Ver. 56. _The conscious fire_—The sylphs and genii of the different elements have a variety of innocent occupations assigned them; those of fire are supposed to divert themselves with writing _Kunkel_ in phosphorus.—See _Economy of Vegetation_: “Or mark, with shining letters, Kunkel’s name In the pale _phosphor’s_ self-consuming flame”. Footnote 216: Ver. 68. _Listening ears_—Listening, and therefore peculiarly suited to a pair of diamond ear-rings. See the description of Nebuchadnezzar in his transformed state— “Nor flattery’s self can pierce his _pendent ears_”. In poetical diction, a person is said to “_breathe the_ BLUE _air_,” and to “_drink the_ HOARSE _wave_!”—not that the colour of the sky or the noise of the water has any reference to drinking or breathing, but because the poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject under a _double relation_, in the same manner in which material objects present themselves to our different senses at the same time. Footnote 217: Ver. 73. _Cock-tailed mice_—Coctilibus Muris. _Ovid._—There is reason to believe that the _murine_, or _mouse_ species, were anciently much more numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the line, that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of these animals. _Dicitur altam Coctilibus Muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem._ It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the end, whether of ornament or defence, which they could be supposed to answer. I should be inclined to believe, that in this instance the mice were dead, and that so vast a collection of them must have been furnished by way of tribute, to free the country from these destructive animals. This superabundance of the _murine_ race must have been owing to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction of the _feline_ species. The traces of this disproportion are to be found in the early history of every country.—The ancient laws of Wales estimate a cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufficient to cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with her fore-feet touching the ground.—See Howel Dha.—In Germany, it is recorded that an army of rats, a larger animal of the mus tribe, was employed as the ministers of divine vengeance against a feudal tyrant; and the commercial legend of our own Whittington might probably be traced to an equally authentic origin. Footnote 218: Ver. 76. _Rectangle_—“A figure which has one angle, or more, of ninety degrees”. _Johnson’s Dictionary._—It here means a right-angled triangle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our author’s _Prosopopœia_, be supposed to be in love with three, or any greater number of nymphs. Footnote 219: