CANTO iv. OF GOOD AND EVIL. 163 



" So erst the Sage with scientific truth 

 In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth; 

 With ceaseless change how restless atoms pass 

 From life to life, a transmigrating mass; 420 



How the same organs, which to day compose 

 The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose, 

 May with to morrow's sun new forms compile, 

 Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile. 

 Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage the moral plan, 

 That man should ever be the friend of man ; 

 Should eye with tenderness all living forms, 

 His brother-emmets, and his sister-worms. 



" HEAR, O ye Sons of Time! your final doom, 

 And read the characters, that mark your tomb: 430 



So erst the Sage. 1. 417. It is probable, that the perpetual transmi- 

 gration of matter from one body to another, of all vegetables and 

 animals, during their lives, as well as after their deaths, was observed 

 by Pythagoras ; which he afterwards applied to the soul, or spirit of 

 animation, and taught, that it passed from one animal to another as 



