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Show ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO I. 10 Pleas'd, their light limbs on beds of roses press'd, In slight undress recumbent Beauties rest; On tiptoe steps surrounding Graces move, And gay Desires expand their wings above. HERE young DroNE arms her quiver'd Loves, Schools her bright Nymphs, anq practises her doves; Calls round her laughing eyes in playful turns, The glance that lightens, and the sn1ile that burns; 100 He~ dimpling cheeks with transient blushes dies, Heaves her ,vhite bosom with seductive sighs; Or n1oulds with rosy lips the magic words, That bind the heart in adamantine cords. Behind in twilight gloom with scowling mien The demon PAIN, convokes his court unseen; Whips, fetters, flames, pourtray'd on sculptur'd stone,. In dread festoons, adorn his e bon throne; Each side a cohort of diseases stands, And shudd'ring Fever leads the ghastly bands; 110 C'ANTO I. PRODUCTION OF LIFE. II O'er all Despair expands his raven wings, And guilt-stain' d Conscience darts a thousand stings. Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, OBLIVION dwells amid unlabell'd graves; The storied tomb, the laurell'd bust o' erturns, And shakes their ashes frotn the mould~ring urns.N o vernal zephyr breathes, no sunbeams cheer, Nor song, nor simper, ever enters here; O'er the green floor, and round the dew-damp wall, • The slimy snail, and bloated lizard crawl; While on white heaps of intermingled bones The muse of MELANCHOLY sits and moans; Showers her cold tears o'er Beauty's early wreck, Spreads her pale arms, and bends her marble neck. So in rude rocks, beside the lEgean wave, TROPHONrus scoop'd his sorrow-sacred caye; 120 Trophonius scoop'd, 1. 126. Plutarch mentions, that prophecies of evil events were uttered from the cave of Trophonius; but the allegorical story, that whoever entered this cavern were never again seen to |
