52 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO H. 



No nutrient streams "from Beauty's orbs improve 



These orphan babes of solitary love; 



Birth after birth the line unchanging runs, 



And fathers live transmitted in their sons; 



Each passing year beholds the unvarying kinds, 



The same their manners, and the same their minds. 1 1O 



Till, as erelong successive buds decay, 



And insect- shoals successive pass away, 



Increasing wants the pregnant parents vex 



With the fond wish to form a softer sex; 



Whose milky rills with pure ambrosial food 



Might charm and cherish their expected brood. 



A softer sex. I. 114. The first buds of trees raised from seed die 

 annually, and are succeeded by new buds by solitary reproduction; 

 which are larger or more perfect for several successive years, and 

 then they produce sexual flowers, which are succeeded by seminal re- 

 production. The same occurs in bulbous rooted plants raised from 

 seed; they die annually, and produce others rather more perfect 

 than the parent for several years, and then produce sexual flowers. 

 The Aphis is in a similar manner hatched from an egg in the vernal 

 months, and produces a viviparous offspring without sexual inter- 

 course for nine or ten successive generations ; and then the progeny 

 is both male and female, which cohabit, and from these new females 

 are produced eggs, which endure the winter; the same process probably 

 occurs in many other insects. 



