n his foe the poisoning serpent springs,
And insect armies dart their venom'd stings.

[Footnote: _The branching forehead_, l. 103. The
peculiarities of the shapes of animals which distinguish them
from each other, are enumerated in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4.
8. on Generation, and are believed to have been gradually
formed from similar living fibres, and are varied by
reproduction. Many of these parts of animals are there shown
to have arisen from their three great desires of lust,
hunger, and security.]

[Footnote: _The tropic eel_, l. 111. Gymnotus electricus.]

[Footnote: _The fly of night_, l. 113. Lampyris noctiluca.
Fire-fly.]

"Proud Man alone in wailing weakness born,
No horns protect him, and no plumes adorn;
No finer powers of nostril, ear, or eye,
Teach the young Reasoner to pursue or fly.-- 120
Nerved with fine touch above the bestial throngs,
The hand, first gift of Heaven! to man belongs;
Untipt with claws the circling fingers close,
With rival points the bending thumbs oppose,
Trace the nice lines of Form with sense refined,
And clear ideas charm the thinking mind.
Whence the fine organs of the touch impart
Ideal figure, source of every art;
Time, motion, number, sunshine or the storm,
But mark varieties in Nature's _form_. 130

[Footnote: _The hand, first gift of Heaven_, l. 122. The
human species in some of their sensations are much inferior
to animals, yet the accuracy of the sense of touch, which
they possess in so eminent a degree, gives them a great
superiority of understanding; as is well observed by the
ingenious Mr. Buffon. The extremities of other animals
terminate in horns, and hoofs, and claws, very unfit for the
sensation of touch; whilst the human hand is finely adapted
to encompass its object with this organ of sense. Those
animals who have clavicles or collar-bones, and thence use
their forefeet like hands, as cats, squirrels, monkeys, are
more ingenious than other quadrupeds, except the elephant,
who has a fine sense at the extremity of his proboscis; and
many insects from the possessing finer organs of touch have
greater ingenuity, as spiders, bees, wasps.]

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