Chapter V: 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.