Urania, leaning with unstudied grace,
Rests her white elbow on a column's base;
Awhile reflecting takes her silent stand,
Her fair cheek press'd upon her lily hand;
Then, as awaking from ideal trance,
On the smooth floor her pausing steps advance,
Waves high her arm, upturns her lucid eyes,
Marks the wide scenes of ocean, earth, and skies; 440
And leads, meandering as it rolls along
Through Nature's walks, the shining stream of Song.

First her sweet voice in plaintive accents chains
The Muse's ear with fascinating strains;
Reverts awhile to elemental strife,
The change of form, and brevity of life;
Then tells how potent Love with torch sublime
Relights the glimmering lamp, and conquers Time.
—The polish'd walls reflect her rosy smiles,
And sweet-ton'd echoes talk along the ailes. 450

END OF CANTO I.

ORIGIN OF SOCIETY.
CANTO II.
REPRODUCTION OF LIFE.

CONTENTS.

[I]. Brevity of Life [1]. Reproduction [13]. Animals improve [31]. Life and Death alternate [37]. Adonis emblem of Mortal Life [45]. [II]. Solitary reproduction [61]. Buds, Bulbs, Polypus [65]. Truffle; Buds of trees how generated [71]. Volvox, Polypus, Tænia, Oysters, Corals, are without Sex [83]. Storge goddess of Parental Love; First chain of Society [92]. [III]. Female sex produced [103]. Tulip bulbs, Aphis [125]. Eve from Adam's rib [135]. [IV]. Hereditary diseases [159]. Grafted trees, bulbous roots degenerate [167]. Gout, Mania, Scrofula, Consumption [177]. Time and Nature [185]. [V]. Urania and the Muse lament [205]. Cupid and Psyche, the deities of sexual love [221]. Speech of Hymen [239]. Second chain of Society [250]. Young Desire [251]. Love and Beauty save the world [257]. Vegetable sexes, Anthers and Stigmas salute [263]. Vegetable sexual generation [271]. Anthers of Vallisneria float to the Stigmas [279]. Ant, Lampyris, Glow-Worm, Snail [287]. Silk-Worm [293]. [VI]. Demon of Jealousy [307]. Cocks, Quails, Stags, Boars [313]. Knights of Romance [327]. Helen and Paris [333]. Connubial love [341]. Married Birds, nests of the Linnet and Nightingale [343]. Lions, Tigers, Bulls, Horses [357]. Triumphal car of Cupid [361]. Fish, Birds, Insects [371]. Vegetables [389]. March of Hymen [411]. His lamp [419]. [VII]. Urania's advice to her Nymphs [425]. Dines with the Muse on forbidden Fruit [435]. Angels visit Abraham [447]-458.

CANTO II.
REPRODUCTION OF LIFE.

I. "[How short the span of Life]! some hours possess'd,
Warm but to cool, and active but to rest!—
[The age-worn fibres] goaded to contract,
By repetition palsied, cease to act;
When Time's cold hands the languid senses seize,
Chill the dull nerves, the lingering currents freeze;
Organic matter, unreclaim'd by Life,
Reverts to elements by chemic strife.
Thus Heat evolv'd from some fermenting mass
Expands the kindling atoms into gas; 10
Which sink ere long in cold concentric rings,
Condensed, on Gravity's descending wings.

"[But Reproduction] with ethereal fires
New Life rekindles, ere the first expires;
Calls up renascent Youth, ere tottering age
Quits the dull scene, and gives him to the stage;
Bids on his cheek the rose of beauty blow,
And binds the wreaths of pleasure round his brow;
With finer links the vital chain extends,
And the long line of Being never ends. 20