ising from the sea, and afterwards became simply an
emblem of ideal beauty; while the figure of Adonis was
probably designed to represent the more abstracted idea of
life or animation. Some of these hieroglyphic designs seem to
evince the profound investigations in science of the Egyptian
philosophers, and to have outlived all written language; and
still constitute the symbols, by which painters and poets
give form and animation to abstracted ideas, as to those of
strength and beauty in the above instances.]

Now paused the Nymph,--The Muse responsive cries,
Sweet admiration sparkling in her eyes, 380
"Drawn by your pencil, by your hand unfurl'd,
Bright shines the tablet of the dawning world;
Amazed the Sea's prolific depths I view,
And VENUS rising from the waves in YOU!

"Still Nature's births enclosed in egg or seed
From the tall forest to the lowly weed,
Her beaux and beauties, butterflies and worms,
Rise from aquatic to aerial forms.
Thus in the womb the nascent infant laves
Its natant form in the circumfluent waves; 390
With perforated heart unbreathing swims,
Awakes and stretches all its recent limbs;
With gills placental seeks the arterial flood,
And drinks pure ether from its Mother's blood.
Erewhile the landed Stranger bursts his way,
From the warm wave emerging into day;
Feels the chill blast, and piercing light, and tries
His tender lungs, and rolls his dazzled eyes;
Gives to the passing gale his curling hair,
And steps a dry inhabitant of air. 400

[Footnote: _Awakes and stretches_, l. 392. During the first
six months of gestation, the embryon probably sleeps, as it
seems to have no use for voluntary power; it then seems to
awake, and to stretch its limbs, and change its posture in
some degree, which is termed quickening.]

[Footnote: _With gills placental_, l. 393. The placenta
adheres to any side of the uterus in natural gestation, or of
any other cavity in extra-uterine gestation; the extremities
of its arteries and veins probably permeate the arteries of
the mother, and absorb from thence through their fine coats
the oxygen of the mother's blood; hence when the placenta is
withdrawn, the side of