34 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO r. 



Whence chemic arts, disclosed in pictured lines, 



Liv'd to mankind by hieroglyphic signs; 



And clustering stars, pourtray'd on mimic spheres, 



Assumed the forms of lions, bulls, and bears; 370 



So erst, as Egypt's rude designs explain, 



Rose young DIONE from the shoreless main; 



Type of organic Nature! source of bliss! 



Emerging Beauty from the vast abyss! 



Sublime on Chaos borne, the Goddess stood, 



And smiled enchantment on the troubled flood; 



As Egypt's rude designs, 1.371. See Additional Note Vl. 



Rose young Dione, 1. 372. The hieroglyphic figure of Venus rising 

 from the sea supported on a shell by two tritons, as well as that of 

 Hercules armed with a club, appear to be remains of the most remote 

 antiquity. As the former is devoid of grace, and of the pictorial art 

 of design, as one half of the group exactly resembles the other; and 

 as that of Hercules is armed with a club, which was the first weapon. 



The Venus seems to have represented the beauty of organic Nature 

 rising from the sea, and afterwards became simply an emblem of ideal 

 beauty ; while the figure of Adonis was probably designed to repre- 

 sent the more abstracted idea of life or animation. Some of these 

 hieroglyphic designs seem to evince the profound investigations in 

 science of the Egyptian philosophers, and to have outlived all M-ritten 

 language; and still constitute the symbols, by which painters and 

 poets give form and animation to abstracted ideas, as to those of 

 strength and beauty in the above instances. 



