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The Temple of Nature

por Erasmus Darwin

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2021,091,121 (3)6
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A purple sash across His shoulder bends, And fring'd with gold the quiver'd shafts suspends; The bending bow obeys the silken string, And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring. Thin folds of gauze with dim transparence flow O'er Her fair forehead, and her neck of snow; 230 The winding woof her graceful limbs surrounds, Swells in the breeze, and sweeps the velvet grounds; As, hand in hand, along the flowery meads, His blushing bride the quiver'd Hero leads; Charm'd round their heads pursuing Zephyrs throng, And scatter roses, as they move along; Bright beams of Spring in soft effusion play, And halcyon Hours invite them on their way. Delighted Hymen hears their whisper'd vows, or Love, warming a butterfly or the Soul, with his torch, may be seen in Spence'sPolymetis, and a beautiful one of their marriage in Bryant's Mythology; from which this description is in a part taken. And binds his chaplets round their polish'd brows,240 Guides to his altar, ties the flowery bands. And as they kneel, unites their willing hands. ' Behold, he cries, Earth Ocean Air above, ' And hail the Deities Of Sexual Love ' All forms of Life shall this fond Pair delight, And sex to sex the willing world unite ' Shed their sweet smiles in Earth's unsocial bowers, ' Fan with soft gales, and gild with brighter hours; ' Fill Pleasure's chalice unalloy'd with pain, ' And give Society his golden chain.' 50 Now young Desires, on purple pinions borne, Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn; With softer fires through virgin bosoms dart, Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart. Ere the weak powers of transient Life decay, And Heaven's ethereal image melts away; Love with nice touch renews the organic frame...… (mais)
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A long poem that sets out the author's ideas on the formation of nature. It is a bit disconcerting to read a poem to explicate a scientific idea, but I have wanted to read this for some time. Dr. Darwin uses the flowery language of his time which makes it somewhat tough going at times, even for someone steeped in Shakespeare. The poetry is okay, I wouldn't say great. The images are interesting, and the way he works various religious mythologies into the mix is intriguing. A reasonably quick read more interesting for its history than for itself. ( )
  Devil_llama | Sep 9, 2021 |


[The Temple of Nature, or the Origin of Society]
Erasmus Darwin was an English Physician, natural philosopher, physiologist, inventor and slave-trade abolitionist; he died in 1802 and his long poem The Temple of Nature was published after his death. He was the grandfather of Charles Darwin and had enjoyed popular success with [The Botanic Garden] another long poem published in179. According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction he is now considered an important figure in the genre of proto Science fiction because of his theories on evolution.

The book is described as a poem, with philosophical notes, the actual poem consists of nearly a thousand rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter with footnotes explaining or surmising about the scientific theories therein. There are also extensive notes following the poem, but I was far too tired to go into these having read the poem in a single sitting. Darwin’s The Botanic garden had enjoyed critical as well as popular success, but probably The temple of Nature was one poem too many. He had been seen as a forerunner to the romantic poets and there are many passages similar to this in his poem:

"Now young DESIRES, on purple pinions borne,
Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn;
With softer fires through virgin bosoms dart,
Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart.
Ere the weak powers of transient Life decay,
And Heaven's ethereal image melts away;
LOVE with nice touch renews the organic frame,
Forms a young Ens, another and the same;
Gives from his rosy lips the vital breath,
And parries with his hand the shafts of death;
While BEAUTY broods with angel wings unfurl'd
O'er nascent life, and saves the sinking world.


However it does sound much too artificial, he was not interested in describing feelings or the inner workings of the mind. His use of the poetic form was to bring attention to his scientific and anthropological theories. His didactic style wears thin and his attempts to intersperse this with classical mythology only serves to produce more footnotes for the confused reader. Darwin says in his introduction that his poem is not meant to instruct its aim is simply to amuse by bringing distinctly to the imagination, the beautiful and sublime images of the operations of nature. It his theories on the operation of nature that are of interest because he tells us that life began beneath the sea, with atoms and chemical reactions producing cellular creatures that evolved into the life forms that we see today. He must have realised that these ideas on evolution might be rejected by the religious community because he kind of shoe horns in the Adam and Eve story from the bible.

The poem might be interesting for readers who are researching into early ideas on evolution, or for those that like the “romantic” language of Darwin’s rhyming couplets. Apart from a few arresting passages, I was glad to be finished with it and so 2.5 stars. ( )
2 vote baswood | Jan 4, 2019 |
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Tem de autenticar-se para poder editar dados do Conhecimento Comum.
Para mais ajuda veja a página de ajuda do Conhecimento Comum.
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Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
(Preface) The Poem, which is here offered to the Public, does not pretend to instruct by deep researches of reasoning; its aim is simply to amuse by bringing distinctly to the imagination the beautiful and sublime images of the operations of Nature in the order, as the Author believes, in which the progressive course of time presented them.
By firm immutable immortal laws

Impress'd on Nature by the Great First Cause,

Say, Muse! how rose from elemental strife

Organic forms, and kindled into life;

How Love and Sympathy with potent charm

Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm;

Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains,

And bind Society in golden chains.
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Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Organic Life beneath the shoreless waves

Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves;

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.
Another prejudice which has prevailed against the spontaneous production of vitality, seems to have arisen from the misrepresentation of this doctrine, as if the larger animals had been thus produced; as Ovid supposes after the deluge of Deucalion, that lions were seen rising out of the mud of the Nile, and struggling to disentangle their hinder parts. It was not considered, that animals and vegetables have been perpetually improving by reproduction; and that spontaneous vitality was only to be looked for in the simplest organic beings, as in the smallest microscopic animalcules; which perpetually, perhaps hourly, enlarge themselves by reproduction, like the roots of tulips from seed, or the buds of seedling trees, which die annually, leaving others by solitary reproduction rather more perfect than themselves for many successive years, till at length they acquire sexual organs or flowers.
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A purple sash across His shoulder bends, And fring'd with gold the quiver'd shafts suspends; The bending bow obeys the silken string, And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring. Thin folds of gauze with dim transparence flow O'er Her fair forehead, and her neck of snow; 230 The winding woof her graceful limbs surrounds, Swells in the breeze, and sweeps the velvet grounds; As, hand in hand, along the flowery meads, His blushing bride the quiver'd Hero leads; Charm'd round their heads pursuing Zephyrs throng, And scatter roses, as they move along; Bright beams of Spring in soft effusion play, And halcyon Hours invite them on their way. Delighted Hymen hears their whisper'd vows, or Love, warming a butterfly or the Soul, with his torch, may be seen in Spence'sPolymetis, and a beautiful one of their marriage in Bryant's Mythology; from which this description is in a part taken. And binds his chaplets round their polish'd brows,240 Guides to his altar, ties the flowery bands. And as they kneel, unites their willing hands. ' Behold, he cries, Earth Ocean Air above, ' And hail the Deities Of Sexual Love ' All forms of Life shall this fond Pair delight, And sex to sex the willing world unite ' Shed their sweet smiles in Earth's unsocial bowers, ' Fan with soft gales, and gild with brighter hours; ' Fill Pleasure's chalice unalloy'd with pain, ' And give Society his golden chain.' 50 Now young Desires, on purple pinions borne, Mount the warm gales of Manhood's rising morn; With softer fires through virgin bosoms dart, Flush the pale cheek, and goad the tender heart. Ere the weak powers of transient Life decay, And Heaven's ethereal image melts away; Love with nice touch renews the organic frame...

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