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though the inversions in French poetry be not many, yet the constraint of rhyme and measure renders the admission of terms, which are not exactly the proper expressions, unavoidable, and often obscures that which should be taught in a clear, precise, and distinct manner. It is chiefly on this account, that almost every attempt to unite poetry and science has hitherto failed; and were it not for the long notes by which it is accompanied, even Mr. De Lille's work would frequently be found unintelligible. When he says,

"Ou plutôt, quand je vole à la céleste voute
"C'est à toi, cher Delambre, à diriger ma route;
"Toi qui sus réunir, par un double pouvoir,
"Les beaux arts au calcul et le goût au savoir.
L'immortel Isaac, de ses mains souveraines,
"Des mondes étoilés te confia les rênes;
"Viens; et sans m'effrayer du sort de Phaéton,
"Que je monte avec toi sur le char de Newton!"

How is the young French student to know that the immortal Isaac is the self-same Newton, whose name is mentioned three lines after, since it is not customary in France to say le chevalier Isaac, as the English speak of Sir Isaac, but always le chevalier Newton? To an English reader, the expression is besides in danger of appearing rather facetious, as it involuntarily recalls the idea of little Isaac; and to the French reader, it must necessarily seem pedantic, because the measure of the verse requires the name of Isaac to be read I-sa-ac, as being composed of three syllables, which is contrary to common pronunciation.

What information could be obtained, without the assistance of notes, from such lines as,

"Suivant les corps divers la lumière varie;
"Dédaigneuse des uns, aux autres se marie.
"Si l'obscure matière absorbe les rayons,
"Le noir frappe nos yeux; mais lorsque nous voyons,
"Des corps où vient tomber l'éclatante lumière,
"La masse des rayons rejaillir toute entière;
"De la blancheur alors l'œil ressent les effets."

But then of what use is an idle jingle of words, which has not the least claim to poetical fire, harmony, or embellishment, if it requires a long commentary to be understood? Besides,

"Si l' obscure matière absorbe les rayons,
"Le noir frappe nos yeux;"

is, we apprehend, not philosophically correct, since the absence of light, l'obscure matière, cannot strike the eye; and the end of the line, " mais lorsque nous voyons," is intolerably prosaic. The expressions " l'obscure matière" and " daigneuse des uns," are also hardly reconcileable with good

taste.

When, in appreciating the comparative merits of Virgil and Lucretius, Mr. De Lille observes of the latter, that " Nature had granted him but a portion of the poetical ta" lent, which she had bestowed entire on the author of the " Georgics," whatever may be the justice of the observation, it certainly applies to Mr. De Lille himself. His philosophical poem is really, as he confesses, " d'un genre un peu " froid," notwithstanding the episodes with which he has attempted to supply its want of warmth.

The assertion, that " the art of treating a subject is nothing " but the art of digressing from it without abandoning it " entirely," is rather paradoxical. We shall, therefore, quote Mr. De Lille's expressions: "L'art de traiter un sujet," he says, " n'est que l'art d'en sortir sans s'en éloigner; on en " trouve l'image dans la navigation ancienne qui se tenoit "toujours à portée de la terre et à la vue des côtes." He then adds rather exultingly: "Qu'on me permette sur cette " sorte d'ornement quelques idées assez nouvelles," and illustrates his new theory of episodes more fully, by the following remark :

"S'il est nécessaire que les épisodes se rattachent au dessein " général de l'ouvrage, il ne l'est pas que l'idée principale de "chaque épisode soit en rapport immédiat avec le fond du sujet; au contraire, plus ces ornemens accessoires lui sont étrangers,

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"plus ils jettent dans la composition et de nouveauté et de variété, " premiers charmes de tous les ouvrages d'imagination."

And in support of this observation, he instances his episode at the end of the canto on the Vegetable Kingdom, where, after having treated of flowers, and said

"Et sur la mer, enfin, souvent aux matelots
" Leur parfum présagea la terre et le repos;"

he introduces Columbus, on his first voyage to America, smelling the perfume of flowers, at the moment when his followers are going to murder him, for having decoyed them so far from home. This propitious circumstance serves Columbus to animate his crew to fresh exertions, which enable them to reach the shore. Mr. De Lille connects this episode again with the main subject of his song, by making the sailors crown Columbus with a garland of flowers :

"On redouble d'efforts, on aborde, on arrive;
"Des prophétiques fleurs qui parfument la rive
"Tous couronnent leur chef, et leurs festons chéris,
"Présages des succès, en deviennent le prix."

This slight connection of the episodes with the principal subject, which Mr. De Lille recommends, is the only novelty which we have been able to discover in his vaunted theory of digressions. It reminds us of the trick of a gentleman, who never went into company without having stored his memory with three or four anecdotes, which he would contrive to retail 'at all events, even when the turn of conversation was not in the least favourable to their introduction.

The reason why Mr. De Lille has borrowed very little of the eloquent Buffon, is, because " Depredations committed on "the rich are more easily found out, and more severely pu

nished by the police of literature." Might not this strange avowal suggest the uncharitable supposition of his being in 'the habit of stealing from obscure writers? Surely, when a poet attempts to sing the discoveries of science, and the phenomena of nature, it is no disparagement to his merit to consult the best authors on the subjects which he intends to treat, provided he paints with poetical enthusiasm what they have recorded with diligent attention.

We should have been tempted to arraign the title of Mr. De Lille's poem as a misnomer, since it treats of the three kingdoms of nature only in the four last cantos, the first four being taken up with the four elements; but the plan of the poem was suggested by the late M. Darcet, of the Academy of Sciences and National Institute of France, who observed, "That the four elements being combined in the three king"doms, these two parts of the work were by no means incon"gruous, and might form a regular whole."

The first canto, on Light and Fire, opens with the Genius of Nature appearing to the poet in a dream, and ordering him to celebrate the beauties of nature. The poet obeys. He begins with a violent invective against the love of systems, tunes his lyre to sing the light, calls Apollo to his aid, and implores the astronomer Delambre to guide his steps. He then describes the prismatic decomposition of light and its different effects; the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern light, which he represents under the form of a female, jealous of her Eastern sister, against whom she prefers very foolish complaints to the God of Light, in a long heavy speech. From light, the poet passes to heat and fire, and. enumerates the advantages which men derive from both. The transition from fire to electricity is in his happiest

manner:

1

"Mais c'est peu que nos arts règnent en Souverains
"Sur ces terrestres feux que gouvernent nos mains;
"Le feu des Dieux lui-même a connuleur puissance,
" Et la foudre, à nos pieds vient mourir en silence."

and so is the description of the electrical machine and its powers. The contrast of the horrible effects of the explosion of gunpowder in fire-arms and mines, with the peaceable scenes of the fire-side at home, is well imagined; but the

description of the latter is rather tediously dilated. Together with some conceits like

and

“Là Vénus s'apperçoit qu' elle est chère à Vulcain."

"Et le lit conjugal rend grâce au coin du feu.” It offers the picture of many family pastimes, among which, that of the Slipper is however too vulgar, even in France, to merit a place in a philosophical poem.

"Ici sous des genoux qui se courbent en voûte
"Une pantoufle agile, en déguisant sa route
"Va, vient; et quelquefois par son bruit agaçant,
"Sur le parquet battu se trahit en passant."

The canto terminates with a short address to imagination.

The second canto, on Air, states its nature, combinations, utility, its effects on the reflection of light, and its gravity. This leads to the introduction of the names of Toricelli and Pascal, the latter of whom having like Mr. De Lille been born in Auvergne, this circumstance reminds the poet of his native country. He then passes to the elasticity of the air, and sings the Steam Engine in the following strain :

"Au-dessus des bassius sur qui l' onde bouillonne,
"Dans les concavités d' une longue colonne
"Son épaisse vapeur, du bassin écumeux
"S'exhale dans le vide en tourbillon fumeux;
" Suivant que son nuage ou s'élance ou s'affaisse,
"Le docile piston ou remonte ou s' abaisse,
"L' industrie à son choix en gouverne le jeu.
"A peine la fumée, enfant léger du feu
" Dans le tube d' airain où sa vapeur s' amasse
" Du piston qu' il refoule a soulevé la masse,
"Une eau froide, avec art introduite en son sein
"Dans son canal brillant la refroidit soudain;
"Et par le froid magique, arrêteé en sa route
"Une immense vapeur tombe réduite en goutte:
" Alors le lourd piston sent le fardeau de l' air
"Et retombe en glissant dans sa prison de fer.
"Cependant un levier qui dans l' air se balance
"Suivant que la fumeé ou s'abaisse ou s'élastce,
"Monte ou tombe, et s'en va jusqu'aux antres profonds
"Arracher leurs trésors aux entrailles des monts

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