CANTO in. PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 119 



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Secured from frost the Bee industrious dwells, 



And fills for winter all her waxen cells; 



The cunning Spider with adhesive line 



Weaves his firm net immeasurably fine; 



The Wren, when embryon eggs her cares engross, 



Seeks the soft down, and lines the cradling moss; 



Conscious of change the Silkworm-Nymphs begin 



Attach'd to leaves their gluten-threads to spin; 420 



Then round and round they weave with circling heads 



Sphere within Sphere, and form their silken beds. 



Say, did these fine volitions first commence 



From clear ideas of the tangent sense ; 



From sires to sons by imitation caught, 



Or in dumb language by tradition taught? 



Or did they rise in some primeval site 



Of larva-gnat, or microscopic mite; 



many insects seems to have given them wonderful ingenuity so as to 

 equal or even excel mankind in some of their arts and discoveries; 

 many of which may have been acquired in situations previous to their 

 present ones, as the great globe itself, and all that it inhabit, appear 

 to be in a perpetual state of mutation and improvement; see Addi- 

 tional Note IX. 



