I. "GNOMES! YOUR bright forms, presiding at her birth, Clung in fond squadrons round the new-born EARTH; When high in ether, with explosion dire, From the deep craters of his realms of fire, 15 The whirling Sun this ponderous planet hurl'd, And gave the astonish'd void another world. When from it's vaporous air, condensed by cold, Descending torrents into oceans roll'd; And fierce attraction with relentless force 20 Bent the reluctant wanderer to it's course. [_From the deep craters_. l. 14. The existence of solar volcanos is countenanced by their analogy to terrestrial, and lunar volcanos; and by the spots on the sun's disk, which have been shewn by Dr. Wilson to be excavations through its luminous surface, and may be supposed to be the cavities from whence the planets and comets were ejected by explosions. See additional notes, No. XV. on solar volcanos.] [_When from its vaporous air_. l. 17. If the nucleus of the earth was thrown out from the sun by an explosion along with as large a quantity of surrounding hot vapour as its attraction would occasion to accompany it, the ponderous semi-fluid nucleus would take a spherical form from the attraction of its own parts, which would become an oblate spheroid from its diurnal revolution. As the vapour cooled the water would be precipitated, and an ocean would surround the spherical nucleus with a superincumbent atmosphere. The nucleus of solar lava would likewise become harder as it became cooler. To understand how the strata of the earth were afterwards formed from the sediments of this circumfluent ocean the reader is referred to an ingenious Treatise on the Theory of the Earth by Mr. Whitehurst, who was many years a watch-maker and engineer at Derby, but whose ingenuity, integrity, and humanity, were rarely equalled in any station of life.] "Where yet the Bull with diamond-eye adorns The Spring's fair forehead, and with golden horns; Where yet the Lion climbs the ethereal plain, And shakes the Summer from his radiant mane; 25 Where Libra lifts her airy arm, and weighs, Poised in her silver ballance, nights and days; With paler lustres where Aquarius burns, And showers the still snow from his hoary urns; YOUR ardent troops pursued the flying sphere, 30 Circling the starry girdle of the year; While sweet vicissitudes of day and clime Mark'd the new annals of enascent Time. II. "You trod with printless step Earth's tender globe, While Ocean wrap'd it in his azure robe; 35 Beneath his waves her hardening strata spread, Raised her PRIMEVAL ISLANDS from his bed, Stretch'd her wide lawns, and sunk her winding dells, And deck'd her shores with corals, pearls, and shells. [_While ocean wrap'd_. l. 34. See additional notes, No. XVI. on the production of calcareous earth.]