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T O 



ERASMUS DARWIN, 



ON WIS WORK ENTITLED, 



Z O O N O M I A. 



By DEWHURST BILSBQRROW, 



ii tu i ii. i»!i mMM»j ii M » .i? wi— s—^wi u mm n 



Hail to the Barb ! who fung, from Chaos huiT4 



How funs and planets form'd the whirling world j 



How fpherc on fphere Earth's hidden ftrata bend, 



And caves of rock her central fires defend ; 



Where gems new-born their twinkling eyes unfold, I 



And young ores fhoot in arborefcent gold. 



How the fair Flower, by Zephyr woo'd, unfurls 

 Its panting leaves, and waves its azure curls ; 

 Or fpreads in gay undrefs its lucid form 



To meet the fun, and ihuts it to the ftorm ; je> 



While in green veins impaflion'd eddies move, 

 And Beauty kindles into life and love. 



How the firft embryon fibre, fphere, or cube, 

 Lives in new forms,— a line,— *a ring, — a tube ; 

 Clofed in the womb with limbs unfinilh'4 laves, jj 



Sips with rude mouth the falutary waves ; 

 Seeks round its cell the fanguine ftreams, that pafs, 

 And drinks with crimfon gills the vital gas ; 

 Weaves with foft threads the blue meandering vein, 

 The heart's red concave, and the filver brain ; %f> 



Leads the long nerve, expands the impatient fenfe, 

 And clothes in filken {kin the nafcent Ens, 



Erewhile, emerging from its liquid bed, 

 It lifts in gelid air its nodding head ; 



The light's firft dawn with trembling eyelid hails, $J 



With lungs untaught arrefts the balmy gales ; 

 Tries its new tongue in tones unknown, and hears 

 The ftrange vibrations with unpractiied ears 5 

 Seeks with fpread hands the bofom'o velvet orbs, 

 With clofing lips the milky fount abforba 3 

 And, as comprefs'd the dulcet ftreams diftil, 

 Prinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill }<*■ 



I 



