The botanic garden. A poem in two parts. Part I. Containing the Economy of vegetation. Part II. the Loves of the plants. With philosophical notes / [Erasmus Darwin].

  • Erasmus Darwin
Date:
1791
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The botanic garden. A poem in two parts. Part I. Containing the Economy of vegetation. Part II. the Loves of the plants. With philosophical notes / [Erasmus Darwin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Frefh through a thoufand pipes the wave diftils, And thirfty cities drink the exuberant rills.— There the vaft mill-ftone with inebriate whirl 275 On trembling floors his forceful fingers twirl. Whofe flinty teeth the golden harvefts grind, Feafl: without blood ! and nourifh human-kind. “ Now his hard hands on Mona’s rifted creft, Bofom’d in rock, her azure ores arreft ; 280 Feaji without blood! 1. 278. The benevolence of the great Author of all things is greatly manifeft in the fum of his works, as Dr. Balguy has well evinced in his pamphlet on Divine Benevolence alTerted, printed for Davis, 1781. Yet if we may compare the parts of nature with each other, there are fome circumftances of her economy which feem to contribute more to the general fcale of happinefs than others. Thus the nourhhment of animal bodies is derived from three fources: i. the milk given from the mother to the offspring; in this excellent contrivance the mother has pleafure in affording the fufte- nance to the child, and the child has pleafure in receiving it. 2. Another fource of the food of animals includes feeds or eggs; in thefe the embryon is in a torpid or infenfible ftate, and there is along with it laid up for its early nourifhment a ftore of provifion, as the fruit belonging to fome feeds, and the oil and ftarch belonging to others; when thefe are confumed by animals the unfeeling feed or egg receives no pain, but the animal receives pleafure which confumes it. Under this article may be included the bodies of animals which die naturally. 3. But the laft method of fupporting animal bodies by the deftrudtion of other living animals, as lions preying upon lambs, thefe upon living vege- tables, and mankind upon them all, would appear to be a lefs perfeif part of the economy of nature than thofe before mentioned, as contributing lefs to the fum of general happi- nefs. Mona's rifted crejl. 279. Alluding to the very valuable copper-mines in the ifle of Anglcfey, the property of the Earl of Uxbridge. 2
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