146 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO iv. 



Her rapid shafts with airs volcanic wings, 



Or steeps in putrid vaults her venom'd stings. 120 



Arrests the young in Beauty's vernal bloom, 



And bears the innocuous strangers to the tomb! 



*' AND now, e'en I, whose verse reluctant sings 

 The changeful state of sublunary things, 

 Bend o'er Mortality with silent sighs, 

 And wipe the secret tear-drops from my eyes, 

 Hear through the night one universal groan, 

 And mourn unseen for evils not my own, 

 With restless limbs and throbbing heart complain, 

 Stretch'd on the rack of sentimental pain ! 1 30 



With airs volcanic, I. 119. Those epidemic complaints, which are 

 generally termed influenza, are believed to arise from vapours thrown 

 out from earthquakes in such abundance as to affect large regions of 

 the atmosphere, see Botanic Garden, V. I. Canto IV. 1. 65. while 

 the diseases properly termed contagious originate from the putrid 

 effluvia of decomposing animal or vegetable matter. 



Sentimental pain, 1. 130. Children should be taught in their early 

 education to feel for all the remediable evils, which they observe in 

 others; but they should at the same time be taught sufficient firmness 



