LITMIR.BIZ

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From sires to sons, unknown to sex, commence.

       New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots

       On lengthening branches, and protruding roots;

       Or on the father's side from bursting glands

       The adhering young its nascent form expands;

       In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns,

       And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns. 70

      "So the lone Truffle, lodged beneath the earth, Shoots from paternal roots the tuberous birth; No stamen-males ascend, and breathe above, No seed-born offspring lives by female love. From each young tree, for future buds design'd Organic drops exsude beneath the rind; While these with appetencies nice invite, And those with apt propensities unite; New embryon fibrils round the trunk combine With quick embrace, and form the living line: 80 Whose plume and rootlet at their early birth Seek the dry air, or pierce the humid earth.

      "So safe in waves prolific Volvox dwells, And five descendants crowd his lucid cells; So the male Polypus parental swims, And branching infants bristle all his limbs; So the lone Tænia, as he grows, prolongs His flatten'd form with young adherent throngs; Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells, And coral-insects build their radiate shells; 90 Parturient Sires caress their infant train, And heaven-born Storge weaves the social chain; Successive births her tender cares combine, And soft affections live along the line.

      "On angel-wings the Goddess Form descends,

       Round her fond broods her silver arms she bends;

       White streams of milk her tumid bosom swell,

       And on her lips ambrosial kisses dwell.

       Light joys on twinkling feet before her dance

       With playful nod, and momentary glance; 100

       Behind, attendant on the pansied plain,

       Young Psyche treads with Cupid in her train.

      III. "In these lone births no tender mothers blend

       Their genial powers to nourish or defend;

       No nutrient streams from Beauty's orbs improve

       These orphan babes of solitary love;

       Birth after birth the line unchanging runs,

       And fathers live transmitted in their sons;

       Each passing year beholds the unvarying kinds,

       The same their manners, and the same their minds. 110

       Till, as erelong successive buds decay,

       And insect-shoals successive pass away,

       Increasing wants the pregnant parents vex

       With the fond wish to form a softer sex; Whose milky rills with pure ambrosial food Might charm and cherish their expected brood. The potent wish in the productive hour Calls to its aid Imagination's power, O'er embryon throngs with mystic charm presides, And sex from sex the nascent world divides, 120 With soft affections warms the callow trains, And gives to laughing Love his nymphs and swains; Whose mingling virtues interweave at length The mother's beauty with the father's strength.

      "So tulip-bulbs emerging from the seed,

       Year after year unknown to sex proceed;

       Erewhile the stamens and the styles display

       Their petal-curtains, and adorn the day;

       The beaux and beauties in each blossom glow

       With wedded joy, or amatorial woe. 130

       Unmarried Aphides prolific prove

       For nine successions uninform'd of love;

       New sexes next with softer passions spring,

       Breathe the fond vow, and woo with quivering wing.

      "So erst in Paradise creation's Lord,

       As the first leaves of holy writ record,

       From Adam's rib, who press'd the flowery grove,

       And dreamt delighted of untasted love,

       To cheer and charm his solitary mind,

       Form'd a new sex, the Mother of Mankind. 140 —Buoy'd on light step the Beauty seem'd to swim, And stretch'd alternate every pliant limb; Pleased on Euphrates' velvet margin stood, And view'd her playful image in the flood; Own'd the fine flame of love, as life began, And smiled enchantment on adoring Man. Down her white neck and o'er her bosom roll'd, Flow'd in sweet negligence her locks of gold; Round her fine form the dim transparence play'd, And show'd the beauties, that it seem'd to shade. 150 —Enamour'd Adam gaz'd with fond surprise, And 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; 160

       No Mother's care their early steps directs,

       Warms in her bosom, with her wings protects;

       The clime unkind, or noxious food instills

       To embryon nerves hereditary ills;

       The feeble births acquired diseases chase, Till Death extinguish the degenerate race.

       "So grafted trees with shadowy summits rise, Spread their fair blossoms, and perfume the skies; Till canker taints the vegetable blood, Mines round the bark, and feeds upon the wood. 170 So, years successive, from perennial roots 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'en where unmix'd the breed, in sexual tribes

       Parental taints the nascent babe imbibes;

       Eternal war the Gout and Mania wage

       With fierce uncheck'd hereditary rage; 180

       Sad Beauty's form foul Scrofula surrounds

       With bones distorted, and putrescent wounds;

       And, fell Consumption! thy unerring dart Wets its broad wing in Youth's reluctant heart.

      "With pausing step, at night's refulgent noon,

       Beneath the sparkling stars, and lucid moon,

       Plung'd in the shade of some religious tower,

       The slow bell counting the departed hour,

       O'er gaping tombs where shed umbrageous Yews

       On mouldering bones their cold unwholesome dews; 190

       While low aerial voices whisper round,

       And moondrawn spectres dance upon the ground;

       Poetic Melancholy loves to tread,

       And bend in silence o'er the countless Dead;

       Marks with loud sobs infantine Sorrows rave,

       And wring their pale hands o'er their Mother's grave;

       Hears on the new-turn'd sod with gestures wild

       The kneeling Beauty call her buried child;

       Upbraid with timorous accents Heaven's decrees,

       And with sad sighs augment the passing breeze. 200

       'Stern Time,' She cries, 'receives from Nature's womb

       Her beauteous births, and bears them to the tomb;

       Calls all her sons from earth's remotest bourn,

       And from the closing portals none return!'

      V. Urania paused—upturn'd her streaming eyes,

       And her white bosom heaved with silent sighs;

      

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