And, I think, it was known to the poets and fages
Who liv'd in the claffic and fabulous ages;
While the tale of old Dis and Perfiphone fhews
The detection of air in a pink or a rofe:
Nay, the ftory of Eve and the Devil may teach,
That Mofes found gas in the bloom of a peach.
If fo, the discovery of gas, from the maiden

In Sicily ravish'd, we trace up to Eden:
So, inciting fond Eve to a spiritual revel,
The very firft chemist in air, was the devil.

"Yet the fubftance (alas! we have cause to be serious!)
In Eve effervelcing, was damn'd deleterious :
And the gas, in my hands, is falubrious, alone;
By Satan, or Priestley prepar'd, 'tis all one. §

"Had I been in Eden, perhaps mother Eve
Would have actually foar'd, as fhe feem'd to believe:
"Albeit, as inftead of || afcending, she funk
Top-heavy, and all her race fince, have been drunk;
Tho' late, be it mine, the mishap to repair,
And exhibit my pure preparations of air.

"But, ere to inhale it, your ftomachs I urge, I'll tell you, in brief, the effects of the purge.

*This may be proved, indeed, a priori.. If the Egyptians were fuch proficients in chemistry, as Dr. Darwin thinks, and if Mofes received his education at their college of the arts and sciences, as fome learned men maintain; it is probable, that he was no stranger to vegetable airs.

+ The Rabbis have not fettled what fruit it was: it might have been the malum Perficum.

"As with new wine intoxicated, both,

They swim in mirth, and fancy that they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings

Wherewith to fcorn the earth.'

"That fallacious fruit

Par. Loft. B. ix.

That with exhilirating vapour bland

About their spirit had play'd." B. ix.

§ "A deleterious, inftead of a falutary fluid may be easily obtained. Probably Dr. Priestley never procured that which can be respired with safety." See Beddoes's Notice.

"Precious of trees-of operation, blest

To fapience-dieted by thee

I

grow mature in knowlege, as the Gods."

"The power, whofe prefence had infus'd

Into the plant, fciential fap, deriv'd

From nectar."- 66

Opener my eyes,

Dim erit, dilated fpirits, ampler heart,

And growing up to godhead." Par. Loft. B. ix.

The patients of Dr. B. describe the effects of the Gas, in almost

the fame words.

"When

"When I tried it, at first, on a learned fociety, Their giddinefs feem'd to betray inebriety,

Like grave Mandarins, their heads nodding together;'
But afterwards each was as light as a feather :

And they, every one, cried, 'twas a pleasure extatic.;
To drink deeper draughts of the mighty pneumatic.
As if by the wand of a wizard entranc'd,

How wildly they shouted, and gambol'd, and danc'd:
And e'en as phosphoric their bellies and backs fhone;
So ftrong was the force of the muscular action."†

GE DR.

[Drinks; and after a fort paufe, exclaims]
"Flow more brifkly, willowy Cam! +
I have drawn the nitrous gas:
O! I know not where I am!
Sure, I am not what I was.
On thy Marge, while erft I lay,
Like thy rufhes was my rhyme:
Raptur'd now I break away

With emotions more fublime.

"So the lark that, warbling high,
Thro' the liquid ether flew :
Bs! thus, I bathe in fky,
Saturate with ambrofial dew."§

Rev. Mr. RŢ BD. [Drinks.]
"Bs! thy living beverage whilft I quaff,
I laugh-ha, ha—yet know not why I laugh.

* « Drink deep or tafte not the Pierian spring."

+"The first infpirations of the Gas produced giddinefs; and feelings refembling thofe of incipient intoxication. It was impoffible not to recognize the expreflions of the most exftatic pleafure. I faw and heard fhouting, leaping, running, and other geftures." See Beddoes's Notice.

See the Annual Anthology;" where Geo. Dyer's Ode to the River Cam, makes a confpicuous figure. E, G.

"While yon skylark warbles high,

While yon ruftic whistles gay,

On thy banks, O Cam, I lie;
Mufeful, pour the penfive lay."
Willowy Cam, thy lingering ftream

Suits too well the thoughtful breaft;

Languor here may love to dream,
Sorrow here might figh to reft."

This is rather Cowper's lark-I beg Mr. Dyer's pardon.'

NO, XXIII, VOL. VI.

I

Behold,

Behold, from thefe intoxicating vapours,
Rt, a pickle-herring, cutting capers!
"I can't I can't-Q, B- what an elf!
Spite of my reverence-can't-contain myself!
Now I've a strong defire for further quaffing-
Ha-ha-ha, ha-I cannot drink for laughing.
Ha, ha!-Yet, fomehow, in this merry mood,
Creeps o'er my body a ftrange laffitude.
My frifky fpirits are all spent at once,
And in the fad refiduum leave-a dunce!"

Mrs. BD, the Children's Friend. [Drinks.]

"Oh, I feel a fine sensation,*

Stealing o'er my charmed frame!

Sweeter far that inhalation,

Sweeter than the breath of fame.

"Banish'd every carking care is ;

Sick difguft, and anxious fear:
This is, fure, the haunt of fairies!
Pleasure, pleasure, wantons here.
"Blithe as when I fkipp'd with Liffy,
Crown'd with many a blooming flower,
B-d-s! how I long to kifs y',

In my trembling moonlight bower.

"There, between the opening branches,
Stars may fhed the filent dew;
But, upon my heels or haunches,
Nectar will I tafte with you.

"Yet with fudden qualms I languish;
Struggles in my breaft the figh:
With my transport there is anguifh-
Doctor! Oh, I faint- -I die."

* See Mrs. Barbauld's verfes, written in an Alcove.

"Now the moonbeam's trembling luftre
Silvers o'er the dewy green,
And, in foft and fhadowy colours,
Sweetly paints the checquer'd fcene."

*

"Then, when next the star of evening
Softly fheds the filent dew,
Let me, in this ruftic temple,

Liffy meet the mufe and you."

Mr

Mr. RT SY.

" I am all nerve !-As from the cap

of Circe,

I fhrink, fufpicious!I'm a coward!

Poh!

'Tis but an ague-fit that shakes a Cæfar, [trembles.]
Gods! I will drink! [drinks.]

*I fhall fall!

My head, my head is dizzy!
At my wits end, I totter-
No-I am rapt beyond myself-I feel
At my extremities delicious thrillings!
My every fenfe is exquifitely keen!
My tafte is fo refin'd, I fhall henceforth
Difdain all vulgar viands.-
-So acute

My Smell, I can, for miles around me, catch
The effluvia rolling thro' the fhoreless air,
One vaft + mephitic fea!These groffer boches
I cannot brook.Thofe, fmooth mahogany,
That with furpaffing polifh feems to shine
A luftrous plane; and, O ye plates of glass
Sciential, ye are rougher than the ruts

Of waggon wheels! I tremble, as I touch you;
E'en from my delicate fingers ends, thro' all

My frame, too fenfitive! I fpurn, I spurn

This cumbrous clod of earth; and borne on wings
Of lady-birds, "all ‡ fpirit," I afcend

*See Mr. Southey's English Eclogues written upon a new plan. They fuggefted the idea of the Eclogue before us. Yet I lament my incompetency to the talk of imitation; though I have endeavoured to bring Mr. S. as near as I could to the standard of his own beautiful originals; of which the following is a fine fpecimen :

years

"Old Friend! why you feem bent on parish duty,
Breaking the highway ftones! And 'tis a task,
Somewhat too hard, methinks, for age like yours.'
"Why, yes! for one with fuch a weight of
Upon his back. I've liv'd here, man and boy,
In this fame parish, near the age of man.
I can remember, fixty years ago,
The beautifying of this manfion here,
When my late lady's father, the old 'fquire
Came to the estate."

+ "Sævamque exhalat opaca Mephitim."

If there be any fublimity in ftink, as Mr. Burke maintains, this is certainly fublime; more fo, perhaps, than the Virgilian stench. "From thefe nutriments, perhaps,

Your bodies may, at laft, turn all to spirit,
And wing'd, afcend, ethereal."

12

PAR. LOST. B. V.

Into

Into the immeasurable space, and cleave
The clear ethereal azure; and from star
To ftar ftill gliding, to the heaven of heavens
Afpire, and plunging thro' the fapphire blaze,
Ingulph the dephlogisticated floods

Of life, and riot in immortal * Gas!"

Dr. Bs himself [drinks].

"Celestials!This morning, I own, I was fulky,
And at dinner I ate, till my body grew bulky.
If at dinner, indeed, I indulge in much merriment,
And dispatch a Sirloin, 'tis by way of experiment.

"This, therefore, premifing, I now have to tell y', That in temper a dove, and a sparrow in belly,

To the Gas, which in gaining the members of fome ache,
I owe my complacence, and lightness of stomach.
I float in a manner- -so easy and placid-
The mild milk of kindness absorbs every acid!

"Or rather, of paffion fubfides the hot tumour,
As all over, I'm bath'd with a pail of good-humour!
No languid, no crapular feelings have I
But as gay as the morn-I'm a boy, I'm a boy!

"Such, fuch is my fluid, the grand Panacea ;
Though the public may form a degrading idea
Of my fcience and zeal, of my labour and trouble,
And judge my fine medical airs but a bubble!

"And, if it be faid, that a Doctor and Parfon,
In concert together to carry the farce on,
Permit all decorum, appearance, and pomp
To be loft in a Bacchanal Dance, or a romp ;
If, perchance, it be told, that the fmiles and the graces
Of ladies here languifh away in grimaces;

My fcheme may be fpoil'd; and pneumatics be curft,
And B-
-s, in truth, like the bubble, may burst.

"Already 'tis rumour'd, I'm blown up with vanity, And give myself airs amid chemic inanity;

And (names that deftruction is puffing abroad);

I'm, by turns, a chameleon, a moth, and a toad.

Left, therefore, my friends, as we fcamper and hop,

The report of this meeting go off in a pop;

Left the bufinefs get wind ;-I fhall print, with your privity,
An account of the Gas, as no matter of levity;

And defcribe its effects, and their curious congruity

Experienc'd by authors of rare ingenuity,

Who never before, I am certain had caufe

(Though long have they liv'd on the breath of applaufe)

**Riot in immortal blifs."

To