42 DARWINIANISM. 



very evidently, his ambition was to " transcend tho 

 numbers of Dry den and Pope," and so " bring the couplet 

 measure to a degree of sonorous perfection." Nay ; in a 

 certain way, has he not even succeeded in this ? Every 

 one knows that there is a certain sing-song, a certain 

 rhythmical see-saw, that is common to all the heroic 

 verses of both Pope and Dryden. They themselves are 

 respective masters : they can make it general vary it 

 into success and beyond monotony. But it is just this 

 monotony this monotony alone and nothing but it that 

 Erasmus Darwin would realise and complete. That single 

 thing, the sing-song of Pope and Dryden, must be taken 

 alone by itself in hand, and evenly divided into its very 

 smoothest and most characteristic alternation 



" Roll, silver butterflies, your quivering wings ; 

 Alight, ye beetles, from your airy rings ; 

 Ye painted moths, your gold-eyed plumage furl, 

 Bow your wide horns, your spiral trunks uncurl ; 

 Glitter, ye glowworms, on your mossy beds ; 

 Descend, ye spiders, on your lengthened threads ! " 



So far as rhythm, or flow is concerned, these verses 

 will perhaps, to some extent, illustrate what has been 

 assigned as characteristic of them. They will almost 

 show, too, that let the success of Erasmus be as it may, 

 he has not yet got above the helplessness of filling up to 

 measure with supplementary epithets, especially at the 

 end of the line : quivering wings, airy rings ; mossy beds, 

 lengthened threads ; and elsewhere, folded vest, throbbing 

 breast ; starry zone, golden throne ; drooping head, leafy 

 bed ; tossing wave, watery grave 



"Again the goddess strikes the golden lyre, 

 And tunes to wilder notes the warblimj wire." 



It was, no doubt, his botanical love that led Erasmus 

 to sing, in the Botanic Garden, the grounds around his 



