CANTO i. PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 9 



" Next when imprison'd fires in central caves 

 Burst the firm earth, and drank the headlong waves; 

 And, as new airs with dread explosion swell, 

 Form'd lava-isles, and continents of shell; 

 Pil'd rocks on rocks, on mountains mountains raised, 

 And high in heaven the first volcanoes blazed; 

 In countless swarms an insect-myriad moves 

 From sea-fan gardens, and from coral groves; 



earth is given in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Additional Notes, XVI. 

 XVIII. XIX. XX. XXIII. XXIV. 



Drank' the headlong waves, 1. 322. See Additional Note III. 



An insect-myriad moves, 1. 327. After islands or continents were 

 raised above the primeval ocean, great numbers of the most simple 

 animals would attempt to seek food at the edges or shores of the 

 new land, and might thence gradually become amphibious; as is 

 now seen in the frog, who changes from an aquatic animal to an 

 amphibious one; and in the gnat, which changes from a natant to a 

 volant state. 



At the same time new microscopic animalcules would immediately 

 commence wherever there was warmth and moisture, and some 

 organic matter, that might induce putridity. Those situated on dry 

 land, and immersed in dry air, may gradually acquire new powers to 

 preserve their existence; and by innumerable successive reproduc- 

 tions for some thousands, or perhaps millions of ages, may at length 

 have produced many of the vegetable and animal inhabitants which 

 now people the earth. 



As innumerable shell-fish must have existed a long time beneath 

 the ocean, before the calcareous mountains were produced and 

 elevated; it is also probable, that many of the insect tribes, or less 



