Erasmus Darwin, tr. by W.S. Dallas

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Page 47 - But, wrapp'd in night with terrors all his own, He speaks in thunder when the deed is done. Hear him, ye Senates ! hear this truth sublime, " HE WHO ALLOWS OPPRESSION SHARES THE CRIME.
Page 194 - Organic life beneath the shoreless waves Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves; First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, Move on the mud or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing.
Page 194 - Thus the tall Oak, the giant of the wood, Which bears Britannia's thunders on the flood; The Whale, unmeasured monster of the main; The lordly lion, monarch of the plain; The eagle, soaring in the realms of air, Whose eye, undazzled, drinks the solar glare; Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd, Of language, reason, and reflection proud, With brow erect, who scorns this earthy sod, And styles himself the image of his God...
Page 178 - A great want of one part of the animal " world has consisted in the desire of the " exclusive possession of the females...
Page 184 - ... would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality...
Page 188 - The late Mr. David Hume, in his posthumous works, places the powers of generation much above those of our boasted reason; and adds, that reason can only make a machine, as a clock or a ship, but the power of generation makes the maker of the machine; and probably from having observed, that the greatest part of the earth has been formed out of organic recrements; as the immense beds of limestone, chalk, marble, from the shells of fish; and the extensive provinces of clay, sandstone, ironstone, coals,...
Page 142 - Soon shall thy arm, Unconquer'd Steam, afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car ; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying-chariot through the fields of air. Fair crews, triumphant, leaning from above, Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move ; Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping crowd, And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.
Page 93 - The Triumph of Flora, beginning at the fifty-ninth line, is most beautifully and enchantingly imagined : and the twelve verses that by miracle describe and comprehend the creation of the universe out of chaos, are in my opinion the most sublime passage in any author, or in any of the few languages with which I am acquainted.
Page 93 - Lord. Astonished Chaos heard the potent word ; — Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs, And the mass starts into a million suns ; Earths round each sun with quick explosions burst, And second planets issue from the first ; Bend, as they journey with projectile force, In bright ellipses their reluctant course ; Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres centres roll, And form, self-balanced, one revolving whole. Onward they move amid their bright abode, Space without bound, the Bosom of their God...
Page 48 - Where'er mankind and misery are found, O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow, Thy Howard, journeying, seeks the house of woe.

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