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The temple of nature

or, the origin of society: a poem, with philosophical notes. By Erasmus Darwin
Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

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THE TEMPLE OF NATURE;
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CANTO I. PRODUCTION OF LIFE.
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CANTO II. REPRODUCTION OF LIFE.
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CANTO III. PROGRESS OF THE MIND.
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CANTO IV. OF GOOD AND EVIL.
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“Organic Life beneath the shoreless waves
Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves;
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First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,
Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;
These, as successive generations bloom,
New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume;
Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,
And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing.
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