OCR Text |
Show 76 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO II. O'er burning sands, and snow-clad mount~ins, treads, Blue fields of air, and ocean's briny beds; Flings from his radiant torch celestial light O'er Day's wide concave, and illumes the Night. With dulcet eloquence his tuneful tongue Convokes and captivates the Fair and Young; His golden lamp with ray ethereal dyes The blushing cheek, and lights the laughing eyes; 420 With secret flames the virgin's bosom warms, And lights the impatient bridegroom to her arms; With lovely life all Nature's frame inspires, And, as they sink, rekindles all her fires.'' VII. Now paused the beauteous Teacher, and awhile Gazed on her train with sympathetic smile. ' Beware of Love l she cried, ye Nymphs, and hear ' His twanging bowstring with alarmed ear; ' Fly the first whisper of the distant dart, ' Or shield with adamant the fluttering heart; 430 CANTO I r. REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. ' To secret shades, ye Virgin trains, retire, ' And in your bosoms guard the vestal fire." -The obedient Beauties hear her words, advised, And bow with laugh repress'd, and smile chastised. Now at her nod the Nymphs attendant bring Translucent water from the bubbling spring; 77 TVitlt laugh repressed. 1. 434. The cause of the violent actions of laughter, and of the difficulty of restraining them, is a curious subject of inquiry. When pain afflicts us, which we cannot avoid, we Jearn to relieve it by 0oTeat voluntary exertions as in o-rinnino· holdino- ' b bJ b the breath, or ·creaming·; now the pleasurable sensation, which ex-cites laughter, ari ses for a time so high as to change its name, and become a painful one; and we excite the convulsive motions of the respiratory muscles to relieve this pain. We are however unwilling to lose the plea urc, and presently put a stop to this exertion; and immediately the pleasure recurs, and again as instantly rises into pain. Which i further explained iu Zoonomia, Sect. 34. 1. 4. When this pleasurable sensation rises into a painful one, and the customs of society will not permit us to laugh aloud, some other violent voluntary exertion is used in tead of it to alleviate the pain. TVith smile chastised. I. 434. The origin of the smile has generally been ascribed to inexplicable instinct, but may be deduced from our early associations of actions and ideas. In the act of sucl ing, the lips of the infant are closed round the nipple of its mother, ti ll it has filled its stomach, and the pl asure of digesting this grateful food succeeds; then tht: sphincter of the mouth, f~t6g\ted by the continued action of sucking·, is relaxed; and the antagon1st muscles of the face gently acting, produce the smile of pleasure, which is thus during our lives associated with gentle pl ensure, which is further explained in Zoonomia, Sect. 16. 8. 4. |