160 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO iv. 



Which buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles, 

 And Earth's vast surface kindles, as it rolls! 



" HENCE when a Monarch or a mushroom dies, 

 Awhile extinct the organic matter lies; 

 But, as a few short hours or years revolve, 

 Alchemic powers the changing mass dissolve; 

 Born to new life unnumber'd insects pant, 

 New buds surround the microscopic plant ; 

 Whose embryon senses, and unwearied frames, 

 Feel finer goads, and blush with purer flames; 3QO 



Which buds or breathes, 1. 381. Organic bodies, besides the carbon, 

 hydrogen, azote, and the oxygen and heat, which are combined with 

 them, require to be also immersed in loose heat and loose oxygen 

 to preserve their mutable existence; and hence life only exists on or 

 near the surface of the earth; see Botan. Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. 

 1.419. ^organization, le sentiment, le movement spontane, la vie, 

 n'existent qu'a la surface de la terre, et dans les lieux exposes a la 

 lumiere. Traite de Chimie par M. Lavoisier, Tom. I. p. 202. 



Born to new life, 1. 387. From the innumerable births of the 

 larger insects, and the spontaneous productions of the microscopic 

 ones, every part of organic matter from the recrements of dead vege- 

 table or animal bodies, on or near the surface of the earth, becomes 

 again presently reanimated; which by increasing the number and 

 quantity of living organizations, though many of them exist but for 

 a short time, adds to the sum total of terrestrial happiness. 



