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Show 62 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO II. ' Shed their sweet smiles in E~rth's unsocial bowers,. ' Fan with soft gales, and gild with brighter hours; ' Fill Pleasure's chalice unalloy'd with pain, ' -And give SociETY his golden chain.' 250 " Now young DEsiRES, on purple pinions borne, Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn; with softer fires through virgin bosoms dart, Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart. Ere the weak powers of transient' Life decay, And Heaven's ethereal image melts away; LovE with nice touch renews the organic fran1e, Forn1s a young Ens, another and the same; Gives from his rosy lips the vital breath, And parries with his hand the shafts of death; 260 'Vhile BEAUTY broods with angel wings unforl'd O'er nascent life, and saves the sinking world. While Beauty broods, 1. 261. Alma Venus! per te quoniam genus omne animantum Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina cedi. , Luc R:E'r. CANTO II. REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. "HENCE on green leaves the sexual Pleasures dwell ' And Loves and Beauties crowd the blossom's be11· ' The wakeful Anther in his silken bed O'er the pleased Stigma bows his waxen head. ' With meeting lips and 1ningling smiles they sup Ambrosial dewdrops from the nectar'd cup; Or buoy'd in air the plutny Lover springs, And seeks his panting ,bride on Hymen-wings. 270 . From the necta~·'d cup, 1. £68. The anthers and stigmas of flowers ate probably nounshed by the 'honey, which is secreted by the honey~ land called by Linneus the nectary; and possess greater sensibility or animation than other parts of the plant. The corol of the flower _appears to be a respiratory organ belonging to these anthers and stigmas for the purpose of further oxygenating the vegetable .b looI d for the production of the anther dust and of this honey , w1 l l·C h IS a so exposed to the air in its receptacle or honey-cup; w11icb, I sup~ose, to be ~ecessary for its ~urther oxygenation, as in many ~o"' ers so complicate an apparatus 1s formed for its protection fi·om msects, as in aconitum, delphinium, larkspur, lonicera, woodbine; a~d because the coral and nectary fall along with the anthers and stigmas, when the pericarp is impregnated. Dr. B. S. Barton in the American Transactions has lately shown, that the honey collected from some plants is intoxicating and poisonous to men, as from rhododendron, azalea, and datura; and from some other plants that it is hurtful to the bees which collect it; and that from some flowers it is so injurious or disa()'reeable that they do not II . o ' co ect It, as from the fritillaria or crown imperial of this country. |
