SOLSTICE, stalking through the sickening bowers,
Suck the warm dew-drops, lap the falling showers;
Kneel with parch'd lip, and bending from it's brink
From dripping palm the scanty river drink;
NYMPHS! o'er the soil ten thousand points erect,
And high in air the electric flame collect.
Soon shall dark mists with self-attraction shroud
The blazing day, and sail in wilds of cloud;
Each silvery Flower the streams aerial quaff,
Bow her sweet head, and infant Harvest laugh.
Ten thousand points erect. l. 553. The solution of water in air or in
calorique, seems to acquire electric matter at the same time, as appears
from an experiment of Mr. Bennet. He put some live coals into an
insulated funnel of metal, and throwing on them a little water observed
that the ascending steam was electrised plus, and the water which
descended through the funnel was electrised minus. Hence it appears that
though clouds by their change of form may sometimes become electrised
minus yet they have in general an accumulation of electricity. This
accumulation of electric matter also evidently contributes to support
the atmospheric vapour when it is condensed into the form of clouds,
because it is seen to descend rapidly after the flashes of lightning
have diminished its quantity; whence there is reason to conclude that
very numerous metallic rods with fine points erected high in the air
might induce it at any time to part with some of its water.
If we may trust the theory of Mr. Lavoisier concerning the composition
and decomposition of water, there would seem another source of thunder-
showers; and that is, that the two gasses termed oxygene gas or vital
air, and hydrogene gas or inflammable air, may exist in the summer
atmosphere in a state of mixture but not of combination, and that the
electric spark or flash of lightning may combine them and produce water
instantaneously.
Thus when ELIJA mark'd from Carmel's brow
In bright expanse the briny flood below;
Roll'd his red eyes amid the scorching air,
Smote his firm breast, and breathed his ardent prayer;
High in the midst a massy altar stood,
And slaughter'd offerings press'd the piles of wood;
While ISRAEL'S chiefs the sacred hill surround,
And famish'd armies crowd the dusty ground;
While proud Idolatry was leagued with dearth,
And wither'd famine swept the desert earth.--
"OH, MIGHTY LORD! thy woe-worn servant hear,
"Who calls thy name in agony of prayer;
"Thy fanes dishonour'd, and thy prophets slain,
"Lo! I alone survive of all thy train!--
"Oh send from heaven thy sacred fire,--and pour
"O'er the parch'd land the salutary shower,--
"So shall thy Priest thy erring flock recal,--
"And speak in thunder, "THOU ART LORD OF ALL."--
He cried, and kneeling on the mountain-sands,
Stretch'd high in air his supplicating hands.
--Descending flames the dusky shrine illume;
Fire the wet wood, the sacred bull consume;
Wing'd from the sea the gathering mists arise,
And floating waters darken all the skies;
The King with shifted reins his chariot bends,
And wide o'er earth the airy flood descends;
With mingling cries dispersing hosts applaud,
And shouting nations own THE LIVING GOD.
The GODDESS ceased,--the exulting tribes obey,
Start from the soil, and win their airy way;
The vaulted skies with streams of transient rays
Shine, as they pass, and earth and ocean blaze.
So from fierce wars when lawless Monarch's cease,
Or Liberty returns with laurel'd Peace;
Bright fly the sparks, the colour'd lustres burn,
Flash follows f
Blue serpents sweep along the dusky air,
Imp'd by long trains of scintillating hair;
Red rockets rise, loud cracks are heard on high,
And showers of stars rush headlong from the sky,
Burst, as in silver lines they hiss along,
And the quick flash unfolds the gazing throng.