Chapter 9

"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.