"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."

3 likes

Source: Erasmus Darwin (1825). “The Botanic Garden: A Poem, in Two Parts ... The Economy of Vegetation, and The Loves of the Plants. With Philosophical Notes”, p.7

About the author

Erasmus Darwin

Physician, Poet, Inventor

Erasmus Darwin was an English physician and poet known for his contributions to evolutionary theory and his work 'Zoonomia'.

All quotes by Erasmus Darwin →

Same author

More quotes by Erasmus Darwin

See all →
Erasmus Darwin Physician, Poet, Inventor

"No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears, No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears, Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn, Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn, Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes."

Read quote
Erasmus Darwin Physician, Poet, Inventor

"Organic life beneath the shoreless waves Was born and rais’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."

Read quote
Erasmus Darwin Physician, Poet, Inventor

"Another thing very injurious to the child is the tying and cutting of the navel string too soon, which should always be left till the child has not only repeatedly breathed but till all pulsation in the cord ceases. As otherwise the child is much weaker than it ought to be, a part of the blood being left in the placenta which ought to have been in the child and at the same time the placenta does not so naturally collapse, and withdraw itself from the sides of the uterus, and is not therefore removed with so much safety and certainty."

Read quote
Erasmus Darwin Physician, Poet, Inventor

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the field of air."

Read quote
Erasmus Darwin Physician, Poet, Inventor

"Opium is the only drug to' be rely'd on-all the boasted nostrums only take up time, and as the disease [is] often of short duration, or of small quantity, they have gain'd credit which they do not deserve."

Read quote