

38 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO r. 



Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd, 



Of language, reason, and reflection proud, 310 



With brow erect who scorns this earthy sod, 



And styles himself the image of his God; 



Arose from rudiments of form and sense, 



An embryon point, or microscopic ens! 



" Now in vast shoals beneath the brineless tide, 

 On earth's firm crust testaceous tribes reside; 

 Age after age expands the peopled plain, 

 The tenants perish, but their cells remain; 

 Whence coral walls and sparry hills ascend 

 From pole to pole, and round the line extend. 320 



An embryon point, \, 314. The arguments showing that all vege- 

 tables and animals arose from such a small beginning, as a living point 

 or living fibre, are detailed in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4. 8. on 

 Generation. 



Brineless tide, 1. 315. As the salt of the sea has been gradually 

 accumulating, being washed clown into it from the recrements of 

 animal and vegetable bodies, the sea must originally have been as 

 fresh as river water; and as it is not saturated with salt, must be- 

 come annually saline. The sea-water about our island contains at this 

 time from about one twenty-eighth to one thirtieth part of sea salt, 

 and about one eightieth of magnesian salt; Brownrigg on Salt. 



Whence coral walls, 1. 319. An account of the structure of the 



