So, borne on sounding pinions to the west, When tyrant-power had built his eagle nest; While from his eyry shriek’d the famish’d brood, Clench’d their sharp claws, and champ’d their beaks for blood, Immortal FRANKLIN watch’d the callow crew, And stabb’d the struggling vampires, ere they flew. —The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran, Hill lighted hill, and man electris’d man: Her heroes slain awhile Columbia mourn’d, And crown’d with laurels Liberty return’d. The warrior, Liberty, with bending sails, Helm’d his bold course to fair Hibernia’s vales; Firm as he steps along the shouting lands, Lo! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands; Sad Superstition wails her empire torn, Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn. Long had the giant-form on Gallia’s plains Inglorious slept, unconscious of his chains; Round his large limbs were wound a thousand strings By the weak hands of confessors and kings; O’er his closed eyes a triple veil was bound, And steely rivets lock’d him to the ground; While stern Bastile with iron-cage inthralls His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls.—ED.] NOTES TO LOVES OF THE TRIANGLES. [The general features of Dr. Darwin’s extraordinary poems, the “_Loves of the Plants_,” and the “_Economy of Vegetation_,” which are so admirably ridiculed in the preceding pages, may be gathered from the following specimens:— ARGUMENT. The Genius of the place invites the Goddess of Botany—She descends—is received by Spring and the Elements—Addresses the Nymphs of Fire—Love created the Universe—Chaos explodes—All the Stars revolve—Colours of the Morning and Evening Skies—Exterior Atmosphere of inflammable Air—Fires at the Earth’s Centre—Animal Incubation—Venus visits the Cyclops—Phosphoric Lights in the Evening—Bolognian Stone—Ignis fatuus—Eagle armed with Lightning—Discovery of Fire—Medusa—The Chemical Properties of Fire—Lady in Love—Gunpowder—Steam-engine—Labours of Hercules—Halo round the Heads of Saints—Fairy rings—Death of Professor Richman—Cupid snatches the thunderbolt from Jupiter—The great Egg of Night—Naiad released—Frost assailed—Whale attacked—Ice-Islands navigated into the Tropic Seas—Rainy Monsoons—Elijah on Mount Carmel—Departure of the Nymphs of Fire like sparks from Artificial Fireworks, &c.