592 
public. We shall therefore confine our- 
selves to the expression of regret, that 
the friends of this young lady should 
possess so little common sense as to en- 
courage a publication which, we are 
Wii 
POETRY. 
sure, the author herself, when her taste 
and judgment shall be a little more 
matured, will wish that it had been con- 
fined within the circle of her family and 
intimate acquaintance, 
Art. XLVIII. The Temple of Nature ; or, the Origin of Society : a Poem, with philo- 
sophical Notes. By “Exasmus Darwin, M.D. F.R.S. 4to. pp. 300. 
DR. Darwin, like Lucretius, has en- 
deavoured to blend in his poetical works 
the grave features of philosophy with 
the mutable graces and smiling charms 
of imagination. In a considerable de- 
gree he has succeeded; and his ** Eco- 
nomy of Vegetation,” and “ Loves of 
the Plants,” will attract notice for the 
splendid digressions and similes which 
they contain, long after the philosophical 
reveries upon which they are based shall 
be forgotten. 
The distinguishing characteristic of 
Dr. Darwin’s poetry is picturesque de- 
scription, conveyed in remarkably har- 
monious language, but weakened in its 
effect by the very slight interest which 
the general plan is calculated to excite in 
comparison with that of particular pas- 
sages. The author hinself indeed has 
compared his “ Loves of the Plants” to 
a series of paintings connected together 
by a festoon of ribbands, a description 
which may also be applied with perfect 
justice to the “ Economy of Vegetation,” 
and the work at pregge before us. 
The “ Temple of Nature’’ consists of 
four cantos, the first of which treats of 
the origin or production of life; the se- 
cond of the transmission or re-produc- 
tion of life; the third relates to the pro- 
egress of the mind; and the fourth inves- 
tigates the necessary connexion between 
good and evil. The philosophical system 
here displayed and illustrated in the 
notes, scarcely differs, in any respect, 
from what has been already published in 
the former works of the same author, and 
is therefore, for the most part, a mere 
repetition of dubious or misapplied facts. 
The verse abounds with stanzas, and 
even whole passages, closely imitated 
from the “ Botanic Garden,’’ and is 
strikingly deficient in those brilliant si- 
miles and personifications which consti- 
tute the most valuable portion of Dr. 
D.’s poetry. 
As in the Newtonian system the mo- 
tions of inanimate matter are explained 
by the laws of attraction and repulsion, 
so Dr. Darwin considers the phenomena 
of vitality to be ultimately attributable 
to contraction or the shortening of a 
fibre on the application of a stimulus, 
and its gradual re-extension when the 
stimulus is removed. ‘There is this 
slight difference, however, between the 
two theories, that Newton did not pro- 
ceed a step without rigorous demonstra- 
tion, whereas Dr. Darwin does not bring — 
a single argument, or even analogy, in 
support of his hypothesis. aving 
formed a contractile fibre by the succes- 
sive application of minute particles of 
matter to each other, he supposes its ex- 
tremities to unite and thus produce a 
ring ; a multitude of rings united forma 
tube, which, by the process of assimila- 
tion, forms a living animal. Or to use 
the author’s own words, 
«* In earth, sea, air, around, below, above, 
Life’s subtle woof in Nature’s loom is wove ; 
Points glued to points a living line extends, 
Touch’d by some goad approach the bending 
ends ; 
Rings join to rings, and irritated tubes 
Clasp with young lips the nutrient globes or 
cubes ; 
And, urg’d by appetencies new, select, 
Imbibe, retain, digest, secrete, eject.” 
From living tubes, which have thus 
acquired “ appetencies new,” he supposes 
the microscopic animalcules and vegeta- 
bles to be produced without the interven- 
tion of either solitary or sexual genera- 
tion. At length in some of the larger of 
these living tubes two kinds of organic 
particles begin to be formed, the one en- 
dowed with “ nice appetencies,” and the 
other most conveniently with “ apt pro- 
pensities:”” in consequence of which, 
whenever they arrive within the sphere 
of each other’s attractjon, they unite, and 
strange to say, produce a living being 
similar to that of which they composed 
a part; and thus commences the process 
of solitary generation. In this manner are 
formed the leaf-buds in vegetables, and 
thus ’ 
Fe The male polypus parental swims, 
And branching infants bristle all his limbs. 
So the lone tenia, as he grows, prolongs 
His flattened form with young adherent 
throngs 5 
