So youthful Horner roll'd the roguish eye, "am I." So she, sad victim of domestic spite, In the lone chimney's darksome nook immured, 60 65 Lifts the charm'd rod, and chants the mystic rite. 71 with writing Kunkel in phosphorus. See ECONOMY OF VEGE TATION. "Or mark with shining letters Kunkel's name "In the slow phosphor's self-consuming flame." 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 pendant ears. In poetical diction a peron 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. Six cock-tail'd mice transport her to the ball, Alas! that partial Science should approve The sly RECTANGLE's too licentious love! For three bright nymphs, &c. &c. [To be continued.] 75 Ver. 73. Cock-tail'd 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, were 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. No. XXIV. April 23. THE LOVES OF THE TRIANGLES. A MATHEMATICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL POEM. [Continued.] CANTO I. ALAS! that partial Science should approve 75 For three bright nymphs the wily wizard burns ;— 80 i Ver. 76. Rectangle-" A figure which has one Angle, or more, of ninety degrees." Johnson's Dictionary.-It here means a right-angled angle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one Angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our Author's Prosopopaia, be supposed to be in love with Three, or any greater number of nymphs. Ver. 80. Plato's and Menecmus' lore-Proclus attributes the discovery of the Conic Sections to Plato, but obscurely. Eratosthenes seems to adjudge it to Menecmus " Neque Menecmeos necesse erit in Cono secare ternarios" (Vide Montucla.) From Greece they were carried to Alexandria, where (ac In Afric's schools, amid those sultry sands 85 GINS-black and huge! who in Dom-Daniel's cave Writhe your scorch'd limbs on sulphur's azure wave, Or, shivering, yell amidst eternal snows, Where cloud-capp'd Caf protrudes his granite toes; 90 cording to our Author's beautiful fiction) Rectangle either did or might learn magic. Ver. 86. Zatanai-Supposed to be the same with Satan.→→ Vide the New Arabian Nights, translated by Cazotte, author of "Le Diable amoureux." Ver. 87. Gins-the Eastern name for Genii.-Vide Tales of ditto. Ver. 87. Dom-Daniel-a sub-marine palace near Tunis, where Zatanai usually held his court.-Vide New Arabian Nights. Ver. 88. Sulphur-A substance which, when cold, reflects the yellow rays, and is therefore said to be yellow. When raised to a temperature at which it attracts oxygene (a process usually called burning) it emits a blue flame. This may be beautifully exemplified, and at a moderate expense, by igniting those fasciculi of brimstone matches, frequently sold (so frequently, indeed, as to form one of the London cries) by women of an advanced age, in this metropolis. They will be found to yield an azure, or blue light. Ver. 90. Caf-the Indian Caucasus.-Vide Bailly's Lettres sur l'Atlantide, in which he proves that this was the native country of Gog and Magog (now resident in Guildhall), as well as of the Peris, or fairies, of the Asiatic Romances. (Bound by his will, Judæa's fabled king, 10 Ver. 91. Judæa's fabled king-Mr. HIGGINS does not mean to deny that Solomon was really king of Judæa. The epithet fabled, applies to that empire over the Genii, which the retrospective generosity of the Arabian fabulists has bestowed upon this monarch. Ver. 96. Young volcanoes-The genesis of burning mountains was never, till lately, well explained. Those with which we are best acquainted, are certainly not viviparous; it is therefore probable, that there exists in the centre of the earth, a considerable reservoir of their eggs, which, during the obstetrical convulsions of general earthquakes, produce new volcanoes. The Ver. 100. Far-extended heel-The personification of Rectangle, besides answering a poetical purpose, was necessary to illustrate Mr. HIGGINS's philosophical opinions. ancient mathematicians conceived that a Cone was generated by the revolution of a Triangle; but this, as our Author justly observes, would be impossible, without supposing in the Triangle that expansive nisus, discovered by Blumenbach, and improved by Darwin, which is peculiar to animated matter, and which alone explains the whole mystery of organization. Our enchanter sits on the ground, with his heels stretched out, his head erect, his wand (or Hypothenuse) resting on the extremities of his feet and the tip of his nose, |