325 "Last with wide arms the solid earth He tears, Piles rock on rock, on mountain mountain rears; Heaves up huge ABYLA on Afric's sand, Crowns with high CALPE Europe's saliant strand, Crests with opposing towers the splendid scene, 330 And pours from urns immense the sea between.-- --Loud o'er her whirling flood Charybdis roars, Affrighted Scylla bellows round his shores, Vesuvio groans through all his echoing caves, And Etna thunders o'er the insurgent waves. 335 VII. 1. NYMPHS! YOUR fine hands ethereal floods amass From the warm cushion, and the whirling glass; Beard the bright cylinder with golden wire, And circumfuse the gravitating fire. Cold from each point cerulean lustres gleam, 340 Or shoot in air the scintillating stream. So, borne on brazen talons, watch'd of old The sleepless dragon o'er his fruits of gold; Bright beam'd his scales, his eye-balls blazed with ire, And his wide nostrils breath'd inchanted fire. [_Ethereal floods amass_. l. 335. The theory of the accumulation of the electric fluid by means of the glass-globe and cushion is difficult to comprehend. Dr. Franklin's idea of the pores of the glass being opened by the friction, and thence rendered capable of attracting more electric fluid, which it again parts with, as the pores contract again, seems analogous in some measure to the heat produced by the vibration, or condensation of bodies, as when a nail is hammered or filed till it becomes hot, as mentioned in additional Notes, No. VII. Some philosophers have endeavoured to account for this phenomenon by supposing the existence of two electric fluids which may be called the vitreous and resinous ones, instead of the plus and minus of the same ether. But its accumulation on the rubbed glass bears great analogy to its accumulation on the surface of the Leyden bottle, and can not perhaps be explained from any known mechanical or chemical principle. See note on Gymnotus. l. 202, of this Canto.] [_Cold from each point_. l. 339. See additional note, No. XIII.] 345 "YOU bid gold-leaves, in crystal lantherns held, Approach attracted, and recede repel'd; While paper-nymphs instinct with motion rife, And dancing fauns the admiring Sage surprize. OR, if on wax some fearless Beauty stand, 350 And touch the sparkling rod with graceful hand; Through her fine limbs the mimic lightnings dart, And flames innocuous eddy round her heart; O'er her fair brow the kindling lustres glare, Blue rays diverging from her bristling hair; 355 While some fond Youth the kiss ethereal sips. And soft fires issue from their meeting lips. So round the virgin Saint in silver streams The holy Halo shoots it's arrowy beams.