CANTO II. 

 REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 



I. " How short the span of LIFE! some hours possessed, 

 Warm but to cool, and active but to rest! 

 The age-worn fibres goaded to contract, 

 By repetition palsied, cease to act; 



How short ike span of Life, 1. 1. The thinking few in all ages 

 have complained of the brevity of life, lamenting that mankind are 

 not allowed time sufficient to cultivate science, or to improve their 

 intellect. Hippocrates introduces his celebrated aphorisms with this 

 idea; " Life is short, science long, opportunities of knowledge rare, 

 experiments fallacious, and reasoning difficult." A melancholy reflec- 

 tion to philosophers ! 



The age-worn fibres, 1. 3. Why the same kinds of food, which 

 enlarge and invigorate the body from infancy to the meridian of life, 

 and then nourish it for some years unimpaired, should at length 

 gradually cease to do so, and the debility of age and death supervene, 

 would be liable to surprise us if we were not in the daily habit of 

 observing it; and is a circumstance Avhich has not yet been well 

 understood. 



Before mankind introduced civil society, old age did not exist in 

 the world, nor other lingering diseases; as all living creatures, as soon 

 as they became too feeble to defend themselves, were slain and eaten 



