[Footnote: _So Savery guided_, l. 249. Captain Savery first applied the pressure of the atmosphere to raise water in consequence of a vacuum previously produced by the condensation of steam, though the Marquis of Worcester had before proposed to use for this purpose the expansive power of steam; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto I. l. 253. Note.] "Led by VOLITION on the banks of Nile Where bloom'd the waving flax on Delta's isle, Pleased ISIS taught the fibrous stems to bind, And part with hammers from the adhesive rind; With locks of flax to deck the distaff-pole, And whirl with graceful bend the dancing spole. In level lines the length of woof to spread, And dart the shuttle through the parting thread. 260 So ARKWRIGHT taught from Cotton-pods to cull, And stretch in lines the vegetable wool; With teeth of steel its fibre-knots unfurl'd, And with the silver tissue clothed the world. [Footnote: _The waving flax_, l. 254. Flax is said to have been first discovered on the banks of the Nile, and Isis to have been the inventress of spinning and weaving.] [Footnote: _So Arkwright taught_, l. 261. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Canto II. l. 87, Note.] "Ages remote by thee, VOLITION, taught Chain'd down in characters the winged thought; With silent language mark'd the letter'd ground, And gave to sight the evanescent sound. Now, happier lot! enlighten'd realms possess The learned labours of the immortal Press; 270 Nursed on whose lap the births of science thrive, And rising Arts the wrecks of Time survive. [Footnote: _The immortal Press_, l. 270. The discovery of the art of printing has had so great influence on human affairs, that from thence may be dated a new aera in the history of mankind. As by the diffusion of general knowledge, both of the arts of taste and of useful sciences, the public mind has become improved to so great a degree, that though new impositions have been perpetually produced, the arts of detecting them have improved with greater rapidity. Hence since the introduction of printing, superstition has been much lessened by the reformation of religion; and necromancy, astrology, chiromancy, witchcraft, and vampyrism, have vanished from all classes of society; though some are still so weak in the present enlightened times as to believe in the prodigies of animal magnetism, and of metallic tractors; by this general diffusion of knowledge, if the liberty of the press be preserved, mankind will not be liable in this part of the world to sink into such abject slavery as exists at this day in China.]