The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes

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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.