CANTO ii. REPRODUCTION OF LIFE. 47" 



" So, as the sages of the East record 

 In sacred symbol, or unletter'd word; 

 Emblem of Life, to change eternal doom'd, 

 The beauteous form of fair ADONIS bloom'd. 

 On Syrian hills the graceful Hunter slain 

 D^ed with his gushing blood the shuddering plain; 50 

 And, slow-descending to the Elysian shade, 

 A while with PROSERPINE reluctant stray'd; 

 Soon from the yawning grave the bursting clay 

 Restor'd the Beauty to delighted day; 

 Array'd in youth's resuscitated charms, 

 And young DIONE woo'd him to her arms. 



Emblem of Life, 1. 47. The Egyptian figure of Venus rising from 

 the sea seems to have represented the Beauty of organic Nature;: 

 which the philosophers of that country, the magi, appear to have^ 

 discovered to have been elevated by earthquakes from the primeval 

 ocean. But the hieroglyphic figure of Adonis seems to have signified 

 the spirit of animation or life, which was perpetually wooed or 

 courted by organic matter,, and which perished and revived alter- 

 nately. Afterwards the fable of Adonis seems to have given origin 

 to the first religion promising a resurrection- from the dead; whence 

 his funeral and return to life were celebrated for many ages in Egypt 

 and Syria, the ceremonies of which Ezekiel complains as idol- 

 atrous, accusing the women of Israel of lamenting over Thammus; 

 which St. Cyril interprets to be Adonis, in his Commentaries on 

 Isaiah; Danet's Diction. 



