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Show 166 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO IV. Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives vVith vanquish'd Death,-and Happiness surviv s; I-Iow Life increasing peoples every clime, And young renascent Nature ·conquers Time; might not only amuse, as an object of curiosity; but by showino- the world the immediate sou rccs of their pains and pleasures. might t ach the mea11s to avoid the one, and to procure the oth er, and thus .contr~bute both ways to increase the sLim total of organic hap pi ness. Horv Life inc1·easing, l. 453. Not only the vast calcareous provinces, which form so great a part of the ten·aqueous globe, and also whatever rests upon them, as clay, mar], sand, and coal, were form ed from the fluid elcmcn ts of hetl.t, oxyo-cn azote and hy(lroo·en alon o- b ) ' 0 b with carbon, phosphorus, and perhaps a few other substances, which · the science of chemistry has not yet decomposed; and gave the pleasure of l.ife to the animals and veo-etables which formed them· b . ' ' and thus constitute monuments of the past happiness of those orrranized beings. But as those .remains of former life a1;e not again tot~lly decomposed,. or converted into their original clements, they supply more copious food to the .. succession of new animal or veo-etable beino·s on their surface; which consists of materials convertible into nutriment with less labour or activity of the digestive powers; and hence the quantity or number of oro·anized bodies and their im- . . b ' ~rovem.ent Ill srze, . as well as their happiness, has been continually mcreasr ~~g, alon?' With the .solid parts of the globe; and will probably :ontm.u~ to mcr~ase, till the whole ten·aqueous sphere, and all ·that tuhab1t It shall (ltssolve by a general conflagration~ and be again recluc d to their elements. • o· ~hu~ a1l. the suns, and the planets, which circle round them, may aoam smk mto one central chaos; and may again by explosions pro- CANTO IV. OF GOOD AND EVIL. · -And high in golden characters record The immense munificence of NATURE's LoRn!- " He gives and guides the sun's attractive force, And steers the planets in their silver course; With heat and light revives the golden day, 167 And breathes his spirit on organic clay; With l1and unseen directs the general cause By firm immutable immortal laws." 460 Charm'd with her words the Muse astonish'd stands, The N yn1phs enraptured clasp their velvet hands; Applausive thunder from the fane recoils, And holy echoes peal along the ailes; O'er NATURE's shrine celestial lustres glow, And lambent glories circle round her brow .. duce a new world; which in process of time may resemble the present one, and at length again undergo the same catastrophe! these great events may be the result of the immutable laws impressed on matter by the yreat Cause of Causes, Parent of Parents, Ens Entium ! |