CANTO I.

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THE TEMPLE OF NATURE;

OR,

THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY.

T. Bensley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London.

THE TEMPLE OF NATURE;

OR,

THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY:

A POEM,

WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.

BY

ERASMUS DARWIN, M.D. F.R.S.

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN, OF ZOONOMIA, AND OF PHYTOLOGIA.

Unde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum,

Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus?

Igneus est illis vigor, & caelestis origo.

VIRG. AEn. VI. 728.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD,

BY T. BENSLEY, BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET.

1803.

PREFACE.

The Poem, which is here offered to the Public, does not pretend to

instruct by deep researches of reasoning; its aim is simply to amuse

by bringing distinctly to the imagination the beautiful and sublime

images of the operations of Nature in the order, as the Author

believes, in which the progressive course of time presented them.

The Deities of Egypt, and afterwards of Greece, and Rome, were derived

from men famous in those early times, as in the ages of hunting,

pasturage, and agriculture. The histories of some of their actions

recorded in Scripture, or celebrated in the heathen mythology, are

introduced, as the Author hopes, without impropriety into his account

of those remote periods of human society.

In the Eleusinian mysteries the philosophy of the works of Nature,

with the origin and progress of society, are believed to have been

taught by allegoric scenery explained by the Hierophant to the

initiated, which gave rise to the machinery of the following Poem.

PRIORY NEAR DERBY,

Jan. 1, 1802.

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY.

CANTO I.

PRODUCTION OF LIFE.

CONTENTS.

I. Subject proposed. Life, Love, and Sympathy 1. Four past Ages, a

fifth beginning 9. Invocation to Love 15. II. Bowers of Eden, Adam and

Eve 33. Temple of Nature 65. Time chained by Sculpture 75. Proteus

bound by Menelaus 83. Bowers of Pleasure 89. School of Venus 97. Court

of Pain 105. Den of Oblivion 113. Muse of Melancholy 121. Cave of

Trophonius 125. Shrine of Nature 129. Eleusinian Mysteries 137. III.

Morning 155. Procession of Virgins 159. Address to the Priestess 167.

Descent of Orpheus into Hell 185. IV. Urania 205. GOD the First Cause

223. Life began beneath the Sea 233. Repulsion, Attraction,

Contraction, Life 235. Spontaneous Production of Minute Animals 247.

Irritation, Appetency 251. Life enlarges the Earth 265. Sensation,

Volition, Association 269. Scene in the Microscope; Mucor, Monas,

Vibrio, Vorticella, Proteus, Mite 281. V. Vegetables and Animals

improve by Reproduction 295. Have all arisen from Microscopic

Animalcules 303. Rocks of Shell and Coral 315. Islands and Continents

raised by Earthquakes 321. Emigration of Animals from the Sea 327.

Trapa 335. Tadpole, Musquito 343. Diodon, Lizard, Beaver, Lamprey,

Remora, Whale 351. Venus rising from the Sea, emblem of Organic Nature

371. All animals are first Aquatic 385. Fetus in the Womb 389. Animals

from the Mud of the Nile 401. The Hierophant and Muse 421-450.

CANTO I.

PRODUCTION OF LIFE.

I. By firm immutable immortal laws

Impress'd on Nature by the GREAT FIRST CAUSE,

Say, MUSE! how rose from elemental strife

Organic forms, and kindled into life;

How Love and Sympathy with potent charm

Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm;

Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains,

And bind Society in golden chains.

Four past eventful Ages then recite,

And give the fifth, new-born of Time, to light; 10

The silken tissue of their joys disclose,

Swell with deep chords the murmur of their woes;

Their laws, their labours, and their loves proclaim,

And chant their virtues to the trump of Fame.

IMMORTAL LOVE! who ere the morn of Time,

On wings outstretch'd, o'er Chaos hung sublime;

Warm'd into life the bursting egg of Night,

And gave young Nature to admiring Light!--

YOU! whose wide arms, in soft embraces hurl'd

Round the vast frame, connect the whirling world! 20

Whether immers'd in day, the Sun your throne,

You gird the planets in your silver zone;

Or warm, descending on ethereal wing,

The Earth's cold bosom with the beams of spring;

Press drop to drop, to atom atom bind,

Link sex to sex, or rivet mind to mind;

Attend my song!--With rosy lips rehearse,

And with your polish'd arrows write my verse!--

So shall my lines soft-rolling eyes engage,

And snow-white fingers turn the volant page; 30

The smiles of Beauty all my toils repay,

And youths and virgins chant the living lay.

II. WHERE EDEN'S sacred bowers triumphant sprung,

By angels guarded, and by prophets sung,

Wav'd o'er the east in purple pride unfurl'd,

And rock'd the golden cradle of the World;

Four sparkling currents lav'd with wandering tides

Their velvet avenues, and flowery sides;

On sun-bright lawns unclad the Graces stray'd,

And guiltless Cupids haunted every glade; 40

Till the fair Bride, forbidden shades among,

Heard unalarm'd the Tempter's serpent-tongue;

Eyed the sweet fruit, the mandate disobey'd,

And her fond Lord with sweeter smiles betray'd.

Conscious awhile with throbbing heart he strove,

Spread his wide arms, and barter'd life for love!--

Now rocks on rocks, in savage grandeur roll'd,

Steep above steep, the blasted plains infold;

The incumbent crags eternal tempest shrouds,

And livid light'nings cleave the lambent clouds; 50

Round the firm base loud-howling whirlwinds blow,

And sands in burning eddies dance below.

[Footnote: _Cradle of the world_, l. 36. The nations, which

possess Europe and a part of Asia and of Africa, appear to

have descended from one family; and to have had their origin

near the banks of the Mediterranean, as probably in Syria,

the site of Paradise, according to the Mosaic history. This

seems highly probable from the similarity of the structure of

the languages of these nations, and from their early

possession of similar religions, customs, and arts, as well

as from the most ancient histories extant. The two former of

these may be collected from Lord Monboddo's learned work on

the Origin of Language, and from Mr. Bryant's curious account

of Ancient Mythology.

The use of iron tools, of the bow and arrow, of earthen

vessels to boil water in, of wheels for carriages, and the

arts of cultivating wheat, of coagulating milk for cheese,

and of spinning vegetable fibres for clothing, have been

known in all European countries, as long as their histories

have existed; besides the similarity of the texture of their

languages, and of many words in them; thus the word sack is

said to mean a bag in all of them, as [Greek: sakkon] in

Greek, saccus in Latin, sacco in Italian, sac in French, and

sack in English and German.

Other families of mankind, nevertheless, appear to have

arisen in other parts of the habitable earth, as the language

of the Chinese is said not to resemble those of this part of

the world in any respect. And the inhabitants of the islands

of the South-Sea had neither the use of iron tools nor of the

bow, nor of wheels, nor of spinning, nor had learned to

coagulate milk, or to boil water, though the domestication of

fire seems to have been the first great discovery that

distinguished mankind from the bestial inhabitants of the

forest.]

Hence ye profane!--the warring winds exclude

Unhallow'd throngs, that press with footstep rude;

But court the Muse's train with milder skies,

And call with softer voice the good and wise.

--Charm'd at her touch the opening wall divides,

And rocks of crystal form the polish'd sides;

Through the bright arch the Loves and Graces tread,

Innocuous thunders murmuring o'er their head; 60

Pair after pair, and tittering, as they pass,

View their fair features in the walls of glass;

Leave with impatient step the circling bourn,

And hear behind the closing rocks return.

HERE, high in air, unconscious of the storm.

Thy temple, NATURE, rears it's mystic form;

From earth to heav'n, unwrought by mortal toil,

Towers the vast fabric on the desert soil;

O'er many a league the ponderous domes extend.

And deep in earth the ribbed vaults descend; 70

A thousand jasper steps with circling sweep

Lead the slow votary up the winding steep;

Ten thousand piers, now join'd and now aloof,

Bear on their branching arms the fretted roof.

Unnumber'd ailes connect unnumber'd halls,

And sacred symbols crowd the pictur'd walls;

With pencil rude forgotten days design,

And arts, or empires, live in every line.

While chain'd reluctant on the marble ground,

Indignant TIME reclines, by Sculpture bound; 80

And sternly bending o'er a scroll unroll'd,

Inscribes the future with his style of gold.

--So erst, when PROTEUS on the briny shore,

New forms assum'd of eagle, pard, or boar;

The wise ATRIDES bound in sea-weed thongs

The changeful god amid his scaly throngs;

Till in deep tones his opening lips at last

Reluctant told the future and the past.

[Footnote: _Pictur'd walls_, l. 76. The application of

mankind, in the early ages of society, to the imitative arts

of painting, carving, statuary, and the casting of figures in

metals, seems to have preceded the discovery of letters; and

to have been used as a written language to convey

intelligence to their distant friends, or to transmit to

posterity the history of themselves, or of their discoveries.

Hence the origin of the hieroglyphic figures which crowded

the walls of the temples of antiquity; many of which may be

seen in the tablet of Isis in the works of Montfaucon; and

some of them are still used in the sciences of chemistry and

astronomy, as the characters for the metals and planets, and

the figures of animals on the celestial globe.]

[Footnote: _So erst, when Proteus_, l. 83. It seems probable

that Proteus was the name of a hieroglyphic figure

representing Time; whose form was perpetually changing, and

who could discover the past events of the world, and predict

the future. Herodotus does not doubt but that Proteus was an

Egyptian king or deity; and Orpheus calls him the principle

of all things, and the most ancient of the gods; and adds,

that he keeps the keys of Nature, _Danet's Dict._, all which

might well accord with a figure representing Time.]

HERE o'er piazza'd courts, and long arcades,

The bowers of PLEASURE root their waving shades; 90

Shed o'er the pansied moss a checker'd gloom,

Bend with new fruits, with flow'rs successive bloom.

Pleas'd, their light limbs on beds of roses press'd,

In slight undress recumbent Beauties rest;

On tiptoe steps surrounding Graces move,

And gay Desires expand their wings above.

HERE young DIONE arms her quiver'd Loves,

Schools her bright Nymphs, and practises her doves;

Calls round her laughing eyes in playful turns,

The glance that lightens, and the smile that burns; 100

Her dimpling cheeks with transient blushes dies,

Heaves her white bosom with seductive sighs;

Or moulds with rosy lips the magic words,

That bind the heart in adamantine cords.

Behind in twilight gloom with scowling mien

The demon PAIN, convokes his court unseen;

Whips, fetters, flames, pourtray'd on sculptur'd stone,

In dread festoons, adorn his ebon throne;

Each side a cohort of diseases stands,

And shudd'ring Fever leads the ghastly bands; 110

O'er all Despair expands his raven wings,

And guilt-stain'd Conscience darts a thousand stings.

Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves,

OBLIVION dwells amid unlabell'd graves;

The storied tomb, the laurell'd bust o'erturns,

And shakes their ashes from the mould'ring urns.--

No vernal zephyr breathes, no sunbeams cheer,

Nor song, nor simper, ever enters here;

O'er the green floor, and round the dew-damp wall,

The slimy snail, and bloated lizard crawl; 120

While on white heaps of intermingled bones

The muse of MELANCHOLY sits and moans;

Showers her cold tears o'er Beauty's early wreck,

Spreads her pale arms, and bends her marble neck.

So in rude rocks, beside the AEgean wave,

TROPHONIUS scoop'd his sorrow-sacred cave;

Unbarr'd to pilgrim feet the brazen door,

And the sad sage returning smil'd no more.

[Footnote: _Trophonius scoop'd_, l. 126. Plutarch mentions,

that prophecies of evil events were uttered from the cave of

Trophonius; but the allegorical story, that whoever entered

this cavern were never again seen to smile, seems to have

been designed to warn the contemplative from considering too

much the dark side of nature. Thus an ancient poet is said to

have written a poem on the miseries of the world, and to have

thence become so unhappy as to destroy himself. When we

reflect on the perpetual destruction of organic life, we

should also recollect, that it is perpetually renewed in

other forms by the same materials, and thus the sum total of

the happiness of the world continues undiminished; and that a

philosopher may thus smile again on turning his eyes from the

coffins of nature to her cradles.]

SHRIN'D in the midst majestic NATURE stands,

Extends o'er earth and sea her hundred hands; 130

Tower upon tower her beamy forehead crests,

And births unnumber'd milk her hundred breasts;

Drawn round her brows a lucid veil depends,

O'er her fine waist the purfled woof descends;

Her stately limbs the gather'd folds surround,

And spread their golden selvage on the ground.

[Footnote: _Fam'd Eleusis stole_, l. 137. The Eleusinian

mysteries were invented in Egypt, and afterwards transferred

into Greece along with most of the other early arts and

religions of Europe. They seem to have consisted of scenical

representations of the philosophy and religion of those

times, which had previously been painted in hieroglyphic

figures to perpetuate them before the discovery of letters;

and are well explained in Dr. Warburton's divine legation of

Moses; who believes with great probability, that Virgil in

the sixth book of the AEneid has described a part of these

mysteries in his account of the Elysian fields.

In the first part of this scenery was represented Death, and

the destruction of all things; as mentioned in the note on

the Portland Vase in the Botanic Garden. Next the marriage of

Cupid and Psyche seems to have shown the reproduction of

living nature; and afterwards the procession of torches,

which is said to have constituted a part of the mysteries,

probably signified the return of light, and the resuscitation

of all things.

Lastly, the histories of illustrious persons of the early

ages seem to have been enacted; who were first represented by

hieroglyphic figures, and afterwards became the gods and

goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Might not such a

dignified pantomime be contrived, even in this age, as might

strike the spectators with awe, and at the same time explain

many philosophical truths by adapted imagery, and thus both

amuse and instruct?]

From this first altar fam'd ELEUSIS stole

Her secret symbols and her mystic scroll;

With pious fraud in after ages rear'd

Her gorgeous temple, and the gods rever'd. 140

--First in dim pomp before the astonish'd throng,

Silence, and Night, and Chaos, stalk'd along;

Dread scenes of Death, in nodding sables dress'd,

Froze the broad eye, and thrill'd the unbreathing breast.

Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr, leads

The queen of Beauty to the blossom'd meads;

Charm'd in her train admiring Hymen moves,

And tiptoe Graces hand in hand with Loves.

Next, while on pausing step the masked mimes

Enact the triumphs of forgotten times, 150

Conceal from vulgar throngs the mystic truth,

Or charm with Wisdom's lore the initiate youth;

Each shifting scene, some patriot hero trod,

Some sainted beauty, or some saviour god.

III. Now rose in purple pomp the breezy dawn,

And crimson dew-drops trembled on the lawn;

Blaz'd high in air the temple's golden vanes,

And dancing shadows veer'd upon the plains.--

Long trains of virgins from the sacred grove,

Pair after pair, in bright procession move, 160

With flower-fill'd baskets round the altar throng,

Or swing their censers, as they wind along.

The fair URANIA leads the blushing bands,

Presents their offerings with unsullied hands;

Pleas'd to their dazzled eyes in part unshrouds

The goddess-form;--the rest is hid in clouds.

"PRIESTESS OF NATURE! while with pious awe

Thy votary bends, the mystic veil withdraw;

Charm after charm, succession bright, display,

And give the GODDESS to adoring day! 170

So kneeling realms shall own the Power divine,

And heaven and earth pour incense on her shrine.

"Oh grant the MUSE with pausing step to press

Each sun-bright avenue, and green recess;

Led by thy hand survey the trophied walls,

The statued galleries, and the pictur'd halls;

Scan the proud pyramid, and arch sublime,

Earth-canker'd urn, medallion green with time,

Stern busts of Gods, with helmed heroes mix'd,

And Beauty's radiant forms, that smile betwixt. 180

[Footnote: _The statued galleries_, l. 176. The art of

painting has appeared in the early state of all societies

before the invention of the alphabet. Thus when the Spanish

adventurers, under Cortez, invaded America, intelligence of

their debarkation and movements was daily transmitted to

Montezuma, by drawings, which corresponded with the Egyptian

hieroglyphics. The antiquity of statuary appears from the

Memnon and sphinxes of Egypt; that of casting figures in

metals from the golden calf of Aaron; and that of carving in

wood from the idols or household gods, which Rachel stole

from her father Laban, and hid beneath her garments as she

sat upon the straw. Gen. c. xxxi. v. 34.]

"Waked by thy voice, transmuted by thy wand,

Their lips shall open, and their arms expand;

The love-lost lady, and the warrior slain,

Leap from their tombs, and sigh or fight again.

--So when ill-fated ORPHEUS tuned to woe

His potent lyre, and sought the realms below;

Charm'd into life unreal forms respir'd,

And list'ning shades the dulcet notes admir'd.--

"LOVE led the Sage through Death's tremendous porch,

Cheer'd with his smile, and lighted with his torch;-- 190

Hell's triple Dog his playful jaws expands,

Fawns round the GOD, and licks his baby hands;

In wondering groups the shadowy nations throng,

And sigh or simper, as he steps along;

Sad swains, and nymphs forlorn, on Lethe's brink,

Hug their past sorrows, and refuse to drink;

Night's dazzled Empress feels the golden flame

Play round her breast, and melt her frozen frame;

Charms with soft words, and sooths with amorous wiles,

Her iron-hearted Lord,--and PLUTO smiles.-- 200

His trembling Bride the Bard triumphant led

From the pale mansions of the astonish'd dead;

Gave the fair phantom to admiring light,--

Ah, soon again to tread irremeable night!"

[Footnote: _Love led the Sage_, l. 189. This description is

taken from the figures on the Barbarini, or Portland Vase,

where Eros, or Divine Love, with his torch precedes the manes

through the gates of Death, and reverting his smiling

countenance invites him into the Elysian fields.]

[Footnote: _Fawns round the God_, l. 192. This idea is copied

from a painting of the descent of Orpheus, by a celebrated

Parisian artist.]

IV. HER snow-white arm, indulgent to my song,

Waves the fair Hierophant, and moves along.--

High plumes, that bending shade her amber hair,

Nod, as she steps, their silver leaves in air;

Bright chains of pearl, with golden buckles brac'd,

Clasp her white neck, and zone her slender waist; 210

Thin folds of silk in soft meanders wind

Down her fine form, and undulate behind;

The purple border, on the pavement roll'd,

Swells in the gale, and spreads its fringe of gold.

"FIRST, if you can, celestial Guide! disclose

From what fair fountain mortal life arose,

Whence the fine nerve to move and feel assign'd,

Contractile fibre, and ethereal mind:

"How Love and Sympathy the bosom warm,

Allure with pleasure, and with pain alarm, 220

With soft affections weave the social plan,

And charm the listening Savage into Man."

"GOD THE FIRST CAUSE!--in this terrene abode

Young Nature lisps, she is the child of GOD.

From embryon births her changeful forms improve,

Grow, as they live, and strengthen as they move.

[Footnote: _God the first cause_, l. 223.

A Jove principium, musae! Jovis omnia plena.

VIRGIL.

In him we live, and move, and have our being.

ST. PAUL.]

[Footnote: _Young Nature lisps_, l. 224. The perpetual

production and increase of the strata of limestone from the

shells of aquatic animals; and of all those incumbent on them

from the recrements of vegetables and of terrestrial animals,

are now well understood from our improved knowledge of

geology; and show, that the solid parts of the globe are

gradually enlarging, and consequently that it is young; as

the fluid parts are not yet all converted into solid ones.

Add to this, that some parts of the earth and its inhabitants

appear younger than others; thus the greater height of the

mountains of America seems to show that continent to be less

ancient than Europe, Asia, and Africa; as their summits have

been less washed away, and the wild animals of America, as

the tigers and crocodiles, are said to be less perfect in

respect to their size and strength; which would show them to

be still in a state of infancy, or of progressive

improvement. Lastly, the progress of mankind in arts and

sciences, which continues slowly to extend, and to increase,

seems to evince the youth of human society; whilst the

unchanging state of the societies of some insects, as of the

bee, wasp, and ant, which is usually ascribed to instinct,

seems to evince the longer existence, and greater maturity of

those societies. The juvenility of the earth shows, that it

has had a beginning or birth, and is a strong natural

argument evincing the existence of a cause of its production,

that is of the Deity.]

"Ere Time began, from flaming Chaos hurl'd

Rose the bright spheres, which form the circling world;

Earths from each sun with quick explosions burst,

And second planets issued from the first. 230

Then, whilst the sea at their coeval birth,

Surge over surge, involv'd the shoreless earth;

Nurs'd by warm sun-beams in primeval caves

Organic Life began beneath the waves.

[Footnote: _Earths from each sun_, l. 229. See Botan. Garden,

Vol. I. Cant. I. l. 107.]

"First HEAT from chemic dissolution springs,

And gives to matter its eccentric wings;

With strong REPULSION parts the exploding mass,

Melts into lymph, or kindles into gas.

ATTRACTION next, as earth or air subsides,

The ponderous atoms from the light divides, 240

Approaching parts with quick embrace combines,

Swells into spheres, and lengthens into lines.

Last, as fine goads the gluten-threads excite,

Cords grapple cords, and webs with webs unite;

And quick CONTRACTION with ethereal flame

Lights into life the fibre-woven frame.--

Hence without parent by spontaneous birth

Rise the first specks of animated earth;

From Nature's womb the plant or insect swims,

And buds or breathes, with microscopic limbs. 250

[Footnote: _First Heat from chemic_, l. 235. The matter of

heat is an ethereal fluid, in which all things are immersed,

and which constitutes the general power of repulsion; as

appears in explosions which are produced by the sudden

evolution of combined heat, and by the expansion of all

bodies by the slower diffusion of it in its uncombined state.

Without heat all the matter of the world would be condensed

into a point by the power of attraction; and neither fluidity

nor life could exist. There are also particular powers of

repulsion, as those of magnetism and electricity, and of

chemistry, such as oil and water; which last may be as

numerous as the particular attractions which constitute

chemical affinities; and may both of them exist as

atmospheres round the individual particles of matter; see

Botanic Garden, Vol. I. additional note VII. on elementary

heat.]

[Footnote: _Attraction next_, l. 239. The power of attraction

may be divided into general attraction, which is called

gravity; and into particular attraction, which is termed

chemical affinity. As nothing can act where it does not

exist, the power of gravity must be conceived as extending

from the sun to the planets, occupying that immense space;

and may therefore be considered as an ethereal fluid, though

not cognizable by our senses like heat, light, and

electricity.

Particular attraction, or chemical affinity, must likewise

occupy the spaces between the particles of matter which they

cause to approach each other. The power of gravity may

therefore be called the general attractive ether, and the

matter of heat may be called the general repulsive ether;

which constitute the two great agents in the changes of

inanimate matter.]

[Footnote: _And quick Contraction_, l. 245. The power of

contraction, which exists in organized bodies, and

distinguishes life from inanimation, appears to consist of an

ethereal fluid which resides in the brain and nerves of

living bodies, and is expended in the act of shortening their

fibres. The attractive and repulsive ethers require only the

vicinity of bodies for the exertion of their activity, but

the contractive ether requires at first the contact of a goad

or stimulus, which appears to draw it off from the

contracting fibre, and to excite the sensorial power of

irritation. These contractions of animal fibres are

afterwards excited or repeated by the sensorial powers of

sensation, volition, or association, as explained at large in

Zoonomia, Vol. I.

There seems nothing more wonderful in the ether of

contraction producing the shortening of a fibre, than in the

ether of attraction causing two bodies to approach each

other. The former indeed seems in some measure to resemble

the latter, as it probably occasions the minute particles of

the fibre to approach into absolute or adhesive contact, by

withdrawing from them their repulsive atmospheres; whereas

the latter seems only to cause particles of matter to

approach into what is popularly called contact, like the

particles of fluids; but which are only in the vicinity of

each other, and still retain their repulsive atmospheres, as

may be seen in riding through shallow water by the number of

minute globules of it thrown up by the horses feet, which

roll far on its surface; and by the difficulty with which

small globules of mercury poured on the surface of a quantity

of it can be made to unite with it.]

[Footnote: _Spontaneous birth_, l. 247. See additional Note,

No. I.]

"IN earth, sea, air, around, below, above,

Life's subtle woof in Nature's loom is wove;

Points glued to points a living line extends,

Touch'd by some goad approach the bending ends;

Rings join to rings, and irritated tubes

Clasp with young lips the nutrient globes or cubes;

And urged by appetencies new select,

Imbibe, retain, digest, secrete, eject.

In branching cones the living web expands,

Lymphatic ducts, and convoluted glands; 260

Aortal tubes propel the nascent blood,

And lengthening veins absorb the refluent flood;

Leaves, lungs, and gills, the vital ether breathe

On earth's green surface, or the waves beneath.

So Life's first powers arrest the winds and floods,

To bones convert them, or to shells, or woods;

Stretch the vast beds of argil, lime, and sand,

And from diminish'd oceans form the land!

[Footnote: _In branching cones_, l. 259. The whole branch of

an artery or vein may be considered as a cone, though each

distinct division of it is a cylinder. It is probable that

the amount of the areas of all the small branches from one

trunk may equal that of the trunk, otherwise the velocity of

the blood would be greater in some parts than in others,

which probably only exists when a part is compressed or

inflamed.]

[Footnote: _Absorb the refluent flood_, l. 262. The force of

the arterial impulse appears to cease, after having propelled

the blood through the capillary vessels; whence the venous

circulation is owing to the extremities of the veins

absorbing the blood, as those of the lymphatics absorb the

fluids. The great force of absorption is well elucidated by

Dr. Hales's experiment on the rise of the sap-juice in a

vine-stump; see Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXIII.]

[Footnote: _And from diminish'd oceans_, l. 268. The increase

of the solid parts of the globe by the recrements of organic

bodies, as limestone rocks from shells and bones, and the

beds of clay, marl, coals, from decomposed woods, is now well

known to those who have attended to modern geology; and Dr.

Halley, and others, have endeavoured to show, with great

probability, that the ocean has decreased in quantity during

the short time which human history has existed. Whence it

appears, that the exertions of vegetable and animal life

convert the fluid parts of the globe into solid ones; which

is probably effected by combining the matter of heat with the

other elements, instead of suffering it to remain simply

diffused amongst them, which is a curious conjecture, and

deserves further investigation.]

"Next the long nerves unite their silver train,

And young SENSATION permeates the brain; 270

Through each new sense the keen emotions dart,

Flush the young cheek, and swell the throbbing heart.

From pain and pleasure quick VOLITIONS rise,

Lift the strong arm, or point the inquiring eyes;

With Reason's light bewilder'd Man direct,

And right and wrong with balance nice detect.

Last in thick swarms ASSOCIATIONS spring,

Thoughts join to thoughts, to motions motions cling;

Whence in long trains of catenation flow

Imagined joy, and voluntary woe. 280

[Footnote: _And young Sensation_, l. 270. Both sensation and

volition consist in an affection of the central part of the

sensorium, or of the whole of it; and hence cannot exist till

the nerves are united in the brain. The motions of a limb of

any animal cut from the body, are therefore owing to

irritation, not to sensation or to volition. For the

definitions of irritation, sensation, volition, and

association, see additional Note II.]

"So, view'd through crystal spheres in drops saline,

Quick-shooting salts in chemic forms combine;

Or Mucor-stems, a vegetative tribe,

Spread their fine roots, the tremulous wave imbibe.

Next to our wondering eyes the focus brings

Self-moving lines, and animated rings;

First Monas moves, an unconnected point,

Plays round the drop without a limb or joint;

Then Vibrio waves, with capillary eels,

And Vorticella whirls her living wheels; 290

While insect Proteus sports with changeful form

Through the bright tide, a globe, a cube, a worm.

Last o'er the field the Mite enormous swims,

Swells his red heart, and writhes his giant limbs.

[Footnote: _Or Mucor-stems_, l. 283. Mucor or mould in its

early state is properly a microscopic vegetable, and is

spontaneously produced on the scum of all decomposing organic

matter. The Monas is a moving speck, the Vibrio an undulating

wire, the Proteus perpetually changes its shape, and the

Vorticella has wheels about its mouth, with which it makes an

eddy, and is supposed thus to draw into its throat invisible

animalcules. These names are from Linneus and Muller; see

Appendix to Additional Note I.]

V. "ORGANIC LIFE beneath the shoreless waves

Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves;

First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,

Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;

These, as successive generations bloom,

New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; 300

Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,

And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing.

[Footnote: _Beneath the shoreless waves_, l. 295. The earth

was originally covered with water, as appears from some of

its highest mountains, consisting of shells cemented together

by a solution of part of them, as the limestone rocks of the

Alps; Ferber's Travels. It must be therefore concluded, that

animal life began beneath the sea.

Nor is this unanalogous to what still occurs, as all

quadrupeds and mankind in their embryon state are aquatic

animals; and thus may be said to resemble gnats and frogs.

The fetus in the uterus has an organ called the placenta, the

fine extremities of the vessels of which permeate the

arteries of the uterus, and the blood of the fetus becomes

thus oxygenated from the passing stream of the maternal

arterial blood; exactly as is done by the gills of fish from

the stream of water, which they occasion to pass through

them.

But the chicken in the egg possesses a kind of aerial

respiration, since the extremities of its placental vessels

terminate on a membranous bag, which contains air, at the

broad end of the egg; and in this the chick in the egg

differs from the fetus in the womb, as there is in the egg no

circulating maternal blood for the insertion of the

extremities of its respiratory vessels, and in this also I

suspect that the eggs of birds differ from the spawn of fish;

which latter is immersed in water, and which has probably the

extremities of its respiratory organ inserted into the soft

membrane which covers it, and is in contact with the water.]

[Footnote: _First forms minute_, l. 297. See Additional Note

I. on Spontaneous Vitality.]

"Thus the tall Oak, the giant of the wood,

Which bears Britannia's thunders on the flood;

The Whale, unmeasured monster of the main,

The lordly Lion, monarch of the plain,

The Eagle soaring in the realms of air,

Whose eye undazzled drinks the solar glare,

Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd,

Of language, reason, and reflection proud, 310

With brow erect who scorns this earthy sod,

And styles himself the image of his God;

Arose from rudiments of form and sense,

An embryon point, or microscopic ens!

"Now in vast shoals beneath the brineless tide,

On earth's firm crust testaceous tribes reside;

Age after age expands the peopled plain,

The tenants perish, but their cells remain;

Whence coral walls and sparry hills ascend

From pole to pole, and round the line extend. 320

[Footnote: _An embryon point_, l. 314. The arguments showing

that all vegetables and animals arose from such a small

beginning, as a living point or living fibre, are detailed in

Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4. 8. on Generation.]

[Footnote: _Brineless tide_, l. 315. As the salt of the sea

has been gradually accumulating, being washed down into it

from the recrements of animal and vegetable bodies, the sea

must originally have been as fresh as river water; and as it

is not saturated with salt, must become annually saline. The

sea-water about our island contains at this time from about

one twenty-eighth to one thirtieth part of sea salt, and

about one eightieth of magnesian salt; Brownrigg on Salt.]

[Footnote: _Whence coral walls_, l. 319. An account of the

structure of the earth is given in Botanic Garden, Vol. I.

Additional Notes, XVI. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXIII. XXIV.]

"Next when imprison'd fires in central caves

Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves;

And, as new airs with dread explosion swell,

Form'd lava-isles, and continents of shell;

Pil'd rocks on rocks, on mountains mountains raised,

And high in heaven the first volcanoes blazed;

In countless swarms an insect-myriad moves

From sea-fan gardens, and from coral groves;

Leaves the cold caverns of the deep, and creeps

On shelving shores, or climbs on rocky steeps. 330

As in dry air the sea-born stranger roves,

Each muscle quickens, and each sense improves;

Cold gills aquatic form respiring lungs,

And sounds aerial flow from slimy tongues.

[Footnote: _Drunk the headlong waves_, l. 322. See Additional

Note III.]

[Footnote: _An insect-myriad moves_, l. 327. After islands or

continents were raised above the primeval ocean, great

numbers of the most simple animals would attempt to seek food

at the edges or shores of the new land, and might thence

gradually become amphibious; as is now seen in the frog, who

changes from an aquatic animal to an amphibious one; and in

the gnat, which changes from a natant to a volant state.

At the same time new microscopic animalcules would

immediately commence wherever there was warmth and moisture,

and some organic matter, that might induce putridity. Those

situated on dry land, and immersed in dry air, may gradually

acquire new powers to preserve their existence; and by

innumerable successive reproductions for some thousands, or

perhaps millions of ages, may at length have produced many of

the vegetable and animal inhabitants which now people the

earth.

As innumerable shell-fish must have existed a long time

beneath the ocean, before the calcareous mountains were

produced and elevated; it is also probable, that many of the

insect tribes, or less complicate animals, existed long

before the quadrupeds or more complicate ones, which in some

measure accords with the theory of Linneus in respect to the

vegetable world; who thinks, that all the plants now extant

arose from the conjunction and reproduction of about sixty

different vegetables, from which he constitutes his natural

orders.

As the blood of animals in the air becomes more oxygenated in

their lungs, than that of animals in water by their gills; it

becomes of a more scarlet colour, and from its greater

stimulus the sensorium seems to produce quicker motions and

finer sensations; and as water is a much better vehicle for

vibrations or sounds than air, the fish, even when dying in

pain, are mute in the atmosphere, though it is probable that

in the water they may utter sounds to be heard at a

considerable distance. See on this subject, Botanic Garden,

Vol. I. Canto IV. l. 176, Note.]

"So Trapa rooted in pellucid tides,

In countless threads her breathing leaves divides,

Waves her bright tresses in the watery mass,

And drinks with gelid gills the vital gas;

Then broader leaves in shadowy files advance,

Spread o'er the crystal flood their green expanse; 340

And, as in air the adherent dew exhales,

Court the warm sun, and breathe ethereal gales.

[Footnote: _So Trapa rooted_, l. 335. The lower leaves of

this plant grow under water, and are divided into minute

capillary ramifications; while the upper leaves are broad and

round, and have air bladders in their footstalks to support

them above the surface of the water. As the aerial leaves of

vegetables do the office of lungs, by exposing a large

surface of vessels with their contained fluids to the

influence of the air; so these aquatic leaves answer a

similar purpose like the gills of fish, and perhaps gain from

water a similar material. As the material thus necessary to

life seems to be more easily acquired from air than from

water, the subaquatic leaves of this plant and of sisymbrium,

oenanthe, ranunculus aquatilis, water crow-foot, and some

others, are cut into fine divisions to increase the surface,

whilst those above water are undivided; see Botanic Garden,

Vol. II. Canto IV. l. 204. Note.

Few of the water plants of this country are used for

economical purposes, but the ranunculus fluviatilis may be

worth cultivation; as on the borders of the river Avon, near

Ringwood, the cottagers cut this plant every morning in

boats, almost all the year round, to feed their cows, which

appear in good condition, and give a due quantity of milk;

see a paper from Dr. Pultney in the Transactions of the

Linnean Society, Vol. V.]

"So still the Tadpole cleaves the watery vale

With balanc'd fins, and undulating tail;

New lungs and limbs proclaim his second birth,

Breathe the dry air, and bound upon the earth.

So from deep lakes the dread Musquito springs,

Drinks the soft breeze, and dries his tender wings,

In twinkling squadrons cuts his airy way,

Dips his red trunk in blood, and man his prey. 350

[Footnote: _So still the Tadpole_, l. 343. The transformation

of the tadpole from an aquatic animal into an aerial one is

abundantly curious, when first it is hatched from the spawn

by the warmth of the season, it resembles a fish; it

afterwards puts forth legs, and resembles a lizard; and

finally losing its tail, and acquiring lungs instead of

gills, becomes an aerial quadruped.

The rana temporaria of Linneus lives in the water in spring,

and on the land in summer, and catches flies. Of the rana

paradoxa the larva or tadpole is as large as the frog, and

dwells in Surinam, whence the mistake of Merian and of Seba,

who call it a frog fish. The esculent frog is green, with

three yellow lines from the mouth to the anus; the back

transversely gibbous, the hinder feet palmated; its more

frequent croaking in the evenings is said to foretell rain.

Linnei Syst. Nat. Art. rana.

Linneus asserts in his introduction to the class Amphibia,

that frogs are so nearly allied to lizards, lizards to

serpents, and serpents to fish, that the boundaries of these

orders can scarcely be ascertained.]

[Footnote: _The dread Musquito springs_, l. 347. See

Additional Note IV.]

"So still the Diodons, amphibious tribe,

With two-fold lungs the sea or air imbibe;

Allied to fish, the lizard cleaves the flood

With one-cell'd heart, and dark frigescent blood;

Half-reasoning Beavers long-unbreathing dart

Through Erie's waves with perforated heart;

With gills and lungs respiring Lampreys steer,

Kiss the rude rocks, and suck till they adhere;

The lazy Remora's inhaling lips,

Hung on the keel, retard the struggling ships; 360

With gills pulmonic breathes the enormous Whale,

And spouts aquatic columns to the gale;

Sports on the shining wave at noontide hours,

And shifting rainbows crest the rising showers.

[Footnote: _So still the Diodon_, l. 351. See Additional Note

V.]

[Footnote: _At noontide hours_, l. 363. The rainbows in our

latitude are only seen in the mornings or evenings, when the

sun is not much more than forty-two degrees high. In the more

northern latitudes, where the meridian sun is not more than

forty-two degrees high, they are also visible at noon.]

"So erst, ere rose the science to record

In letter'd syllables the volant word;

Whence chemic arts, disclosed in pictured lines,

Liv'd to mankind by hieroglyphic signs;

And clustering stars, pourtray'd on mimic spheres,

Assumed the forms of lions, bulls, and bears; 370

--So erst, as Egypt's rude designs explain,

Rose young DIONE from the shoreless main;

Type of organic Nature! source of bliss!

Emerging Beauty from the vast abyss!

Sublime on Chaos borne, the Goddess stood,

And smiled enchantment on the troubled flood;

The warring elements to peace restored,

And young Reflection wondered and adored."

[Footnote: _As Egypt's rude design_, l. 371. See Additional

Note VI.]

[Footnote: _Rose young Dione_, l. 372. The hieroglyphic

figure of Venus rising from the sea supported on a shell by

two tritons, as well as that of Hercules armed with a club,

appear to be remains of the most remote antiquity. As the

former is devoid of grace, and of the pictorial art of

design, as one half of the group exactly resembles the other;

and as that of Hercules is armed with a club, which was the

first weapon.

The Venus seems to have represented the beauty of organic

Nature rising from the sea, and afterwards became simply an

emblem of ideal beauty; while the figure of Adonis was

probably designed to represent the more abstracted idea of

life or animation. Some of these hieroglyphic designs seem to

evince the profound investigations in science of the Egyptian

philosophers, and to have outlived all written language; and

still constitute the symbols, by which painters and poets

give form and animation to abstracted ideas, as to those of

strength and beauty in the above instances.]

Now paused the Nymph,--The Muse responsive cries,

Sweet admiration sparkling in her eyes, 380

"Drawn by your pencil, by your hand unfurl'd,

Bright shines the tablet of the dawning world;

Amazed the Sea's prolific depths I view,

And VENUS rising from the waves in YOU!

"Still Nature's births enclosed in egg or seed

From the tall forest to the lowly weed,

Her beaux and beauties, butterflies and worms,

Rise from aquatic to aerial forms.

Thus in the womb the nascent infant laves

Its natant form in the circumfluent waves; 390

With perforated heart unbreathing swims,

Awakes and stretches all its recent limbs;

With gills placental seeks the arterial flood,

And drinks pure ether from its Mother's blood.

Erewhile the landed Stranger bursts his way,

From the warm wave emerging into day;

Feels the chill blast, and piercing light, and tries

His tender lungs, and rolls his dazzled eyes;

Gives to the passing gale his curling hair,

And steps a dry inhabitant of air. 400

[Footnote: _Awakes and stretches_, l. 392. During the first

six months of gestation, the embryon probably sleeps, as it

seems to have no use for voluntary power; it then seems to

awake, and to stretch its limbs, and change its posture in

some degree, which is termed quickening.]

[Footnote: _With gills placental_, l. 393. The placenta

adheres to any side of the uterus in natural gestation, or of

any other cavity in extra-uterine gestation; the extremities

of its arteries and veins probably permeate the arteries of

the mother, and absorb from thence through their fine coats

the oxygen of the mother's blood; hence when the placenta is

withdrawn, the side of the uterus, where it adhered, bleeds;

but not the extremities of its own vessels.]

[Footnote: _His dazzled eyes_, l. 398. Though the membrana

pupillaris described by modern anatomists guards the tender

retina from too much light; the young infant nevertheless

seems to feel the presence of it by its frequently moving its

eyes, before it can distinguish common objects.]

"Creative Nile, as taught in ancient song,

So charm'd to life his animated throng;

O'er his wide realms the slow-subsiding flood

Left the rich treasures of organic mud;

While with quick growth young Vegetation yields

Her blushing orchards, and her waving fields;

Pomona's hand replenish'd Plenty's horn,

And Ceres laugh'd amid her seas of corn.--

Bird, beast, and reptile, spring from sudden birth,

Raise their new forms, half-animal, half-earth; 410

The roaring lion shakes his tawny mane,

His struggling limbs still rooted in the plain;

With flapping wings assurgent eagles toil

To rend their talons from the adhesive soil;

The impatient serpent lifts his crested head,

And drags his train unfinish'd from the bed.--

As Warmth and Moisture blend their magic spells,

And brood with mingling wings the slimy dells;

Contractile earths in sentient forms arrange,

And Life triumphant stays their chemic change." 420

[Footnote: _As warmth and moisture_, l. 417.

In eodem corpore saepe

Altera pars vivit; rudis est pars altera tellus.

Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque,

Concipiunt; & ab his oriuntur, cuncta duobus.

OVID. MET. l. 1. 430.

This story from Ovid of the production of animals from the

mud of the Nile seems to be of Egyptian origin, and is

probably a poetical account of the opinions of the magi or

priests of that country; showing that the simplest animations

were spontaneously produced like chemical combinations, but

were distinguished from the latter by their perpetual

improvement by the power of reproduction, first by solitary,

and then by sexual generation; whereas the products of

natural chemistry are only enlarged by accretion, or purified

by filtration.]

Then hand in hand along the waving glades

The virgin Sisters pass beneath the shades;

Ascend the winding steps with pausing march,

And seek the Portico's susurrant arch;

Whose sculptur'd architrave on columns borne

Drinks the first blushes of the rising morn,

Whose fretted roof an ample shield displays,

And guards the Beauties from meridian rays.

While on light step enamour'd Zephyr springs,

And fans their glowing features with his wings, 430

Imbibes the fragrance of the vernal flowers,

And speeds with kisses sweet the dancing Hours.

Urania, leaning with unstudied grace,

Rests her white elbow on a column's base;

Awhile reflecting takes her silent stand,

Her fair cheek press'd upon her lily hand;

Then, as awaking from ideal trance,

On the smooth floor her pausing steps advance,

Waves high her arm, upturns her lucid eyes,

Marks the wide scenes of ocean, earth, and skies; 440

And leads, meandering as it rolls along

Through Nature's walks, the shining stream of Song.

First her sweet voice in plaintive accents chains

The Muse's ear with fascinating strains;

Reverts awhile to elemental strife,

The change of form, and brevity of life;

Then tells how potent Love with torch sublime

Relights the glimmering lamp, and conquers Time.

--The polish'd walls reflect her rosy smiles,

And sweet-ton'd echoes talk along the ailes. 450

END OF CANTO I.

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY.

CANTO II.

REPRODUCTION OF LIFE.

CONTENTS.

I. Brevity of Life 1. Reproduction 13. Animals improve 31. Life and

Death alternate 37. Adonis emblem of Mortal Life 45. II. Solitary

reproduction 61. Buds, Bulbs, Polypus 65. Truffle; Buds of trees how

generated 71. Volvox, Polypus, Taenia, Oysters, Corals, are without Sex

83. Storge goddess of Parental Love; First chain of Society 92. III.

Female sex produced 103. Tulip bulbs, Aphis 125. Eve from Adam's rib

135. IV. Hereditary diseases 159. Grafted trees, bulbous roots

degenerate 167. Gout, Mania, Scrofula, Consumption 177. Time and

Nature 185. V. Urania and the Muse lament 205. Cupid and Psyche, the

deities of sexual love 221. Speech of Hymen 239. Second chain of

Society 250. Young Desire 251. Love and Beauty save the world 257.

Vegetable sexes, Anthers and Stigmas salute 263. Vegetable sexual

generation 271. Anthers of Vallisneria float to the Stigmas 279. Ant,

Lampyris, Glow-Worm, Snail 287. Silk-Worm 293. VI. Demon of Jealousy

307. Cocks, Quails, Stags, Boars 313. Knights of Romance 327. Helen

and Paris 333. Connubial love 341. Married Birds, nests of the Linnet

and Nightingale 343. Lions, Tigers, Bulls, Horses 357. Triumphal car

of Cupid 361. Fish, Birds, Insects 371. Vegetables 389. March of Hymen

411. His lamp 419. VII. Urania's advice to her Nymphs 425. Dines with

the Muse on forbidden Fruit 435. Angels visit Abraham 447-458.

CANTO II.

REPRODUCTION OF LIFE.

I. "How short the span of LIFE! some hours possess'd,

Warm but to cool, and active but to rest!--

The age-worn fibres goaded to contract,

By repetition palsied, cease to act;

When Time's cold hands the languid senses seize,

Chill the dull nerves, the lingering currents freeze;

Organic matter, unreclaim'd by Life,

Reverts to elements by chemic strife.

Thus Heat evolv'd from some fermenting mass

Expands the kindling atoms into gas; 10

Which sink ere long in cold concentric rings,

Condensed, on Gravity's descending wings.

[Footnote: _How short the span of Life_, l. 1. The thinking

few in all ages have complained of the brevity of life,

lamenting that mankind are not allowed time sufficient to

cultivate science, or to improve their intellect. Hippocrates

introduces his celebrated aphorisms with this idea; "Life is

short, science long, opportunities of knowledge rare,

experiments fallacious, and reasoning difficult."--A

melancholy reflection to philosophers!]

[Footnote: _The age-worn fibres_, l. 3. Why the same kinds of

food, which enlarge and invigorate the body from infancy to

the meridian of life, and then nourish it for some years

unimpaired, should at length gradually cease to do so, and

the debility of age and death supervene, would be liable to

surprise us if we were not in the daily habit of observing

it; and is a circumstance which has not yet been well

understood.

Before mankind introduced civil society, old age did not

exist in the world, nor other lingering diseases; as all

living creatures, as soon as they became too feeble to defend

themselves, were slain and eaten by others, except the young

broods, who were defended by their mother; and hence the

animal world existed uniformly in its greatest strength and

perfection; see Additional Note VII.]

"But REPRODUCTION with ethereal fires

New Life rekindles, ere the first expires;

Calls up renascent Youth, ere tottering age

Quits the dull scene, and gives him to the stage;

Bids on his cheek the rose of beauty blow,

And binds the wreaths of pleasure round his brow;

With finer links the vital chain extends,

And the long line of Being never ends. 20

[Footnote: _But Reproduction_, l. 13. See Additional Note

VIII.]

"Self-moving Engines by unbending springs

May walk on earth, or flap their mimic wings;

In tubes of glass mercurial columns rise,

Or sink, obedient to the incumbent skies;

Or, as they touch the figured scale, repeat

The nice gradations of circumfluent heat.

But REPRODUCTION, when the perfect Elf

Forms from fine glands another like itself,

Gives the true character of life and sense,

And parts the organic from the chemic Ens.-- 30

Where milder skies protect the nascent brood,

And earth's warm bosom yields salubrious food;

Each new Descendant with superior powers

Of sense and motion speeds the transient hours;

Braves every season, tenants every clime,

And Nature rises on the wings of Time.

[Footnote: _Unbending springs_, l. 21. See Additional Note I.

4.]

"As LIFE discordant elements arrests,

Rejects the noxious, and the pure digests;

Combines with Heat the fluctuating mass,

And gives a while solidity to gas; 40

Organic forms with chemic changes strive,

Live but to die, and die but to revive!

Immortal matter braves the transient storm,

Mounts from the wreck, unchanging but in form.--

[Footnote: _Combines with Heat_, l. 39. It was shown in note

on line 248 of the first Canto, that much of the aerial and

liquid parts of the terraqueous globe was converted by the

powers of life into solid matter; and that this was effected

by the combination of the fluid, heat, with other elementary

bodies by the appetencies and propensities of the parts of

living matter to unite with each other. But when these

appetencies and propensities of the parts of organic matter

to unite with each other cease, the chemical affinities of

attraction and the aptitude to be attracted, and of repulsion

and the aptitude to be repelled, succeed, and reduce much of

the solid matters back to the condition of elements; which

seems to be effected by the matter of heat being again set at

liberty, which was combined with other matters by the powers

of life; and thus by its diffusion the solid bodies return

into liquid ones or into gasses, as occurs in the processes

of fermentation, putrefaction, sublimation, and calcination.

Whence solidity appears to be produced in consequence of the

diminution of heat, as the condensation of steam into water,

and the consolidation of water into ice, or by the

combination of heat with bodies, as with the materials of

gunpowder before its explosion.]

[Footnote: _Immortal matter_, l. 43. The perpetual mutability

of the forms of matter seems to have struck the philosophers

of great antiquity; the system of transmigration taught by

Pythagoras, in which the souls of men were supposed after

death to animate the bodies of a variety of animals, appears

to have arisen from this source. He had observed the

perpetual changes of organic matter from one creature to

another, and concluded, that the vivifying spirit must attend

it.]

"So, as the sages of the East record

In sacred symbol, or unletter'd word;

Emblem of Life, to change eternal doom'd,

The beauteous form of fair ADONIS bloom'd.--

On Syrian hills the graceful Hunter slain

Dyed with his gushing blood the shuddering plain; 50

And, slow-descending to the Elysian shade,

A while with PROSERPINE reluctant stray'd;

Soon from the yawning grave the bursting clay

Restor'd the Beauty to delighted day;

Array'd in youth's resuscitated charms,

And young DIONE woo'd him to her arms.--

Pleased for a while the assurgent youth above

Relights the golden lamp of life and love;

Ah, soon again to leave the cheerful light,

And sink alternate to the realms of night. 60

[Footnote: _Emblem of Life_, l. 47. The Egyptian figure of

Venus rising from the sea seems to have represented the

Beauty of organic Nature; which the philosophers of that

country, the magi, appear to have discovered to have been

elevated by earthquakes from the primeval ocean. But the

hieroglyphic figure of Adonis seems to have signified the

spirit of animation or life, which was perpetually wooed or

courted by organic matter, and which perished and revived

alternately. Afterwards the fable of Adonis seems to have

given origin to the first religion promising a resurrection

from the dead; whence his funeral and return to life were

celebrated for many ages in Egypt and Syria, the ceremonies

of which Ezekiel complains as idolatrous, accusing the women

of Israel of lamenting over Thammus; which St. Cyril

interprets to be Adonis, in his Commentaries on Isaiah;

Danet's Diction.]

II. "HENCE ere Vitality, as time revolves,

Leaves the cold organ, and the mass dissolves;

The Reproductions of the living Ens

From sires to sons, unknown to sex, commence.

New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots

On lengthening branches, and protruding roots;

Or on the father's side from bursting glands

The adhering young its nascent form expands;

In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns,

And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns. 70

"So the lone Truffle, lodged beneath the earth,

Shoots from paternal roots the tuberous birth;

No stamen-males ascend, and breathe above,

No seed-born offspring lives by female love.

From each young tree, for future buds design'd

Organic drops exsude beneath the rind;

While these with appetencies nice invite,

And those with apt propensities unite;

New embryon fibrils round the trunk combine

With quick embrace, and form the living line: 80

Whose plume and rootlet at their early birth

Seek the dry air, or pierce the humid earth.

[Footnote: _So the lone Truffle_, l. 71. Lycoperdon tuber.

This plant never rises above the earth, is propagated without

seed by its roots only, and seems to require no light.

Perhaps many other fungi are generated without seed by their

roots only, and without light, and approach on the last

account to animal nature.]

[Footnote: _While these with appetencies_, l. 77. See

Additional Note VIII.]

"So safe in waves prolific Volvox dwells,

And five descendants crowd his lucid cells;

So the male Polypus parental swims,

And branching infants bristle all his limbs;

So the lone Taenia, as he grows, prolongs

His flatten'd form with young adherent throngs;

Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells,

And coral-insects build their radiate shells; 90

Parturient Sires caress their infant train,

And heaven-born STORGE weaves the social chain;

Successive births her tender cares combine,

And soft affections live along the line.

[Footnote: _Prolific Volvox_, l. 83. The volvox globator

dwells in the lakes of Europe, is transparent, and bears

within it children and grandchildren to the fifth generation;

Syst. Nat.]

[Footnote: _The male polypus_, l. 85. The Hydra viridis and

fusca of Linneus dwell in our ditches and rivers under

aquatic plants; these animals have been shown by ingenious

observers to revive after having been dried, to be restored

when mutilated, to be multiplied by dividing them, and

propagated from portions of them, parts of different ones to

unite, to be turned inside outwards and yet live, and to be

propagated by seeds, to produce bulbs, and vegetate by

branches. Syst. Nat.]

[Footnote: _The lone Taenia_, l. 87. The tape-worm dwells in

the intestines of animals, and grows old at one extremity,

producing an infinite series of young ones at the other; the

separate joints have been called Gourd-worms, each of which

possesses a mouth of its own, and organs of digestion. Syst.

Nat.]

[Footnote: _The pregnant oyster_, l. 89. Ostrea edulis dwells

in the European oceans, frequent at the tables of the

luxurious, a living repast! New-born oysters swim swiftly by

an undulating movement of fins thrust out a little way from

their shells. Syst. Nat. But they do not afterwards change

their place during their whole lives, and are capable of no

other movement but that of opening the shell a little way:

whence Professor Beckman observes, that their offspring is

probably produced without maternal organs; and that those,

who speak of male and female oysters, must be mistaken: Phil.

Magaz. March 1800. It is also observed by H. I. le Beck, that

on nice inspection of the Pearl oysters in the gulf of Manar,

he could observe no distinction of sexes. Nicholson's

Journal. April 1800.]

[Footnote: _And coral insects_, l. 90. The coral habitation

of the Madrepora of Linneus consists of one or more star-like

cells; a congeries of which form rocks beneath the sea; the

animal which constructs it is termed Medusa; and as it

adheres to its calcareous cavity, and thence cannot travel to

its neighbours, is probably without sex. I observed great

masses of the limestone in Shropshire, which is brought to

Newport, to consist of the cells of these animals.]

[Footnote: _And heaven-born Storge_, l. 92. See Additional

Note IX.]

"On angel-wings the GODDESS FORM descends,

Round her fond broods her silver arms she bends;

White streams of milk her tumid bosom swell,

And on her lips ambrosial kisses dwell.

Light joys on twinkling feet before her dance

With playful nod, and momentary glance; 100

Behind, attendant on the pansied plain,

Young PSYCHE treads with CUPID in her train.

III. "IN these lone births no tender mothers blend

Their genial powers to nourish or defend;

No nutrient streams from Beauty's orbs improve

These orphan babes of solitary love;

Birth after birth the line unchanging runs,

And fathers live transmitted in their sons;

Each passing year beholds the unvarying kinds,

The same their manners, and the same their minds. 110

Till, as erelong successive buds decay,

And insect-shoals successive pass away,

Increasing wants the pregnant parents vex

With the fond wish to form a softer sex;

Whose milky rills with pure ambrosial food

Might charm and cherish their expected brood.

The potent wish in the productive hour

Calls to its aid Imagination's power,

O'er embryon throngs with mystic charm presides,

And sex from sex the nascent world divides, 120

With soft affections warms the callow trains,

And gives to laughing Love his nymphs and swains;

Whose mingling virtues interweave at length

The mother's beauty with the father's strength.

[Footnote: _A softer sex_, l. 114. The first buds of trees

raised from seed die annually, and are succeeded by new buds

by solitary reproduction; which are larger or more perfect

for several successive years, and then they produce sexual

flowers, which are succeeded by seminal reproduction. The

same occurs in bulbous rooted plants raised from seed; they

die annually, and produce others rather more perfect than the

parent for several years, and then produce sexual flowers.

The Aphis is in a similar manner hatched from an egg in the

vernal months, and produces a viviparous offspring without

sexual intercourse for nine or ten successive generations;

and then the progeny is both male and female, which cohabit,

and from these new females are produced eggs, which endure

the winter; the same process probably occurs in many other

insects.]

[Footnote: _Imagination's power_, l. 118. The manner in which

the similarity of the progeny to the parent, and the sex of

it, are produced by the power of imagination, is treated of

in Zoonomia. Sect. 39. 6. 3. It is not to be understood, that

the first living fibres, which are to form an animal, are

produced by imagination, with any similarity of form to the

future animal; but with appetencies or propensities, which

shall produce by accretion of parts the similarity of form

and feature, or of sex, corresponding with the imagination of

the father.]

[Footnote: _His nymphs and swains_, l. 122. The arguments

which have been adduced to show, that mankind and quadrupeds

were formerly in an hermaphrodite state, are first deduced

from the present existence of breasts and nipples in all the

males; which latter swell on titillation like those of the

females, and which are said to contain a milky fluid at their

birth; and it is affirmed, that some men have given milk to

their children in desert countries, where the mother has

perished; as the male pigeon is said to give a kind of milk

from his stomach along with the regurgitated food, to the

young doves, as mentioned in Additional Note IX. on Storge.

Secondly, from the apparent progress of many animals to

greater perfection, as in some insects, as the flies with two

wings, termed Diptera; which have rudiments of two other

wings, called halteres, or poisers; and in many flowers which

have rudiments of new stamina, or filaments without anthers

on them. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. Curcuma, Note, and the

Note on l. 204 of Canto I. of this work. It has been supposed

by some, that mankind were formerly quadrupeds as well as

hermaphrodites; and that some parts of the body are not yet

so convenient to an erect attitude as to a horizontal one; as

the fundus of the bladder in an erect posture is not exactly

over the insertion of the urethra; whence it is seldom

completely evacuated, and thus renders mankind more subject

to the stone, than if he had preserved his horizontality:

these philosophers, with Buffon and Helvetius, seem to

imagine, that mankind arose from one family of monkeys on the

banks of the Mediterranean; who accidentally had learned to

use the adductor pollicis, or that strong muscle which

constitutes the ball of the thumb, and draws the point of it

to meet the points of the fingers; which common monkeys do

not; and that this muscle gradually increased in size,

strength, and activity, in successive generations; and by

this improved use of the sense of touch, that monkeys

acquired clear ideas, and gradually became men.

Perhaps all the productions of nature are in their progress

to greater perfection! an idea countenanced by modern

discoveries and deductions concerning the progressive

formation of the solid parts of the terraqueous globe, and

consonant to the dignity of the Creator of all things.]

"So tulip-bulbs emerging from the seed,

Year after year unknown to sex proceed;

Erewhile the stamens and the styles display

Their petal-curtains, and adorn the day;

The beaux and beauties in each blossom glow

With wedded joy, or amatorial woe. 130

Unmarried Aphides prolific prove

For nine successions uninform'd of love;

New sexes next with softer passions spring,

Breathe the fond vow, and woo with quivering wing.

"So erst in Paradise creation's LORD,

As the first leaves of holy writ record,

From Adam's rib, who press'd the flowery grove,

And dreamt delighted of untasted love,

To cheer and charm his solitary mind,

Form'd a new sex, the MOTHER OF MANKIND. 140

--Buoy'd on light step the Beauty seem'd to swim,

And stretch'd alternate every pliant limb;

Pleased on Euphrates' velvet margin stood,

And view'd her playful image in the flood;

Own'd the fine flame of love, as life began,

And smiled enchantment on adoring Man.

Down her white neck and o'er her bosom roll'd,

Flow'd in sweet negligence her locks of gold;

Round her fine form the dim transparence play'd,

And show'd the beauties, that it seem'd to shade. 150

--Enamour'd ADAM gaz'd with fond surprise,

And drank delicious passion from her eyes;

Felt the new thrill of young Desire, and press'd

The graceful Virgin to his glowing breast.--

The conscious Fair betrays her soft alarms,

Sinks with warm blush into his closing arms,

Yields to his fond caress with wanton play,

And sweet, reluctant, amorous, delay.

[Footnote: _The mother of mankind_, l. 140. See Additional

Note X.]

IV. "WHERE no new Sex with glands nutritious feeds,

Nurs'd in her womb, the solitary breeds; 160

No Mother's care their early steps directs,

Warms in her bosom, with her wings protects;

The clime unkind, or noxious food instills

To embryon nerves hereditary ills;

The feeble births acquired diseases chase,

Till Death extinguish the degenerate race.

[Footnote: _Acquired diseases_, l. 165. See Additional Note

XI.]

"So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise,

Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies;

Till canker taints the vegetable blood,

Mines round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. 170

So, years successive, from perennial roots

The wire or bulb with lessen'd vigour shoots;

Till curled leaves, or barren flowers, betray

A waning lineage, verging to decay;

Or till, amended by connubial powers,

Rise seedling progenies from sexual flowers.

[Footnote: _So grafted trees_, l. 167. Mr. Knight first

observed that those apple and pear trees, which had been

propagated for above a century by ingraftment were now so

unhealthy, as not to be worth cultivation. I have suspected

the diseases of potatoes attended with the curled leaf, and

of strawberry plants attended with barren flowers, to be

owing to their having been too long raised from roots, or by

solitary reproduction, and not from seeds, or sexual

reproduction, and to have thence acquired those hereditary

diseases.]

"E'en where unmix'd the breed, in sexual tribes

Parental taints the nascent babe imbibes;

Eternal war the Gout and Mania wage

With fierce uncheck'd hereditary rage; 180

Sad Beauty's form foul Scrofula surrounds

With bones distorted, and putrescent wounds;

And, fell Consumption! thy unerring dart

Wets its broad wing in Youth's reluctant heart.

[Footnote: _And, fell Consumption_, l. 183.

... Haeret lateri lethalis arundo.

VIRGIL.]

"With pausing step, at night's refulgent noon,

Beneath the sparkling stars, and lucid moon,

Plung'd in the shade of some religious tower,

The slow bell counting the departed hour,

O'er gaping tombs where shed umbrageous Yews

On mouldering bones their cold unwholesome dews; 190

While low aerial voices whisper round,

And moondrawn spectres dance upon the ground;

Poetic MELANCHOLY loves to tread,

And bend in silence o'er the countless Dead;

Marks with loud sobs infantine Sorrows rave,

And wring their pale hands o'er their Mother's grave;

Hears on the new-turn'd sod with gestures wild

The kneeling Beauty call her buried child;

Upbraid with timorous accents Heaven's decrees,

And with sad sighs augment the passing breeze. 200

'Stern Time,' She cries, 'receives from Nature's womb

Her beauteous births, and bears them to the tomb;

Calls all her sons from earth's remotest bourn,

And from the closing portals none return!'

V. URANIA paused,--upturn'd her streaming eyes,

And her white bosom heaved with silent sighs;

With her the MUSE laments the sum of things,

And hides her sorrows with her meeting wings;

Long o'er the wrecks of lovely Life they weep,

Then pleased reflect, "to die is but to sleep;" 210

From Nature's coffins to her cradles turn,

Smile with young joy, with new affection burn.

And now the Muse, with mortal woes impress'd,

Thus the fair Hierophant again address'd.

--"Ah me! celestial Guide, thy words impart

Ills undeserved, that rend the nascent heart!

O, Goddess, say, if brighter scenes improve

Air-breathing tribes, and births of sexual love?"--

The smiling Fair obeys the inquiring Muse,

And in sweet tones her grateful task pursues. 220

"Now on broad pinions from the realms above

Descending CUPID seeks the Cyprian grove;

To his wide arms enamour'd PSYCHE springs,

And clasps her lover with aurelian wings.

A purple sash across HIS shoulder bends,

And fringed with gold the quiver'd shafts suspends;

The bending bow obeys the silken string,

And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring.

Thin folds of gauze with dim transparence flow

O'er HER fair forehead, and her neck of snow; 230

The winding woof her graceful limbs surrounds,

Swells in the breeze, and sweeps the velvet grounds;

As hand in hand along the flowery meads

His blushing bride the quiver'd hero leads;

Charm'd round their heads pursuing Zephyrs throng,

And scatter roses, as they move along;

Bright beams of Spring in soft effusion play,

And halcyon Hours invite them on their way.

[Footnote: _Enamoured Psyche_, l. 223. A butterfly was the

ancient emblem of the soul after death as rising from the

tomb of its former state, and becoming a winged inhabitant of

air from an insect creeping upon earth. At length the wings

only were given to a beautiful nymph under the name of

Psyche, which is the greek word for the soul, and also became

afterwards to signify a butterfly probably from the

popularity of this allegory. Many allegorical designs of

Cupid or Love warming a butterfly or the Soul with his torch

may be seen in Spence's Polymetis, and a beautiful one of

their marriage in Bryant's Mythology; from which this

description is in part taken.]

"Delighted HYMEN hears their whisper'd vows,

And binds his chaplets round their polish'd brows, 240

Guides to his altar, ties the flowery bands,

And as they kneel, unites their willing hands.

'Behold, he cries, Earth! Ocean! Air above,

'And hail the DEITIES OF SEXUAL LOVE!

'All forms of Life shall this fond Pair delight,

'And sex to sex the willing world unite;

'Shed their sweet smiles in Earth's unsocial bowers,

'Fan with soft gales, and gild with brighter hours;

'Fill Pleasure's chalice unalloy'd with pain,

'And give SOCIETY his golden chain.' 250

"Now young DESIRES, on purple pinions borne,

Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn;

With softer fires through virgin bosoms dart,

Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart.

Ere the weak powers of transient Life decay,

And Heaven's ethereal image melts away;

LOVE with nice touch renews the organic frame,

Forms a young Ens, another and the same;

Gives from his rosy lips the vital breath,

And parries with his hand the shafts of death; 260

While BEAUTY broods with angel wings unfurl'd

O'er nascent life, and saves the sinking world.

[Footnote: _While Beauty broods_, l. 261.

Alma Venus! per te quoniam genus omne animantum

Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina coeli.

LUCRET.]

"HENCE on green leaves the sexual Pleasures dwell,

And Loves and Beauties crowd the blossom's bell;

The wakeful Anther in his silken bed

O'er the pleased Stigma bows his waxen head;

With meeting lips and mingling smiles they sup

Ambrosial dewdrops from the nectar'd cup;

Or buoy'd in air the plumy Lover springs,

And seeks his panting bride on Hymen-wings. 270

[Footnote: _From the nectar'd cup_, l. 268. The anthers and

stigmas of flowers are probably nourished by the honey, which

is secreted by the honey-gland called by Linneus the nectary;

and possess greater sensibility or animation than other parts

of the plant. The corol of the flower appears to be a

respiratory organ belonging to these anthers and stigmas for

the purpose of further oxygenating the vegetable blood for

the production of the anther dust and of this honey, which is

also exposed to the air in its receptacle or honey-cup;

which, I suppose, to be necessary for its further

oxygenation, as in many flowers so complicate an apparatus is

formed for its protection from insects, as in aconitum,

delphinium, larkspur, lonicera, woodbine; and because the

corol and nectary fall along with the anthers and stigmas,

when the pericarp is impregnated.

Dr. B. S. Barton in the American Transactions has lately

shown, that the honey collected from some plants is

intoxicating and poisonous to men, as from rhododendron,

azalea, and datura; and from some other plants that it is

hurtful to the bees which collect it; and that from some

flowers it is so injurious or disagreeable, that they do not

collect it, as from the fritillaria or crown imperial of this

country.]

"The Stamen males, with appetencies just,

Produce a formative prolific dust;

With apt propensities, the Styles recluse

Secrete a formative prolific juice;

These in the pericarp erewhile arrive,

Rush to each other, and embrace alive.

--Form'd by new powers progressive parts succeed,

Join in one whole, and swell into a seed.

[Footnote: _With appetencies just_, l. 271. As in the

productions by chemical affinity one set of particles must

possess the power of attraction, and the other the aptitude

to be attracted, as when iron approaches a magnet; so when

animal particles unite, whether in digestion or reproduction,

some of them must possess an appetite to unite, and others a

propensity to be united. The former of these are secreted by

the anthers from the vegetable blood, and the latter by the

styles or pericarp; see the Additional Note VIII. on

Reproduction.]

"So in fond swarms the living Anthers shine

Of bright Vallisner on the wavy Rhine; 280

Break from their stems, and on the liquid glass

Surround the admiring stigmas as they pass;

The love-sick Beauties lift their essenced brows,

Sigh to the Cyprian queen their secret vows,

Like watchful Hero feel their soft alarms,

And clasp their floating lovers in their arms.

[Footnote: _Of bright Vallisner_, l. 280. Vallisneria, of the

class of dioecia. The flowers of the male plant are produced

under water, and as soon as their farina or dust is mature,

they detach themselves from the plant, rise to the surface

and continue to flourish, and are wafted by the air or borne

by the current to the female flowers. In this they resemble

those tribes of insects, where the males at certain seasons

acquire wings, but not the females, as ants, coccus,

lampyris, phalaena, brumata, lichanella; Botanic Garden, Vol.

II. Note on Vallisneria.]

"Hence the male Ants their gauzy wings unfold,

And young Lampyris waves his plumes of gold;

The Glow-Worm sparkles with impassion'd light

On each green bank, and charms the eye of night; 290

While new desires the painted Snail perplex,

And twofold love unites the double sex.

[Footnote: _And young Lampyris_, l. 288. The fire-fly is at

some seasons so luminous, that M. Merian says, that by

putting two of them under a glass, she was able to draw her

figures of them by night. Whether the light of this and of

other insects be caused by their amatorial passion, and thus

assists them to find each other; or is caused by respiration,

which is so analogous to combustion; or to a tendency to

putridity, as in dead fish and rotten wood, is still to be

investigated; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Note

IX.]

"Hence, when the Morus in Italia's lands

To spring's warm beam its timid leaf expands;

The Silk-Worm broods in countless tribes above

Crop the green treasure, uninform'd of love;

Erewhile the changeful worm with circling head

Weaves the nice curtains of his silken bed;

Web within web involves his larva form,

Alike secured from sunshine and from storm; 300

For twelve long days He dreams of blossom'd groves,

Untasted honey, and ideal loves;

Wakes from his trance, alarm'd with young Desire,

Finds his new sex, and feels ecstatic fire;

From flower to flower with honey'd lip he springs,

And seeks his velvet loves on silver wings.

[Footnote: _Untasted honey_, l. 302. The numerous moths and

butterflies seem to pass from a reptile leaf-eating state,

and to acquire wings to flit in air, with a proboscis to gain

honey for their food along with their organs of reproduction,

solely for the purpose of propagating their species by sexual

intercourse, as they die when that is completed. By the use

of their wings they have access to each other on different

branches or on different vegetables, and by living upon honey

probably acquire a higher degree of animation, and thus seem

to resemble the anthers of flowers, which probably are

supported by honey only, and thence acquire greater

sensibility; see Note on Vallisneria, l. 280 of this Canto.

A naturalist, who had studied this subject, thought it not

impossible that the first insects were the anthers and

stigmas of flowers, which had by some means loosened

themselves from their parent plant, like the male flowers of

vallisneria, and that other insects in process of time had

been formed from these, some acquiring wings, others fins,

and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure

food or to secure themselves from injury. He contends, that

none of these changes are more incomprehensible than the

transformation of caterpillars into butterflies; see Botanic

Garden, Vol. I. Additional Note XXXIX.]

VI. "The Demon, Jealousy, with Gorgon frown

Blasts the sweet flowers of Pleasure not his own,

Rolls his wild eyes, and through the shuddering grove

Pursues the steps of unsuspecting Love; 310

Or drives o'er rattling plains his iron car,

Flings his red torch, and lights the flames of war.

Here Cocks heroic burn with rival rage,

And Quails with Quails in doubtful fight engage;

Of armed heels and bristling plumage proud,

They sound the insulting clarion shrill and loud,

With rustling pinions meet, and swelling chests,

And seize with closing beaks their bleeding crests;

Rise on quick wing above the struggling foe,

And aim in air the death-devoting blow. 320

There the hoarse stag his croaking rival scorns,

And butts and parries with his branching horns;

Contending Boars with tusk enamell'd strike,

And guard with shoulder-shield the blow oblique;

While female bands attend in mute surprise,

And view the victor with admiring eyes.--

[Footnote: _There the hoarse stag_, l. 321. A great want of

one part of the animal world has consisted in the desire of

the exclusive possession of the females; and these have

acquired weapons to combat each other for this purpose, as

the very thick shield-like horny skin on the shoulder of the

boar is a defence only against animals of his own species,

who strike obliquely upwards, nor are his tushes for other

purposes, except to defend himself, as he is not naturally a

carnivorous animal. So the horns of the stag are sharp to

offend his adversary, but are branched for the purpose of

parrying or receiving the thrusts of horns similar to his

own, and have therefore been formed for the purpose of

combating other stags for the exclusive possession of the

females, who are observed, like the ladies in the times of

chivalry, to attend the car of the victor.

The birds, which do not carry food to their young, and do not

therefore marry, are armed with spurs for the purpose of

fighting for the exclusive possession of the females, as

cocks and quails. It is certain that these weapons are not

provided for their defence against other adversaries, because

the females of these species are without this armour;

Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4, 8.]

"So Knight on Knight, recorded in romance,

Urged the proud steed, and couch'd the extended lance;

He, whose dread prowess with resistless force,

O'erthrew the opposing warrior and his horse, 330

Bless'd, as the golden guerdon of his toils,

Bow'd to the Beauty, and receiv'd her smiles.

"So when fair HELEN with ill-fated charms,

By PARIS wooed, provoked the world to arms,

Left her vindictive Lord to sigh in vain

For broken vows, lost love, and cold disdain;

Fired at his wrongs, associate to destroy

The realms unjust of proud adulterous Troy,

Unnumber'd Heroes braved the dubious fight,

And sunk lamented to the shades of night. 340

"Now vows connubial chain the plighted pair,

And join paternal with maternal care;

The married birds with nice selection cull

Soft thistle-down, gray moss, and scattered wool,

Line the secluded nest with feathery rings,

Meet with fond bills, and woo with fluttering wings.

Week after week, regardless of her food,

The incumbent Linnet warms her future brood;

Each spotted egg with ivory lips she turns,

Day after day with fond expectance burns, 350

Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell,

And breaks in hemispheres the obdurate shell.

Loud trills sweet Philomel his tender strain,

Charms his fond bride, and wakes his infant train;

Perch'd on the circling moss, the listening throng

Wave their young wings, and whisper to the song.

[Footnote: _The incumbent Linnet_, l. 348. The affection of

the unexperienced and untaught bird to its egg, which induces

it to sit days and weeks upon it to warm the enclosed

embryon, is a matter of great difficulty to explain; See

Additional Note IX. on Storge. Concerning the fabrication of

their nests, see Zoonomia, Sect. XVI. 13. on instinct.]

[Footnote: _Hears the young prisoner_, l. 351. The air-vessel

at the broad end of an incubated egg gradually extends its

edges along the sides of the shell, as the chick enlarges,

but is at the same time applied closer to the internal

surface of the shell; when the time of hatching approaches

the chick is liable to break this air-bag with its beak, and

thence begin to breathe and to chirp; at this time the edges

of the enlarged air-bag extend so as to cover internally one

hemisphere of the egg; and as one half of the external shell

is thus moist, and the other half dry, as soon as the mother

hearing the chick chirp, or the chick itself wanting

respirable air, strikes the egg, about its equatorial line,

it breaks into two hemispheres, and liberates the prisoner.]

[Footnote: _And whisper to the song_, l. 356. A curious

circumstance is mentioned by Kircherus de Musurgia, in his

Chapter de Lusciniis. "That the young nightingales, that are

hatched under other birds, never sing till they are

instructed by the company of other nightingales." And

Johnston affirms, that the nightingales that visit Scotland,

have not the same harmony as those of Italy, (Pennant's

Zoology, octavo, p. 255), which would lead us to suspect,

that the singing of birds, like human music, is an artificial

language rather than a natural expression of passion.]

"The Lion-King forgets his savage pride,

And courts with playful paws his tawny bride;

The listening Tiger hears with kindling flame

The love-lorn night-call of his brinded dame. 360

Despotic LOVE dissolves the bestial war,

Bends their proud necks, and joins them to his car;

Shakes o'er the obedient pairs his silken thong,

And goads the humble, or restrains the strong.--

Slow roll the silver wheels,--in beauty's pride

Celestial PSYCHE blushing by his side.--

The lordly Bull behind and warrior Horse

With voice of thunder shake the echoing course,

Chain'd to the car with herds domestic move,

And swell the triumph of despotic LOVE. 370

"Pleased as they pass along the breezy shore

In twinkling shoals the scaly realms adore,

Move on quick fin with undulating train,

Or lift their slimy foreheads from the main.

High o'er their heads on pinions broad display'd

The feather'd nations shed a floating shade;

Pair after pair enamour'd shoot along,

And trill in air the gay impassion'd song.

With busy hum in playful swarms around

Emerging insects leave the peopled ground, 380

Rise in dark clouds, and borne in airy rings

Sport round the car, and wave their golden wings.

Admiring Fawns pursue on dancing hoof,

And bashful Dryads peep from shades aloof;

Emerging Nereids rise from coral cells,

Enamour'd Tritons sound their twisted shells;

From sparkling founts enchanted Naiads move,

And swell the triumph of despotic LOVE.

[Footnote: _With undulating train_, l. 373. The side fins of

fish seem to be chiefly used to poise them; as they turn upon

their backs immediately when killed, the air-bladder assists

them perhaps to rise or descend by its possessing the power

to condense the air in it by muscular contraction; and it is

possible, that at great depths in the ocean the air in this

receptacle may by the great pressure of the incumbent water

become condensed into so small a space, as to cease to be

useful to the animal, which was possibly the cause of the

death of Mr. Day in his diving ship. See note on Ulva, Botan.

Gard. V. II.

The progressive motion of fish beneath the water is produced

principally by the undulation of their tails. One oblique

plain of a part of the tail on the right side of the fish

strikes the water at the same time that another oblique plain

strikes it on the left side, hence in respect to moving to

the right or left these percussions of the water counteract

each other, but they coincide in respect to the progression

of the fish; this power seems to be better applied to push

forwards a body in water, than the oars of boats, as the

particles of water recede from the stroke of the oar, whence

the comparative power acquired is but as the difference of

velocity between the striking oar and the receding water. So

a ship moves swifter with an oblique wind, than with a wind

of the same velocity exactly behind it; and the common

windmill sail placed obliquely to the wind is more powerful

than one which directly recedes from it. Might not some

machinery resembling the tails of fish be placed behind a

boat, so as to be moved with greater effect than common oars,

by the force of wind or steam, or perhaps by hand?]

[Footnote: _On pinions broad display'd_, l. 375. The

progressive motion of birds in the air is principally

performed by the movement of their wings, and not by that of

their tails as in fish. The bird is supported in an element

so much lighter than itself by the resistance of the air as

it moves horizontally against the oblique plain made by its

breast, expanded tail and wings, when they are at rest; the

change of this obliquity also assists it to rise, and even

directs its descent, though this is owing principally to its

specific gravity, but it is in all situations kept upright or

balanced by its wings.

As the support of the bird in the air, as well as its

progression, is performed by the motion of the wings; these

require strong muscles as are seen on the breasts of

partridges. Whence all attempts of men to fly by wings

applied to the weak muscles of their arms have been

ineffectual; but it is not certain whether light machinery so

contrived as to be moved by their feet, might not enable them

to fly a little way, though not so as to answer any useful

purpose.]

"Delighted Flora, gazing from afar,

Greets with mute homage the triumphal car; 390

On silvery slippers steps with bosom bare,

Bends her white knee, and bows her auburn hair;

Calls to her purple heaths, and blushing bowers,

Bursts her green gems, and opens all her flowers;

O'er the bright Pair a shower of roses sheds,

And crowns with wreathes of hyacinth their heads.--

--Slow roll the silver wheels with snowdrops deck'd,

And primrose bands the cedar spokes connect;

Round the fine pole the twisting woodbine clings,

And knots of jasmine clasp the bending springs; 400

Bright daisy links the velvet harness chain,

And rings of violets join each silken rein;

Festoon'd behind, the snow-white lilies bend,

And tulip-tassels on each side depend.

--Slow rolls the car,--the enamour'd Flowers exhale

Their treasured sweets, and whisper to the gale;

Their ravelled buds, and wrinkled cups unfold,

Nod their green stems, and wave their bells of gold;

Breathe their soft sighs from each enchanted grove,

And hail THE DEITIES OF SEXUAL LOVE. 410

"ONWARD with march sublime in saffron robe

Young HYMEN steps, and traverses the globe;

O'er burning sands, and snow-clad mountains, treads,

Blue fields of air, and ocean's briny beds;

Flings from his radiant torch celestial light

O'er Day's wide concave, and illumes the Night.

With dulcet eloquence his tuneful tongue

Convokes and captivates the Fair and Young;

His golden lamp with ray ethereal dyes

The blushing cheek, and lights the laughing eyes; 420

With secret flames the virgin's bosom warms,

And lights the impatient bridegroom to her arms;

With lovely life all Nature's frame inspires,

And, as they sink, rekindles all her fires."

VII. Now paused the beauteous Teacher, and awhile

Gazed on her train with sympathetic smile.

'Beware of Love! she cried, ye Nymphs, and hear

'His twanging bowstring with alarmed ear;

'Fly the first whisper of the distant dart,

'Or shield with adamant the fluttering heart; 430

'To secret shades, ye Virgin trains, retire,

'And in your bosoms guard the vestal fire.'

--The obedient Beauties hear her words, advised,

And bow with laugh repress'd, and smile chastised.

[Footnote: _With laugh repress'd_, l. 434. The cause of the

violent actions of laughter, and of the difficulty of

restraining them, is a curious subject of inquiry. When pain

afflicts us, which we cannot avoid, we learn to relieve it by

great voluntary exertions, as in grinning, holding the

breath, or screaming; now the pleasurable sensation, which

excites laughter, arises for a time so high as to change its

name, and become a painful one; and we excite the convulsive

motions of the respiratory muscles to relieve this pain. We

are however unwilling to lose the pleasure, and presently put

a stop to this exertion; and immediately the pleasure recurs,

and again as instantly rises into pain. Which is further

explained in Zoonomia, Sect. 34. 1. 4. When this pleasurable

sensation rises into a painful one, and the customs of

society will not permit us to laugh aloud, some other violent

voluntary exertion is used instead of it to alleviate the

pain.]

[Footnote: _With smile chastised_, l. 434. The origin of the

smile has generally been ascribed to inexplicable instinct,

but may be deduced from our early associations of actions and

ideas. In the act of sucking, the lips of the infant are

closed round the nipple of its mother, till it has filled its

stomach, and the pleasure of digesting this grateful food

succeeds; then the sphincter of the mouth, fatigued by the

continued action of sucking, is relaxed; and the antagonist

muscles of the face gently acting, produce the smile of

pleasure, which is thus during our lives associated with

gentle pleasure, which is further explained in Zoonomia,

Sect. 16. 8. 4.]

Now at her nod the Nymphs attendant bring

Translucent water from the bubbling spring;

In crystal cups the waves salubrious shine,

Unstain'd untainted with immodest wine.

Next, where emerging from its ancient roots

Its widening boughs the Tree of Knowledge shoots; 440

Pluck'd with nice choice before the Muse they placed

The now no longer interdicted taste.

Awhile they sit, from higher cares released,

And pleased partake the intellectual feast.

Of good and ill they spoke, effect and cause,

Celestial agencies, and Nature's laws.

So when angelic Forms to Syria sent

Sat in the cedar shade by ABRAHAM'S tent;

A spacious bowl the admiring Patriarch fills

With dulcet water from the scanty rills; 450

Sweet fruits and kernels gathers from his hoard,

With milk and butter piles the plenteous board;

While on the heated hearth his Consort bakes

Fine flour well kneaded in unleaven'd cakes.

The Guests ethereal quaff the lucid flood,

Smile on their hosts, and taste terrestrial food;

And while from seraph-lips sweet converse springs,

Lave their fair feet, and close their silver wings.

END OF CANTO II.

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY.

CANTO III.

PROGRESS OF THE MIND.

CONTENTS.

I. Urania and the Muse converse 1. Progress of the Mind 42. II. The

Four sensorial powers of Irritation, Sensation, Volition, and

Association 55. Some finer senses given to Brutes 93. And Armour 108.

Finer Organ of Touch given to Man 121. Whence clear ideas of Form 125.

Vision is the Language of the Touch 131. Magic Lantern 139. Surprise,

Novelty, Curiosity 145. Passions, Vices 149. Philanthropy 159. Shrine

of Virtue 160. III. Ideal Beauty from the Female Bosom 163. Eros the

God of Sentimental Love 177. Young Dione idolized by Eros 186. Third

chain of Society 206. IV. Ideal Beauty from curved Lines 207. Taste

for the Beautiful 222. Taste for the Sublime 223. For poetic

Melancholy 231. For Tragedy 241. For artless Nature 247. The Genius of

Taste 259. V. The Senses easily form and repeat ideas 269. Imitation

from clear ideas 279. The Senses imitate each other 293. In dancing

295. In drawing naked Nymphs 299. In Architecture, as at St. Peter's

at Rome 303. Mimickry 319. VI. Natural Language from imitation 335.

Language of Quails, Cocks, Lions, Boxers 343. Pantomime Action 357.

Verbal Language from Imitation and Association 363. Symbols of ideas

371. Gigantic form of Time 385. Wings of Hermes 391. VII. Recollection

from clear ideas 395. Reason and Volition 401. Arts of the Wasp, Bee,

Spider, Wren, Silk-Worm 411. Volition concerned about Means or Causes

435. Man distinguished by Language, by using Tools, labouring for

Money, praying to the Deity 438. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and

Evil 445. VIII. Emotions from Imitation 461. The Seraph; Sympathy 467.

Christian Morality the great bond of Society 483-496.

CANTO III.

PROGRESS OF THE MIND.

I. Now rose, adorn'd with Beauty's brightest hues,

The graceful HIEROPHANT, and winged MUSE;

Onward they step around the stately piles,

O'er porcelain floors, through laqueated ailes,

Eye Nature's lofty and her lowly seats,

Her gorgeous palaces, and green retreats,

Pervade her labyrinths with unerring tread,

And leave for future guests a guiding thread.

First with fond gaze blue fields of air they sweep,

Or pierce the briny chambers of the deep; 10

Earth's burning line, and icy poles explore,

Her fertile surface, and her caves of ore;

Or mark how Oxygen with Azote-Gas

Plays round the globe in one aerial mass,

Or fused with Hydrogen in ceaseless flow

Forms the wide waves, which foam and roll below.

[Footnote: _How Oxygen_, l. 13. The atmosphere which

surrounds us, is composed of twenty-seven parts of oxygen gas

and seventy-three of azote or nitrogen gas, which are simply

diffused together, but which, when combined, become nitrous

acid. Water consists of eighty-six parts oxygen, and fourteen

parts of hydrogen or inflammable air, in a state of

combination. It is also probable, that much oxygen enters the

composition of glass; as those materials which promote

vitrification, contain so much of it, as minium and

manganese; and that glass is hence a solid acid in the

temperature of our atmosphere, as water is a fluid one.]

Next with illumined hands through prisms bright

Pleased they untwist the sevenfold threads of light;

Or, bent in pencils by the lens, convey

To one bright point the silver hairs of Day. 20

Then mark how two electric streams conspire

To form the resinous and vitreous fire;

Beneath the waves the fierce Gymnotus arm,

And give Torpedo his benumbing charm;

Or, through Galvanic chain-work as they pass,

Convert the kindling water into gas.

[Footnote: _Two electric streams_, l. 21. It is the opinion

of some philosophers, that the electric ether consists of two

kinds of fluids diffused together or combined; which are

commonly known by the terms of positive and negative

electricity, but are by these electricians called vitreous

and resinous electricity. The electric shocks given by the

torpedo and by the gymnotus, are supposed to be similar to

those of the Galvanic pile, as they are produced in water.

Which water is decomposed by the Galvanic pile and converted

into oxygen and hydrogen gas; see Additional Note XII.

The magnetic ether may also be supposed to consist of two

fluids, one of which attracts the needle, and the other

repels it; and, perhaps, chemical affinities, and gravitation

itself, may consist of two kinds of ether surrounding the

particles of bodies, and may thence attract at one distance

and repel at another; as appears when two insulated

electrised balls are approached to each other, or when two

small globules of mercury are pressed together.]

How at the poles opposing Ethers dwell,

Attract the quivering needle, or repel.

How Gravitation by immortal laws

Surrounding matter to a centre draws; 30

How Heat, pervading oceans, airs, and lands,

With force uncheck'd the mighty mass expands;

And last how born in elemental strife

Beam'd the first spark, and lighten'd into Life.

Now in sweet tones the inquiring Muse express'd

Her ardent wish; and thus the Fair address'd.

"Priestess of Nature! whose exploring sight

Pierces the realms of Chaos and of Night;

Of space unmeasured marks the first and last,

Of endless time the present, future, past; 40

Immortal Guide! O, now with accents kind

Give to my ear the progress of the Mind.

How loves, and tastes, and sympathies commence

From evanescent notices of sense?

How from the yielding touch and rolling eyes

The piles immense of human science rise?--

With mind gigantic steps the puny Elf,

And weighs and measures all things but himself!"

The indulgent Beauty hears the grateful Muse,

Smiles on her pupil, and her task renews. 50

Attentive Nymphs in sparkling squadrons throng,

And choral Virgins listen to the song;

Pleased Fawns and Naiads crowd in silent rings,

And hovering Cupids stretch their purple wings.

II. "FIRST the new actions of the excited sense,

Urged by appulses from without, commence;

With these exertions pain or pleasure springs,

And forms perceptions of external things.

Thus, when illumined by the solar beams,

Yon waving woods, green lawns, and sparkling streams,

In one bright point by rays converging lie 61

Plann'd on the moving tablet of the eye;

The mind obeys the silver goads of light,

And IRRITATION moves the nerves of sight.

[Footnote: _And Irritation moves_, l. 64. Irritation is an

exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensorium

residing in the muscles or organs of sense in consequence of

the appulses of external bodies. The word perception includes

both the action of the organ of sense in consequence of the

impact of external objects and our attention to that action;

that is, it expresses both the motion of the organ of sense,

or idea, and the pain or pleasure that succeeds or

accompanies it. Irritative ideas are those which are preceded

by irritation, which is excited by objects external to the

organs of sense: as the idea of that tree, which either I

attend to, or which I shun in walking near it without

attention. In the former case it is termed perception, in the

latter it is termed simply an irritative idea.]

"These acts repeated rise from joys or pains,

And swell Imagination's flowing trains;

So in dread dreams amid the silent night

Grim spectre-forms the shuddering sense affright;

Or Beauty's idol-image, as it moves,

Charms the closed eye with graces, smiles, and loves; 70

Each passing form the pausing heart delights,

And young SENSATION every nerve excites.

[Footnote: _And young Sensation_, l. 72. Sensation is an

exertion or change of the central parts of the sensorium or

of the whole of it, _beginning_ at some of those extreme

parts of it which reside in the muscles or organs of sense.

Sensitive ideas are those which are preceded by the sensation

of pleasure or pain, are termed Imagination, and constitute

our dreams and reveries.]

"Oft from sensation quick VOLITION springs,

When pleasure thrills us, or when anguish stings;

Hence Recollection calls with voice sublime

Immersed ideas from the wrecks of Time,

With potent charm in lucid trains displays

Eventful stories of forgotten days.

Hence Reason's efforts good with ill contrast,

Compare the present, future, and the past; 80

Each passing moment, unobserved restrain

The wild discordancies of Fancy's train;

But leave uncheck'd the Night's ideal streams,

Or, sacred Muses! your meridian dreams.

[Footnote: _Quick Volition springs_, l. 73. Volition is an

exertion or change of the central parts of the sensorium, or

of the whole of it _terminating_ in some of those extreme

parts of it which reside in the muscles and organs of sense.

The vulgar use of the word _memory_ is too unlimited for our

purpose: those ideas which we voluntarily recall are here

termed ideas of _recollection_, as when we will to repeat the

alphabet backwards. And those ideas which are suggested to us

by preceding ideas are here termed ideas of _suggestion_, as

whilst we repeat the alphabet in the usual order; when by

habits previously acquired B is suggested by A, and C by B,

without any effort of deliberation. Reasoning is that

operation of the sensorium by which we excite two or many

tribes of ideas, and then reexcite the ideas in which they

differ or correspond. If we determine this difference, it is

called judgment; if we in vain endeavour to determine it, it

is called doubting.

If we reexcite the ideas in which they differ, it is called

distinguishing. If we reexcite those in which they

correspond, it is called comparing.]

[Footnote: _Each passing moment_, l. 81. During our waking

hours, we perpetually compare the passing trains of our ideas

with the known system of nature, and reject those which are

incongruous with it; this is explained in Zoonomia, Sect.

XVII. 3. 7. and is there termed Intuitive Analogy. When we

sleep, the faculty of volition ceases to act, and in

consequence the uncompared trains of ideas become incongruous

and form the farrago of our dreams; in which we never

experience any surprise, or sense of novelty.]

"And last Suggestion's mystic power describes

Ideal hosts arranged in trains or tribes.

So when the Nymph with volant finger rings

Her dulcet harp, and shakes the sounding strings;

As with soft voice she trills the enamour'd song,

Successive notes, unwill'd, the strain prolong; 90

The transient trains ASSOCIATION steers,

And sweet vibrations charm the astonish'd ears.

[Footnote: _Association steers_, l. 91. Association is an

exertion or change of some extreme part of the sensorium

residing in the muscles and organs of sense in consequence of

some antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions. Associate

ideas, therefore, are those which are preceded by other ideas

or muscular motions, without the intervention of irritation,

sensation, or volition between them; these are also termed

ideas of suggestion.]

"ON rapid feet o'er hills, and plains, and rocks,

Speed the scared leveret and rapacious fox;

On rapid pinions cleave the fields above

The hawk descending, and escaping dove;

With nicer nostril track the tainted ground

The hungry vulture, and the prowling hound;

Converge reflected light with nicer eye

The midnight owl, and microscopic fly; 100

With finer ear pursue their nightly course

The listening lion, and the alarmed horse.

"The branching forehead with diverging horns

Crests the bold bull, the jealous stag adorns;

Fierce rival boars with side-long fury wield

The pointed tusk, and guard with shoulder-shield;

Bounds the dread tiger o'er the affrighted heath

Arm'd with sharp talons, and resistless teeth;

The pouncing eagle bears in clinched claws

The struggling lamb, and rends with ivory jaws; 110

The tropic eel, electric in his ire,

Alarms the waves with unextinguish'd fire;

The fly of night illumes his airy way,

And seeks with lucid lamp his sleeping prey;

Fierce on his foe the poisoning serpent springs,

And insect armies dart their venom'd stings.

[Footnote: _The branching forehead_, l. 103. The

peculiarities of the shapes of animals which distinguish them

from each other, are enumerated in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4.

8. on Generation, and are believed to have been gradually

formed from similar living fibres, and are varied by

reproduction. Many of these parts of animals are there shown

to have arisen from their three great desires of lust,

hunger, and security.]

[Footnote: _The tropic eel_, l. 111. Gymnotus electricus.]

[Footnote: _The fly of night_, l. 113. Lampyris noctiluca.

Fire-fly.]

"Proud Man alone in wailing weakness born,

No horns protect him, and no plumes adorn;

No finer powers of nostril, ear, or eye,

Teach the young Reasoner to pursue or fly.-- 120

Nerved with fine touch above the bestial throngs,

The hand, first gift of Heaven! to man belongs;

Untipt with claws the circling fingers close,

With rival points the bending thumbs oppose,

Trace the nice lines of Form with sense refined,

And clear ideas charm the thinking mind.

Whence the fine organs of the touch impart

Ideal figure, source of every art;

Time, motion, number, sunshine or the storm,

But mark varieties in Nature's _form_. 130

[Footnote: _The hand, first gift of Heaven_, l. 122. The

human species in some of their sensations are much inferior

to animals, yet the accuracy of the sense of touch, which

they possess in so eminent a degree, gives them a great

superiority of understanding; as is well observed by the

ingenious Mr. Buffon. The extremities of other animals

terminate in horns, and hoofs, and claws, very unfit for the

sensation of touch; whilst the human hand is finely adapted

to encompass its object with this organ of sense. Those

animals who have clavicles or collar-bones, and thence use

their forefeet like hands, as cats, squirrels, monkeys, are

more ingenious than other quadrupeds, except the elephant,

who has a fine sense at the extremity of his proboscis; and

many insects from the possessing finer organs of touch have

greater ingenuity, as spiders, bees, wasps.]

[Footnote: _Trace the nice lines of form_, l. 125. When the

idea of solidity is excited a part of the extensive organ of

touch is compressed by some external body, and this part of

the sensorium so compressed exactly resembles in figure the

figure of the body that compressed it. Hence when we acquire

the idea of solidity, we acquire at the same time the idea of

figure; and this idea of figure, or motion of a part of the

organ of touch, exactly resembles in its figure the figure of

the body that occasions it; and thus exactly acquaints us

with this property of the external world.

Now, as the whole universe with all its parts possesses a

certain form or figure, if any part of it moves, that form or

figure of the whole is varied. Hence, as motion is no other

than a perpetual variation of figure, our idea of motion is

also a real resemblance of the motion that produced it.

Hence arises the certainty of the mathematical sciences, as

they explain these properties of bodies, which are exactly

resembled by our ideas of them, whilst we are obliged to

collect almost all our other knowledge from experiment; that

is, by observing the effects exerted by one body upon

another.]

"Slow could the tangent organ wander o'er

The rock-built mountain, and the winding shore;

No apt ideas could the pigmy mite,

Or embryon emmet to the touch excite;

But as each mass the solar ray reflects,

The eye's clear glass the transient beams collects;

Bends to their focal point the rays that swerve,

And paints the living image on the nerve.

So in some village-barn, or festive hall

The spheric lens illumes the whiten'd wall; 140

O'er the bright field successive figures fleet,

And motley shadows dance along the sheet.--

Symbol of solid forms is colour'd light,

And the mute language of the touch is sight.

[Footnote: _The mute language of the touch_, l. 144. Our eyes

observe a difference of colour, or of shade, in the

prominences and depressions of objects, and that those shades

uniformly vary when the sense of touch observes any

variation. Hence when the retina becomes stimulated by

colours or shades of light in a certain form, as in a

circular spot, we know by experience that this is a sign that

a tangible body is before us; and that its figure is

resembled by the miniature figure of the part of the organ of

vision that is thus stimulated.

Here whilst the stimulated part of the retina resembles

exactly the visible figure of the whole in miniature, the

various kinds of stimuli from different colours mark the

visible figures of the minuter parts; and by habit we

instantly recall the tangible figures.

So that though our visible ideas resemble in miniature the

outline of the figure of coloured bodies, in other respects

they serve only as a language, which by acquired associations

introduce the tangible ideas of bodies. Hence it is, that

this sense is so readily deceived by the art of the painter

to our amusement and instruction. The reader will find much

very curious knowledge on this subject in Bishop Berkeley's

Essay on Vision, a work of great ingenuity.]

"HENCE in Life's portico starts young Surprise

With step retreating, and expanded eyes;

The virgin, Novelty, whose radiant train

Soars o'er the clouds, or sinks beneath the main,

With sweetly-mutable seductive charms

Thrills the young sense, the tender heart alarms. 150

Then Curiosity with tracing hands

And meeting lips the lines of form demands,

Buoy'd on light step, o'er ocean, earth, and sky,

Rolls the bright mirror of her restless eye.

While in wild groups tumultuous Passions stand,

And Lust and Hunger head the Motley band;

Then Love and Rage succeed, and Hope and Fear;

And nameless Vices close the gloomy rear;

Or young Philanthropy with voice divine

Convokes the adoring Youth to Virtue's shrine; 160

Who with raised eye and pointing finger leads

To truths celestial, and immortal deeds.

[Footnote: _Starts young Surprise_, l. 145. Surprise is

occasioned by the sudden interruption of the usual trains of

our ideas by any violent stimulus from external objects, as

from the unexpected discharge of a pistol, and hence does not

exist in our dreams, because our external senses are closed

or inirritable. The fetus in the womb must experience many

sensations, as of resistance, figure, fluidity, warmth,

motion, rest, exertion, taste; and must consequently possess

trains both of waking and sleeping ideas. Surprise must

therefore be strongly excited at its nativity, as those

trains of ideas must instantly be dissevered by the sudden

and violent sensations occasioned by the dry and cold

atmosphere, the hardness of external bodies, light, sound,

and odours; which are accompanied with pleasure or pain

according to their quantity or intensity.

As some of these sensations become familiar by repetition,

other objects not previously attended to present themselves,

and produce the idea of novelty, which is a less degree of

surprise, and like that is not perceived in our dreams,

though for another reason; because in sleep we possess no

voluntary power to compare our trains of ideas with our

previous knowledge of nature, and do not therefore perceive

their difference by intuitive analogy from what usually

occurs.

As the novelty of our ideas is generally attended with

pleasurable sensation, from this arises Curiosity, or a

desire of examining a variety of objects, hoping to find

novelty, and the pleasure consequent to this degree of

surprise; see Additional Note VII. 3.]

[Footnote: _And meeting lips_, l. 152. Young children put

small bodies into their mouths, when they are satiated with

food, as well as when they are hungry, not with design to

taste them, but use their lips as an organ of touch to

distinguish the shape of them. Puppies, whose toes are

terminated with nails, and who do not much use their forefeet

as hands, seem to have no other means of acquiring a

knowledge of the forms of external bodies, and are therefore

perpetually playing with things by taking them between their

lips.]

III. "As the pure language of the Sight commands

The clear ideas furnish'd by the hands;

Beauty's fine forms attract our wondering eyes,

And soft alarms the pausing heart surprise.

Warm from its cell the tender infant born

Feels the cold chill of Life's aerial morn;

Seeks with spread hands the bosoms velvet orbs,

With closing lips the milky fount absorbs; 170

And, as compress'd the dulcet streams distil,

Drinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill;

Eyes with mute rapture every waving line,

Prints with adoring kiss the Paphian shrine,

And learns erelong, the perfect form confess'd,

IDEAL BEAUTY from its Mother's breast.

[Footnote: _Seeks with spread hands_, l. 169. These eight

beautiful lines are copied from Mr. Bilsborrow's Address

prefixed to Zoonomia, and are translated from that work;

Sect. XVI. 6.]

[Footnote: _Ideal Beauty_, l. 176. Sentimental Love, as

distinguished from the animal passion of that name, with

which it is frequently accompanied, consists in the desire or

sensation of beholding, embracing, and saluting a beautiful

object.

The characteristic of beauty therefore is that it is the

object of love; and though many other objects are in common

language called beautiful, yet they are only called so

metaphorically, and ought to be termed agreeable. A Grecian

temple may give us the pleasurable idea of sublimity, a

Gothic temple may give us the pleasurable idea of variety,

and a modern house the pleasurable idea of utility; music and

poetry may inspire our love by association of ideas; but none

of these, except metaphorically, can be termed beautiful, as

we have no wish to embrace or salute them.

Our perception of beauty consists in our recognition by the

sense of vision of those objects, first, which have before

inspired our love by the pleasure, which they have afforded

to many of our senses; as to our sense of warmth, of touch,

of smell, of taste, hunger and thirst; and, secondly, which

bear any analogy of form to such objects.]

"Now on swift wheels descending like a star

Alights young EROS from his radiant car;

On angel-wings attendant Graces move,

And hail the God of SENTIMENTAL LOVE. 180

Earth at his feet extends her flowery bed,

And bends her silver blossoms round his head;

Dark clouds dissolve, the warring winds subside.

And smiling ocean calms his tossing tide,

O'er the bright morn meridian lustres play,

And Heaven salutes him with a flood of day.

[Footnote: _Alights young Eros_, l. 178. There were two

deities of Love belonging to the heathen mythology, the one

said to be celestial, and the other terrestrial. Aristophanes

says, "Sable-winged Night produced an egg, from which sprung

up like a blossom Eros, the lovely, the desirable, with his

glossy golden wings." See Botanic Garden, Canto I. l. 412.

Note. The other deity of Love, Cupido, seems of much later

date, as he is not mentioned in the works of Homer, where

there were so many apt situations to have introduced him.]

[Footnote: _Earth at his feet_, l. 181.

Te, Dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila coeli,

Adventumque tuum; tibi suaves daedala tellus

Submittit flores; tibi rident aequora ponti;

Placatumque nitet diffuso lumine coelum.

LUCRET.]

"Warm as the sun-beam, pure as driven snows,

The enamour'd GOD for young DIONE glows;

Drops the still tear, with sweet attention sighs,

And woos the Goddess with adoring eyes; 190

Marks her white neck beneath the gauze's fold,

Her ivory shoulders, and her locks of gold;

Drinks with mute ecstacy the transient glow,

Which warms and tints her bosom's rising snow.

With holy kisses wanders o'er her charms,

And clasps the Beauty in Platonic arms;

Or if the dewy hands of Sleep, unbid,

O'er her blue eye-balls close the lovely lid,

Watches each nascent smile, and fleeting grace,

That plays in day-dreams o'er her blushing face; 200

Counts the fine mazes of the curls, that break

Round her fair ear, and shade her damask cheek;

Drinks the pure fragrance of her breath, and sips

With tenderest touch the roses of her lips;--

O'er female hearts with chaste seduction reigns,

And binds SOCIETY in silken chains.

IV. "IF the wide eye the wavy lawns explores,

The bending woodlands, or the winding shores,

Hills, whose green sides with soft protuberance rise,

Or the blue concave of the vaulted skies;-- 210

Or scans with nicer gaze the pearly swell

Of spiral volutes round the twisted shell;

Or undulating sweep, whose graceful turns

Bound the smooth surface of Etrurian urns,

When on fine forms the waving lines impress'd

Give the nice curves, which swell the female breast;

The countless joys the tender Mother pours

Round the soft cradle of our infant hours,

In lively trains of unextinct delight

Rise in our bosoms _recognized by sight_; 220

Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine,

And TASTE sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine.

[Footnote: _The wavy lawns_, l. 207. When the babe, soon

after it is born into this cold world, is applied to its

mother's bosom; its sense of perceiving warmth is first

agreeably affected; next its sense of smell is delighted with

the odour of her milk; then its taste is gratified by the

flavour of it; afterwards the appetites of hunger and of

thirst afford pleasure by the possession of their objects,

and by the subsequent digestion of the aliment; and lastly,

the sense of touch is delighted by the softness and

smoothness of the milky fountain, the source of such variety

of happiness.

All these various kinds of pleasure at length become

associated with the form of the mother's breast; which the

infant embraces with its hands, presses with its lips, and

watches with its eyes; and thus acquires more accurate ideas

of the form of its mother's bosom, than of the odour and

flavour or warmth, which it perceives by its other senses.

And hence at our maturer years, when any object of vision is

presented to us, which by its waving or spiral lines bears

any similitude to the form of the female bosom, whether it be

found in a landscape with soft gradations of rising and

descending surface, or in the forms of some antique vases, or

in other works of the pencil or the chisel, we feel a general

glow of delight, which seems to influence all our senses; and

if the object be not too large, we experience an attraction

to embrace it with our arms, and to salute it with our lips,

as we did in our early infancy the bosom of our mother. And

thus we find, according to the ingenious idea of Hogarth,

that the waving lines of beauty were originally taken from

the temple of Venus.]

"Where Egypt's pyramids gigantic stand,

And stretch their shadows o'er the shuddering sand;

Or where high rocks o'er ocean's dashing floods

Wave high in air their panoply of woods;

Admiring TASTE delights to stray beneath

With eye uplifted, and forgets to breathe;

Or, as aloft his daring footsteps climb,

Crests their high summits with his arm sublime. 230

[Footnote: _With his arm sublime_, l. 230. Objects of taste

have been generally divided into the beautiful, the sublime,

and the new; and lately to these have been added the

picturesque. The beautiful so well explained in Hogarth's

analysis of beauty, consists of curved lines and smooth

surfaces, as expressed in the preceding note; any object

larger than usual, as a very large temple or a very large

mountain, gives us the idea of sublimity; with which is often

confounded the terrific, and the melancholic: what is now

termed picturesque includes objects, which are principally

neither sublime nor beautiful, but which by their variety and

intricacy joined with a due degree of regularity or

uniformity convey to the mind an agreeable sentiment of

novelty. Many other agreeable sentiments may be excited by

visible objects, thus to the sublime and beautiful may be

added the terrific, tragic, melancholic, artless, &c. while

novelty superinduces a charm upon them all. See Additional

Note XIII.]

"Where mouldering columns mark the lingering wreck

Of Thebes, Palmyra, Babylon, Balbec;

The prostrate obelisk, or shatter'd dome,

Uprooted pedestal, and yawning tomb,

On loitering steps reflective TASTE surveys

With folded arms and sympathetic gaze;

Charm'd with poetic Melancholy treads

O'er ruin'd towns and desolated meads;

Or rides sublime on Time's expanded wings,

And views the fate of ever-changing things. 240

[Footnote: _Poetic melancholy treads_, l. 237. The pleasure

arising from the contemplation of the ruins of ancient

grandeur or of ancient happiness, and here termed poetic

melancholy, arises from a combination of the painful idea of

sorrow with the pleasurable idea of the grandeur or happiness

of past times; and becomes very interesting to us by fixing

our attention more strongly on that grandeur and happiness,

as the passion of Pity mentioned in the succeeding note is a

combination of the painful idea of sorrow with the

pleasurable one of beauty, or of virtue.]

"When Beauty's streaming eyes her woes express,

Or Virtue braves unmerited distress;

Love sighs in sympathy, with pain combined,

And new-born Pity charms the kindred mind;

The enamour'd Sorrow every cheek bedews,

And TASTE impassion'd woos the tragic Muse.

[Footnote: _The tragic Muse_, l. 246. Why we are delighted

with the scenical representations of Tragedy, which draw

tears from our eyes, has been variously explained by

different writers. The same distressful circumstance

attending an ugly or wicked person affects us with grief or

disgust; but when distress occurs to a beauteous or virtuous

person, the pleasurable idea of beauty or of virtue becomes

mixed with the painful one of sorrow and the passion of Pity

is produced, which is a combination of love or esteem with

sorrow; and becomes highly interesting to us by fixing our

attention more intensely on the beauteous or virtuous person.

Other distressful scenes have been supposed to give pleasure

to the spectator from exciting a comparative idea of his own

happiness, as when a shipwreck is viewed by a person safe on

shore, as mentioned by Lucretius, L. 3. But these dreadful

situations belong rather to the terrible, or the horrid, than

to the tragic; and may be objects of curiosity from their

novelty, but not of Taste, and must suggest much more pain

than pleasure.]

"The rush-thatch'd cottage on the purple moor,

Where ruddy children frolic round the door,

The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak,

The shaggy locks that fringe the colt unbroke, 250

The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare

Through the long tissue of his hoary hair;--

As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall,

And crops the ivy, which prevents its fall;--

With rural charms the tranquil mind delight,

And form a picture to the admiring sight.

While TASTE with pleasure bends his eye surprised

In modern days at Nature unchastised.

[Footnote: _Nature unchastised_, l. 258. In cities or their

vicinity, and even in the cultivated parts of the country we

rarely see undisguised nature; the fields are ploughed, the

meadows mown, the shrubs planted in rows for hedges, the

trees deprived of their lower branches, and the animals, as

horses, dogs, and sheep, are mutilated in respect to their

tails or ears; such is the useful or ill-employed activity of

mankind! all which alterations add to the formality of the

soil, plants, trees, or animals; whence when natural objects

are occasionally presented to us, as an uncultivated forest

and its wild inhabitants, we are not only amused with greater

variety of form, but are at the same time enchanted by the

charm of novelty, which is a less degree of Surprise, already

spoken of in note on l. 145 of this Canto.]

"The GENIUS-FORM, on silver slippers born,

With fairer dew-drops gems the rising morn; 260

Sheds o'er meridian skies a softer light,

And decks with brighter pearls the brow of night;

With finer blush the vernal blossom glows,

With sweeter breath enamour'd Zephyr blows,

The limpid streams with gentler murmurs pass,

And gayer colours tinge the watery glass,

Charm'd round his steps along the enchanted groves

Flit the fine forms of Beauties, Graces, Loves.

V. "Alive, each moment of the transient hour,

When Rest accumulates sensorial power, 270

The impatient Senses, goaded to contract,

Forge new ideas, changing as they act;

And, in long streams dissever'd, or concrete

In countless tribes, the fleeting forms repeat.

Which rise excited in Volition's trains,

Or link the sparkling rings of Fancy's chains;

Or, as they flow from each translucent source,

Pursue Association's endless course.

[Footnote: _When rest accumulates_, l. 270. The accumulation

of the spirit of animation, when those parts of the system

rest, which are usually in motion, produces a disagreeable

sensation. Whence the pain of cold and of hunger, and the

irksomeness of a continued attitude, and of an indolent life:

and hence the propensity to action in those confined animals,

which have been accustomed to activity, as is seen in the

motions of a squirrel in a cage; which uses perpetual

exertion to exhaust a part of its accumulated sensorial

power. This is one source of our general propensity to

action; another perhaps arises from our curiosity or

expectation of novelty mentioned in the note on l. 145. of

this canto.

But the immediate cause of our propensity to imitation above

that of other animals arises from the greater facility, with

which by the sense of touch we acquire the ideas of the

outlines of objects, and afterwards in consequence by the

sense of sight; this seems to have been observed by

Aristotle, who calls man, "the imitative animal;" see

Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII.]

"Hence when the inquiring hands with contact fine

Trace on hard forms the circumscribing line; 280

Which then the language of the rolling eyes

From distant scenes of earth and heaven supplies;

Those clear ideas of the touch and sight

Rouse the quick sense to anguish or delight;

Whence the fine power of IMITATION springs,

And apes the outlines of external things;

With ceaseless action to the world imparts

All moral virtues, languages, and arts.

First the charm'd Mind mechanic powers collects,

Means for some end, and causes of effects; 290

Then learns from other Minds their joys and fears,

Contagious smiles and sympathetic tears.

[Footnote: _All moral virtues_, l. 288. See the sequel of

this canto l. 453 on sympathy; and l. 331 on language; and

the subsequent lines on the arts of painting and

architecture.]

"What one fine stimulated Sense discerns,

Another Sense by IMITATION learns.--

So in the graceful dance the step sublime

Learns from the ear the concordance of Time.

So, when the pen of some young artist prints

Recumbent Nymphs in TITIAN'S living tints;

The glowing limb, fair cheek, and flowing hair,

Respiring bosom, and seductive air, 300

He justly copies with enamour'd sigh

From Beauty's image pictured on his eye.

[Footnote: _Another sense_, l. 294. As the part of the organs

of touch or of sight, which is stimulated into action by a

tangible or visible object, must resemble in figure at least

the figure of that object, as it thus constitutes an idea; it

may be said to imitate the figure of that object; and thus

imitation may be esteemed coeval with the existence both of

man and other animals: but this would confound perception

with imitation; which latter is better defined from the

actions of one sense copying those of another.]

"Thus when great ANGELO in wondering Rome

Fix'd the vast pillars of Saint Peter's dome,

Rear'd rocks on rocks sublime, and hung on high

A new Pantheon in the affrighted sky.

Each massy pier, now join'd and now aloof,

The figured architraves, and vaulted roof,

Ailes, whose broad curves gigantic ribs sustain,

Where holy echoes chant the adoring strain; 310

The central altar, sacred to the Lord,

Admired by Sages, and by Saints ador'd,

Whose brazen canopy ascends sublime

On spiral columns unafraid of Time,

Were first by Fancy in ethereal dyes

Plann'd on the rolling tablets of his eyes;

And his true hand with imitation fine

Traced from his Retina the grand design.

[Footnote: _Thus when great Angelo_, l. 303. The origin of

this propensity to imitation has not been deduced from any

known principle; when any action presents itself to the view

of a child, as of whetting a knife, or threading a needle;

the parts of this action in respect of time, motion, figure,

are imitated by parts of the retina of his eye; to perform

this action therefore with his hands is easier to him than to

invent any new action; because it consists in repeating with

another set of fibres, viz. with the moving muscles, what he

had just performed by some parts of the retina; just as in

dancing we transfer the times of the motions from the actions

of the auditory nerves to the muscles of the limbs. Imitation

therefore consists of repetition, which is the easiest kind

of animal action; as the ideas or motions become presently

associated together; which adds to the facility of their

production; as shown in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXII. 2.

It should be added, that as our ideas, when we perceive

external objects, are believed to consist in the actions of

the immediate organs of sense in consequence of the stimulus

of those objects; so when we think of external objects, our

ideas are believed to consist in the repetitions of the

actions of the immediate organs of sense, excited by the

other sensorial powers of volition, sensation, or

association.]

"The Muse of MIMICRY in every age

With silent language charms the attentive stage; 320

The Monarch's stately step, and tragic pause,

The Hero bleeding in his country's cause,

O'er her fond child the dying Mother's tears,

The Lover's ardor, and the Virgin's fears;

The tittering Nymph, that tries her comic task,

Bounds on the scene, and peeps behind her mask,

The Punch and Harlequin, and graver throng,

That shake the theatre with dance and song,

With endless trains of Angers, Loves, and Mirths,

Owe to the Muse of Mimicry their births. 330

[Footnote: _The Muse of Mimicry_, l. 319. Much of the

pleasure received from the drawings of flowers finely

finished, or of portraits, is derived from their imitation or

resemblance of the objects or persons which they represent.

The same occurs in the pleasure we receive from mimicry on

the stage; we are surprised at the accuracy of its enacted

resemblance. Some part of the pleasure received from

architecture, as when we contemplate the internal structure

of gothic temples, as of King's College chapel in Cambridge,

or of Lincoln Cathedral, may arise also from their imitation

or resemblance of those superb avenues of large trees, which

were formerly appropriated to religious ceremonies.]

"Hence to clear images of form belong

The sculptor's statue, and the poet's song,

The painter's landscape, and the builder's plan,

And IMITATION marks the mind of Man.

[Footnote: _Imitation marks_, l. 334. Many other curious

instances of one part of the animal system imitating another

part of it, as in some contagious diseases; and also of some

animals imitating each other, are given in Zoonomia, Vol. I.

Sect. XXII. 3. To which may be added, that this propensity to

imitation not only appears in the actions of children, but in

all the customs and fashions of the world; many thousands

tread in the beaten paths of others, who precede or accompany

them, for one who traverses regions of his own discovery.]

VI. "WHEN strong desires or soft sensations move

The astonish'd Intellect to rage or love;

Associate tribes of fibrous motions rise,

Flush the red cheek, or light the laughing eyes.

Whence ever-active Imitation finds

The ideal trains, that pass in kindred minds; 340

Her mimic arts associate thoughts excite

And the first LANGUAGE enters at the sight.

[Footnote: _And the first Language_, l. 342. There are two

ways by which we become acquainted with the passions of

others: first, by having observed the effects of them, as of

fear or anger, on our own bodies, we know at sight when

others are under the influence of these affections. So

children long before they can speak, or understand the

language of their parents, may be frightened by an angry

countenance, or soothed by smiles and blandishments.

Secondly, when we put ourselves into the attitude that any

passion naturally occasions, we soon in some degree acquire

that passion; hence when those that scold indulge themselves

in loud oaths and violent actions of the arms, they increase

their anger by the mode of expressing themselves; and, on the

contrary, the counterfeited smile of pleasure in disagreeable

company soon brings along with it a portion of the reality,

as is well illustrated by Mr. Burke. (Essay on the Sublime

and Beautiful.)

These are natural signs by which we understand each other,

and on this slender basis is built all human language. For

without some natural signs no artificial ones could have been

invented or understood, as is very ingeniously observed by

Dr. Reid. (Inquiry into the Human Mind.)]

"Thus jealous quails or village-cocks inspect

Each other's necks with stiffen'd plumes erect;

Smit with the wordless eloquence, they know

The rival passion of the threatening foe.

So when the famish'd wolves at midnight howl,

Fell serpents hiss, or fierce hyenas growl;

Indignant Lions rear their bristling mail,

And lash their sides with undulating tail. 350

Or when the Savage-Man with clenched fist

Parades, the scowling champion of the list;

With brandish'd arms, and eyes that roll to know

Where first to fix the meditated blow;

Association's mystic power combines

Internal passions with external signs.

"From these dumb gestures first the exchange began

Of viewless thought in bird, and beast, and man;

And still the stage by mimic art displays

Historic pantomime in modern days; 360

And hence the enthusiast orator affords

Force to the feebler eloquence of words.

"Thus the first LANGUAGE, when we frown'd or smiled,

Rose from the cradle, Imitation's child;

Next to each thought associate sound accords,

And forms the dulcet symphony of words;

The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat

With soft vibration modulates the note;

Love, pity, war, the shout, the song, the prayer

Form quick concussions of elastic air. 370

"Hence the first accents bear in airy rings

The vocal symbols of ideal things,

Name each nice change appulsive powers supply

To the quick sense of touch, or ear or eye.

Or in fine traits abstracted forms suggest

Of Beauty, Wisdom, Number, Motion, Rest;

Or, as within reflex ideas move,

Trace the light steps of Reason, Rage, or Love.

The next new sounds adjunctive thoughts recite,

As hard, odorous, tuneful, sweet, or white. 380

The next the fleeting images select

Of action, suffering, causes and effect;

Or mark existence, with the march sublime

O'er earth and ocean of recording TIME.

[Footnote: _Hence the first accents_, l. 371. Words were

originally the signs or names of individual ideas; but in all

known languages many of them by changing their terminations

express more than one idea, as in the cases of nouns, and the

moods and tenses of verbs. Thus a whip suggests a single idea

of that instrument; but "to whip," suggests an idea of

action, joined with that of the instrument, and is then

called a verb; and "to be whipped," suggests an idea of being

acted upon or suffering. Thus in most languages two ideas are

suggested by one word by changing its termination; as amor,

love; amare, to love; amari, to be loved.

Nouns are the names of the ideas of things, first as they are

received by the stimulus of objects, or as they are

afterwards repeated; secondly, they are names of more

abstracted ideas, which do not suggest at the same time the

external objects, by which they were originally excited; or

thirdly, of the operations of our minds, which are termed

reflex ideas by metaphysical writers; or lastly, they are the

names of our ideas of parts or properties of objects; and are

termed by grammarians nouns adjective.

Verbs are also in reality names of our ideas of things, or

nouns, with the addition of another idea to them, as of

acting or suffering; or of more than one other annexed idea,

as of time, and also of existence. These with the numerous

abbreviations, so well illustrated by Mr. Horne Tooke in his

Diversions of Purley, make up the general theory of language,

which consists of the symbols of ideas represented by vocal

or written words; or by parts of those words, as their

terminations; or by their disposition in respect to their

order or succession; as further explained in Additional Note

XIV.]

"The GIANT FORM on Nature's centre stands,

And waves in ether his unnumber'd hands;

Whirls the bright planets in their silver spheres,

And the vast sun round other systems steers;

Till the last trump amid the thunder's roar

Sound the dread Sentence "TIME SHALL BE NO MORE!"

"Last steps Abbreviation, bold and strong, 391

And leads the volant trains of words along;

With sweet loquacity to HERMES springs,

And decks his forehead and his feet with wings.

VII. "As the soft lips and pliant tongue are taught

With other minds to interchange the thought;

And sound, the symbol of the sense, explains

In parted links the long ideal trains;

From clear conceptions of external things

The facile power of Recollection springs. 400

[Footnote: _In parted links_, l. 398. As our ideas consist of

successive trains of the motions, or changes of figure, of

the extremities of the nerves of one or more of our senses,

as of the optic or auditory nerves; these successive trains

of motion, or configuration, are in common life divided into

many links, to each of which a word or name is given, and it

is called an idea. This chain of ideas may be broken into

more or fewer links, or divided in different parts of it, by

the customs of different people. Whence the meanings of the

words of one language cannot always be exactly expressed by

those of another; and hence the acquirement of different

languages in their infancy may affect the modes of thinking

and reasoning of whole nations, or of different classes of

society; as the words of them do not accurately suggest the

same ideas, or parts of ideal trains; a circumstance which

has not been sufficiently analysed.]

"Whence REASON'S empire o'er the world presides,

And man from brute, and man from man divides;

Compares and measures by imagined lines

Ellipses, circles, tangents, angles, sines;

Repeats with nice libration, and decrees

In what each differs, and in what agrees;

With quick Volitions unfatigued selects

Means for some end, and causes of effects;

All human science worth the name imparts,

And builds on Nature's base the works of Arts. 410

[Footnote: _Whence Reason's empire_, l. 401. The facility of

the use of the voluntary power, which is owing to the

possession of the clear ideas acquired by our superior sense

of touch, and afterwards of vision, distinguishes man from

brutes, and has given him the empire of the world, with the

power of improving nature by the exertions of art.

Reasoning is that operation of the sensorium by which we

excite two or many tribes of ideas, and then reexcite the

ideas in which they differ or correspond. If we determine

this difference, it is called judgment; if we in vain

endeavour to determine it, it is called doubting.

If we reexcite the ideas in which they differ, it is called

distinguishing. If we reexcite those in which they

correspond, it is called comparing.]

"The Wasp, fine architect, surrounds his domes

With paper-foliage, and suspends his combs;

Secured from frost the Bee industrious dwells,

And fills for winter all her waxen cells;

The cunning Spider with adhesive line

Weaves his firm net immeasurably fine;

The Wren, when embryon eggs her cares engross,

Seeks the soft down, and lines the cradling moss;

Conscious of change the Silkworm-Nymphs begin

Attach'd to leaves their gluten-threads to spin; 420

Then round and round they weave with circling heads

Sphere within Sphere, and form their silken beds.

--Say, did these fine volitions first commence

From clear ideas of the tangent sense;

From sires to sons by imitation caught,

Or in dumb language by tradition taught?

Or did they rise in some primeval site

Of larva-gnat, or microscopic mite;

And with instructive foresight still await

On each vicissitude of insect-state?-- 430

Wise to the present, nor to future blind,

They link the reasoning reptile to mankind!

--Stoop, selfish Pride! survey thy kindred forms,

Thy brother Emmets, and thy sister Worms!

[Footnote: _The Wasp, fine architect_, l. 411. Those animals

which possess a better sense of touch are, in general, more

ingenious than others. Those which have claviculae, or

collar-bones, and thence use the forefeet as hands, as the

monkey, squirrel, rat, are more ingenious in seizing their

prey or escaping from danger. And the ingenuity of the

elephant appears to arise from the sense of touch at the

extremity of his proboscis, which has a prominence on one

side of its cavity like a thumb to close against the other

side of it, by which I have seen him readily pick up a

shilling which was thrown amongst the straw he stood upon.

Hence the excellence of the sense of touch in many insects

seems to have given them wonderful ingenuity so as to equal

or even excel mankind in some of their arts and discoveries;

many of which may have been acquired in situations previous

to their present ones, as the great globe itself, and all

that it inhabit, appear to be in a perpetual state of

mutation and improvement; see Additional Note IX.]

"Thy potent acts, VOLITION, still attend

The means of pleasure to secure the end;

To express his wishes and his wants design'd

Language, the _means_, distinguishes Mankind;

For _future_ works in Art's ingenious schools

His hands unwearied form and finish tools; 440

He toils for money _future_ bliss to share,

And shouts to Heaven his mercenary prayer.

Sweet Hope delights him, frowning Fear alarms,

And Vice and Virtue court him to their arms.

[Footnote: _Thy potent acts, Volition_, l. 435. It was before

observed, how much the superior accuracy of our sense of

touch contributes to increase our knowledge; but it is the

greater energy and activity of the power of volition, that

marks mankind, and has given them the empire of the world.

There is a criterion by which we may distinguish our

voluntary acts or thoughts from those that are excited by our

sensations: "The former are always employed about the means

to acquire pleasurable objects, or to avoid painful ones;

while the latter are employed about the possession of those

that are already in our power."

The ideas and actions of brutes, like those of children, are

almost perpetually produced by their present pleasures or

their present pains; and they seldom busy themselves about

the _means_ of procuring future bliss, or of avoiding future

misery.

Whilst the acquiring of languages, the making of tools, and

the labouring for money, which are all only the _means_ of

procuring pleasure; and the praying to the Deity, as another

means to procure happiness, are characteristic of human

nature.]

"Unenvied eminence, in Nature's plan

Rise the reflective faculties of Man!

Labour to Rest the thinking Few prefer!

Know but to mourn! and reason but to err!--

In Eden's groves, the cradle of the world,

Bloom'd a fair tree with mystic flowers unfurl'd; 450

On bending branches, as aloft it sprung,

Forbid to taste, the fruit of KNOWLEDGE hung;

Flow'd with sweet Innocence the tranquil hours,

And Love and Beauty warm'd the blissful bowers.

Till our deluded Parents pluck'd, erelong,

The tempting fruit, and gather'd Right and Wrong;

Whence Good and Evil, as in trains they pass,

Reflection imaged on her polish'd glass;

And Conscience felt, for blood by Hunger spilt,

The pains of shame, of sympathy, and guilt! 460

[Footnote: _And gather'd Right and Wrong_, l. 456. Some

philosophers have believed that the acquisition of knowledge

diminishes the happiness of the possessor; an opinion which

seems to have been inculcated by the history of our first

parents, who are said to have become miserable from eating of

the tree of knowledge. But as the foresight and the power of

mankind are much increased by their voluntary exertions in

the acquirement of knowledge, they may undoubtedly avoid many

sources of evil, and procure many sources of good; and yet

possess the pleasures of sense, or of imagination, as

extensively as the brute or the savage.]

VIII. "LAST, as observant Imitation stands,

Turns her quick glance, and brandishes her hands,

With mimic acts associate thoughts excites,

And storms the soul with sorrows or delights;

Life's shadowy scenes are brighten'd and refin'd,

And soft emotions mark the feeling mind.

[Footnote: _And soft emotions_, l. 466. From our aptitude to

imitation arises what is generally understood by the word

sympathy, so well explained by Dr. Smith of Glasgow. Thus the

appearance of a cheerful countenance gives us pleasure, and

of a melancholy one makes us sorrowful. Yawning, and

sometimes vomiting, are thus propagated by sympathy; and some

people of delicate fibres, at the presence of a spectacle of

misery, have felt pain in the same parts of their bodies,

that were diseased or mangled in the object they saw.

The effect of this powerful agent in the moral world, is the

foundation of all our intellectual sympathies with the pains

and pleasures of others, and is in consequence the source of

all our virtues. For in what consists our sympathy with the

miseries or with the joys of our fellow creatures, but in an

involuntary excitation of ideas in some measure similar or

imitative of those which we believe to exist in the minds of

the persons whom we commiserate or congratulate!]

"The Seraph, SYMPATHY, from Heaven descends,

And bright o'er earth his beamy forehead bends;

On Man's cold heart celestial ardor flings,

And showers affection from his sparkling wings; 470

Rolls o'er the world his mild benignant eye,

Hears the lone murmur, drinks the whisper'd sigh;

Lifts the closed latch of pale Misfortune's door,

Opes the clench'd hand of Avarice to the poor,

Unbars the prison, liberates the slave,

Sheds his soft sorrows o'er the untimely grave,

Points with uplifted hand to realms above,

And charms the world with universal love.

"O'er the thrill'd frame his words assuasive steal,

And teach the selfish heart what others feel; 480

With sacred truth each erring thought control,

Bind sex to sex, and mingle soul with soul;

From heaven, He cried, descends the moral plan,

And gives Society to savage man.

"High on yon scroll, inscribed o'er Nature's shrine,

Live in bright characters the words divine.

"IN LIFE'S DISASTROUS SCENES TO OTHERS DO,

WHAT YOU WOULD WISH BY OTHERS DONE TO YOU."

--Winds! wide o'er earth the sacred law convey,

Ye Nations, hear it! and ye Kings, obey! 490

[Footnote: _High on yon scroll_, l. 485. The famous sentence

of Socrates "Know thyself," so celebrated by writers of

antiquity, and said by them to have descended from Heaven,

however wise it may be, seems to be rather of a selfish

nature; and the author of it might have added "Know also

other people." But the sacred maxims of the author of

Christianity, "Do as you would be done by," and "Love your

neighbour as yourself," include all our duties of benevolence

and morality; and, if sincerely obeyed by all nations, would

a thousandfold multiply the present happiness of mankind.]

"Unbreathing wonder hush'd the adoring throng,

Froze the broad eye, and chain'd the silent tongue;

Mute was the wail of Want, and Misery's cry,

And grateful Pity wiped her lucid eye;

Peace with sweet voice the Seraph-form address'd,

And Virtue clasp'd him to her throbbing breast."

END OF CANTO III.

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY.

CANTO IV.

OF GOOD AND EVIL.

CONTENTS.

I. Few affected by Sympathy 1. Cruelty of War 11. Of brute animals,

Wolf, Eagle, Lamb, Dove, Owl, Nightingale 17. Of insects, Oestrus,

Ichneumon, Libellula 29. Wars of Vegetables 41. Of fish, the Shark,

Crocodile, Whale 55. The World a Slaughter-house 66. Pains from Defect

and from Excess of Stimulus 71. Ebriety and Superstition 77. Mania 89.

Association 93. Avarice, Imposture, Ambition, Envy, Jealousy 97.

Floods, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Famine 109. Pestilence 117. Pains from

Sympathy 123. II. Good outbalances Evil 135. Life combines inanimate

Matter, and produces happiness by Irritation 145. As in viewing a

Landscape 159. In hearing Music 171. By Sensation or Fancy in Dreams

183. The Patriot and the Nun 197. Howard, Moira, Burdett 205. By

Volition 223. Newton, Herschel 233. Archimedes, Savery 241. Isis,

Arkwright 253. Letters and Printing 265. Freedom of the Press 273. By

Association 291. Ideas of Contiguity, Resemblance, and of Cause and

Effect 299. Antinous 319. Cecilia 329. III. Life soon ceases, Births

and Deaths alternate 337. Acorns, Poppy-seeds, Aphises, Snails, Worms,

Tadpoles, Herrings innumerable 347. So Mankind 369. All Nature teems

with Life 375. Dead Organic Matter soon revives 383. Death is but a

change of Form 393. Exclamation of St. Paul 403. Happiness of the

World increases 405. The Phoenix 411. System of Pythagoras 417. Rocks

and Mountains produced by Organic Life 429. Are Monuments of past

Felicity 447. Munificence of the Deity 455. IV. Procession of Virgins

469. Hymn to Heaven 481. Of Chaos 489. Of Celestial Love 499. Offering

of Urania 517-524.

CANTO IV.

OF GOOD AND EVIL.

I. "HOW FEW," the MUSE in plaintive accents cries,

And mingles with her words pathetic sighs.--

"How few, alas! in Nature's wide domains

The sacred charm of SYMPATHY restrains!

Uncheck'd desires from appetite commence,

And pure reflection yields to selfish sense!

--Blest is the Sage, who learn'd in Nature's laws

With nice distinction marks effect and cause;

Who views the insatiate Grave with eye sedate,

Nor fears thy voice, inexorable Fate! 10

[Footnote: _Blest is the Sage_, l. 7.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas;

Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum,

Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.

VIRG. Georg. II. 490.]

"WHEN War, the Demon, lifts his banner high,

And loud artillery rends the affrighted sky;

Swords clash with swords, on horses horses rush,

Man tramples man, and nations nations crush;

Death his vast sithe with sweep enormous wields,

And shuddering Pity quits the sanguine fields.

"The wolf, escorted by his milk-drawn dam,

Unknown to mercy, tears the guiltless lamb;

The towering eagle, darting from above,

Unfeeling rends the inoffensive dove; 20

The lamb and dove on living nature feed,

Crop the young herb, or crush the embryon seed.

Nor spares the loud owl in her dusky flight,

Smit with sweet notes, the minstrel of the night;

Nor spares, enamour'd of his radiant form,

The hungry nightingale the glowing worm;

Who with bright lamp alarms the midnight hour,

Climbs the green stem, and slays the sleeping flower.

[Footnote: _The towering eagle_, l. 19.

Torva leaena lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam,

Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella.

VIRG.]

"Fell Oestrus buries in her rapid course

Her countless brood in stag, or bull, or horse; 30

Whose hungry larva eats its living way,

Hatch'd by the warmth, and issues into day.

The wing'd Ichneumon for her embryon young

Gores with sharp horn the caterpillar throng.

The cruel larva mines its silky course,

And tears the vitals of its fostering nurse.

While fierce Libellula with jaws of steel

Ingulfs an insect-province at a meal;

Contending bee-swarms rise on rustling wings,

And slay their thousands with envenom'd stings. 40

[Footnote: _Fell Oestrus buries_, l. 29. The gadfly, bot-fly,

or sheep-fly: the larva lives in the bodies of cattle

throughout the whole winter; it is extracted from their backs

by an African bird called Buphaga. Adhering to the anus it

artfully introduces itself into the intestines of horses, and

becomes so numerous in their stomachs, as sometimes to

destroy them; it climbs into the nostrils of sheep and

calves, and producing a nest of young in a transparent

hydatide in the frontal sinus, occasions the vertigo or turn

of those animals. In Lapland it so attacks the rein deer that

the natives annually travel with the herds from the woods to

the mountains. Lin. Syst. Nat.]

[Footnote: _The wing'd Ichneumon_, l. 33. Linneus describes

seventy-seven species of the ichneumon fly, some of which

have a sting as long and some twice as long as their bodies.

Many of them insert their eggs into various caterpillars,

which when they are hatched seem for a time to prey on the

reservoir of silk in the backs of those animals designed for

their own use to spin a cord to support them, or a bag to

contain them, while they change from their larva form to a

butterfly; as I have seen in above fifty

cabbage-caterpillars. The ichneumon larva then makes its way

out of the caterpillar, and spins itself a small cocoon like

a silk worm; these cocoons are about the size of a small

pin's head, and I have seen about ten of them on each cabbage

caterpillar, which soon dies after their exclusion.

Other species of ichneumon insert their eggs into the aphis,

and into the larva of the aphidivorous fly: others into the

bedeguar of rose trees, and the gall-nuts of oaks; whence

those excrescences seem to be produced, as well as the

hydatides in the frontal sinus of sheep and calves by the

stimulus of the larvae deposited in them.]

[Footnote: _While fierce Libellula_, l. 37. The Libellula or

Dragon-fly is said to be a most voracious animal; Linneus

says in their perfect state they are the hawks to naked

winged flies; in their larva state they run beneath the

water, and are the cruel crocodiles of aquatic insects. Syst.

Nat.]

[Footnote: _Contending bee-swarms_, l. 39. Stronger

bee-swarms frequently attack weak hives, and in two or three

days destroy them and carry away their honey; this I once

prevented by removing the attacked hive after the first day's

battle to a distinct part of the garden. See Phytologia,

Sect. XIV. 3. 7.]

"Yes! smiling Flora drives her armed car

Through the thick ranks of vegetable war;

Herb, shrub, and tree, with strong emotions rise

For light and air, and battle in the skies;

Whose roots diverging with opposing toil

Contend below for moisture and for soil;

Round the tall Elm the flattering Ivies bend,

And strangle, as they clasp, their struggling friend;

Envenom'd dews from Mancinella flow,

And scald with caustic touch the tribes below; 50

Dense shadowy leaves on stems aspiring borne

With blight and mildew thin the realms of corn;

And insect hordes with restless tooth devour

The unfolded bud, and pierce the ravell'd flower.

"In ocean's pearly haunts, the waves beneath

Sits the grim monarch of insatiate Death;

The shark rapacious with descending blow

Darts on the scaly brood, that swims below;

The crawling crocodiles, beneath that move,

Arrest with rising jaw the tribes above; 60

With monstrous gape sepulchral whales devour

Shoals at a gulp, a million in an hour.

--Air, earth, and ocean, to astonish'd day

One scene of blood, one mighty tomb display!

From Hunger's arm the shafts of Death are hurl'd,

And one great Slaughter-house the warring world!

[Footnote: _The shark rapacious_, l. 57. The shark has three

rows of sharp teeth within each other, which he can bend

downwards internally to admit larger prey, and raise to

prevent its return; his snout hangs so far over his mouth,

that he is necessitated to turn upon his back, when he takes

fish that swim over him, and hence seems peculiarly formed to

catch those that swim under him.]

[Footnote: _The crawling crocodiles_, l. 59. As this animal

lives chiefly at the bottom of the rivers, which he

frequents, he has the power of opening the upper jaw as well

as the under one, and thus with greater facility catches the

fish or water-fowl which swim over him.]

[Footnote: _One great slaughter-house_, l. 66. As vegetables

are an inferior order of animals fixed to the soil; and as

the locomotive animals prey upon them, or upon each other;

the world may indeed be said to be one great slaughter-house.

As the digested food of vegetables consists principally of

sugar, and from this is produced again their mucilage,

starch, and oil, and since animals are sustained by these

vegetable productions, it would seem that the sugar-making

process carried on in vegetable vessels was the great source

of life to all organized beings. And that if our improved

chemistry should ever discover the art of making sugar from

fossile or aerial matter without the assistance of

vegetation, food for animals would then become as plentiful

as water, and they might live upon the earth without preying

on each other, as thick as blades of grass, with no restraint

to their numbers but the want of local room.

It would seem that roots fixed in the earth and leaves

innumerable waving in the air were necessary for the

decomposition of water and air, and the conversion of them

into saccharine matter, which would have been not only

cumberous but totally incompatible with the locomotion of

animal bodies. For how could a man or quadruped have carried

on his head or back a forest of leaves, or have had long

branching lacteal or absorbent vessels terminating in the

earth? Animals therefore subsist on vegetables; that is they

take the matter so prepared, and have organs to prepare it

further for the purposes of higher animation and greater

sensibility.]

"THE brow of Man erect, with thought elate,

Ducks to the mandate of resistless fate;

Nor Love retains him, nor can Virtue save

Her sages, saints, or heroes from the grave. 70

While cold and hunger by defect oppress,

Repletion, heat, and labour by excess,

The whip, the sting, the spur, the fiery brand,

And, cursed Slavery! thy iron hand;

And led by Luxury Disease's trains,

Load human life with unextinguish'd pains.

[Footnote: _While cold and hunger_, l. 71. Those parts of our

system, which are in health excited into perpetual action,

give us pain, when they are not excited into action: thus

when the hands are for a time immersed in snow, an inaction

of the cutaneous capillaries is induced, as is seen from the

paleness of the skin, which is attended with the pain of

coldness. So the pain of hunger is probably produced by the

inaction of the muscular fibres of the stomach from the want

of the stimulus of food.

Thus those, who have used much voluntary exertion in their

early years, and have continued to do so, till the decline of

life commences, if they then lay aside their employment,

whether that of a minister of state, a general of an army, or

a merchant, or manufacturer; they cease to have their

faculties excited into their usual activity, and become

unhappy, I suppose from the too great accumulation of the

sensorial power of volition; which wants the accustomed

stimulus or motive to cause its expenditure.]

"Here laughs Ebriety more fell than arms,

And thins the nations with her fatal charms,

With Gout, and Hydrops groaning in her train,

And cold Debility, and grinning Pain, 80

With harlot's smiles deluded man salutes,

Revenging all his cruelties to brutes!

There the curst spells of Superstition blind,

And fix her fetters on the tortured mind;

She bids in dreams tormenting shapes appear,

With shrieks that shock Imagination's ear,

E'en o'er the grave a deeper shadow flings,

And maddening Conscience darts a thousand stings.

[Footnote: _Here laughs Ebriety_, l. 77.

Saevior armis

Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulciscitur orbem.

HORAC.]

[Footnote: _E'en o'er the grave_, l. 87. Many theatric

preachers among the Methodists successfully inculcate the

fear of death and of Hell, and live luxuriously on the folly

of their hearers: those who suffer under this insanity, are

generally most innocent and harmless people, who are then

liable to accuse themselves of the greatest imaginary crimes;

and have so much intellectual cowardice, that they dare not

reason about those things, which they are directed by their

priests to believe. Where this intellectual cowardice is

great, the voice of reason is ineffectual; but that of

ridicule may save many from these mad-making doctors, as the

farces of Mr. Foot; though it is too weak to cure those who

are already hallucinated.]

"There writhing Mania sits on Reason's throne,

Or Melancholy marks it for her own, 90

Sheds o'er the scene a voluntary gloom,

Requests oblivion, and demands the tomb.

And last Association's trains suggest

Ideal ills, that harrow up the breast,

Call for the dead from Time's o'erwhelming main,

And bid departed Sorrow live again.

[Footnote: _And last association_, l. 93. The miseries and

the felicities of life may be divided into those which arise

in consequence of irritation, sensation, volition, and

association; and consist in the actions of the extremities of

the nerves of sense, which constitute our ideas; if they are

much more exerted than usual, or much less exerted than

usual, they occasion pain; as when the finger is burnt in a

candle; or when we go into a cold bath: while their natural

degree of exertion produces the pleasure of life or

existence. This pleasure is nevertheless increased, when the

system is stimulated into rather stronger action than usual,

as after a copious dinner, and at the beginning of

intoxication; and diminished, when it is only excited into

somewhat less activity than usual, which is termed ennui, or

irksomeness of life.]

[Footnote: _Ideal ills_, l. 94. The tooth-edge is an instance

of bodily pain occasioned by association of ideas. Every one

in his childhood has repeatedly bit a part of the glass or

earthen vessel, in which his food has been given him, and has

thence had a disagreeable sensation in his teeth, attended at

the same time with a jarring sound: and ever after, when such

a sound is accidentally produced, the disagreeable sensation

of the teeth follows by association of ideas; this is further

elucidated in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVI. 10.]

"Here ragged Avarice guards with bolted door

His useless treasures from the starving poor;

Loads the lorn hours with misery and care,

And lives a beggar to enrich his heir. 100

Unthinking crowds thy forms, Imposture, gull,

A Saint in sackcloth, or a Wolf in wool.

While mad with foolish fame, or drunk with power,

Ambition slays his thousands in an hour;

Demoniac Envy scowls with haggard mien,

And blights the bloom of other's joys, unseen;

Or wrathful Jealousy invades the grove,

And turns to night meridian beams of Love!

[Footnote: _Enrich his heir_, l. 100.

Cum furor haud dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenitis,

Ut locuples moriaris, egenti vivere fato.

JUVENAL.]

[Footnote: _A Wolf in wool_, l. 102. A wolf in sheep's

clothing.]

"Here wide o'er earth impetuous waters sweep,

And fields and forests rush into the deep; 110

Or dread Volcano with explosion dire

Involves the mountains in a flood of fire;

Or yawning Earth with closing jaws inhumes

Unwarned nations, living in their tombs;

Or Famine seizes with her tiger-paw,

And swallows millions with unsated maw.

"There livid Pestilence in league with Dearth

Walks forth malignant o'er the shuddering earth,

Her rapid shafts with airs volcanic wings,

Or steeps in putrid vaults her venom'd stings. 120

Arrests the young in Beauty's vernal bloom,

And bears the innocuous strangers to the tomb!--

[Footnote: _With airs volcanic_, l. 119. Those epidemic

complaints, which are generally termed influenza, are

believed to arise from vapours thrown out from earthquakes in

such abundance as to affect large regions of the atmosphere,

see Botanic Garden, V. I. Canto IV. l. 65. while the diseases

properly termed contagious originate from the putrid effluvia

of decomposing animal or vegetable matter.]

"AND now, e'en I, whose verse reluctant sings

The changeful state of sublunary things,

Bend o'er Mortality with silent sighs,

And wipe the secret tear-drops from my eyes,

Hear through the night one universal groan,

And mourn unseen for evils not my own,

With restless limbs and throbbing heart complain,

Stretch'd on the rack of sentimental pain! 130

--Ah where can Sympathy reflecting find

One bright idea to console the mind?

One ray of light in this terrene abode

To prove to Man the Goodness of his GOD?"

[Footnote: _Sentimental pain_, l. 130. Children should be

taught in their early education to feel for all the

remediable evils, which they observe in others; but they

should at the same time be taught sufficient firmness of mind

not intirely to destroy their own happiness by their

sympathizing with too great sensibility with the numerous

irremediable evils, which exist in the present system of the

world: as by indulging that kind of melancholy they decrease

the sum total of public happiness; which is so far rather

reprehensible than commendable. See Plan for Female Education

by Dr. Darwin, Johnson, London, Sect. XVII.

This has been carried to great excess in the East by the

disciples of Confucius; the Gentoos during a famine in India

refused to eat the flesh of cows and of other animals to

satisfy their hunger, and save themselves from death. And at

other times they have been said to permit fleas and

musquitoes to feed upon them from this erroneous sympathy.]

II. "HEAR, O YE SONS OF TIME!" the Nymph replies,

Quick indignation darting from her eyes;

"When in soft tones the Muse lamenting sings,

And weighs with tremulous hand the sum of things;

She loads the scale in melancholy mood,

Presents the evil, but forgets the good. 140

But if the beam some firmer hand suspends,

And good and evil load the adverse ends;

With strong libration, where the Good abides,

Quick nods the beam, the ponderous gold subsides.

"HEAR, O ye Sons of Time! the powers of Life

Arrest the elements, and stay their strife;

From wandering atoms, ethers, airs, and gas,

By combination form the organic mass;

And,--as they seize, digest, secrete,--dispense

The bliss of Being to the vital Ens. 150

Hence in bright groups from IRRITATION rise

Young Pleasure's trains, and roll their azure eyes.

[Footnote: _From wandering atoms_, l. 147. Had those ancient

philosophers, who contended that the world was formed from

atoms, ascribed their combinations to certain immutable

properties received from the hand of the Creator, such as

general gravitation, chemical affinity, or animal appetency,

instead of ascribing them to a blind chance; the doctrine of

atoms, as constituting or composing the material world by the

variety of their combinations, so far from leading the mind

to atheism, would strengthen the demonstration of the

existence of a Deity, as the first cause of all things;

because the analogy resulting from our perpetual experience

of cause and effect would have thus been exemplified through

universal nature.]

"With fond delight we feel the potent charm,

When Zephyrs cool us, or when sun-beams warm;

With fond delight inhale the fragrant flowers,

Taste the sweet fruits, which bend the blushing bowers,

Admire the music of the vernal grove,

Or drink the raptures of delirious love.

"So with long gaze admiring eyes behold

The varied landscape all its lights unfold; 160

Huge rocks opposing o'er the stream project

Their naked bosoms, and the beams reflect;

Wave high in air their fringed crests of wood,

And checker'd shadows dance upon the flood;

Green sloping lawns construct the sidelong scene,

And guide the sparkling rill that winds between;

Conduct on murmuring wings the pausing gale,

And rural echoes talk along the vale;

Dim hills behind in pomp aerial rise,

Lift their blue tops, and melt into the skies. 170

[Footnote: _The varied landscape_, l. 160. The pleasure, we

feel on examining a fine landscape, is derived from various

sources; as first the excitement of the retina of the eye

into certain quantities of action; which when there is in the

optic nerve any accumulation of sensorial power, is always

agreeable. 2. When it is excited into such successive

actions, as relieve each other; as when a limb has been long

exerted in one direction, by stretching it in another; as

described in Zoonomia, Sect. XL. 6. on ocular spectra. 3. And

lastly by the associations of its parts with some agreeable

sentiments or tastes, as of sublimity, beauty, utility,

novelty; and the objects suggesting other sentiments, which

have lately been termed picturesque as mentioned in the note

to Canto III, l. 230 of this work. The two former of these

sources of pleasure arise from irritation, the last from

association.]

"So when by HANDEL tuned to measured sounds

The trumpet vibrates, or the drum rebounds;

Alarm'd we listen with ecstatic wonder

To mimic battles, or imagined thunder.

When the soft lute in sweet impassion'd strains

Of cruel nymphs or broken vows complains;

As on the breeze the fine vibration floats,

We drink delighted the melodious notes.

But when young Beauty on the realms above

Bends her bright eye, and trills the tones of love; 180

Seraphic sounds enchant this nether sphere;

And listening angels lean from Heaven to hear.

[Footnote: _We drink delighted_, l. 178. The pleasure we

experience from music, is, like that from viewing a

landscape, derived from various sources; as first from the

excitement of the auditory nerve into certain quantities of

action, when there exists any accumulation of sensorial

power. 2. When the auditory nerve is exerted in such

successive actions as relieve each other, like stretching or

yawning, as described in Botanic Garden, Vol. II, Interlude

the third, these successions of sound are termed melody, and

their combinations harmony. 3. From the repetition of sounds

at certain intervals of time; as we hear them with greater

facility and accuracy, when we expect them; because they are

then excited by volition, as well as by irritation, or at

least the tympanum is then better adapted to assist their

production; hence the two musical times or bars; and hence

the rhimes in poetry give pleasure, as well as the measure of

the verse: and lastly the pleasure we receive from music,

arises from the associations of agreeable sentiments with

certain proportions, or repetitions, or quantities, or times

of sounds which have been previously acquired; as explained

in Zoonomia Vol. I. Sect. XVI. 10. and Sect. XXII. 2.]

"Next by SENSATION led, new joys commence

From the fine movements of the excited sense;

In swarms ideal urge their airy flight,

Adorn the day-scenes, and illume the night.

Her spells o'er all the hand of Fancy flings,

Gives form and substance to unreal things;

With fruits and foliage decks the barren waste,

And brightens Life with sentiment and taste; 190

Pleased o'er the level and the rule presides,

The painter's brush, the sculptor's chisel guides,

With ray ethereal lights the poet's fire,

Tunes the rude pipe, or strings the heroic lyre:

Charm'd round the nymph on frolic footsteps move

The angelic forms of Beauty, Grace, and Love.

"So dreams the Patriot, who indignant draws

The sword of vengeance in his Country's cause;

Bright for his brows unfading honours bloom,

Or kneeling Virgins weep around his tomb. 200

So holy transports in the cloister's shade

Play round thy toilet, visionary maid!

Charm'd o'er thy bed celestial voices sing,

And Seraphs hover on enamour'd wing.

"So HOWARD, MOIRA, BURDETT, sought the cells,

Where want, or woe, or guilt in darkness dwells;

With Pity's torch illumed the dread domains,

Wiped the wet eye, and eased the galling chains;

With Hope's bright blushes warm'd the midnight air,

And drove from earth the Demon of Despair. 210

Erewhile emerging from the caves of night

The Friends of Man ascended into light;

With soft assuasive eloquence address'd

The ear of Power to stay his stern behest;

At Mercy's call to stretch his arm and save

His tottering victims from the gaping grave.

These with sweet smiles Imagination greets,

For these she opens all her treasured sweets,

Strews round their couch, by Pity's hand combined,

Bright flowers of joy, the sunshine of the mind; 220

While Fame's loud trump with sounds applausive breathes

And Virtue crowns them with immortal wreathes.

"Thy acts, VOLITION, to the world impart

The plans of Science with the works of art;

Give to proud Reason her comparing power,

Warm every clime, and brighten every hour.

In Life's first cradle, ere the dawn began

Of young Society to polish man;

The staff that propp'd him, and the bow that arm'd,

The boat that bore him, and the shed that warm'd, 230

Fire, raiment, food, the ploughshare, and the sword,

Arose, VOLITION, at thy plastic word.

"By thee instructed, NEWTON'S eye sublime

Mark'd the bright periods of revolving time;

Explored in Nature's scenes the effect and cause,

And, charm'd, unravell'd all her latent laws.

Delighted HERSCHEL with reflected light

Pursues his radiant journey through the night;

Detects new guards, that roll their orbs afar

In lucid ringlets round the Georgian star. 240

"Inspired by thee, with scientific wand

Pleased ARCHIMEDES mark'd the figured sand;

Seized with mechanic grasp the approaching decks,

And shook the assailants from the inverted wrecks.

--Then cried the Sage, with grand effects elate,

And proud to save the Syracusian state;

While crowds exulting shout their noisy mirth,

'Give where to stand, and I will move the earth.'

So SAVERY guided his explosive steam

In iron cells to raise the balanced beam; 250

The Giant-form its ponderous mass uprears,

Descending nods and seems to shake the spheres.

[Footnote: _Mark'd the figur'd sand_, l. 242. The ancient

orators seem to have spoken disrespectfully of the mechanic

philosophers. Cicero mentioning Archimedes, calls him

Homunculus e pulvere et radio, alluding to the custom of

drawing problems on the sand with a staff.]

[Footnote: _So Savery guided_, l. 249. Captain Savery first

applied the pressure of the atmosphere to raise water in

consequence of a vacuum previously produced by the

condensation of steam, though the Marquis of Worcester had

before proposed to use for this purpose the expansive power

of steam; see Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto I. l. 253.

Note.]

"Led by VOLITION on the banks of Nile

Where bloom'd the waving flax on Delta's isle,

Pleased ISIS taught the fibrous stems to bind,

And part with hammers from the adhesive rind;

With locks of flax to deck the distaff-pole,

And whirl with graceful bend the dancing spole.

In level lines the length of woof to spread,

And dart the shuttle through the parting thread. 260

So ARKWRIGHT taught from Cotton-pods to cull,

And stretch in lines the vegetable wool;

With teeth of steel its fibre-knots unfurl'd,

And with the silver tissue clothed the world.

[Footnote: _The waving flax_, l. 254. Flax is said to have

been first discovered on the banks of the Nile, and Isis to

have been the inventress of spinning and weaving.]

[Footnote: _So Arkwright taught_, l. 261. See Botanic Garden,

Vol. II. Canto II. l. 87, Note.]

"Ages remote by thee, VOLITION, taught

Chain'd down in characters the winged thought;

With silent language mark'd the letter'd ground,

And gave to sight the evanescent sound.

Now, happier lot! enlighten'd realms possess

The learned labours of the immortal Press; 270

Nursed on whose lap the births of science thrive,

And rising Arts the wrecks of Time survive.

[Footnote: _The immortal Press_, l. 270. The discovery of the

art of printing has had so great influence on human affairs,

that from thence may be dated a new aera in the history of

mankind. As by the diffusion of general knowledge, both of

the arts of taste and of useful sciences, the public mind has

become improved to so great a degree, that though new

impositions have been perpetually produced, the arts of

detecting them have improved with greater rapidity. Hence

since the introduction of printing, superstition has been

much lessened by the reformation of religion; and necromancy,

astrology, chiromancy, witchcraft, and vampyrism, have

vanished from all classes of society; though some are still

so weak in the present enlightened times as to believe in the

prodigies of animal magnetism, and of metallic tractors; by

this general diffusion of knowledge, if the liberty of the

press be preserved, mankind will not be liable in this part

of the world to sink into such abject slavery as exists at

this day in China.]

"Ye patriot heroes! in the glorious cause

Of Justice, Mercy, Liberty, and Laws,

Who call to Virtue's shrine the British youth,

And shake the senate with the voice of Truth;

Rouse the dull ear, the hoodwink'd eye unbind,

And give to energy the public mind;

While rival realms with blood unsated wage

Wide-wasting war with fell demoniac rage; 280

In every clime while army army meets,

And oceans groan beneath contending fleets;

Oh save, oh save, in this eventful hour

The tree of knowledge from the axe of power;

With fostering peace the suffering nations bless,

And guard the freedom of the immortal Press!

So shall your deathless fame from age to age

Survive recorded in the historic page;

And future bards with voice inspired prolong

Your sacred names immortalized in song. 290

"Thy power ASSOCIATION next affords

Ideal trains annex'd to volant words,

Conveys to listening ears the thought superb,

And gives to Language her expressive verb;

Which in one changeful sound suggests the fact

At once to be, to suffer, or to act;

And marks on rapid wing o'er every clime

The viewless flight of evanescent Time.

[Footnote: _Her expressive verb_, l. 294. The verb, or the

word, has been so called from its being the most expressive

term in all languages; as it suggests the ideas of existence,

action or suffering, and of time; see the Note on Canto III.

l. 371, of this work.]

"Call'd by thy voice contiguous thoughts embrace

In endless streams arranged by Time or Place; 300

The Muse historic hence in every age

Gives to the world her _interesting_ page;

While in bright landscape from her moving pen

Rise the fine tints of manners and of men.

[Footnote: _Call'd by thy voice_, l. 299. The numerous trains

of associated ideas are divided by Mr. Hume into three

classes, which he has termed contiguity, causation, and

resemblance. Nor should we wonder to find them thus connected

together, since it is the business of our lives to dispose

them into these three classes; and we become valuable to

ourselves and our friends as we succeed in it. Those who have

combined an extensive class of ideas by the contiguity of

time or place, are men learned in the history of mankind, and

of the sciences they have cultivated. Those who have

connected a great class of ideas of resemblances, possess the

source of the ornaments of poetry and oratory, and of all

rational analogy. While those who have connected great

classes of ideas of causation, are furnished with the powers

of producing effects. These are the men of active wisdom who

lead armies to victory, and kingdoms to prosperity; or

discover and improve the sciences which meliorate and adorn

the condition of humanity.]

"Call'd by thy voice Resemblance next describes

Her sister-thoughts in lucid trains or tribes;

Whence pleased Imagination oft combines

By loose analogies her fair designs;

Each winning grace of polish'd wit bestows

To deck the Nymphs of Poetry and Prose. 310

[Footnote: _Polish'd wit bestows_, l. 309. Mr. Locke defines

wit to consist of an assemblage of ideas, brought together

with quickness and variety, wherein can be found any

resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant

pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy. To which Mr.

Addison adds, that these must occasion surprise as well as

delight; Spectator, Vol. I. No. LXII. See Note on Canto III.

l. 145. and Additional Note, VII. 3. Perhaps wit in the

extended use of the word may mean to express all kinds of

fine writing, as the word Taste is applied to all agreeable

visible objects, and thus wit may mean descriptive sublimity,

beauty, the pathetic, or ridiculous, but when used in the

confined sense, as by Mr. Locke and Mr. Addison as above, it

may probably be better defined a combination of ideas with

agreeable novelty, as this may be effected by opposition as

well as by resemblance.]

"Last, at thy potent nod, Effect and Cause

Walk hand in hand accordant to thy laws;

Rise at Volition's call, in groups combined,

Amuse, delight, instruct, and serve Mankind;

Bid raised in air the ponderous structure stand,

Or pour obedient rivers through the land;

With cars unnumber'd crowd the living streets,

Or people oceans with triumphant fleets.

"Thy magic touch imagined forms supplies

From colour'd light, the language of the eyes; 320

On Memory's page departed hours inscribes,

Sweet scenes of youth, and Pleasure's vanish'd tribes.

By thee ANTINOUS leads the dance sublime

On wavy step, and moves in measured time;

Charm'd round the Youth successive Graces throng,

And Ease conducts him, as he moves along;

Unbreathing crowds the floating form admire,

And Vestal bosoms feel forbidden fire.

"When rapp'd CECILIA breathes her matin vow,

And lifts to Heaven her fair adoring brow; 330

From her sweet lips, and rising bosom part

Impassion'd notes, that thrill the melting heart;

Tuned by thy hand the dulcet harp she rings,

And sounds responsive echo from the strings;

Bright scenes of bliss in trains suggested move,

And charm the world with melody and love.

III. "SOON the fair forms with vital being bless'd,

Time's feeble children, lose the boon possess'd;

The goaded fibre ceases to obey,

And sense deserts the uncontractile clay; 340

While births unnumber'd, ere the parents die,

The hourly waste of lovely life supply;

And thus, alternating with death, fulfil

The silent mandates of the Almighty Will;

Whose hand unseen the works of nature dooms

By laws unknown--WHO GIVES, AND WHO RESUMES.

[Footnote: _The goaded fibre_, l. 339. Old age consists in

the inaptitude to motion from the inirritability of the

system, and the consequent want of fibrous contraction; see

Additional Note VII.]

"Each pregnant Oak ten thousand acorns forms

Profusely scatter'd by autumnal storms;

Ten thousand seeds each pregnant poppy sheds

Profusely scatter'd from its waving heads; 350

The countless Aphides, prolific tribe,

With greedy trunks the honey'd sap imbibe;

Swarm on each leaf with eggs or embryons big,

And pendent nations tenant every twig.

Amorous with double sex, the snail and worm,

Scoop'd in the soil, their cradling caverns form;

Heap their white eggs, secure from frost and floods,

And crowd their nurseries with uncounted broods.

Ere yet with wavy tail the tadpole swims,

Breathes with new lungs, or tries his nascent limbs; 360

Her countless shoals the amphibious frog forsakes,

And living islands float upon the lakes.

The migrant herring steers her myriad bands

From seas of ice to visit warmer strands;

Unfathom'd depths and climes unknown explores,

And covers with her spawn unmeasured shores.

--All these, increasing by successive birth,

Would each o'erpeople ocean, air, and earth.

[Footnote: _Ten thousand seeds_, l. 349. The fertility of

plants in respect to seeds is often remarkable; from one root

in one summer the seeds of zea, maize, amount to 2000; of

inula, elecampane, to 3000; of helianthus, sunflower, to

4000; of papaver, poppy, 32000; of nicotiana, tobacco, to

40320; to this must be added the perennial roots, and the

buds. Buds, which are so many herbs, in one tree, the trunk

of which does not exceed a span in thickness, frequently

amount to 10000; Lin. Phil. Bot. p. 86.]

[Footnote: _The countless Aphides_, l. 351. The aphises,

pucerons, or vine-fretters, are hatched from an egg in the

early spring, and are all called females, as they produce a

living offspring about once in a fortnight to the ninth

generation, which are also all of them females; then males

are also produced, and by their intercourse the females

become oviparous, and deposite their eggs on the branches, or

in the bark to be hatched in the ensuing spring.

This double mode of reproduction, so exactly resembling the

buds and seeds of trees, accounts for the wonderful increase

of this insect, which, according to Dr. Richardson, consists

of ten generations, and of fifty at an average in each

generation; so that the sum of fifty multiplied by fifty, and

that product again multiplied by fifty nine times, would give

the product of one egg only in countless millions; to which

must be added the innumerable eggs laid by the tenth

generation for the renovation of their progeny in the ensuing

spring.]

[Footnote: _The honey'd sap_, l. 352. The aphis punctures

with its fine proboscis the sap-vessels of vegetables without

any visible wound, and thus drinks the sap-juice, or

vegetable chyle, as it ascends. Hence on the twigs of trees

they stand with their heads downwards, as I have observed, to

acquire this ascending sap-juice with greater facility. The

honey-dew on the upper surface of leaves is evacuated by

these insects, as they hang on the underside of the leaves

above; when they take too much of this saccharine juice

during the vernal or midsummer sap-flow of most vegetables;

the black powder on leaves is also their excrement at other

times. The vegetable world seems to have escaped total

destruction from this insect by the number of flies, which in

their larva state prey upon them; and by the ichneumon fly,

which deposits its eggs in them. Some vegetables put forth

stiff bristles with points round their young shoots, as the

moss-rose, apparently to prevent the depredation of these

insects, so injurious to them by robbing them of their chyle

or nourishment.]

[Footnote: _The tadpole swims_, l. 359. The progress of a

tadpole from a fish to a quadruped by his gradually putting

forth his limbs, and at length leaving the water, and

breathing the dry air, is a subject of great curiosity, as it

resembles so much the incipient state of all other

quadrupeds, and men, who are aquatic animals in the uterus,

and become aerial ones at their birth.]

"So human progenies, if unrestrain'd,

By climate friended, and by food sustain'd, 370

O'er seas and soils, prolific hordes! would spread

Erelong, and deluge their terraqueous bed;

But war, and pestilence, disease, and dearth,

Sweep the superfluous myriads from the earth.

Thus while new forms reviving tribes acquire

Each passing moment, as the old expire;

Like insects swarming in the noontide bower,

Rise into being, and exist an hour;

The births and deaths contend with equal strife,

And every pore of Nature teems with Life; 380

Which buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles,

And Earth's vast surface kindles, as it rolls!

[Footnote: _Which buds or breathes_, l. 381. Organic bodies,

besides the carbon, hydrogen, azote, and the oxygen and heat,

which are combined with them, require to be also immersed in

loose heat and loose oxygen to preserve their mutable

existence; and hence life only exists on or near the surface

of the earth; see Botan. Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. l. 419.

L'organisation, le sentiment, le movement spontane, la vie,

n'existent qu'a la surface de la terre, et dans les lieux

exposes a la lumiere. Traite de Chimie par M. Lavoisier, Tom.

I. p. 202.]

"HENCE when a Monarch or a mushroom dies,

Awhile extinct the organic matter lies;

But, as a few short hours or years revolve,

Alchemic powers the changing mass dissolve;

Born to new life unnumber'd insects pant,

New buds surround the microscopic plant;

Whose embryon senses, and unwearied frames,

Feel finer goads, and blush with purer flames; 390

Renascent joys from irritation spring,

Stretch the long root, or wave the aurelian wing.

[Footnote: _Born to new life_, l. 387. From the innumerable

births of the larger insects, and the spontaneous productions

of the microscopic ones, every part of organic matter from

the recrements of dead vegetable or animal bodies, on or near

the surface of the earth, becomes again presently reanimated;

which by increasing the number and quantity of living

organizations, though many of them exist but for a short

time, adds to the sum total of terrestrial happiness.]

"When thus a squadron or an army yields,

And festering carnage loads the waves or fields;

When few from famines or from plagues survive,

Or earthquakes swallow half a realm alive;--

While Nature sinks in Time's destructive storms,

The wrecks of Death are but a change of forms;

Emerging matter from the grave returns,

Feels new desires, with new sensations burns; 400

With youth's first bloom a finer sense acquires,

And Loves and Pleasures fan the rising fires.--

Thus sainted PAUL, 'O Death!' exulting cries,

'Where is thy sting? O Grave! thy victories?'

[Footnote: _Thus sainted Paul_, l. 403. The doctrine of St.

Paul teaches the resurrection of the body in an incorruptible

and glorified state, with consciousness of its previous

existence; he therefore justly exults over the sting of

death, and the victory of the grave.]

"Immortal Happiness from realms deceased

Wakes, as from sleep, unlessen'd or increased;

Calls to the wise in accents loud and clear,

Sooths with sweet tones the sympathetic ear;

Informs and fires the revivescent clay,

And lights the dawn of Life's returning day. 410

[Footnote: _And lights the dawn_, l. 410. The sum total of

the happiness of organized nature is probably increased

rather than diminished, when one large old animal dies, and

is converted into many thousand young ones; which are

produced or supported with their numerous progeny by the same

organic matter. Linneus asserts, that three of the flies,

called musca vomitoria, will consume the body of a dead

horse, as soon as a lion can; Syst. Nat.]

"So when Arabia's Bird, by age oppress'd,

Consumes delighted on his spicy nest;

A filial Phoenix from his ashes springs,

Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings;

Ascends exulting from his funeral flame,

And soars and shines, another and the same.

[Footnote: _So when Arabia's bird_, l. 411. The story of the

Phoenix rising from its own ashes with a star upon its head

seems to have been an hieroglyphic emblem of the destruction

and resuscitation of all things; see Botan. Garden, Vol. I.

Canto IV. l. 389.]

"So erst the Sage with scientific truth

In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth;

With ceaseless change how restless atoms pass

From life to life, a transmigrating mass; 420

How the same organs, which to day compose

The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose,

May with to morrow's sun new forms compile,

Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile.

Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage the moral plan,

That man should ever be the friend of man;

Should eye with tenderness all living forms,

His brother-emmets, and his sister-worms.

[Footnote: _So erst the Sage_, l. 417. It is probable, that

the perpetual transmigration of matter from one body to

another, of all vegetables and animals, during their lives,

as well as after their deaths, was observed by Pythagoras;

which he afterwards applied to the soul, or spirit of

animation, and taught, that it passed from one animal to

another as a punishment for evil deeds, though without

consciousness of its previous existence; and from this

doctrine he inculcated a system of morality and benevolence,

as all creatures thus became related to each other.]

"HEAR, O ye Sons of Time! your final doom,

And read the characters, that mark your tomb: 430

The marble mountain, and the sparry steep,

Were built by myriad nations of the deep,--

Age after age, who form'd their spiral shells,

Their sea-fan gardens and their coral cells;

Till central fires with unextinguished sway

Raised the primeval islands into day;--

The sand-fill'd strata stretch'd from pole to pole;

Unmeasured beds of clay, and marl, and coal,

Black ore of manganese, the zinky stone,

And dusky steel on his magnetic throne, 440

In deep morass, or eminence superb,

Rose from the wrecks of animal or herb;

These from their elements by Life combined,

Form'd by digestion, and in glands refined,

Gave by their just excitement of the sense

The Bliss of Being to the vital Ens.

[Footnote: _The marble mountain_, l. 431. From the increased

knowledge in Geology during the present century, owing to the

greater attention of philosophers to the situations of the

different materials, which compose the strata of the earth,

as well as to their chemical properties, it seems clearly to

appear, that the nucleus of the globe beneath the ocean

consisted of granite; and that on this the great beds of

limestone were formed from the shells of marine animals

during the innumerable primeval ages of the world; and that

whatever strata lie on these beds of limestone, or on the

granite, where the limestone does not cover it, were formed

after the elevation of islands and continents above the

surface of the sea by the recrements of vegetables and of

terrestrial animals; see on this subject Botanic Garden, Vol.

I. Additional Note XXIV.]

"Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the lands,

Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands,

Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight,

ARE MIGHTY MONUMENTS OF PAST DELIGHT; 450

Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives

With vanquish'd Death,--and Happiness survives;

How Life increasing peoples every clime,

And young renascent Nature conquers Time;

--And high in golden characters record

The immense munificence of NATURE'S LORD!--

[Footnote: _Are mighty monuments_, l. 450. The reader is

referred to a few pages on this subject in Phytologia, Sect.

XIX. 7. 1, where the felicity of organic life is considered

more at large; but it is probable that the most certain way

to estimate the happiness and misery of organic beings; as it

depends on the actions of the organs of sense, which

constitute ideas; or of the muscular fibres which perform

locomotion; would be to consider those actions, as they are

produced or excited by the four sensorial powers of

irritation, sensation, volition, and association. A small

volume on this subject by some ingenious writer, might not

only amuse, as an object of curiosity; but by showing the

world the immediate sources of their pains and pleasures

might teach the means to avoid the one, and to procure the

other, and thus contribute both ways to increase the sum

total of organic happiness.]

[Footnote: _How Life increasing_, l. 453. Not only the vast

calcareous provinces, which form so great a part of the

terraqueous globe, and also whatever rests upon them, as

clay, marl, sand, and coal, were formed from the fluid

elements of heat, oxygen, azote, and hydrogen along with

carbon, phosphorus, and perhaps a few other substances, which

the science of chemistry has not yet decomposed; and gave the

pleasure of life to the animals and vegetables, which formed

them; and thus constitute monuments of the past happiness of

those organized beings. But as those remains of former life

are not again totally decomposed, or converted into their

original elements, they supply more copious food to the

succession of new animal or vegetable beings on their

surface; which consists of materials convertible into

nutriment with less labour or activity of the digestive

powers; and hence the quantity or number of organized bodies,

and their improvement in size, as well as their happiness,

has been continually increasing, along with the solid parts

of the globe; and will probably continue to increase, till

the whole terraqueous sphere, and all that inhabit it shall

dissolve by a general conflagration, and be again reduced to

their elements.

Thus all the suns, and the planets, which circle round them,

may again sink into one central chaos; and may again by

explosions produce a new world; which in process of time may

resemble the present one, and at length again undergo the

same catastrophe! these great events may be the result of the

immutable laws impressed on matter by the Great Cause of

Causes, Parent of Parents, Ens Entium!]

"He gives and guides the sun's attractive force,

And steers the planets in their silver course;

With heat and light revives the golden day,

And breathes his spirit on organic clay; 460

With hand unseen directs the general cause

By firm immutable immortal laws."

Charm'd with her words the Muse astonish'd stands,

The Nymphs enraptured clasp their velvet hands;

Applausive thunder from the fane recoils,

And holy echoes peal along the ailes;

O'er NATURE'S shrine celestial lustres glow,

And lambent glories circle round her brow.

IV. Now sinks the golden sun,--the vesper song

Demands the tribute of URANIA'S tongue; 470

Onward she steps, her fair associates calls

From leaf-wove avenues, and vaulted halls.

Fair virgin trains in bright procession move,

Trail their long robes, and whiten all the grove;

Pair after pair to Nature's temple sweep,

Thread the broad arch, ascend the winding steep;

Through brazen gates along susurrant ailes

Stream round their GODDESS the successive files;

Curve above curve to golden seats retire,

And star with beauty the refulgent quire. 480

AND first to HEAVEN the consecrated throng

With chant alternate pour the adoring song,

Swell the full hymn, now high, and now profound,

With sweet responsive symphony of sound.

Seen through their wiry harps, below, above,

Nods the fair brow, the twinkling fingers move;

Soft-warbling flutes the ruby lip commands,

And cymbals ring with high uplifted hands.

TO CHAOS next the notes melodious pass,

How suns exploded from the kindling mass, 490

Waved o'er the vast inane their tresses bright,

And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light.

Next from each sun how spheres reluctant burst,

And second planets issued from the first.

And then to EARTH descends the moral strain,

How isles, emerging from the shoreless main,

With sparkling streams and fruitful groves began,

And form'd a Paradise for mortal man.

[Footnote: _To Chaos next_, l. 489.

Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta

Semina terrarumque, animaeque, marisque fuissent;

Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis

Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis.

VIRG. EC. VI. l. 31.]

Sublimer notes record CELESTIAL LOVE,

And high rewards in brighter climes above; 500

How Virtue's beams with mental charm engage

Youth's raptured eye, and warm the frost of age,

Gild with soft lustre Death's tremendous gloom,

And light the dreary chambers of the tomb.

How fell Remorse shall strike with venom'd dart,

Though mail'd in adamant, the guilty heart;

Fierce furies drag to pains and realms unknown

The blood-stain'd tyrant from his tottering throne.

By hands unseen are struck aerial wires,

And Angel-tongues are heard amid the quires; 510

From aile to aile the trembling concord floats,

And the wide roof returns the mingled notes,

Through each fine nerve the keen vibrations dart,

Pierce the charm'd ear, and thrill the echoing heart.--

MUTE the sweet voice, and still the quivering strings,

Now Silence hovers on unmoving wings.--

--Slow to the altar fair URANIA bends

Her graceful march, the sacred steps ascends,

High in the midst with blazing censer stands,

And scatters incense with illumined hands: 520

Thrice to the GODDESS bows with solemn pause,

With trembling awe the mystic veil withdraws,

And, meekly kneeling on the gorgeous shrine,

Lifts her ecstatic eyes to TRUTH DIVINE! 524

END OF CANTO IV.

CONTENTS OF THE NOTES.

CANTO I.

Line.

36 Origin of European Nations.

76 Early use of Painting and Hieroglyphics.

83 Proteus represents Time.

126 Cave of Trophonius.

137 Eleusinian Mysteries.

176 Antiquity of Statuary, casting Figures, and Carving.

224 Infancy of the present World.

235 Of Heat.

239 Of Attraction.

245 Of Contraction.

259 Arteries not conical.

262 Venous Absorption.

268 Decrease of the Ocean.

270 Sensation and Volition.

283 Mucor, Vibrio.

295 Animals are first aquatic.

315 Sea, originally was not Salt.

327 Animals from the Sea.

335 Aquatic Plants.

343 Frogs.

363 Rainbow in Northern Latitudes.

372 Venus rising from the Sea.

392 The Fetus in the Womb.

417 Animals from the Mud of the Nile.