CANTO in. PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 101 



Hills, whose green sides with soft protuberance rise, 



Or the blue concave of the vaulted skies; 210 



Or scans with nicer gaze the pearly swell 



Of spiral volutes round the twisted shell; 



Or undulating sweep, whose graceful turns 



Bound the smooth surface of Etrurian urns, 



When on fine forms the waving lines impress'd 



Give the nice curves, which swell the female breast; 



The countless joys the tender Mother pours 



Round the soft cradle of our infant hours, 



In lively trains of unextinct delight 



Rise in our bosoms recognized by sight ; 220 



its hands, presses with its lips, and watches with its eyes; and thus 

 acquires more accurate ideas of the form of its mother's bosom, than 

 of the odour and flavour or warmth, which it perceives by its other 

 senses. And hence at our maturer years, when any object of vision 

 is presented to us, which by its waving or spiral lines bears any simi- 

 litude to the form of the female bosom, whether it be found in a land- 

 scape with soft gradations of rising and descending- surface, or in the 

 forms of some antique vases, or in other works of the pencil or the 

 chisel, we feel a general glow of delight, which seems to influence all 

 our senses; and if the object be not too large, we experience an at- 

 traction to embrace it with our arms, and to salute it with our lips, 

 as we did in our early infancy the bosom of our mother. And thus 



