DARWIN’S TEMPLE OF NATURE. 
Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells, 
And coral insects build their radiate shells.” 
During the numberless ages that in- 
tervened betweenthe advancement of vital 
fibres to animals, the different circum- 
stances to which individuals were ex- 
posed by exciting different wants and 
sensations, would produce correspond- 
ing changes in their organization, and 
in some of the most complicated sexual 
reproduction would commence. At first 
the two sexes would be united in the 
same individual, as we find to be the case 
in snails ; but this soon proving inconve- 
nient, the hermaphrodites, by the help of 
wishing-and imagination, or (in the lan- 
uage of another school of modern phi- 
osophy equally rational with ‘Dr. Dar- 
win’s) by exerting their energies, would 
be able to separate the sexes into distinct 
individuals, and by successive improve- 
ments convert a snail into a man and 
woman. 
** In these lone births no tender mothers 
» blend 
Their genial powers to nourish or defend ; 
No nutrient streams from Beauty’s orbs im- 
‘prove, 
These orphan babes of solitary love ; 
Birth after birth the line unchanging runs, 
And parents live transmitted in their sons ; 
Each passing year beholds the unyarying 
_..__ kinds, 
The same‘their manners, and the same their 
minds. 
Till as ere lowg successive buds decay, 
And insect shoals successive pass away ; 
Increasing wants the pregnait parents vex 
With. the fond wish to form a softer sex: 
Whose milky rills with pure ambrosial food 
Might charm or nourish 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.” 
‘The evolution of this supremely ab- 
surd system is the main object of the 
_ two first cantos; the ingenious author, 
—_—_—e 
however, finds occasional opportunities 
of informing us howthe more compli- 
cated animals originated from the sim- 
f pise ones. Animal life begun while the 
arth was yet covered with water; but 
when the continents were raised by cen- 
tral volcanoes, multitudes of microscopic 
animalcules would find themselves in the 
air or Of the moist earth, and being thus 
obliged to adopt new habits and modes 
of lite, would, by degrees, convert their 
aquatic organs into aerial ones; their 
Ann. Rev. Vor, II. 
593 
fins would become leps and wings, and 
their gills be changed into lungs, &c. 
‘* As in dry air the sea-born stranger roves, 
Each muscle quickens, and each sense im~ 
roves; 
Cold gills aquatic form respiring lungs, 
And sounds aerial flow from slimy tongues.” 
It grieves us to throw any suspicion 
on the originality of this luminous theory; 
but truth obliges us to say that the Ab- 
bate Fortis has at least as strong a claim 
to it as Dr. Darwin: this philosopher 
being of opinion, not merely that micro- 
scopic animalcules and some of the sim- 
pler animals have learnt to accommodate 
themselves to a terrestrial instead of an 
aquatic existence, but that the human © 
race has originated from mermen and 
mermaids; he is inclined to believe that 
the celebrated Neapolitan diver, sur- 
named the fish, was, like Achilles, Aris- 
tus, and other heroes of antiquity, very 
nearly allied to the oceanic nymphs; and 
that the Greenlanders have but very 
lately emerged, as is evident from their 
strong attachment to whale oil and 
seal-flesh. In a note to the “ Botanic 
Garden,” Dr. Darwin throws out a hint 
that insects may have originated from 
the male and female blossoms of vallis- 
neria, and other dizxcious plants; the same 
idea is repeated in the present work, 
whence we may conclude that the author 
considered it as by nomeans improbable, 
He repeats also with seeming satisfac- 
tion the old Egyptian and Rabbinical 
notion, that man was formerly herma- 
phrodite, and sagely remarks, in confir- 
mation, the existence of the rudiments of 
nipples in the male. That the human 
race was formerly quadruped, and arose 
from a family of monkeys on the banks 
of the Mediterranean, who had accident- 
ally learnt to use the adductor pollicis, 
he is well disposed to believe, on the au- 
thority of those profound and accurate 
observers, Buffon and Helvetius ! 
. The “ philosophical notes,” which, 
from the title page, seem to have been of 
at least equal value, in the estimation of 
the author, with the poetical text, besides 
serving to illustrate the proper subject of 
the poem, are occupied with various geo- 
logical and chemical discussions. ‘These 
exhibit as noble a contempt of facts and 
philosophical precision as any part of 
the work ; but to enter into a formal re- 
futation of them is neither consisteit 
with our plan, nor with the limits to 
Qq 
