CANTO i. PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 37 



While with quick growth young Vegetation yields 



Her blushing orchards, and her waving fields; 



Pomona's hand replenish'd Plenty's horn, 



And Ceres laugh'd amid her seas of corn. 



Bird, beast, and reptile, spring from sudden birth, 



Raise their new forms, half-animal, half-earth; 410 



The roaring lion shakes his tawny mane, 



His struggling limbs still rooted in the plain; 



With flapping wings assurgent eagles toil 



To rend their talons from the adhesive soil; 



The impatient serpent lifts his crested head, 



And drags his train unfinished from the bed. 



As Warmth and Moisture blend their magic spells, 



And brood with mingling wings the slimy dells; 



As warmth and moisture, 1, 417. 



In eodem corpora ssepe 



Altera pars vivit; rudis est pars altera tellus. 

 Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque, 

 Concipiunt; & ab his oriuntur, cuncta duobus. 



OVID. MET. 1. 1. 430. 



This story from Ovid of the production of animals from the mud 

 of the Nile seems to be of Egyptian origin, and is probably a poetical 



