48 



ON THE ELEMENTARY AND CONSTITUENT 



elegant and so descriptive, that I cannot refrain from presenting you with a 

 literal but very humble translation of them ; introduced, more especially, as 

 they are, with observations upon different rival philosophers, who employed 

 one, two, and various other numbers of the commonly esteemed elements, 

 and in various combinations, as the basis of their respective theories. 



Nor wanders less the sage who air with fire 

 Would fain commix, or limpid stream with earth; 

 Or those the whole who join, fire, ether, earth, 

 And pregnant showers, and thence the world deduce. 

 ; Thus sung Empedocles, in honest lame 



First of his sect ; whom Agrigentum bore 

 In cloud-capp'd Sicily. Its sinuous shores 

 -■- Th' Ionian main, with hoarse unwearied wave, 



Surrounds, and sprinkles with its briny dew; 

 And, from the fair ^olian fields, divides 

 With narrow frith that spurns th' impetuous surge. 

 Here vast Charybdis raves ; here iETNA rears 

 His infant thunders, his dread jaws unlocks, 

 And heaven and earth with fiery ruin threats. 

 Here many a wonder, many a scene sublime, 

 As on he journeys, checks the traveller's steps ; 

 And shows, at once, a land in harvests rich, 

 And rich in sages of illustrious fame. 

 But naught so wond'rous, so illustrious naught. 

 So fair, so pure, so lovely can it boast, 

 ' Empedoci.es, as thou 1 whose song divine, 



By all rehears'd, so clears each mystic lore, 

 That scarce mankind belie v'd thee born of man. 

 Yet e'en Empedocles, and those above 

 Already sung, of far inferior fame. 

 Though doctrines frequent from their bosoms flow'd 

 Like inspiration, sager and more true 

 Than e'er the Pythian maid, with laurels crown'd* 

 Spoke from the tripod at Apollo's shrine ; 

 E'en those mistook the principles of things. 

 And greatly wander'd in attempt so great. 



Let our controvertists of the present day learn a lesson of liberality from 

 this correct and polished reasoner, whose own theory is well known to have 

 been that of Epicurus, to which I have just adverted, namely, that one sub- 

 stance is just as much entitled to the character of a constituent element as 

 another, and that every thing- equally proceeds from, and in turn is resolved 

 into, the primitive and invisible atoms or principles of matter. 



It is to this theory alone that all the experiments of modern chemistry are 

 giving countenance. Air, water, and earth, suspected to be compounds in the 

 time of Epicurus, have been proved to be such in our own day ; while of the 

 actual nature of heat or fire, mankind are just as uninformed now as they 

 were then. 



In the process, however, of destroying these supposed elements, chemistry 

 has occasionally seemed to detect others ; and hence, instead of air, fire, 

 earth, and water, as simple or indecomposable substances, we have had 

 phlogiston, acids, and alkalies ; sulphur and phosphorus ; oxygen, hydro- 

 gen, nitrogen, and carbon, progressively arising before us, and laying 

 claim to an imperishable existence. All of them, however, have fallen, or 

 are falling in their turn, without having lived long enough to reach the com- 

 mon age of man ; all of them have been proved, or reasonably suspected, to 

 be compounds of other substances, that may yet, perhaps, be detected to be 

 compounds of something beyond. Even oxygen, the most brilliant of the 

 whole, the boasted discovery of Lavoisier, and out of which he was supposed 

 to have built to his own memory "a monument more durable than brass," has 

 had its throne shaken to its foundation by Sir Humphry Davy, and is at this 

 moment, like the Roman empire in its decline, obliged to divide its sway with 

 a new and popular power, which this last celebrated chemist has denominated 

 chlorine ; while of the more subtle and active agents, light, caloric, the 

 magnetic and electric fluids, we know nothing but from their effects, and can 

 only say of each — stat nominis umbra. 



Is physical science, then, a vain show 1 — a mere house of cards, built up 

 for the sole purpose of being pulled down again 1 — Assuredly not. The firm 



