Chapter X: 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.

CANTO II.

1 Shortness of Life.
3 Old Age surprising.
39 Organic and chemical Properties.
43 Immortality of Matter.
47 Adonis emblem of Life.
71 The Truffle, Lycoperdon.
83 Volvox.
85 Polypus.
87 Taenia.
89 Oysters.
90 Coral-Insect.
114 Female Sex produced.
118 Power of Imagination.
122 Mankind were formerly Hermaphrodites and Quadrupeds.
167 Hereditary Diseases of Vegetables.
223 Psyche and Cupid.
268 Some Honey poisonous.
271 Appetency and Propensity.
280 Vallisneria.
288 Lampyris.
302 Insects from Anthers and Stigmas.
321 Horns of Stags, and Tusks of Boars, Spurs of Cocks.
351 Chick in the Egg.
356 Songs of Birds.
373 How Fish swim.
375 How Birds fly.
434 Of Smiles, and of Laughter.