Beard the bright cylinder with golden wire,
And circumfuse the gravitating fire.
Cold from each point cerulean lustres gleam,
340 Or shoot in air the scintillating stream.
So, borne on brazen talons, watch'd of old
The sleepless dragon o'er his fruits of gold;
Bright beam'd his scales, his eye-balls blazed with ire,
And his wide nostrils breath'd inchanted fire.


[_Ethereal floods amass_. l. 335. The theory of the accumulation of the
electric fluid by means of the glass-globe and cushion is difficult to
comprehend. Dr. Franklin's idea of the pores of the glass being opened
by the friction, and thence rendered capable of attracting more electric
fluid, which it again parts with, as the pores contract again, seems
analogous in some measure to the heat produced by the vibration, or
condensation of bodies, as when a nail is hammered or filed till it
becomes hot, as mentioned in additional Notes, No. VII. Some
philosophers have endeavoured to account for this phenomenon by
supposing the existence of two electric fluids which may be called the
vitreous and resinous ones, instead of the plus and minus of the same
ether. But its accumulation on the rubbed glass bears great analogy to
its accumulation on the surface of the Leyden bottle, and can not
perhaps be explained from any known mechanical or chemical principle.
See note on Gymnotus. l. 202, of this Canto.]

[_Cold from each point_. l. 339. See additional note, No. XIII.]


345 "YOU bid gold-leaves, in crystal lantherns held,