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Show 56 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO rr. Round her fine form the dim transparence play'd, And show'd the beauties, that it seem'd to shade. 150 -Ertamour'd AnAM gaz'd with fond surprise, Ancl drank delicious passion from her eyes; Felt the new thrill of young Desire, and press'd The graceful Virgin to his glowing breast.The conscious Fair betrays her soft alarms, Sinks with warm blush into his closing arms, Yields to his fond caress with wanton play, And sweet, reluctant, amorous, delay. IV. "WHERE no new Sex with glands nutritious feeds, Nurs'd in her womb, the solitary breeds; No Mother's care their early steps directs, Warms in her bosom, with her wings protects~ The clime unkind, or noxious food initills To embryon nerves hereditary ills; The feeble births acquired diseases chase, Till Death extinguish the degenerate race. Acquired diseases. 1. 165. See Additional Note XI. 160 CANTO II. REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. " So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise, Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies; Till canker taints the vegetable blood, 57 Mines· round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. So, years successive, from perennial roots 170 The wire or bulb with lessen'd vigour shoots; Till curled leaves, or barren flowers, betray A waning lineage, verging to decay; Or till, amended by connubial powers, Rise seedling progenies from sexual flowers. "E'e n w h ere unm1.x 'd t he breed, in sexual tribes Parental taints the nascent babe imbibes; Eternal war the Gout and Mania wage With fierce uncheck' cl hereditary rage; 180 So grqfted trees, .1. 167. l\1 r. Knight first observed that those apple ~nd pear trees, wlnch had been propagated for above a centu ry by I~graftment were now so unhealthy, as not to be worth cultivation. I have suspected the diseases of potatoes attended with the curled leaf, and of strawberry plants attended with barren flowers t b . 1 . ' o e owmg to t 1eu· having been too lono· raised from roots or by r b ' so Itar:y reproduction, and not from seeds, or sexual reproduction, and to have thence acquired those hereditary diseases. 1 |