Retrofpect of Domeftic Literature.— Poetry. 
fopher may thus file again on turning 
his eyes from the coffins of Nature to her 
cradles.*’ a 
After a piéture of the triumphal car of 
Cupid, 
in beauty's pride, 
Celeftial Pfyche fitting by his fide, 
we have the following highly-finifhed de- 
fcription in genuine Darwinean verte : 
€6 Delighted Flora, gazing from afar, 
Greets with mute homage the triumphal car ; 
On filvery flippers fteps with bofom bare, 
Bends her white knee, and bows her auburn 
hair ; 
Calls to her purple heaths, and bluthing 
bowers, : 
Burfts her green gems, and opens all her 
flowers ; 
O’er the bright paira fhower of rofes fheds; 
And crowns with wreaths of hyacinth their 
heads.—= 
w=Slow roll the filver wheels, with fnow- 
drops deck’d, 
And primrofe-bands the cedar fpokes con- 
net ; 
Round the fine pole the twifting woodbine 
clings, 
And knots of jafmine clafp the bending 
{prings 5 
Bright daify links the velvet harnefs chain, 
And rings of violets joins each filken rein ; 
Feftoon’d behind, the fnow-white lilies bend, 
And tulip-taffels on each fide depend. 
-— low rolls the car,—-the enamour’d flowers 
exhale 
Their treafured fweets, and whifper to the 
gale ; 
Their ravelled buds, and wrinkled cups un- 
fold, 
Nod their green ftems, and wave their bells 
of gold; 
Breathe their foft fighs from each enchanted 
grove, 
And hail the Deities of Sexual Love.” 
We have on more occafions than one 
given our opinion of Dr. Darwin’s poetry: 
the prefent volume eminently exhibits all 
his beauties and all his faults. The Doc- 
tor overloads his lines with gold and fil- 
ver, filks and velvets, corals and chryf- 
tals, and with orient pearls. He feems 
to fancy that a monarch is no longer a mo- 
narch than when he is feated on histhirone, 
cloathed in his robes of royalty, and en- 
cumbered with his rich crown of jewels ! 
With him the King of Great Britain, 
plainly dreffed like a private gentleman, 
is nothing, compared to the king of Ava, 
whofe limbs totter under the wealthy 
weight of his ornaments, and who, Major 
Symes affures us, is unable to mount his 
throne without the fupport and afiiftance 
of wwo pages! The lalt extract was not 
633 
felected with any view to expofe this tafte 
for finery; but it will be obferved, that 
the lines are almoft fo many threads of 
gold or filver: and although it happens 
that no orient pearl or random ruby is 
ftrung upon them, the Poem is richly gem- 
med alfo with fuch Euopean rarities. If 
it would not be thought captious and hy- 
per-critical, that we fhould alfo object to 
the too frequent ufe of affected words ; 
nafeent and renafcent, volant, fufurrant, 
&c. &c. In fhort, the great fault of Dre 
Darwin’s poetry is its dazzling and ex~ 
ceflive polifh, and that ‘‘ balancing of the 
line,” as Mr. Headley calls it, which 
makes the firft part of it betray the fe- 
cond. 
But let us not be fufpected of depreci~ 
ating Dr. Darwin; his knowledge was 
various and profound; his imagination 
ardent and fertile ; and his ‘genius, ever 
on the wing, penetrated into the ob{cureit 
mytteries of organic nature. 
In one of his notes we fee that Dr. Dar- 
win has revived the exploded doétrine of 
Spontaneous Vitality. As the fubject is 
curious, we fhall endeavour to comprefs 
his arguments. He begins by endeavour- 
ing to remove fome prejudices againft the 
do@rine, arifing fron the mifconception 
of the ignorant or fuperftitious ; in the 
firft place, that it is contradiéted by Holy 
Writ, which fays that God created anic 
mals and vegetables ; as if there were not 
more dignity in our idea of the Supreme 
Author of all things when we conceive 
him to be the caufe of caufes, than the 
caufe fimply of the events which we fee. 
In the next place, that it is applied to the 
produétion of the larger animals ; but 
{pontaneous vitality is certainly only to be 
looked for in the fimpleft organic beings, 
as in the fmalleft microfcopic animalcules ; 
and thirdly, ¢hat there is no analogy to 
fanétion it; but this want of analogy 
equally oppofes all new difcoveries, as of 
the magnetic needle, the coated electric 
jar, and the Galvanic pile. 
He then makes fome preliminary obfere 
vations: That the power of reproduction 
diftinguifhes organic being, whether veges 
table or animal, from inanimate nature. 
That the reproduétion of plants.and ani- 
malJs is of two kinds, which may be terme 
ed folitary and fexual: that the former of 
thefe, as inthe reproduction of the buds 
of trees,and of the bulbs of tulips, ofthe pow 
lypus and aphis, appears to be the firft or 
moft fimple mode of generation, as many of 
thele organic beings afterwards acquire {ex 
ual organs, as the flowers of feedling trees 
and of feedling tulips,and the autumnal pro~ 
gcny 
y 
