descended to our days, much light would probably have been thrown on his adventurous exploit by these compositions. In Hesiod's poem of Works and Days, Jupiter addresses Prometheus in these words: Ιαπετιονίδη, παντων περι μηδεα ειδώς, Χαίρεις πυρ κλέψας, και εμας φρένας ήπεροπευσας ; You rejoice, O crafty son of Iapetus, that you have stolen fire and deceived Jupiter; but great will thence be the evil both to yourself and to your posterity. To them this 'gift of fire shall be a gift of woe; in which, while they delight and pride themselves, they shall cherish their own wretchedness.1 Horace in his 3d ode, says, Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas : Ignem fraude malâ gentibus intulit: Post ignem æthereâ domo Subductum, macies et nova febrium Terris incubuit cohors; Semotique prius tarda necessitas Lethi corripuit gradum. Hesiod too acquaints us, that before the time of Prometheus, mankind were exempt from all sufferings; that up to that period they enjoyed a vigorous youth; and that death, when at length it came, approached like sleep, and gently closed their eyes. Desirous as I am of quitting the introductory portion of this volume, I still cannot resist the temptation to say a dozen words on the allegory of Phaeton, the son of Clymene, Prometheus's mother; which fable was invented by the vegetable eaters of old, the Pythagoreans. The etymology of the name of Phaeton, as of that of Prometheus, proves that each was contrived for the occasion. It is evident, that if there ever was a time when the axis of our globe was perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, not only the days and nights, but the seasons also must have been equal from one pole to another. The productions of the earth being every where spontaneous, man, unimproved and unsophisticated, must have found his sustenance wherever there was land. We should rationally expect, that in those days animals which can no longer exist in the northern regions, crocodiles, elephants, 1 Prometheus is said to have made man, and justly, for by the operation of his discoveries he made him the creature he now is. I mammoths, &c. would have left their remains in those once genial climates: and this is precisely what we find to be the fact. Indeed very recently at the mouth of the river Lena in Siberia, within a few paces of the shore of the frozen ocean, not the skeleton only, but the whole of an animal quite unknown, alive, on the globe, and larger perhaps than any terrestrial one now in existence, was discovered inclosed in ice, which probably had been its grave for ages immemorial. The body was so fresh, that soon after the air had access to it, it emitted a scent strong enough to allure the bears and wolves of that inclement region, which rushed in during the night, and devoured a great part of the carcase. A specimen of the skin, the hair, and bristles, may be seen at Surgeon's Hall, Lincoln's Inn Fields. It is an astronomical fact which cannot easily be disputed, that the poles of the earth were at some distant period perpendicular to its orbit, as those of the planet Jupiter now are, whose inhabitants must therefore enjoy a perpetual spring. We can scarcely look around us without being struck by the proofs of violence and convulsion which prevailed throughout this our ruined planet at the great catastrophe of which the fable of Phaeton was intended to perpetuate the memory.' It was also an illustration of this dread 1 See an account of this mammoth, translated from the memoir of Michael Adams of Petersburgh, who made a journey expressly to recover these interesting remains. Whoever shall consult this paper in "The Philosophical Magazine," vol. xxix. p. 141, which is admirably drawn up, will be repaid for his trouble. There is reason to think that the animal there described was overwhelmed suddenly, as it appeared to have been well fed to the last, by the good condition it was in, and by the hanging of the belly below the knees. Mr. Adams, after stating that he saw mammoth horns in profusion and pieces of wood of all Siberian kinds, and of an enormous size, frozen between the fissures of the rocks, confesses his incompetency to explain how all these things were collected there. It is extraordinary enough that the inhabitants of the coast call these pieces of wood Adamsohina, thereby giving their present position a date beyond the flood. This mammoth was distinguished in a remarkable manner from the elephant, by being covered every where with bristles issuing from its thick coat, as well as in many other particulars; such as its long mane, its less substantial horn, the direction of its teeth, and the doubt of its having had a proboscis. In his agitation of the question, whether the mammoth was originally an inhabitant of the tropical or the polar climates, Mr. Adams has used some phrases which are very favorable to the supposition of the former perpendicularity of the earth's axis. 2 The burning of the world, which the Platonic philosophers contemplated as being still in the womb of futurity, seems to have taken place long ago. It was a tenet of the most ancient priests of whom we have any knowledge, the Brachmans, that still, by some portentous bursting forth of the earth's bowels, a second change will be accomplished, which shall bring back equal seasons and perpetual spring. event that our poetic forefathers painted the golden reign of Saturn, and the subsequent flight of Astræa, or Justice, to heaven; When summer, autumn, winter, did appear, Swift is prone to treat such matters with more levity. But when at last usurping Jove SWIFT'S WORKS, vol. vii. p. 197. It appears that many, if not all, of the ancient allegories had a reference to real events, as that of Jason and the golden fleece to the manufacture of certain articles of clothing first introduced at Colchis; or that of Chiron the Centaur to man's conquest over the horse; events almost as big with consequences as the invention of fire, that giant stride towards civilisation. That man is wholly adapted to vegetable sustenance is evident from his anatomy,' which especially the form and disposition of See "Reports on Cancer," page 27, where the reader will find, among other interesting particulars, a statement respecting the colon of herbivorous animals as distinguished from the same intestine in the carnivorous tribes, which alone may go far to convince any but the most tenacious and obstinate. It is in substance, that all carnivorous animals have a smooth and uniform colon, and all herbivorous animals a cellulated one. I am informed that the reason of this variety is, that vegetable food assimilating less readily to the animal nature than flesh, more time is required for its concoction; consequently, provision is made in the bodies of herbivorous creatures for something like a second digestive process in the alimentary canal, to which this membranous colon administers. Mons. Cuvier, in his "Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée," tome iii. p. 366, leans to the opinion that the gastric juice of herbivorous animals is chemically different from that of the carnivorous. It is of some importance that this fact should be ascertained, as well as the chemistry of the gastric fluid in the human subject. It is stated in books of instruction in anatomy, that a change is operated upon the contents of the cœcum after they have proceeded into the colon. May not that change be effected by means of partial absorption? If so, it may be productive of most important consequences to the health, whether the matter absorbed be animal matter, or whether it be, according to the intention of nature, vegetable. Such indeed is the absorption which takes place in the lower intestines, that a man may be supported several weeks the intestines, is very similar to that of the Orang Outang, or man of the woods,' an animal which lives on fruit and vegetables in so vigorous a state, that half a dozen men are required to hold him when he is taken; although that and the other species of monkies, fed as they generally are in these northern climates, become subject to various diseases; particularly to scrofula and consumption, which rage so dreadfully among ourselves. At the tower of London, experience has taught those who have the care of the menagerie, that feeding monkies on flesh renders them gross and shortens their lives, from which practice the keeper told me that they have therefore desisted. Swift observes somewhere that man is the only carnivorous animal which is gregarious ; and this is nearly though not entirely true. The domestication of animals which are rendered useful to us in our civilised state, entails upon them many disorders and much misery. Sheep suffer in a way tọ call forth the most ordinary compassion; and it is not uncommon for a gentleman who has three or four saddle horses in his stable, without eating, merely by the means of clysters. Is it then too much to assert, that a subtle poison thus continually passing into the frame may profusely account for the ulceration, the abscesses, the thickening of the coats, the cancer, the mortification, to which these viscera are liable. The cœcum of children is proportionably larger than that of men. It seems gradually to shrink, from improper diet. And here let me ask, why has every member of the college of physicians contented himself with talking (for I know that they do talk) about this new theory? Why has not one of them attempted to answer these doctrines of their colleague? Dr. Lambe's opponents are called upon to show, either that classification in the natural sciences means nothing, or that the human teeth and intestines do not resemble those of the Orang Outang, so as to mark us as the first link in the same chain of animals. This is the grievous truth from which, though God himself be the author of it, man turns aside with shame or with scorn. What an habitual reluctance there is in the rogue to acknowledge his poor relations! In Collins's account of New Holland, and of the colony of Port Jackson, there is this passage concerning the inhabitants: "Their lips are thick and the mouth extravagantly wide, but when opened, discovering two rows of white, even, and sound teeth. Most of them have very prominent jaws ; and there was one man who, but for the gift of speech, might have passed for an Orang Outang. He was covered with hair; his arms appeared of an uncommon length; in his gait he was not perfectly upright; and in his whole manner seemed to have more of the brute, and less of the human species about him, than any of his countrymen." Admiral Gantheaume carried with him an African pongo in one of his voyages. This creature is described as the completest sailor on board his ship. When the Admiral stretched into a northern climate, the poor pongo sickened and died, from too constantly and actively doing duty on deck, and in the shrouds. This intelligent animal was much regretted by his master. 2 Dr. Swift probably took this idea from Aristotle's 6th book, Hepi (ww γενέσεως. to be unable on the same day to ride any one of them. An Eng- This is considered as the fleetest of all quadrupeds: the antelope itself equals it not in swiftness. It would appear that the horse has no occasion to drink, any more than the camel,' when he has fresh pasturage. Our acquaintance with natural history does not present us with details on which to ground such an opinion, but it is very possible that there are fewer drinking animals than has hitherto been supposed. Pallas gives the following description of a savage colt: "La plupart sont ou fauves, ou roux, ou isabelles. Le poulain qu'on m'amena avoit cette derniere couleur. Il etoit déja parfaitement apprivoisé, ce qui n'est pas étonnant, puisqu'on l'avoit pris quelques heures apres qu'il fut né. En comparant exactement ce poulain sauvage avec d'autres poulains privés marquant la meme date, voici la difference que j'ai remarquée. Le poulain sauvage etoit plus haut; il avoit des membres plus forts; la tete plus grande, et la bouche garnie de longs poils, qu'on n'apperçoit qu'en bien petite quantité a la "April 9. Our camels would not drink, notwithstanding they had drank but once since we left Aleppo, which was the 14th of last month, as they were furnished with plenty of fine herbage.' PARSON'S TRAVELS IN ASIA AND AFRICA, p. 90. |