas +formed from the igneous currents of that mountain; the peasants were +often troublesome to him, suspecting that he was searching for treasures. +It occurred to him to make the following speech to them: “I have +been a great sinner in my youth and, as a penance, I have made a vow +to carry away with me pieces of every kind of stone found upon the mountain; +permit me quietly to perform my pious duty, that I may receive absolution +for my sins.” The speech produced the <!-- page 119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>desired +effect; the peasants shouted, “The holy man! The saint!” +and gave him every assistance in their power to enable him to carry +off his burthen, and he made his ample collections with the utmost security +and in the most agreeable manner.</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—I do not approve of pious frauds even +for philosophical purposes; my rosary excited in others the same kind +of feeling which it excited in my own bosom, and which I hold to be +perfectly justifiable, and of which I shall never be ashamed.</p> +<p><i>Amb</i>.—You must have travelled in Italy in very dangerous +times; have you always been secure?</p> +<p><i>The Stranger</i>.—Always; I have owed my security, partly, +as I have said, to my rosary, but more to my dress and my acquaintance +with the dialect of the natives. I have always carried with me +a peasant as a guide, who has been intrusted with the small sums of +money I wanted for my immediate purposes, and my baggage has been little +more than a Cynic philosopher would have carried with him; and when +I have been unable to walk, I have trusted myself to the conduct of +a vetturino, a native of the province, with his single mule and caratella.</p> +<p>The sun was now setting and the temple of Neptune was glowing with +its last purple rays. We were informed that our horses were waiting, +and that it was time for us to depart to our lodgings at Eboli. +I asked the stranger to be our companion and to do us the honour to +accept of a seat in our carriage. He declined the invitation, +and said: “My bed is prepared in the casina here for this night, +and to-morrow I proceed on a journey connected with scientific objects +in the parts of Calabria the scene of the terrible earthquakes of <!-- page 120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>1783.” +I held out my hand to him in parting; he gave it a strong and warm pressure, +and said, “Adieu! we shall meet again.”</p> +<h2>DIALOGUE THE FOURTH. THE PROTEUS, OR IMMORTALITY.</h2> +<p>The impression made upon my mind by the stranger with whom we became +acquainted at Pæstum was of the strongest and most extraordinary +kind. The memory of his person, his dress, his manners, the accents +of his voice, and the tone of his philosophy, for a long while haunted +my imagination in a most unaccountable manner, and even formed a part +of my dreams. It often occurred to me that this was not the first +time that I had seen him; and I endeavoured, but in vain, to find some +type or image of him in former scenes of my life. I continually +made inquiries respecting him amongst my acquaintance, but I could never +be sure that any of them knew him, or even had seen him. So great +were his peculiarities, that he must have escaped observation altogether; +for, had he entered the world at all, he must have made some noise in +it. I expressed so much interest on this subject, that at last +it became a source of ridicule amongst my acquaintance, who often asked +me if I had not yet obtained news of my spirit-friend or ghost-seer.</p> +<p>After my return from Naples to Rome, I was almost immediately recalled +to England by a melancholy event—the death of a very near and +dear relation—and I left my two friends, Ambrosio and Onuphrio, +to pursue their travels, which were intended to be of some extent and +duration.</p> +<p><!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>In +my youth, and through the prime of manhood, I never entered London without +feelings of pleasure and hope. It was to me as the grand theatre +of intellectual activity, the field of every species of enterprise and +exertion, the metropolis of the world of business, thought, and action. +There I was sure to find the friends and companions of my youth, to +hear the voice of encouragement and praise. There, society of +the most refined kind offered daily its banquets to the mind with such +variety that satiety had no place in them, and new objects of interest +and ambition were constantly exciting attention either in politics, +literature, or science.</p> +<p>I now entered this great city in a very different tone of mind—one +of settled melancholy; not merely produced by the mournful event which +recalled me to my country, but owing, likewise, to an entire change +in the condition of my physical, moral, and intellectual being. +My health was gone, my ambition was satisfied, I was no longer excited +by the desire of distinction; what I regarded most tenderly was in the +grave, and, to take a metaphor derived from the change produced by time +in the juice of the grape, my cup of life was no longer sparkling, sweet, +and effervescent;—it had lost its sweetness without losing its +power, and it had become bitter.</p> +<p>After passing a few months in England and enjoying (as much as I +could enjoy anything) the society of the few friends who still remained +alive, the desire of travel again seized me. I had preserved amidst +the wreck of time one feeling strong and unbroken: the love of natural +scenery; and this, in advanced life, formed a principal motive for my +plans of conduct and <!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>action. +Of all the climates of Europe, England seems to me most fitted for the +activity of the mind, and the least suited to repose. The alterations +of a climate so various and rapid continually awake new sensations; +and the changes in the sky from dryness to moisture, from the blue ethereal +to cloudiness and fogs, seem to keep the nervous system in a constant +state of disturbance. In the mild climate of Nice, Naples, or +Sicily, where even in winter it is possible to enjoy the warmth of the +sunshine in the open air, beneath palm trees or amidst evergreen groves +of orange trees covered with odorous fruit and sweet-scented leaves, +mere existence is a pleasure, and even the pains of disease are sometimes +forgotten amidst the balmy influence of nature, and a series of agreeable +and uninterrupted sensations invite to repose and oblivion. But +in the changeful and tumultuous atmosphere of England, to be tranquil +is a labour, and employment is necessary to ward off the attacks of +ennui. The English as a nation is pre-eminently active, and the +natives of no other country follow their objects with so much force, +fire, and constancy. And, as human powers are limited, there are +few examples of very distinguished men living in this country to old +age: they usually fail, droop, and die before they have attained the +period naturally marked for the end of human existence. The lives +of our statesmen, warriors, poets, and even philosophers offer abundant +proofs of the truth of this opinion; whatever burns, consumes—ashes +remain. Before the period of youth is passed, grey hairs usually +cover those brows which are adorned with the civic oak or the laurel; +and in the luxurious and exciting life of the man of pleasure, their +tints are not even preserved by <!-- page 123--><a name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>the +myrtle wreath or the garland of roses from the premature winter of time.</p> +<p>In selecting the scenes for my new journey I was guided by my former +experience. I know no country more beautiful than that which may +be called the Alpine country of Austria, including the Alps of the southern +Tyrol, those of Illyria, the Noric and the Julian Alps, and the Alps +of Styria and Salzburg. The variety of the scenery, the verdure +of the meadows and trees, the depths of the valleys, the altitude of +the mountains, the clearness and grandeur of the rivers and lakes give +it, I think, a decided superiority over Switzerland; and the people +are far more agreeable. Various in their costumes and manners, +Illyrians, Italians, or Germans, they have all the same simplicity of +character, and are all distinguished by their love of their country, +their devotion to their sovereign, the warmth and purity of their faith, +their honesty, and (with very few exceptions) I may say their great +civility and courtesy to strangers.</p> +<p>In the prime of life I had visited this region in a society which +afforded me the pleasures of intellectual friendship and the delights +of refined affection; later I had left the burning summer of Italy and +the violence of an unhealthy passion, and had found coolness, shade, +repose, and tranquillity there; in a still more advanced period I had +sought for and found consolation, and partly recovered my health after +a dangerous illness, the consequence of labour and mental agitation; +there I had found the spirit of my early vision. I was desirous, +therefore, of again passing some time in these scenes in the hope of +re-establishing a broken constitution; and though this hope was a feeble +one, yet at <!-- page 124--><a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>least +I expected to spend a few of the last days of life more tranquilly and +more agreeably than in the metropolis of my own country. Nature +never deceives us. The rocks, the mountains, the streams always +speak the same language. A shower of snow may hide the verdant +woods in spring, a thunderstorm may render the blue limpid streams foul +and turbulent; but these effects are rare and transient: in a few hours +or at least days all the sources of beauty are renovated. And +Nature affords no continued trains of misfortunes and miseries, such +as depend upon the constitution of humanity; no hopes for ever blighted +in the bud; no beings full of life, beauty, and promise taken from us +in the prime of youth. Her fruits are all balmy, bright, and sweet; +she affords none of those blighted ones so common in the life of man +and so like the fabled apples of the Dead Sea—fresh and beautiful +to the sight, but when tasted full of bitterness and ashes. I +have already mentioned the strong effect produced on my mind by the +stranger whom I had met so accidentally at Pæstum; the hope of +seeing him again was another of my motives for wishing to leave England, +and (why, I know not) I had a decided presentiment that I was more likely +to meet him in the Austrian states than in England, his own country.</p> +<p>For this journey I had one companion, an early friend and medical +adviser. He had lived much in the world, had acquired a considerable +fortune, had given up his profession, was now retired, and sought, like +myself, in this journey repose of mind and the pleasures derived from +natural scenery. He was a man of a very powerful and acute understanding, +but had less of the poetical temperament than any person whom I had +ever <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>known +with similar vivacity of mind. He was a severe thinker, with great +variety of information, an excellent physiologist, and an accomplished +naturalist. In his reasonings he adopted the precision of a geometer, +and was always upon his guard against the influence of imagination. +He had passed the meridian of life, and his health was weak, like my +own, so that we were well suited as travelling companions, moving always +slowly from place to place without hurry or fatigue. I shall call +this friend Eubathes. I will say nothing of the progress of our +journey through France and Germany; I shall dwell only upon that part +of it which has still a strong interest for me, and where events occurred +that I shall never forget. We passed into the Alpine country of +Austria by Lintz, on the Danube, and followed the course of the Traun +to Gmünden, on the Traun See or lake of the Traun, where we halted +for some days. If I were disposed to indulge in minute picturesque +descriptions I might occupy hours with details of the various characters +of the enchanting scenery in this neighbourhood. The vales have +that pastoral beauty and constant verdure which is so familiar to us +in England, with similar enclosures and hedge-rows and fruit and forest +trees. Above are noble hills planted with beeches and oaks. +Mountains bound the view, here covered with pines and larches, there +raising their marble crests capped with eternal snows above the clouds. +The lower part of the Traun See is always, even in the most rainy season, +perfectly pellucid; and the Traun pours out of it over ledges of rocks +a large and magnificent river, beautifully clear and of the purest tint +of the beryl. The fall of the Traun, about ten miles below Gmünden, +was one of our <!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>favourite +haunts. It is a cataract which, when the river is full, may be +almost compared to that of Schaffhausen for magnitude, and possesses +the same peculiar characters of grandeur in the precipitous rush of +its awful and overpowering waters, and of beauty in the tints of its +streams and foam, and in the forms of the rocks over which it falls, +and the cliffs and woods by which it is overhung. In this spot +an accident, which had nearly been fatal to me, occasioned the renewal +of my acquaintance in an extraordinary manner with the mysterious unknown +stranger. Eubathes, who was very fond of fly-fishing, was amusing +himself by catching graylings for our dinner in the stream above the +fall. I took one of the boats which are used for descending the +canal or lock artificially cut in the rock by the side of the fall, +on which salt and wood are usually transported from Upper Austria to +the Danube; and I desired two of the peasants to assist my servant in +permitting the boat to descend by a rope to the level of the river below. +My intention was to amuse myself by this rapid species of locomotion +along the descending sluice. For some moments the boat glided +gently along the smooth current, and I enjoyed the beauty of the moving +scene around me, and had my eye fixed upon the bright rainbow seen upon +the spray of the cataract above my head; when I was suddenly roused +by a shout of alarm from my servant, and, looking round, I saw that +the piece of wood to which the rope had been attached had given way, +and the boat was floating down the river at the mercy of the stream. +I was not at first alarmed, for I saw that my assistants were procuring +long poles with which it appeared easy to arrest the boat before it +entered the rapidly descending <!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>water +of the sluice, and I called out to them to use their united force to +reach the longest pole across the water that I might be able to catch +the end of it in my hand. And at this moment I felt perfect security; +but a breeze of wind suddenly came down the valley and blew from the +nearest bank, the boat was turned by it out of the side current and +thrown nearer to the middle of the river, and I soon saw that I was +likely to be precipitated over the cataract. My servant and the +boatmen rushed into the water, but it was too deep to enable them to +reach the boat; I was soon in the white water of the descending stream, +and my danger was inevitable. I had presence of mind enough to +consider whether my chance of safety would be greater by throwing myself +out of the boat or by remaining in it, and I preferred the latter expedient. +I looked from the rainbow upon the bright sun above my head, as if taking +leave for ever of that glorious luminary; I raised one pious aspiration +to the divine source of light and life; I was immediately stunned by +the thunder of the fall, and my eyes were closed in darkness. +How long I remained insensible I know not. My first recollections +after this accident were of a bright light shining above me, of warmth +and pressure in different parts of my body, and of the noise of the +rushing cataract sounding in my ears. I seemed awakened by the +light from a sound sleep, and endeavoured to recall my scattered thoughts, +but in vain; I soon fell again into slumber. From this second +sleep I was awakened by a voice which seemed not altogether unknown +to me, and looking upwards I saw the bright eye and noble countenance +of the Unknown Stranger whom I had met at Pæstum. I faintly +articulated: “I <!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>am +in another world.” “No,” said the stranger, +“you are safe in this; you are a little bruised by your fall, +but you will soon be well; be tranquil and compose yourself. Your +friend is here, and you will want no other assistance than he can easily +give you.” He then took one of my hands, and I recognised +the same strong and warm pressure which I had felt from his parting +salute at Pæstum. Eubathes, whom I now saw with an expression +of joy and of warmth unusual to him, gave a hearty shake to the other +hand, and they both said, “You must repose a few hours longer.” +After a sound sleep till the evening, I was able to take some refreshment, +and found little inconvenience from the accident except some bruises +on the lower part of the body and a slight swimming in the head. +The next day I was able to return to Gmünden, where I learnt from +the Unknown the history of my escape, which seemed almost miraculous +to me. He said that he was often in the habit of combining pursuits +of natural history with the amusements derived from rural sports and +was fishing the day that my accident happened below the fall of the +Traun for that peculiar species of the large <i>salmo</i> of the Danube +which, fortunately for me, is only to be caught by very strong tackle. +He saw, to his very great astonishment and alarm, the boat and my body +precipitated by the fall, and was so fortunate as to entangle his hooks +in a part of my dress when I had been scarcely more than a minute under +water, and by the assistance of his servant, who was armed with the +gaff or curved hook for landing large fish, I was safely conveyed to +the shore, undressed, put into a warm bed, and by the modes of restoring +suspended animation, which were familiar to him, I <!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>soon +recovered my sensibility and consciousness. I was desirous of +reasoning with him and Eubathes upon the state of annihilation of power +and transient death which I had suffered when in the water; but they +both requested me to defer those inquiries, which required too profound +an exertion of thought, till the effects of the shock on my weak constitution +were over and my strength was somewhat re-established: and I was the +more contented to comply with their request as the Unknown said it was +his intention to be our companion for at least some days longer, and +that his objects of pursuit lay in the very country in which we were +making our summer tour. It was some weeks before I was sufficiently +strong to proceed on our journey, for my frame was little fitted to +bear such a trial as that which it had experienced; and, considering +the weak state of my body when I was immerged in the water, I could +hardly avoid regarding my recovery as providential, and the presence +and assistance of the Stranger as in some way connected with the future +destiny and utility of my life. In the middle of August we pursued +our plans of travel. We first visited those romantic lakes, Hallsstadt, +Aussee, and Töplitz See, which collect the melted snows of the +higher mountains of Styria to supply the unfailing sources of the Traun. +We visited that elevated region of the Tyrol which forms the crest of +the Pusterthal, and where the same chains of glaciers send down streams +to the Drave and the Adige, to the Black Sea and to the Adriatic. +We remained for many days in those two magnificent valleys which afford +the sources of the Save, where that glorious and abundant river rises, +as it were, in the very bosom of beauty, leaping from its subterraneous +<!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>reservoirs +in the snowy mountains of Terglou and Manhardt in thundering cataracts +amongst cliffs and woods into the pure and deep cerulean lakes of Wochain +and Wurzen, and pursuing its course amidst pastoral meadows so ornamented +with plants and trees as to look the garden of Nature. The subsoil +or strata of this part of Illyria are entirely calcareous and full of +subterranean caverns, so that in every declivity large funnel-shaped +cavities, like the craters of volcanoes, may be seen, in which the waters +that fall from the atmosphere are lost: and almost every lake or rives +has a subterraneous source, and often a subterraneous exit. The +Laibach river rises twice from the limestone rock, and is twice again +swallowed up by the earth before it makes its final appearance and is +lost in the Save. The Zirknitz See or Lake is a mass of water +entirely filled and emptied by subterraneous sources, and its natural +history, though singular, has in it nothing of either prodigy, mystery, +or wonder. The Grotto of the Maddalena at Adelsberg occupied more +of our attention than the Zirknitz See. I shall give the conversation +that took place in that extraordinary cavern entire, as well as I can +remember it, in the words used by my companions.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—We must be many hundred feet below the surface, +yet the temperature of this cavern is fresh and agreeable.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—This cavern has the mean temperature of +the atmosphere, which is the case with all subterraneous cavities removed +from the influence of the solar light and heat; and, in so hot a day +in August as this, I know no more agreeable or salutary manner of taking +a cold bath than in descending to a part of <!-- page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>the +atmosphere out of the influence of those causes which occasion its elevated +temperature.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—Have you, sir, been in this country before?</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—This is the third summer that I have made +it the scene of an annual visit. Independently of the natural +beauties found in Illyria, and the various sources of amusement which +a traveller fond of natural history may find in this region, it has +had a peculiar object of interest for me in the extraordinary animals +which are found in the bottom of its subterraneous cavities: I allude +to the Proteus anguinus, a far greater wonder of nature than any of +those which the Baron Valvasa detailed to the Royal Society a century +and half ago as belonging to Carniola, with far too romantic an air +for a philosopher.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I have seen these animals in passing through this +country before; but I should be very glad to be better acquainted with +their natural history.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—We shall soon be in that part of the grotto +where they are found, and I shall willingly communicate the little that +I have been able to learn respecting their natural characters and habits.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—The grotto now becomes really magnificent; I have +seen no subterraneous cavity with so many traits of beauty and of grandeur. +The irregularity of its surface, the magnitude of the masses broken +in pieces which compose its sides, and which seem torn from the bosom +of the mountain by some great convulsion of nature, their dark colours +and deep shades form a singular contrast with the beauty, uniformity, +I may say, order and grace of the white stalactical concretions which +hang from the canopy above, and where the light of our torches reflected +from the brilliant or <!-- page 132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>transparent +calcareous gems create a scene which almost looks like one produced +by enchantment.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—If the awful chasms of dark masses of rock surrounding +us appear like the work of demons who might be imagined to have risen +from the centre of the earth, the beautiful works of Nature above our +heads may be compared to a scenic representation of a temple or banquet +hall for fairies or genii, such as those fabled in the Arabian romances.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—A poet might certainly place here the palace +of the King of the Gnomes, and might find marks of his creative power +in the small lake close by on which the flame of the torch is now falling, +for there it is that I expect to find the extraordinary animals which +have been so long the objects of my attention.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I see three or four creatures, like slender fish, +moving on the mud below the water.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I see them; they are the Protei. +Now I have them in my fishing-net, and now they are safe in the pitcher +of water. At first view you might suppose this animal to be a +lizard, but it has the motions of a fish. Its head and the lower +part of its body and its tail bear a strong resemblance to those of +the eel; but it has no fins, and its curious bronchial organs are not +like the gills of fishes: they form a singular vascular structure, as +you see, almost like a crest, round the throat, which may be removed +without occasioning the death of the animal, which is likewise furnished +with lungs. With this double apparatus for supplying air to the +blood, it can live either below or above the surface of the water. +Its fore-feet resemble hands, but they have only three claws or fingers, +<!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>and +are too feeble to be of use in grasping or supporting the weight of +the animal; the hinder feet have only two claws or toes, and in the +larger specimens are found so imperfect as to be almost obliterated. +It has small points in place of eyes, as if to preserve the analogy +of Nature. It is of a fleshy whiteness and transparency in its +natural state; but when exposed to light, its skin gradually becomes +darker, and at last gains an olive tint. Its nasal organs appear +large, and it is abundantly furnished with teeth: from which it may +be concluded that it is an animal of prey; yet in its confined state +it has never been known to eat, and it has been kept alive for many +years by occasionally changing the water in which it was placed.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—Is this the only place in Carniola where these +animals are found?</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—They were first discovered here by the +late Baron Zöis; but they have since been found, though rarely, +at Sittich, about thirty miles distant, thrown up by water from a subterraneous +cavity; and I have lately heard it reported that some individuals of +the same species have been recognised in the calcareous strata in Sicily.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—This lake in which we have seen these animals is +a very small one. Do you suppose they are bred here?</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—Certainly not. In dry seasons they +are seldom found here, but after great rains they are often abundant. +I think it cannot be doubted that their natural residence is in an extensile +deep subterranean lake, from which in great floods they sometimes are +forced through the crevices of the rocks into this place where they +are found; and it does not <!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>appear +to me impossible, when the peculiar nature of the country in which we +are is considered, that the same great cavity may furnish the individuals +which have been found at Adelsberg and at Sittich.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—This is a very extraordinary view of the subject. +Is it not possible that it may be the larva of some large unknown animal +inhabiting these limestone cavities? Its feet are not in harmony +with the rest of its organisation; and were they removed, it would have +all the characters of a fish.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I cannot suppose that they are larvæ. +There is, I believe, in Nature no instance of a transition by this species +of metamorphosis from a more perfect to a less perfect animal. +The tadpole has a resemblance to a fish before it becomes a frog; the +caterpillar and the maggot gain not only more perfect powers of motion +on the earth in their new state, but acquire organs by which they inhabit +a new element. This animal, I dare say, is much larger than we +now see it when mature in its native place; but its comparative anatomy +is exceedingly hostile to the idea that it is an animal in a state of +transition. It has been found of various sizes, from that of the +thickness of a quill to that of the thumb, but its form of organs has +been always the same. It is surely a perfect animal of a peculiar +species. And it adds one instance more to the number already known +of the wonderful manner in which life is produced and perpetuated in +every part of our globe, even in places which seem the least suited +to organised existences. And the same infinite power and wisdom +which has fitted the camel and the ostrich for the deserts of Africa, +the swallow that secretes its own nest for the caves of Java, the <!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>whale +for the Polar seas, and the morse and white bear for the Arctic ice, +has given the proteus to the deep and dark subterraneous lakes of Illyria—an +animal to whom the presence of light is not essential, and who can live +indifferently in air and in water, on the surface of the rock, or in +the depths of the mud.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—It is now ten years since I first visited this +spot. I was exceedingly anxious to see the proteus, and came here +with the guide in the evening of the day I arrived at Adelsberg; but +though we examined the bottom of the cave with the greatest care, we +could find no specimens. We returned the next morning and were +more fortunate, for we discovered five close to the bank on the mud +covering the bottom of the lake; the mud was smooth and perfectly undisturbed, +and the water quite clear. This fact of their appearance during +the night seemed to me so extraordinary, that I could hardly avoid the +fancy that they were new creations. I saw no cavities through +which they could have entered, and the undisturbed state of the lake +seemed to give weight to my notion. My reveries became discursive; +I was carried in imagination back to the primitive state of the globe, +when the great animals of the sauri kind were created under the pressure +of a heavy atmosphere; and my notion on this subject was not destroyed +when I heard from a celebrated anatomist, to whom I sent the specimens +I had collected, that the organisation of the spine of the proteus was +analogous to that of one of the sauri, the remains of which are found +in the older secondary strata. It was said at this time that no +organs of reproduction had been discovered in any of the specimens examined +by physiologists, and this lent a weight to <!-- page 136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>my +opinion of the possibility of their being actually new creations, which +I suppose you will condemn as wholly visionary and unphilosophical.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—From the tone in which you make your statements, +I think you yourself consider them as unworthy of discussion. +On such ground eels might be considered new creations, for their mature +ovaria have not yet been discovered, and they come from the sea into +rivers under circumstances when it is difficult to trace their course.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—The problem of the reproduction of the +proteus, like that of the common eel, is not yet solved; but ovaria +have been discovered in animals of both species, and in this instance, +as in all others belonging to the existing order of things, Harvey’s +maxim of “omne vivum ab ovo” will apply.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—You just now said that this animal has been long +an object of attention to you; have you studied it as a comparative +anatomist, in search of the solution of the problem of its reproduction?</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—No; this inquiry has been pursued by much +abler investigators: by Schreiber and Configliachi; my researches were +made upon its respiration and the changes occasioned in water by its +bronchia.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I hope they have been satisfactory.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—They proved to me, at least, that not merely +the oxygen dissolved in water, but likewise a part of the azote, was +absorbed in the respiration of this animal.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—So that your researches confirm those of the French +savants and Alexander von Humboldt, that in the respiration of animals +which separate air from water, both principles of the atmosphere are +absorbed.</p> +<p><!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span><i>Phil</i>.—I +have heard so many and such various opinions on the nature of the function +of respiration during my education and since, that I should like to +know what is the modern doctrine on this subject. I can hardly +refer to better authority than yourself, and I have an additional reason +for wishing for some accurate knowledge on this matter, having, as you +well know, been the subject of an experiment in relation to it which, +but for your kind and active assistance, must have terminated fatally.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I shall gladly state what I know, which +is very little. In physics and in chemistry, the science of dead +matter, we possess many facts and a few principles or laws; but whenever +the functions of life are considered, though the facts are numerous, +yet there is, as yet, scarcely any approach to general laws, and we +must usually end where we begin by confessing our entire ignorance.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I will not allow this ignorance to be entire. +Something, undoubtedly, has been gained by the knowledge of the circulation +of the blood and its aëration in the lungs—these, if not +laws, are at least fundamental principles.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I speak only of the functions in their +connection with life. We are still ignorant of the source of animal +heat, though half a century ago the chemists thought they had proved +it was owing to a sort of combustion of the carbon of the blood.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—As we return to our inn I hope you will both be +so good as give me your views of the nature of this function, so important +to all living things; tell me what you <i>know</i>, or what you <i>believe</i>, +or what others <i>imagine they know</i>.</p> +<p><!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span><i>The +Unknown</i>.—The powers of the organic system depend upon a continued +state of change. The waste of the body produced in muscular action, +perspiration, and various secretions, is made up for by the constant +supply of nutritive matter to the blood by the absorbents, and by the +action of the heart the blood is preserved in perpetual motion through +every part of the body. In the lungs, or bronchia, the venous +blood is exposed to the influence of air and undergoes a remarkable +change, being converted into arterial blood. The obvious chemical +alteration of the air is sufficiently simple in this process: a certain +quantity of carbon only is added to it, and it receives an addition +of heat or vapour; the volumes of elastic fluid inspired and expired +(making allowance for change of temperature) are the same, and if ponderable +agents only were to be regarded it would appear as if the only use of +respiration were to free the blood from a certain quantity of carbonaceous +matter. But it is probable that this is only a secondary object, +and that the change produced by respiration upon the blood is of a much +more important kind. Oxygen, in its elastic state, has properties +which are very characteristic: it gives out light by compression, which +is not certainly known to be the case with any other elastic fluid except +those with which oxygen has entered without undergoing combustion; and +from the fire it produces in certain processes, and from the manner +in which it is separated by positive electricity in the gaseous state +from its combinations, it is not easy to avoid the supposition that +it contains, besides its ponderable elements, some very subtle matter +which is capable of assuming the form of heat and light. My idea +is that the common <!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>air +inspired enters into the venous blood entire, in a state of dissolution, +carrying with it its subtle or ethereal part, which in ordinary cases +of chemical change is given off; that it expels from the blood carbonic +acid gas and azote; and that in the course of the circulation its ethereal +part and its ponderable part undergo changes which belong to laws that +cannot be considered as chemical—the ethereal part probably producing +animal heat and other effects, and the ponderable part contributing +to form carbonic acid and other products. The arterial blood is +necessary to all the functions of life, and it is no less connected +with the irritability of the muscles and the sensibility of the nerves +than with the performance of all the secretions.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—No one can be more convinced than I am of the very +limited extent of our knowledge in chemical physiology, and when I say +that, having been a disciple and friend of Dr. Black, I am still disposed +to prefer his ancient view to your new one, I wish merely to induce +you to pause and to hear my reasons; they may appear insufficient to +you, but I am anxious to explain them. First, then, in all known +chemical changes in which oxygen gas is absorbed and carbonic acid gas +formed, heat is produced. I could mention a thousand instances, +from the combustion of wood or spirits of wine to the fermentation of +fruit or the putrefaction of animal matter. This general fact, +which may be almost called a law, is in favour of the view of Dr. Black. +Another circumstance in favour of it is, that those animals which possess +the highest temperature consume the greatest quantity of air, and, under +different circumstances of action and repose, the heat is in <!-- page 140--><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>great +measure proportional to the quantity of oxygen consumed. Then +those animals which absorb the smallest quantity of air are cold-blooded. +Another argument in favour of Dr. Black’s opinion is the change +of colour of blood from black to red, which seems to show that it loses +carbon.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—With the highest respect for the memory +of Dr. Black, and for the opinion of his disciple, I shall answer the +arguments I have just heard. I will not allow any facts or laws +from the action of dead matter to apply to living structures; the blood +is a living fluid, and of this we are sure that it does not burn in +respiration. The terms warmth and cold, as applied to the blood +of animals, are improper in the sense in which they have been just used; +all animals are, in fact, warm-blooded, and the degrees of their temperature +are fitted to the circumstances under which they live, and those animals, +the life of which is most active, possess most heat, which may be the +result of general actions, and not a particular effect of respiration. +Besides, a distinguished physiologist has rendered it probable that +the animal heat depends more upon the functions of the nerves than upon +any result of respiration. The argument derived from change of +colour is perfectly delusive; it would not follow if carbon were liberated +from the blood that it must necessarily become brighter; sulphur combining +with charcoal becomes a clear fluid, and a black oxide of copper becomes +red in uniting with a substance which abounds in carbon. No change +in sensible qualities can ever indicate with precision the nature of +chemical change. I shall resume my view, which I cannot be said +to <!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>have +fully developed. When I stated that carbonic acid was formed in +the venous blood in the processes of life, I meant merely to say that +this blood, in consequence of certain changes, became capable of giving +off carbon and oxygen in union with each other, for the moment inorganic +matter enters into the composition of living organs it obeys new laws. +The action of the gastric juice is chemical, and it will only dissolve +dead matters, and it dissolves them when they are in tubes of metal +as well as in the stomach, but it has no action upon living matter. +Respiration is no more a chemical process than the absorption of chyle; +and the changes that take place in the lungs, though they appear so +simple, may be very complicated; it is as little philosophical to consider +them as a mere combustion of carbon as to consider the formation of +muscle from the arterial blood as crystallisation. There can be +no doubt that all the powers and agencies of matter are employed in +the purposes of organisation, but the phenomena of organisation can +no more be referred to chemistry than those of chemistry to mechanics. +As oxygen stands in that electrical relation to the other elements of +animal matter which has been called electropositive, it may be supposed +that some electrical function is exercised by oxygen in the blood; but +this is a mere hypothesis. An attempt has been made founded on +experiments on the decomposition of bodies by electricity to explain +secretion by weak electrical powers, and to suppose the glands electrical +organs, and even to imagine the action of the nerves dependent upon +electricity; these, like all other notions of the same kind, appear +to me very little refined. If electrical effects be the exhibition +of certain powers belonging to <!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>matter, +which is a fair supposition, then no change can take place without their +being more or less concerned; but to imagine the presence of electricity +to solve phenomena the cause of which is unknown is merely to substitute +one undefined word for another. In some animals electrical organs +are found, but then they furnish the artillery of the animal and means +of seizing its prey and of its defence. And speculations of this +kind must be ranked with those belonging to some of the more superficial +followers of the Newtonian philosophy, who explained the properties +of animated nature by mechanical powers, and muscular action by the +expansion and contraction of elastic bladders; man, in this state of +vague philosophical inquiry, was supposed a species of hydraulic machine. +And when the pneumatic chemistry was invented, organic structures were +soon imagined to be laboratories in which combinations and decompositions +produced all the effects of living actions; then muscular contractions +were supposed to depend upon explosions like those of the detonating +compounds, and the formation of blood from chyle was considered as a +pure chemical solution. And, now that the progress of science +has opened new and extraordinary views in electricity, these views are +not unnaturally applied by speculative reasoners to solve some of the +mysterious and recondite phenomena of organised beings. But the +analogy is too remote and incorrect; the sources of life cannot be grasped +by such machinery; to look for them in the powers of electro-chemistry +is seeking the living among the dead: that which touches will not be +felt, that which sees will not be visible, that which commands sensations +will not be their subject.</p> +<p><!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span><i>Phil</i>.—I +conclude, from what you last said, that though you are inclined to believe +that some unknown subtle matter is added to the organised system by +respiration, yet you would not have us believe that this is electricity, +or that there is any reason to suppose that electricity has a peculiar +and special share in producing the functions of life.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I wish to guard you against the adoption +of any hypothesis on this recondite and abstruse subject. But +however difficult it may be to define the exact nature of respiration, +yet the effect of it and its connexions with the functions of the body +are sufficiently striking. By the action of air on the blood it +is fitted for the purposes of life, and from the moment that animation +is marked by sensation or volition, this function is performed, the +punctum saliens in the ovum seems to receive as it were the breath of +life in the influence of air. In the economy of the reproduction +of the species of animals, one of the most important circumstances is +the aëration of the ovum, and when this is not performed, from +the blood of the mother as in the mammalia by the placenta, there is +a system for aërating as in the oviparous reptiles or fishes, which +enables the air freely to pass through the receptacles in which the +eggs are deposited, or the egg itself is aërated out of the body +through its coats or shell, and when air is excluded, incubation or +artificial heat has no effect. Fishes which deposit their eggs +in water that contains only a limited portion of air, make combinations +which would seem almost the result of scientific knowledge or reason, +though depending upon a more unerring principle, their instinct for +preserving their offspring. Those fishes that spawn in spring +or <!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>the +beginning of summer and winch inhabit deep and still waters, as the +carp, bream, pike, tench, &c., deposit their eggs upon aquatic vegetables, +which by the influence of the solar light constantly preserve the water +in a state of aëration. The trout, salmon, hucho, and others +of the Salmo genus, which spawn in the beginning or end of winter, and +which inhabit rivers fed by cold and rapid streams which descend from +the mountains, deposit their eggs in shallows on heaps of gravel, as +near as possible to the source of the stream where the water is fully +combined with air; and to accomplish this purpose they travel for hundreds +of miles against the current, and leap over cataracts and dams: thus +the Salmo salar ascends by the Rhone and the Aar to the glaciers of +Switzerland, the hucho by the Danube, the Isar, and the Save, passing +through the lakes of the Tyrol and Styria to the highest torrents of +the Noric and Julian Alps.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—My own experience proves in the strongest manner +the immediate connection of sensibility with respiration; all that I +can remember in my accident was a certain violent and painful sensation +of oppression in the chest, which must have been immediately succeeded +by loss of sense.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I have no doubt that all your suffering was over +at the moment you describe; as far as sensibility is concerned, you +were inanimate when your friend raised you from the bottom. This +distinct connection of sensibility with the absorption of air by the +blood is, I think, in favour of the idea advanced by our friend, that +some subtle and ethereal matter is supplied to the system in the elastic +air which may be the cause of vitality.</p> +<p><!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span><i>The +Unknown</i>.—Softly, if you please; I must not allow you to mistake +my view. I think it probable that some subtle matter is derived +from the atmosphere connected with the functions of life; but nothing +can be more remote from my opinion than to suppose it the cause of vitality.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—This might have been fully inferred from the whole +tenor of your conversation, and particularly from that expression, “that +which commands sensation will not be their subject.” I think +I shall not mistake your views when I say that you do not consider vitality +dependent upon any material cause or principle.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—You do not. We are entirely ignorant +on this subject, and I confess in the utmost humility my ignorance. +I know there have been distinguished physiologists who have imagined +that by organisation powers not naturally possessed by matter were developed, +and that sensibility was a property belonging to some unknown combination +of unknown ethereal elements. But such notions appear to me unphilosophical, +and the mere substitution of unknown words for unknown things. +I can never believe that any division, or refinement, or subtilisation, +or juxtaposition, or arrangement of the particles of matter, can give +to them sensibility; or that intelligence can result from combinations +of insensate and brute atoms. I can as easily imagine that the +planets are moving by their will or design round the sun, or that a +cannon ball is reasoning in making its parabolic curve. The materialists +have quoted a passage of Locke in favour of their doctrine, who seemed +to doubt “whether it might not have pleased God to bestow a power +of thinking on matter.” But with the highest veneration +for this <!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>great +reasoner, the founder of modern philosophical logic, I think there is +little of his usual strength of mind in this doubt. It appears +to me that he might as well have asked whether it might not have pleased +God to make a house its own tenant.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I am not a professed materialist; but I think you +treat rather too lightly the modest doubts of Locke on this subject. +And without considering me as a partisan, you will, I hope, allow me +to state some of the reasons which I have heard good physiologists advance +in favour of that opinion to which you are so hostile. In the +first accretion of the parts of animated beings they appear almost like +the crystallised matter, with the simplest kind of life, scarcely sensitive. +The gradual operations by which they acquire new organs and new powers, +corresponding to these organs, till they arrive at full maturity, forcibly +strikes the mind with the idea that the powers of life reside in the +arrangement by which the organs are produced. Then, as there is +a gradual increase of power corresponding to the increase of perfection +of the organisation, so there is a gradual diminution of it connected +with the decay of the body. As the imbecility of infancy corresponds +to the weakness of organisation, so the energy of youth and the power +of manhood are marked by its strength; and the feebleness and dotage +of old age are in the direct ratio of the decline of the perfection +of the organisation, and the mental powers in extreme old age seem destroyed +at the same time with the corporeal ones, till the ultimate dissolution +of the frame, when the elements are again restored to that dead nature +from which they were originally derived. Then, there was a period +when the greatest philosopher, <!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>statesman, +or hero, that ever existed was a mere living atom, an organised form +with the sole power of perception; and the combinations that a Newton +formed before birth or immediately after cannot be imagined to have +possessed the slightest intellectual character. If a peculiar +principle be supposed necessary to intelligence, it must exist throughout +animated nature. The elephant approaches nearer to man in intellectual +power than the oyster does to the elephant; and a link of sensitive +nature may be traced from the polypus to the philosopher. Now, +in the polypus the sentient principle is divisible, and from one polypus +or one earthworm may be formed two or three, all of which become perfect +animals, and have perception and volition; therefore, at least, the +sentient principle has this property in common with matter, that it +is divisible. Then to these difficulties add the dependence of +all the higher faculties of the mind upon the state of the brain; remember +that not only all the intellectual powers, but even sensibility is destroyed +by the pressure of a little blood upon the cerebellum, and the difficulties +increase. Call to mind likewise the suspension of animation in +cases similar to that of our friend, when there are no signs of life +and when animation returns only with the return of organic action. +Surely in all these instances everything which you consider as belonging +to spirit appears in intimate dependence upon the arrangements and properties +of matter.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—The arguments you have used are those which +are generally employed by physiologists. They have weight in appearance, +but not in reality. They prove that a certain perfection of the +machinery of the body is essential to the exercise of the powers of +<!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>the +mind, but they do not prove that the machine is the mind. Without +the eye there can be no sensations of vision, and without the brain +there could be no recollected visible ideas; but neither the optic nerve +nor the brain can be considered as the percipient principle—they +are but the instruments of a power which has nothing in common with +them. What may be said of the nervous system may be applied to +a different part of the frame; stop the motion of the heart, and sensibility +and life cease, yet the living principle is not in the heart, nor in +the arterial blood which it sends to every part of the system. +A savage who saw the operation of a number of power-looms weaving stockings +cease at once on the stopping of the motion of a wheel, might well imagine +that the motive force was in the wheel; he could not divine that it +more immediately depended upon the steam, and ultimately upon a fire +below a concealed boiler. The philosopher sees the fire which +is the cause of the motion of this complicated machinery, so unintelligible +to the savage; but both are equally ignorant of the divine fire which +is the cause of the mechanism of organised structures. Profoundly +ignorant on this subject, all that we can do is to give a history of +our own minds. The external world or matter is to us in fact nothing +but a heap or cluster of sensations; and, in looking back to the memory +of our own being, we find one principle, which may be called the <i>monad</i>, +or <i>self</i>, constantly present, intimately associated with a particular +class of sensations, which we call our own body or organs. These +organs are connected with other sensations, and move, as it were, with +them in circles of existence, quitting for a time some trains of sensation +to return <!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>to +others; but the monad is always present. We can fix no beginning +to its operations; we can place no limit to them. We sometimes, +in sleep, lose the beginning and end of a dream, and recollect the middle +of it, and one dream has no connection with another; and yet we are +conscious of an infinite variety of dreams, and there is a strong analogy +for believing in an infinity of past existences, which must have had +connection; and human life may be regarded as a type of infinite and +immortal life, and its succession of sleep and dreams as a type of the +changes of death and birth to which from its nature it is liable. +That the ideas belonging to the mind were originally gained from those +classes of sensations called organs it is impossible to deny, as it +is impossible to deny that mathematical truths depend upon the signs +which express them; but these signs are not themselves the truths, nor +are the organs the mind. The whole history of intellect is a history +of change according to a certain law; and we retain the memory only +of those changes which may be useful to us—the child forgets what +happened to it in the womb; the recollections of the infant likewise +before two years are soon lost, yet many of the habits acquired in that +age are retained through life. The sentient principle gains thoughts +by material instruments, and its sensations change as those instruments +change; and, in old age, the mind, as it were, falls asleep to awake +to a new existence. With its present organisation, the intellect +of man is naturally limited and imperfect, but this depends upon its +material machinery; and in a higher organised form, it may be imagined +to possess infinitely higher powers. Were man to be immortal <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>with +his present corporeal frame, this immortality would only belong to the +machinery; and with respect to acquisitions of mind, he would virtually +die every two or three hundred years—that is to say, a certain +quantity of ideas only could be remembered, and the supposed immortal +being would be, with respect to what had happened a thousand years ago, +as the adult now is with respect to what happened in the first year +of his life. To attempt to reason upon the manner in which the +organs are connected with sensation would be useless; the nerves and +brain have some immediate relation to these vital functions, but how +they act it is impossible to say. From the rapidity and infinite +variety of the phenomena of perception, it seems extremely probable +that there must be in the brain and nerves matter of a nature far more +subtle and refined than anything discovered in them by observation and +experiment, and that the immediate connection between the sentient principle +and the body may be established by kinds of ethereal matter, which can +never be evident to the senses, and which may bear the same relations +to heat, light, and electricity that these refined forms or modes of +existence of matter bear to the gases. Motion is most easily produced +by the lighter species of matter; and yet imponderable agents, such +as electricity, possess force sufficient to overturn the weightiest +structures. Nothing can be farther from my meaning than to attempt +any definition on this subject, nor would I ever embrace or give authority +to that idea of Newton, who supposes that the immediate cause of sensation +may be in undulations of an ethereal medium. It does not, however, +appear improbable to me that some of the more refined machinery of thought +may <!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>adhere, +even in another state, to the sentient principle; for, though the organs +of gross sensation—the nerves and brain—are destroyed by +death, yet something of the more ethereal nature, which I have supposed, +may be less destructible. And I sometimes imagine that many of +those powers, which have been called instinctive, belong to the more +refined clothing of the spirit; conscience, indeed, seems to have some +undefined source, and may bear relation to a former state of being.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—All your notions are merely ingenious speculations. +Revelation gives no authority to your ideas of spiritual nature; the +Christian immortality is founded upon the resurrection of the body.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—This I will not allow. Even in the +Mosaic history of the creation of man his frame is made in the image +of God—that is, capable of intelligence; and the Creator breathes +into it the breath of life, His own essence. Then our Saviour +has said, “of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.” +“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” +St. Paul has described the clothing of the spirit in a new and glorious +body, taking the analogy from the living germ in the seed of the plant, +which is not quickened till after apparent death; and the catastrophe +of our planet, which, it is revealed, is to be destroyed and purified +by fire before it is fitted for the habitation of the blest, is in perfect +harmony with the view I have ventured to suggest.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I cannot make your notions coincide with what I +have been accustomed to consider the meaning of Holy Writ. You +allow everything belonging to the material life to be dependent upon +the organisation <!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>of +the body, and yet you imagine the spirit after death clothed with a +new body; and, in the system of rewards and punishments, this body is +rendered happy or miserable for actions committed by another and extinct +frame. A particular organisation may impel to improper and immoral +gratification; it does not appear to me, according to the principles +of eternal justice, that the body of the resurrection should be punished +for crimes dependent upon a conformation now dissolved and destroyed.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—Nothing is more absurd, I may say more +impious, than for man, with a ken surrounded by the dense mists of sense, +to reason respecting the decrees of eternal justice. You adopt +here the same limited view that you embraced in reasoning against the +indestructibility of the sentient principle in man from the apparent +division of the living principle in the polypus, not recollecting that +to prove a quality can be increased or exalted does not prove that it +can be annihilated. If there be, which I think cannot be doubted, +a consciousness of good and evil constantly belonging to the sentient +principle in man, then rewards and punishments naturally belong to acts +of this consciousness, to obedience, or disobedience; and the indestructibility +of the sentient being is necessary to the decrees of eternal justice. +On your view, even in this life, just punishments for crimes would be +almost impossible; for the materials of which human beings are composed +change rapidly, and in a few years probably not an atom of the primitive +structure remains yet even the materialist is obliged in old age to +do penance for the sins of his youth, and does not complain of the injustice +of his decrepit body, entirely changed <!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>and +made stiff by time, suffering for the intemperance of his youthful flexible +frame. On my idea, conscience is the frame of the mind, fitted +for its probation in mortality. And this is in exact accordance +with the foundations of our religion, the Divine origin of which is +marked no less by its history than its harmony with the principles of +our nature. Obedience to its precepts not only prepares for a +better state of existence in another world, but is likewise calculated +to make us happy here. We are constantly taught to renounce sensual +pleasure and selfish gratifications, to forget our body and sensible +organs, to associate our pleasures with mind, to fix our affections +upon the great ideal generalisation of intelligence in the one Supreme +Being. And that we are capable of forming to ourselves an imperfect +idea even of the infinite mind is, I think, a strong presumption of +our own immortality, and of the distinct relation which our finite knowledge +bears to eternal wisdom.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I am pleased with your views; they coincide with +those I had formed at the time my imagination was employed upon the +vision of the Colosæum, which I repeated to you, and are not in +opposition with the opinions that the cool judgment and sound and humble +faith of Ambrosio have led me since to embrace. The doctrine of +the materialists was always, even in my youth, a cold, heavy, dull, +and insupportable doctrine to me, and necessarily tending to Atheism. +When I had heard, with disgust, in the dissecting-rooms the plan of +the physiologist of the gradual accretion of matter, and its becoming +endowed with irritability, ripening into sensibility and acquiring such +organs as were necessary, by its own inherent forces, and at last <!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>rising +into intellectual existence, a walk into the green fields or woods by +the banks of rivers brought back my feelings from nature to God; I saw +in all the powers of matter the instruments of the Deity; the sunbeams, +the breath of the zephyr, awakened animation in forms prepared by Divine +intelligence to receive it; the insensate seed, the slumbering egg, +which were to be vivified, appeared like the new-born animal, works +of a Divine mind; I saw love as the creative principle in the material +world, and this love only as a Divine attribute. Then, my own +mind, I felt connected with new sensations and indefinite hopes, a thirst +for immortality; the great names of other ages and of distant nations +appeared to me to be still living around me; and, even in the funeral +monuments of the heroic and the great, I saw, as it were, the decree +of the indestructibility of mind. These feelings, though generally +considered as poetical, yet, I think, offer a sound philosophical argument +in favour of the immortality of the soul. In all the habits and +instincts of young animals their feelings or movements may be traced +in intimate relation to their improved perfect state; their sports have +always affinities to their modes of hunting or catching their food, +and young birds, even in the nest, show marks of fondness which, when +their frames are developed, become signs of actions necessary to the +reproduction and preservation of the species. The desire of glory, +of honour, of immortal fame, and of constant knowledge, so usual in +young persons of well-constituted minds, cannot, I think, be other than +symptoms of the infinite and progressive nature of intellect—hopes +which, as they cannot be gratified here, belong to a frame of mind suited +to a nobler state of existence.</p> +<p><!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span><i>The +Unknown</i>.—Religion, whether natural or revealed, has always +the same beneficial influence on the mind. In youth, in health, +and prosperity, it awakens feelings of gratitude and sublime love, and +purifies at the same time that it exalts; but it is in misfortune, in +sickness, in age, that its effects are most truly and beneficially felt; +when submission in faith and humble trust in the Divine will, from duties +become pleasures, undecaying sources of consolation; then it creates +powers which were believed to be extinct, and gives a freshness to the +mind which was supposed to have passed away for ever, but which is now +renovated as an immortal hope; then it is the Pharos, guiding the wave-tost +mariner to his home, as the calm and beautiful still basins or fiords, +surrounded by tranquil groves and pastoral meadows, to the Norwegian +pilot escaping from a heavy storm in the north sea, or as the green +and dewy spot gushing with fountains to the exhausted and thirsty traveller +in the midst of the desert. Its influence outlives all earthly +enjoyments, and becomes stronger as the organs decay and the frame dissolves; +it appears as that evening star of light in the horizon of life, which, +we are sure, is to become in another season a morning star, and it throws +its radiance through the gloom and shadow of death.</p> +<h2>DIALOGUE THE FIFTH. THE CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHER.</h2> +<p>I had been made religious by the conversations of Ambrosio in Italy; +my faith was strengthened and exalted by the opinions of the Unknown, +for whom I <!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>had +not merely that veneration awakened by exalted talents, but a strong +affection founded upon the essential benefit of the preservation of +my life owing to him. I ventured, the evening after our visit +to the cave of Adelsberg, to ask him some questions relating to his +history and adventures. He said, “To attempt to give you +any idea of the formation of my character would lead me into the history +of my youth, which almost approaches to a tale of romance. The +source of the little information and intelligence I possess I must refer +to a restless activity of spirit, a love of glory which ever belonged +to my infancy, and a sensibility easily excited and not easily conquered. +My parentage was humble, yet I can believe a traditional history of +my paternal grandmother, that the origin of our family was from an old +Norman stock; I found this belief upon certain feelings which I can +only refer to an hereditary source, a pride of decorum, a tact and refinement +even in boyhood, and which are contradictory to the idea of an origin +from a race of peasants. Accident opened to me in early youth +a philosophical career, which I pursued with success. In manhood +fortune smiled upon me and made me independent; I then really became +a philosopher, and pursued my travels with the object of instructing +myself and of benefiting mankind. I have seen most parts of Europe, +and conversed, I believe, with all the illustrious men of science belonging +to them. My life has not been unlike that of the ancient Greek +sages. I have added some little to the quantity of human knowledge, +and I have endeavoured to add something to the quantity of human happiness. +In my early life I was a sceptic; I have informed you how I became a +believer, and I <!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>constantly +bless the Supreme Intelligence for the favour of some gleams of Divine +light which have been vouchsafed to me in this our state of darkness +and doubt.”</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I am surprised that with your powers you did not +enter into a professional career either of law or politics; you would +have gained the highest honours and distinctions.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—To me there never has been a higher source +of honour or distinction than that connected with advances in science. +I have not possessed enough of the eagle in my character to make a direct +flight to the loftiest altitudes in the social world, and I certainly +never endeavoured to reach those heights by using the creeping powers +of the reptile who, in ascending, generally chooses the dirtiest path, +because it is the easiest.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I have often wondered that men of fortune and of +rank do not apply themselves more to philosophical pursuits; they offer +a delightful and enviable road to distinction, one founded upon the +blessings and benefits conferred on our fellow-creatures; they do not +supply the same sources of temporary popularity as successes in the +senate or at the bar, but the glory resulting from them is permanent +and independent of vulgar taste or caprice. In looking back to +the history of the last five reigns in England, we find Boyles, Cavendishes, +and Howards, who rendered those great names more illustrious by their +scientific honours; but we may in vain search the aristocracy now for +philosophers, and there are very few persons who pursue science with +true dignity; it is followed more as connected with objects of profit +than those of fame, and <!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>there +are fifty persons who take out patents for supposed inventions for one +who makes a real discovery.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—The information we have already received from +you proves to me that chemistry has been your favourite pursuit. +I am surprised at this. The higher-mathematics and pure physics +appear to me to offer much more noble objects of contemplation and fields +of discovery, and, practically considered, the results of the chemist +are much more humble, belonging principally to the apothecary’s +shop and the kitchen.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I feel disposed to join you in attacking this favourite +study of our friend, but merely to provoke him to defend it. I +wish our attack would induce him to vindicate his science, and that +we might enjoy a little of the sport of literary gladiators, at least, +in order to call forth his skill and awaken his eloquence.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I have no objection. Let there be +a fair discussion; remember we fight only with foils, and the point +of mine shall be covered with velvet. In your attack upon chemistry, +Philalethes, you limited the use of it to the apothecary’s shop +and the kitchen. The first is an equivocal use; by introducing +it into the kitchen you make it an art fundamental to all others. +But if what you had stated had really meant to be serious, it would +not have deserved a reply; as it is in mere playfulness, it shall not +be thrown away. I want eloquence, however, to adorn my subject, +yet it is sufficiently exciting even to awaken feeling. Persons +in general look at the magnificent fabric of civilized society as the +result of the accumulated labour, ingenuity, and enterprise of man through +a long course of ages, without attempting to define <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>what +has been owing to the different branches of human industry and science; +and usually attribute to politicians, statesmen, and warriors a much +greater share than really belongs to them in the work: what they have +done is in reality little. The beginning of civilization is the +discovery of some useful arts by which men acquire property, comforts, +or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads +to laws and social institutions. The discovery of peculiar arts +gives superiority to particular nations; and the love of power induces +them to employ this superiority to subjugate other nations, who learn +their arts, and ultimately adopt their manners; so that in reality the +origin, as well as the progress and improvement, of civil society is +founded in mechanical and chemical inventions. No people have +ever arrived at any degree of perfection in their institutions who have +not possessed in a high degree the useful and refined arts. The +comparison of savage and civilized man, in fact, demonstrates the triumph +of chemical and mechanical philosophy as the causes not only of the +physical, but ultimately even of moral improvement. Look at the +condition of man in the lowest state in which we are acquainted with +him. Take the native of New Holland, advanced only a few steps +above the animal creation, and that principally by the use of fire; +naked, defending himself against wild beasts or killing them for food +only by weapons made of wood hardened in the fire, or pointed with stones +or fish bones; living only in holes dug out of the earth, or in huts +rudely constructed of a few branches of trees covered with grass; having +no approach to the enjoyment of luxuries or even comforts; unable to +provide for his <!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>most +pressing wants; having a language scarcely articulate, relating only +to the great objects of nature, or to his most pressing necessities +or desires, and living solitary or in single families, unacquainted +with religion, government, or laws, submitted to the mercy of nature +or the elements. How different is man in his highest state of +cultivation; every part of his body covered with the products of different +chemical and mechanical arts made not only useful in protecting him +from the inclemency of the seasons but combined in forms of beauty and +variety; creating out of the dust of the earth from the clay under his +feet instruments of use and ornament; extracting metals from the rude +ore and giving to them a hundred different shapes for a thousand different +purposes; selecting and improving the vegetable productions with which +he covers the earth; not only subduing but taming and domesticating +the wildest, the fleetest, and the strongest inhabitants of the wood, +the mountain, and the air; making the winds carry him on every part +of the immense ocean; and compelling the elements of air, water, and +even fire as it were to labour for him; concentrating in small space +materials which act as the thunderbolt, and directing their energies +so as to destroy at immense distances; blasting the rock, removing the +mountain, carrying water from the valley to the hill; perpetuating thought +in imperishable words, rendering immortal the exertion of genius, and +presenting them as common property to all awakening minds, becoming +as it were the true image of divine intelligence receiving and bestowing +the breath of life in the influence of civilization.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—Really you are in the poetical, not the chemical +<!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>chair, +or rather on the tripod. We claim from you some accuracy of detail, +some minute information, some proofs of what you assert. What +you attribute to the chemical and mechanical arts, we might with the +same propriety attribute to the fine arts, to letters, to political +improvement, and to those inventions of which Minerva and Apollo and +not Vulcan are the patrons.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I will be more minute. You will allow +that the rendering skins insoluble in water by combining with them the +astringent principle of certain vegetables is a chemical invention, +and that without leather, our shoes, our carriages, our equipages would +be very ill made; you will permit me to say, that the bleaching and +dying of wool and silk, cotton, and flax, are chemical processes, and +that the conversion of them into different clothes is a mechanical invention; +that the working of iron, copper, tin, and lead, and the other metals, +and the combining them in different alloys by which almost all the instruments +necessary for the turner, the joiner, the stone-mason, the ship-builder, +and the smith are made, are chemical inventions; even the press, to +the influence of which I am disposed to attribute as much as you can +do, could not have existed in any state of perfection without a metallic +alloy; the combining of alkali and sand, and certain clays and flints +together to form glass and porcelain is a chemical process; the colours +which the artist employs to frame resemblances of natural objects, or +to create combinations more beautiful than ever existed in Nature, are +derived from chemistry; in short, in every branch of the common and +fine arts, in every department of human industry, <!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 162</span>the +influence of this science is felt, and we may find in the fable of Prometheus +taking the flame from heaven to animate his man of clay an emblem of +the effects of fire in its application to chemical purposes in creating +the activity and almost the life of civil society.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—It appears to me that you attribute to science +what in many cases has been the result of accident. The processes +of most of the useful arts, which you call chemical, have been invented +and improved without any refined views, without any general system of +knowledge. Lucretius attributes to accident the discovery of the +fusion of the metals; a person in touching a shell-fish observes that +it emits a purple liquid as a dye, hence the Tyrian purple; clay is +observed to harden in the fire, and hence the invention of bricks, which +could hardly fail ultimately to lead to the discovery of porcelain; +oven glass, the most perfect and beautiful of those manufactures you +call chemical, is said to have been discovered by accident; Theophrastus +states that some merchants who were cooking on lumps of soda or natron, +near the mouth of the river Belus, observed that a hard and vitreous +substance was formed where the fused natron ran into the sand.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I will readily allow that accident has +had much to do with the origin of the arts as with the progress of the +sciences. But it has been by scientific processes and experiments +that these accidental results have been rendered really applicable to +the purposes of common life. Besides, it requires a certain degree +of knowledge and scientific combination to understand and seize upon +the facts which have originated in accident. It is certain that +in all fires <!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>alkaline +substances and sand are fused together, and clay hardened; yet for ages +after this discovery of fire, glass and porcelain were unknown till +some men of genius profited by scientific combination often observed +but never applied. It suits the indolence of those minds which +never attempt anything, and which probably if they did attempt anything +would not succeed, to refer to accident that which belongs to genius. +It is sometimes said by such persons, that the discovery of the law +of gravitation was owing to accident: and a ridiculous story is told +of the falling of an apple as the cause of this discovery. As +well might the invention of fluxions or the architectural wonders of +the dome of St. Peter’s, or the miracles of art the St. John of +Raphael or the Apollo Belvidere, be supposed to be owing to accidental +combinations. In the progress of an art, from its rudest to its +more perfect state, the whole process depends upon experiments. +Science is in fact nothing more than the refinement of common sense +making use of facts already known to acquire new facts. Clays +which are yellow are known to burn red; calcareous earth renders flint +fusible—the persons who have improved earthenware made their selections +accordingly. Iron was discovered at least one thousand years before +it was rendered malleable; and from what Herodotus says of this discovery, +there can be little doubt that it was developed by a scientific worker +in metals. Vitruvius tells us that the ceruleum, a colour made +of copper, which exists in perfection in all the old paintings of the +Greeks and Romans and on the mummies of the Egyptians, was discovered +by an Egyptian king; there is therefore every reason to believe that +it was not the <!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>result +of accidental combination, but of experiments made for producing or +improving colours. Amongst the ancient philosophers, many discoveries +are attributed to Democritus and Anaxagoras; and, connected with chemical +arts, the narrative of the inventions of Archimedes alone, by Plutarch, +would seem to show how great is the effect of science in creating power. +In modern times, the refining of sugar, the preparation of nitre, the +manufacturing of acids, salts, &c., are all results of pure chemistry. +Take gunpowder as a specimen; no person but a man infinitely diversifying +his processes and guided by analogy could have made such a discovery. +Look into the books of the alchemists, and some idea may be formed of +the effects of experiments. It is true, these persons were guided +by false views, yet they made most useful researches; and Lord Bacon +has justly compared them to the husbandman who, searching for an imaginary +treasure, fertilised the soil. They might likewise be compared +to persons who, looking for gold, discover the fragments of beautiful +statues, which separately are of no value, and which appear of little +value to the persons who found them; but which, when selected and put +together by artists and their defective parts supplied, are found to +be wonderfully perfect and worthy of conservation. Look to the +progress of the arts since they have been enlightened by a system of +science, and observe with what rapidity they have advanced. Again, +the steam-engine in its rudest form was the result of a chemical experiment; +in its refined state it required the combinations of all the most recondite +principles of chemistry and mechanics, and that excellent philosopher +who has given this wonderful <!-- page 165--><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>instrument +of power to civil society was led to the great improvements he made +by the discoveries of a kindred genius on the heat absorbed when water +becomes steam, and of the heat evolved when steam becomes water. +Even the most superficial observer must allow in this case a triumph +of science, for what a wonderful impulse has this invention given to +the progress of the arts and manufactories in our country, how much +has it diminished labour, how much has it increased the real strength +of the country! Acting as it were with a thousand hands, it has +multiplied our active population; and receiving its elements of activity +from the bowels of the earth, it performs operations which formerly +were painful, oppressive, and unhealthy to the labourers, with regularity +and constancy, and gives security and precision to the efforts of the +manufacturer. And the inventions connected with the steam-engine, +at the same time that they have greatly diminished labour of body, have +tended to increase power of mind and intellectual resources. Adam +Smith well observes that manufacturers are always more ingenious than +husbandmen; and manufacturers who use machinery will probably always +be found more ingenious than handicraft manufacturers. You spoke +of porcelain as a result of accident; the improvements invented in this +country, as well as those made in Germany and France, have been entirely +the result of chemical experiments; the Dresden and the Sevres manufactories +have been the work of men of science, and it was by multiplying his +chemical researches that Wedgewood was enabled to produce at so cheap +a rate those beautiful imitations which while they surpass the ancient +vases in solidity <!-- page 166--><a name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>and +perfection of material, equal them in elegance, variety, and tasteful +arrangement of their forms. In another department, the use of +the electrical conductor was a pure scientific combination, and the +sublimity of the discovery of the American philosopher was only equalled +by the happy application he immediately made of it. In our own +times it would be easy to point out numerous instances in which great +improvements and beneficial results connected with the comforts, the +happiness, and even life of our fellow creatures have been the results +of scientific combinations; but I cannot do this without constituting +myself a judge of the works of philosophers who are still alive, whose +researches are known, whose labours are respected, and who will receive +from posterity praises that their contemporaries hardly dare to bestow +upon them.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—We will allow that you have shown in many cases +the utility of scientific investigation as connected with the progress +of the useful arts. But, in general, both the principles of chemistry +are followed, and series of experiments performed without any view to +utility; and a great noise is made if a new metal or a new substance +is discovered, or if some abstracted law is made known relating to the +phenomena of nature; yet, amongst the variety of new substances, few +have been applied to any trifling use even, and the greater number have +had no application at all. And with respect to the general views +of the science, it would be difficult to show that any real good had +resulted from the discovery or extension of them. It does not +add much to the dignity of a pursuit that those persons who have followed +it for profit have really been most useful, and that the mere artisan +or chemical <!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>manufacturer +has done more for society than the chemical philosopher. Besides, +it has always appeared to me that it is in the nature of this science +to encourage mediocrity and to attach importance to insignificant things; +very slight chemical labours seem to give persons a claim to the title +of philosopher—to have dissolved a few grains of chalk in an acid, +to have shown that a very useless stone contains certain known ingredients, +or that the colouring matter of a flower is soluble in acid and not +in alkali, is thought by some a foundation for chemical celebrity. +I once began to attend a course of chemical lectures and to read the +journals containing the ephemeral productions of this science; I was +dissatisfied with the nature of the evidence which the professor adopted +in his demonstrations, and disgusted with the series of observations +and experiments which were brought forward one month to be overturned +the next. In November there was a Zingeberic acid, which in January +was shown to have no existence; one year there was a vegetable acid, +which the next was shown to be the same as an acid known thirty years +ago; to-day a man was celebrated for having discovered a new metal or +a new alkali, and they flourished like the scenes in a new pantomime +only to disappear. Then, the great object of the hundred triflers +in the science appeared to be to destroy the reputation of the three +or four great men whose labours were really useful, and had in them +something of dignity. And, there not being enough of trifling +results or false experiments to fill up the pages of the monthly journals, +the deficiency was supplied by some crude theories or speculations of +unknown persons, or by some ill-judged censure or partial praise of +the editor.</p> +<p><!-- page 168--><a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span><i>The +Unknown</i>.—I deny <i>in toto</i> the accuracy of what you are +advancing. I have already shown that real philosophers, not labouring +for profit, have done much by their own inventions for the useful arts; +and, amongst the new substances discovered, many have had immediate +and very important applications. The chlorine, or oxymuriatic +gas of Scheele, was scarcely known before it was applied by Berthollet +to bleaching; scarcely was muriatic acid gas discovered by Priestley, +when Guyton de Morveau used it for destroying contagion. Consider +the varied and diversified applications of platinum, which has owed +its existence as a useful metal entirely to the labours of an illustrious +chemical philosopher; look at the beautiful yellow afforded by one of +the new metals, chrome; consider the medical effects of iodine in some +of the most painful and disgusting maladies belonging to human nature, +and remember how short a time investigations have been made for applying +the new substances. Besides, the mechanical or chemical manufacturer +has rarely discovered anything; he has merely applied what the philosopher +has made known, he has merely worked upon the materials furnished to +him. We have no history of the manner in which iron was rendered +malleable; but we know that platinum could only have been worked by +a person of the most refined chemical resources, who made multiplied +experiments upon it after the most ingenious and profound views. +But, waiving all common utility, all vulgar applications, there is something +in knowing and understanding the operation of Nature, some pleasure +in contemplating the order and harmony of the arrangements belonging +to the terrestrial system of things. There <!-- page 169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>is +no absolute utility in poetry, but it gives pleasure, refines and exalts +the mind. Philosophic pursuits have likewise a noble and independent +use of this kind, and there is a double reason offered for pursuing +them, for whilst in their sublime speculations they reach to the heavens, +in their application they belong to the earth; whilst they exalt the +intellect, they provide food for our common wants, and likewise minister +to the noblest appetites and most exalted views belonging to our nature. +The results of this science are not like the temples of the ancients, +in which statues of the gods were placed, where incense was offered +and sacrifices were performed, and which were presented to the adoration +of the multitude founded upon superstitious feelings; but they are rather +like the palaces of the moderns, to be admired and used, and where the +statues, which in the ancients raised feelings of adoration and awe, +now produce only feelings of pleasure, and gratify a refined taste. +It is surely a pure delight to know how and by what processes this earth +is clothed with verdure and life, how the clouds, mists, and rain are +formed, what causes all the changes of this terrestrial system of things, +and by what divine laws order is preserved amidst apparent confusion. +It is a sublime occupation to investigate the cause of the tempest and +the volcano, and to point out their use in the economy of things, to +bring the lightning from the clouds and make it subservient to our experiments, +to produce, as it were, a microcosm in the laboratory of art, and to +measure and weigh those invisible atoms which, by their motions and +changes according to laws impressed upon them by the Divine Intelligence, +constitute the universe of things. The true chemical <!-- page 170--><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>philosopher +sees good in all the diversified forms of the external world. +Whilst he investigates the operations of infinite power guided by infinite +wisdom, all low prejudices, all mean superstitions, disappear from his +mind. He sees man an atom amidst atoms fixed upon a point in space, +and yet modifying the laws that are around him by understanding them, +and gaining, as it were, a kind of dominion over time and an empire +in material space, and exerting on a scale infinitely small a power +seeming a sort of shadow or reflection of a creative energy, and which +entitles him to the distinction of being made in the image of God and +animated by a spark of the Divine Mind. Whilst chemical pursuits +exalt the understanding, they do not depress the imagination or weaken +genuine feeling; whilst they give the mind habits of accuracy by obliging +it to attend to facts, they likewise extend its analogies, and though +conversant with the minute forms of things, they have for their ultimate +end the great and magnificent objects of Nature. They regard the +formation of a crystal, the structure of a pebble, the nature of a clay +or earth; and they apply to the causes of the diversity of our mountain +chains, the appearances of the winds, thunderstorms, meteors, the earthquake, +the volcano, and all those phenomena which offer the most striking images +to the poet and the painter. They keep alive that inextinguishable +thirst after knowledge which is one of the greatest characteristics +of our nature, for every discovery opens a new field for investigation +of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly +been said that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary +of darkness by which it is surrounded. This strictly <!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>applies +to chemical inquiries, and hence they are wonderfully suited to the +progressive nature of the human intellect, which by its increasing efforts +to acquire a higher kind of wisdom, and a state in which truth is fully +and brightly revealed, seems, as it were, to demonstrate its birthright +to immortality.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I am glad that our opposition has led you to so +complete a vindication of your favourite science. I want no further +proof of its utility. I regret that I have not before made it +a particular object of study.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—As our friend has so fully convinced us of the +importance of chemistry, I hope he will descend to some particulars +as to its real nature, its objects, its instruments. I would willingly +have a definition of chemistry and some idea of the qualifications necessary +to become a chemist, and of the apparatus essential for understanding +what has been already done in the science, and for pursuing new inquiries.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—There is nothing more difficult than a +good definition, for it is scarcely possible to express in a few words +the abstracted view of an infinite variety of facts. Dr. Black +has defined chemistry to be that science which treats of the changes +produced in bodies by motions of their ultimate particles or atoms, +but this definition is hypothetical, for the ultimate particles or atoms +are mere creations of the imagination. I will give you a definition, +which will have the merit of novelty and which is probably general in +its application. Chemistry relates to those operations by which +the intimate nature of bodies is changed, or by which they acquire new +properties. This definition will not only apply to the effects +of mixture, but to the phenomena of electricity, and, in short, to all +the <!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>changes +which do not merely depend upon the motion or division of masses of +matter. However difficult it may have been to have given you a +definition of chemistry, it is still more difficult to give you a detail +of all the qualities necessary for a chemical philosopher. I will +not name as many as Athenæus has named for a cook, who, he says, +ought to be a mathematician, a theoretical musician, a natural philosopher, +a natural historian, &c., though you had a disposition just now +to make chemistry merely subservient to the uses of the kitchen. +But I will seriously mention some of the studies fundamental to the +higher departments of this science; a man may be a good practical chemist +perhaps without possessing them, but he never can become a great chemical +philosopher. The person who wishes to understand the higher departments +of chemistry, or to pursue them in their most interesting relations +to the economy of Nature, ought to be well-grounded in elementary mathematics; +he will oftener have to refer to arithmetic than algebra, and to algebra +than to geometry. But all these sciences lend their aid to chemistry; +arithmetic, in determining the proportions of analytical results and +the relative weights of the elements of bodies; algebra, in ascertaining +the laws of the pressure of elastic fluids, the force of vapour as dependent +upon temperature, and the effects of masses and surfaces on the communication +and radiation of heat; the applications of geometry are principally +limited to the determination of the crystalline forms of bodies, which +constitute the most important type of their nature, and often offer +useful hints for analytical researches respecting their composition. +The first principles of natural philosophy or general physics <!-- page 173--><a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>ought +not to be entirely unknown to the chemist. As the most active +agents are fluids, elastic fluids, heat, light, and electricity, he +ought to have a general knowledge of mechanics, hydrodynamics, pneumatics, +optics, and electricity. Latin and Greek among the dead and French +among the modern languages are necessary, and, as the most important +after French, German and Italian. In natural history and in literature +what belongs to a liberal education, such as that of our universities, +is all that is required; indeed, a young man who has performed the ordinary +course of college studies which are supposed fitted for common life +and for refined society, has all the preliminary knowledge necessary +to commence the study of chemistry. The apparatus essential to +the modern chemical philosopher is much less bulky and expensive than +that used by the ancients. An air pump, an electrical machine, +a voltaic battery (all of which may be upon a small scale), a blow-pipe +apparatus, a bellows and forge, a mercurial and water-gas apparatus, +cups and basins of platinum and glass, and the common reagents of chemistry, +are what are required. All the implements absolutely necessary +may be carried in a small trunk, and some of the best and most refined +researches of modern chemists have been made by means of an apparatus +which might with ease be contained in a small travelling carriage, and +the expense of which is only a few pounds. The facility with which +chemical inquiries are carried on, and the simplicity of the apparatus, +offer additional reasons, to those I have already given, for the pursuit +of this science. It is not injurious to the health; the modern +chemist is not like the ancient one, who passed the greater part of +his time exposed to <!-- page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>the +heat and smoke of a furnace and the unwholesome vapours of acids and +alkalies and other menstrua, of which, for a single experiment, he consumed +several pounds. His processes may be carried on in the drawing-room, +and some of them are no less beautiful in appearance than satisfactory +in their results. It was said, by an author belonging to the last +century, of alchemy, “that its beginning was deceit, its progress +labour, and its end beggary.” It may be said of modern chemistry, +that its beginning is pleasure, its progress knowledge, and its objects +truth and utility. I have spoken of the scientific attainments +necessary for the chemical philosopher; I will say a few words of the +intellectual qualities necessary for discovery or for the advancement +of the science. Amongst them patience, industry, and neatness +in manipulation, and accuracy and minuteness in observing and registering +the phenomena which occur, are essential. A steady hand and a +quick eye are most useful auxiliaries; but there have been very few +great chemists who have preserved these advantages through life; for +the business of the laboratory is often a service of danger, and the +elements, like the refractory spirits of romance, though the obedient +slave of the magician, yet sometimes escape the influence of his talisman +and endanger his person. Both the hands and eyes of others, however, +may be sometimes advantageously made use of. By often repeating +a process or an observation, the errors connected with hasty operations +or imperfect views are annihilated; and, provided the assistant has +no preconceived notions of his own, and is ignorant of the object of +his employer in making the experiment, his simple and bare detail of +facts will often be the best <!-- page 175--><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>foundation +for an opinion. With respect to the higher qualities of intellect +necessary for understanding and developing the general laws of the science, +the same talents I believe are required as for making advancement in +every other department of human knowledge; I need not be very minute. +The imagination must be active and brilliant in seeking analogies; yet +entirely under the influence of the judgment in applying them. +The memory must be extensive and profound; rather, however, calling +up general views of things than minute trains of thought. The +mind must not be, like an encyclopedia, a burthen of knowledge, but +rather a critical dictionary which abounds in generalities, and points +out where more minute information may be obtained. In detailing +the results of experiments and in giving them to the world, the chemical +philosopher should adopt the simplest style and manner; he will avoid +all ornaments as something injurious to his subject, and should bear +in mind the saying of the first king of Great Britain respecting a sermon +which was excellent in doctrine but overcharged with poetical allusions +and figurative language, “that the tropes and metaphors of the +speaker were like the brilliant wild flowers in a field of corn—very +pretty, but which did very much hurt the corn.” In announcing +even the greatest and most important discoveries, the true philosopher +will communicate his details with modesty and reserve; he will rather +be a useful servant of the public, bringing forth a light from under +his cloak when it is needed in darkness, than a charlatan exhibiting +fireworks and having a trumpeter to announce their magnificence. +I see you are smiling, and think what I am saying in bad taste; yet, +notwithstanding, I will provoke your smiles <!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>still +further by saying a word or two on his other moral qualities. +That he should be humble-minded, you will readily allow, and a diligent +searcher after truth, and neither diverted from this great object by +the love of transient glory or temporary popularity, looking rather +to the opinion of ages than to that of a day, and seeking to be remembered +and named rather in the epochas of historians than in the columns of +newspaper writers or journalists. He should resemble the modern +geometricians in the greatness of his views and the profoundness of +his researches, and the ancient alchemists in industry and piety. +I do not mean that he should affix written prayers and inscriptions +of recommendations of his processes to Providence, as was the custom +of Peter Wolfe, and who was alive in my early days, but his mind should +always be awake to devotional feeling, and in contemplating the variety +and the beauty of the external world, and developing its scientific +wonders, he will always refer to that infinite wisdom through whose +beneficence he is permitted to enjoy knowledge; and, in becoming wiser, +he will become better, he will rise at once in the scale of intellectual +and moral existence, his increased sagacity will be subservient to a +more exalted faith, and in proportion as the veil becomes thinner through +which he sees the causes of things he will admire more the brightness +of the divine light by which they are rendered visible.</p> +<h2><!-- page 177--><a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>DIALOGUE +THE SIXTH. POLA, OR TIME.</h2> +<p>During our stay in Illyria, I made an excursion by water with the +Unknown, my preserver, now become my friend, and Eubathes, to Pola, +in Istria. We entered the harbour of Pola in a felucca when the +sun was setting; and I know no scene more splendid than the amphitheatre +seen from the sea in this light. It appears not as a building +in ruins, but like a newly erected work, and the reflection of the colours +of its brilliant marble and beautiful forms seen upon the calm surface +of the waters gave to it a double effect—that of a glorious production +of art and of a magnificent picture. We examined with pleasure +the remains of the arch of Augustus and the temple, very perfect monuments +of imperial grandeur. But the splendid exterior of the amphitheatre +was not in harmony with the bare and naked walls of the interior; there +were none of those durable and grand seats of marble, such as adorn +the amphitheatre of Verona, from which it is probable that the whole +of the arena and conveniences for the spectators had been constructed +of wood. Their total disappearance led us to reflect upon the +causes of the destruction of so many of the works of the older nations. +I said, in our metaphysical abstractions, we refer the changes, the +destruction of material forms, to time, but there must be physical laws +in Nature by which they are produced; and I begged our new friend to +give us some ideas on this subject in his character of chemical philosopher. +If human science, I said, has discovered <!-- page 178--><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 178</span>the +principle of the decay of things, it is possible that human art may +supply means of conservation, and bestow immortality on some of the +works which appear destined by their perfection for future ages.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I shall willingly communicate to you my +views of the operation of time, philosophically considered. A +great philosopher has said, man can in no other way command Nature but +in obeying her laws; and, in these laws, the principle of change is +a principle of life; without decay, there can be no reproduction; and +everything belonging to the earth, whether in its primitive state, or +modified by human hands, is submitted to certain and immutable laws +of destruction, as permanent and universal as those which produce the +planetary motions. The property which, as far as our experience +extends, universally belongs to matter, gravitation, is the first and +most general cause of change in our terrestrial system; and, whilst +it preserves the great mass of the globe in a uniform state, its influence +is continually producing alterations upon the surface. The water, +raised in vapour by the solar heat, is precipitated by the cool air +in the atmosphere; it is carried down by gravitation to the surface, +and gains its mechanical force from this law. Whatever is elevated +above the superfices by the powers of vegetation or animal life, or +by the efforts of man, by gravitation constantly tends to the common +centre of attraction; and the great reason of the duration of the pyramid +above all other forms is, that it is most fitted to resist the force +of gravitation. The arch, the pillar, and all perpendicular constructions, +are liable to fall when a degradation from chemical or mechanical causes +takes place in their inferior parts. The forms upon <!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>the +surface of the globe are preserved from the influence of gravitation +by the attraction of cohesion, or by chemical attraction; but if their +parts had freedom of motion, they would all be levelled by this power, +gravitation, and the globe would appear as a plane and smooth oblate +spheroid, flattened at the poles. The attraction of cohesion or +chemical attraction, in its most energetic state, is not liable to be +destroyed by gravitation; this power only assists the agencies of other +causes of degradation. Attraction, of whatever kind, tends, as +it were, to produce rest—a sort of eternal sleep in Nature. +The great antagonist power is heat. By the influence of the sun +the globe is exposed to great varieties of temperature; an addition +of heat expands bodies, and an abstraction of heat causes them to contract; +by variation of heat, certain kinds of matter are rendered fluid, or +elastic, and changes from fluids into solids, or from solids or fluids +into elastic substances, and <i>vice versâ</i>, are produced; +and all these phenomena are connected with alterations tending to the +decay or destruction of bodies. It is not probable that the mere +contraction or expansion of a solid, from the subtraction or addition +of heat, tends to loosen its parts; but if water exists in these parts, +then its expansion, either in becoming vapour or ice, tends not only +to diminish their cohesion, but to break them into fragments. +There is, you know, a very remarkable property of water—its expansion +by cooling, and at the time of becoming ice—and this is a great +cause of destruction in the northern climates; for where ice forms in +the crevices or cavities of stones, or when water which has penetrated +into cement freezes, its expansion acts with the force of the lever +or the <!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>screw +in destroying or separating the parts of bodies. The mechanical +powers of water, as rain, hail, or snow, in descending from the atmosphere, +are not entirely without effect; for in acting upon the projections +of solids, drops of water or particles of snow, and still more of hail, +have a power of abrasion, and a very soft substance, from its mass assisting +gravitation, may break a much harder one. The glacier, by its +motion, grinds into powder the surface of the granite rock; and the +Alpine torrents, that have their origin under glaciers, are always turbid, +from the destruction of the rocks on which the glacier is formed. +The effect of a torrent in deepening its bed will explain the mechanical +agency of fluid-water, though this effect is infinitely increased, and +sometimes almost entirely dependent, upon the solid matters which are +carried down by it. An angular fragment of stone in the course +of ages moved in the cavity of a rock makes a deep round excavation, +and is worn itself into a spherical form. A torrent of rain flowing +down the side of a building carries with it the silicious dust, or sand, +or matter which the wind has deposited there, and acts upon a scale +infinitely more minute, but according to the same law. The buildings +of ancient Rome have not only been liable to the constant operation +of the rain-courses, or minute torrents produced by rains, but even +the Tiber, swollen with floods of the Sabine mountains and the Apennines, +has often entered into the city, and a winter seldom passes away in +which the area of the Pantheon has not been filled with water, and the +reflection of the cupola seen in a smooth lake below. The monuments +of Egypt are perhaps the most ancient and permanent of those <!-- page 181--><a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>belonging +to the earth, and in that country rain is almost unknown. And +all the causes of degradation connected with the agency of water act +more in the temperate climates than in the hot ones, and most of all +in those countries where the inequalities of temperature are greatest. +The mechanical effects of air are principally in the action of winds +in assisting the operation of gravitation, and in abrading by dust, +sand, stones, and atmospheric water. These effects, unless it +be in the case of a building blown down by a tempest, are imperceptible +in days, or even years; yet a gentle current of air carrying the silicious +sand of the desert, or the dust of a road for ages against the face +of a structure, must ultimately tend to injure it, for with infinite +or unlimited duration, an extremely small cause will produce a very +great effect. The mechanical agency of electricity is very limited; +the effects of lightning have, however, been witnessed, even in some +of the great monuments of antiquity, the Colosæum at Rome, for +instance; and only last year, in a violent thunderstorm, some of the +marble, I have been informed, was struck from the top of one of the +arches in this building, and a perpendicular rent made, of some feet +in diameter. But the chemical effects of electricity, though excessively +slow and gradual, yet are much more efficient in the great work of destruction. +It is to the general chemical doctrines of the changes produced by this +powerful agent that I must now direct your especial attention.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—Would not the consideration of the subject have +been more distinct, and your explanations of the phenomena more simple, +had you commenced by dividing the causes of change into mechanical and +chemical; <!-- page 182--><a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>if +you had first considered them separately, and then their joint effects?</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—The order I have adopted is not very remote +from this. But I was perhaps wrong in treating first of the agency +of gravitation, which owes almost all its powers to the operation of +other causes. In consequence of your hint, I shall alter my plan +a little, and consider first the chemical agency of water, then that +of air, and lastly that of electricity. In every species of chemical +change, temperature is concerned. But unless the results of volcanoes +and earthquakes be directly referred to this power, it has no chemical +effect in relation to the changes ascribed to time simply considered +as heat, but its operations, which are the most important belonging +to the terrestrial cycle of changes, are blended with, or bring into +activity, those of other agents. One of the most distinct and +destructive agencies of water depends upon its solvent powers, which +are usually greatest when its temperature is highest. Water is +capable of dissolving, in larger or smaller proportions, most compound +bodies, and the calcareous and alkaline elements of stones are particularly +liable to this kind of operation. When water holds in solution +carbonic acid, which is always the case when it is precipitated from +the atmosphere, its power of dissolving carbonate of lime is very much +increased, and in the neighbourhood of great cities, where the atmosphere +contains a large proportion of this principle, the solvent powers of +rain upon the marble exposed to it must be greatest. Whoever examines +the marble statues in the British Museum, which have been removed from +the exterior of the Parthenon, will be convinced that they have suffered +from <!-- page 183--><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>this +agency; and an effect distinct in the pure atmosphere and temperate +climate of Athens, must be upon a higher scale in the vicinity of other +great European cities, where the consumption of fuel produces carbonic +acid in large quantities. Metallic substances, such as iron, copper, +bronze, brass, tin, and lead, whether they exist in stones, or are used +for support or connection in buildings, are liable to be corroded by +water holding in solution the principles of the atmosphere; and the +rust and corrosion, which are made, poetically, qualities of time, depend +upon the oxidating powers of water, which by supplying oxygen in a dissolved +or condensed state enables the metals to form new combinations. +All the vegetable substances, exposed to water and air, are liable to +decay, and even the vapour in the air, attracted by wood, gradually +reacts upon its fibres and assists decomposition, or enables its elements +to take new arrangements. Hence it is that none of the roofs of +ancient buildings more than a thousand years old remain, unless it be +such as are constructed of stone, as those of the Pantheon of Rome and +the tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna, the cupola of which is composed of +a single block of marble. The pictures of the Greek masters, which +were painted on the wood of the abies, or pine of the Mediterranean, +likewise, as we are informed by Pliny, owed their destruction not to +a change in the colours, not to the alteration of the calcareous ground +on which they were painted, but to the decay of the tablets of wood +on which the intonaco or stucco was laid. Amongst the substances +employed in building, wood, iron, tin, and lead, are most liable to +decay from the operation of water, then marble, when exposed to its +influence in the fluid form; brass, <!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>copper, +granite, sienite, and porphyry are more durable. But in stones, +much depends upon the peculiar nature of their constituent parts; when +the feldspar of the granite rocks contains little alkali or calcareous +earth, it is a very permanent stone; but, when in granite, porphyry, +or sienite, either the feldspar contains much alkaline matter, or the +mica, schorl, or hornblende much protoxide of iron, the action of water +containing oxygen and carbonic acid on the ferruginous elements tends +to produce the disintegration of the stone. The red granite, black +sienite, and red porphyry of Egypt, which are seen at Rome in obelisks, +columns, and sarcophagi, are amongst the most durable compound stones; +but the grey granites of Corsica and Elba are extremely liable to undergo +alteration: the feldspar contains much alkaline matter; and the mica +and schorl, much protoxide of iron. A remarkable instance of the +decay of granite may be seen in the Hanging Tower of Pisa; whilst the +marble pillars in the basement remain scarcely altered, the granite +ones have lost a considerable portion of their surface, which falls +off continually in scales, and exhibits everywhere stains from the formation +of peroxide of iron. The kaolin, or clay, used in most countries +for the manufacture of fine porcelain or china, is generally produced +from the feldspar of decomposing granite, in which the cause of decay +is the dissolution and separation of the alkaline ingredients.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I have seen serpentines, basalts, and lavas which +internally were dark, and which from their weight, I should suppose, +must contain oxide of iron, superficially brown or red, and decomposing. +Undoubtedly this was from the action of water impregnated with air upon +their ferruginous elements.</p> +<p><!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span><i>The +Unknown</i>.—You are perfectly right. There are few compound +stones, possessing a considerable specific gravity, which are not liable +to change from this cause; and oxide of iron amongst the metallic substances +anciently known, is the most generally diffused in nature, and most +concerned in the changes which take place on the surface of the globe. +The chemical action of carbonic acid is so much connected with that +of water, that it is scarcely possible to speak of them separately, +as must be evident from what I have before said; but the same action +which is exerted by the acid dissolved in water is likewise exerted +by it in its elastic state, and in this case the facility with which +the quantity is changed makes up for the difference of the degree of +condensation. There is no reason to believe that the azote of +the atmosphere has any considerable action in producing changes of the +nature we are studying on the surface; the aqueous vapour, the oxygen +and the carbonic acid gas, are, however, constantly in combined activity, +and above all the oxygen. And, whilst water, uniting its effects +with those of carbonic acid, tends to disintegrate the parts of stones, +the oxygen acts upon vegetable matter. And this great chemical +agent is at once necessary, in all the processes of life and in all +those of decay, in which Nature, as it were, takes again to herself +those instruments, organs, and powers, which had for a while been borrowed +and employed for the purpose or the wants of the living principle. +Almost everything effected by rapid combinations in combustion may also +be effected gradually by the slow absorption of oxygen; and though the +productions of the animal and vegetable kingdom are much more submitted +to the power of <!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>atmospheric +agents than those of the mineral kingdom, yet, as in the instances which +have just been mentioned, oxygen gradually destroys the equilibrium +of the elements of stones, and tends to reduce into powder, to render +fit for soils, even the hardest aggregates belonging to our globe. +Electricity, as a chemical agent, may be considered not only as directly +producing an infinite variety of changes, but likewise as influencing +almost all which take place. There are not two substances on the +surface of the globe that are not in different electrical relations +to each other; and chemical attraction itself seems to be a peculiar +form of the exhibition of electrical attraction; and wherever the atmosphere, +or water, or any part of the surface of the earth gains accumulated +electricity of a different kind from the contiguous surfaces, the tendency +of this electricity is to produce new arrangements of the parts of these +surfaces; thus a positively electrified cloud, acting even at a great +distance on a moistened stone, tends to attract its oxygenous, or acidiform +or acid, ingredients, and a negatively electrified cloud has the same +effect upon its earthy, alkaline, or metallic matter. And the +silent and slow operation of electricity is much more important in the +economy of Nature than its grand and impressive operation in lightning +and thunder. The chemical agencies of water and air are assisted +by those of electricity; and their joint effects combined with those +of gravitation and the mechanical ones I first described are sufficient +to account for the results of time. But the physical powers of +Nature in producing decay are assisted likewise by certain agencies +or energies of organised beings. A polished surface of a building +or a statue is no sooner made rough from the <!-- page 187--><a name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>causes +that have been mentioned than the seeds of lichens and mosses, which +are constantly floating in our atmosphere, make it a place of repose, +grow, and increase, and from their death, their decay, and decomposition +carbonaceous matter is produced, and at length a soil is formed, in +which grass can fix its roots. In the crevices of walls, where +this soil is washed down, even the seeds of trees grow, and, gradually +as a building becomes more ruined, ivy and other parasitical plants +cover it. Even the animal creation lends its aid in the process +of destruction when man no longer labours for the conservation of his +works. The fox burrows amongst ruins, bats and birds nestle in +the cavities in walls, the snake and the lizard likewise make them their +habitation. Insects act upon a smaller scale, but by their united +energies sometimes produce great effect; the ant, by establishing her +colony and forming her magazines, often saps the foundations of the +strongest buildings, and the most insignificant creatures triumph, as +it were, over the grandest works of man. Add to these sure and +slow operations the devastations of war, the effects of the destructive +zeal of bigotry, the predatory fury of barbarians seeking for concealed +wealth under the foundations of buildings, and tearing from them every +metallic substance, and it is rather to be wondered that any of the +works of the great nations of antiquity are still in existence.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—Your view of the causes of devastation really +is a melancholy one. Nor<span class="smcap"> </span>do I see any +remedy; the most important causes will always operate. Yet, supposing +the constant existence of a highly civilised people, the ravages of +time might be repaired, and by defending the finest works of art from +the external <!-- page 188--><a name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>atmosphere, +their changes would be scarcely perceptible.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—I doubt much whether it is for the interests of +a people that its public works should be of a durable kind. One +of the great causes of the decline of the Roman Empire was that the +people of the Republic and of the first empire left nothing for their +posterity to do; aqueducts, temples, forums, everything was supplied, +and there were no objects to awaken activity, no necessity to stimulate +their inventive faculties, and hardly any wants to call forth their +industry.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—At least, you must allow the importance +of preserving objects of the fine arts. Almost everything we have +worthy of admiration is owing to what has been preserved from the Greek +school, and the nations who have not possessed these works or models +have made little or no progress towards perfection. Nor does it +seem that a mere imitation of Nature is sufficient to produce the beautiful +or perfect; but the climate, the manners, customs, and dress of the +people, its genius and taste, all co-operate. Such principles +of conservation as Philalethes has referred to are obvious. No +works of excellence ought to be exposed to the atmosphere, and it is +a great object to preserve them in apartments of equable temperature +and extremely dry. The roofs of magnificent buildings should be +of materials not likely to be dissolved by water or changed by air. +Many electrical conductors should be placed so as to prevent the slow +or the rapid effects of atmospheric electricity. In painting, +lapis lazuli or coloured hard glasses, in which the oxides are not liable +to change, should be used, and should be laid on marble or stucco encased +in stone, and no animal or <!-- page 189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>vegetable +substances, except pure carbonaceous matter, should be used in the pigments, +and none should be mixed with the varnishes.</p> +<p><i>Eub</i>.—Yet, when all is done that can be done in the work +of conservation, it is only producing a difference in the degree of +duration. And from the statements that our friend has made it +is evident that none of the works of a mortal being can be eternal, +as none of the combinations of a limited intellect can be infinite. +The operations of Nature, when slow, are no less sure; however man may +for a time usurp dominion over her, she is certain of recovering her +empire. He converts her rocks, her stones, her trees, into forms +of palaces, houses, and ships; he employs the metals found in the bosom +of the earth as instruments of power, and the sands and clays which +constitute its surface as ornaments and resources of luxury; he imprisons +air by water, and tortures water by fire to change or modify or destroy +the natural forms of things. But, in some lustrums his works begin +to change, and in a few centuries they decay and are in ruins; and his +mighty temples, framed as it were for immortal and divine purposes, +and his bridges formed of granite and ribbed with iron, and his walls +for defence, and the splendid monuments by which he has endeavoured +to give eternity even to his perishable remains, are gradually destroyed; +and these structures, which have resisted the waves of the ocean, the +tempests of the sky, and the stroke of the lightning, shall yield to +the operation of the dews of heaven, of frost, rain, vapour, and imperceptible +atmospheric influences; and, as the worm devours the lineaments of his +mortal beauty, so the lichens and the moss and the most insignificant +plants <!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>shall +feed upon his columns and his pyramids, and the most humble and insignificant +insects shall undermine and sap the foundations of his colossal works, +and make their habitations amongst the ruins of his palaces and the +falling seats of his earthly glory.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—Your history of the laws of the inevitable destruction +of material forms recalls to my memory our discussion at Adelsberg. +The changes of the material universe are in harmony with those which +belong to the human body, and which you suppose to be the frame or machinery +of the sentient principle. May we not venture to imagine that +the visible and tangible world, with which we are acquainted by our +sensations, bears the same relation to the Divine and Infinite Intelligence +that our organs bear to our mind, with this only difference, that in +the changes of the divine system there is no decay, there being in the +order of things a perfect unity, and all the powers springing from one +will and being a consequence of that will, are perfectly and unalterably +balanced. Newton seemed to apprehend, that in the laws of the +planetary motions there was a principle which would ultimately be the +cause of the destruction of the system. Laplace, by pursuing and +refining the principles of our great philosopher, has proved that what +appeared sources of disorder are, in fact, the perfecting machinery +of the system, and that the principle of conservation is as eternal +as that of motion.</p> +<p><i>The Unknown</i>.—I dare not offer any speculations on this +grand and awful subject. We can hardly comprehend the cause of +a simple atmospheric phenomenon, such as the fall of a heavy body from +a meteor; we cannot even embrace in one view the millionth part of <!-- page 191--><a name="page191"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 191</span>the +objects surrounding us, and yet we have the presumption to reason upon +the infinite universe and the eternal mind by which it was created and +is governed. On these subjects I have no confidence in reason, +I trust only to faith; and, as far as we ought to inquire, we have no +other guide but revelation.</p> +<p><i>Phil</i>.—I agree with you that whenever we attempt metaphysical +speculations, we must begin with a foundation of faith. And being +sure from revelation that God is omnipotent and omnipresent, it appears +to me no improper use of our faculties to trace even in the natural +universe the acts of His power and the results of His wisdom, and to +draw parallels from the infinite to the finite mind. Remember, +we are taught that man was created in the image of God, and, I think, +it cannot be doubted that in the progress of society man has been made +a great instrument by his energies and labours for improving the moral +universe. Compare the Greeks and Romans with the Assyrians and +Babylonians, and the ancient Greeks and Romans with the nations of modern +Christendom, and it cannot, I think, be questioned that there has been +a great superiority in the latter nations, and that their improvements +have been subservient to a more exalted state of intellectual and religious +existence. If this little globe has been so modified by its powerful +and active inhabitants, I cannot help thinking that in other systems +beings of a superior nature, under the influence of a divine will, may +act nobler parts. We know from the sacred writings that there +are intelligences of a higher nature than man, and I cannot help sometimes +referring to my vision in the Colosæum, and in supposing some +acts of power of those genii or seraphs similar to those <!-- page 192--><a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 192</span>which +I have imagined in the higher planetary systems. There is much +reason to infer from astronomical observations that great changes take +place in the system of the fixed stars: Sir William Herschel, indeed, +seems to have believed that he saw nebulous or luminous matter in the +process of forming suns, and there are some astronomers who believe +that stars have been extinct; but it is more probable that they have +disappeared from peculiar motions. It is, perhaps, rather a poetical +than a philosophical idea, yet I cannot help forming the opinion that +genii or seraphic intelligences may inhabit these systems and may be +the ministers of the eternal mind in producing changes in them similar +to those which have taken place on the earth. Time is almost a +human word and change entirely a human idea; in the system of Nature +we should rather say progress than change. The sun appears to +sink in the ocean in darkness, but it rises in another hemisphere; the +ruins of a city fall, but they are often used to form more magnificent +structures as at Rome; but, even when they are destroyed, so as to produce +only dust, Nature asserts her empire over them, and the vegetable world +rises in constant youth, and—in a period of annual successions, +by the labours of man providing food—vitality, and beauty upon +the wrecks of monuments, which were once raised for purposes of glory, +but which are now applied to objects of utility.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSOLATIONS IN TRAVEL***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 17882-h.htm or 17882-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17882 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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