CANTO i. PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 25 



From pain and pleasure quick VOLITIONS rise, 

 Lift the strong arm, or point the inquiring eyes; 

 With Reason's light bewilder'd Man direct, 

 And right and wrong with balance nice detect. 

 Last in thick swarms ASSOCIATIONS spring, 

 Thoughts join to thoughts, to motions motions cling; 

 Whence in long trains of catenation flow 

 Imagined joy, and voluntary woe. 280 



" So, view'd through crystal spheres in drops saline, 

 Quick- shooting salts in chemic forms combine; 

 Or Mucor-stems, a vegetative tribe, 

 Spread their fine roots, the tremulous wave imbibe. 

 Next to our wondering eyes the focus brings 

 Self-moving lines, and animated rings; 



Or Mucor-stems, 1. 283. Mucor or mould in its early state is 

 properly a microscopic vegetable, and is spontaneously produced on 

 the scum of all decomposing organic matter. The Monas is a mov- 

 ing speck, the Vibrio an undulating wire, the Proteus perpetually 

 changes its shape, and the Vorticella has wheels about its mouth, 

 with which it makes an eddy, and is supposed thus to draw into its 

 throat invisible animalcules. These names are from Linneus and 

 Muller; see Appendix to Additional Note I. 



E 



