Part 3 (2/2)
[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 s.e.x. I observed great ma.s.ses of the limestone in Shrops.h.i.+re, 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 G.o.dDESS 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...o...b.. improve These orphan babes of solitary love; Birth after birth the line unchanging runs, And fathers live transmitted in their sons; Each pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.s away, Increasing wants the pregnant parents vex With the fond wish to form a softer s.e.x; 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 s.e.x from s.e.x 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 s.e.x_, 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 s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual flowers.
The Aphis is in a similar manner hatched from an egg in the vernal months, and produces a viviparous offspring without s.e.xual 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 s.e.x 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 s.e.x, 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s and nipples in all the males; which latter swell on t.i.tillation 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. Curc.u.ma, 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 att.i.tude 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 const.i.tutes 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 s.e.x 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 s.e.xes next with softer pa.s.sions 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 s.e.x, 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 pa.s.sion 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 s.e.x 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 s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual reproduction, and to have thence acquired those hereditary diseases.]
”E'en where unmix'd the breed, in s.e.xual 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 pa.s.sing 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!
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