Erasmus Darwin - The Botanic Garden (1789)

14 Sourced Quotes

View all Erasmus Darwin Quotes
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.

Erasmus Darwin
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.

Erasmus Darwin
Roll on, ye Stars! exult in youthful prime,
Mark with bright curves the printless steps of Time;
Near and more near your beamy cars approach,
And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach; —
Flowers of the sky! ye too to age must yield,
Frail as your silken sisters of the field!
Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush,
Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush,
Headlong, extinct, to one dark center fall,
And Death and Night and Chaos mingle all!
— Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,
Immortal Nature lifts her changeful form,
Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
And soars and shines, another and the same.

Erasmus Darwin
On vermil beds in Idria's mighty caves The living silver rolls its ponderous waves.

Erasmus Darwin
In earth, sea, air, around, below, above, Life's subtle woof in Nature's loom is wove, Points glued to points in living line extends, Touch'd by some goad approach the bending ends.

Erasmus Darwin
Rest, silver butterflies, your quivering wings, Alight, ye beetles, from your airy rings; Ye painted moths, your gold-eyed plumage furl, Bow your wide horns, your spiral trunks uncurl; Glitter, ye glow-worms, on your mossy beds; Descend, ye spiders, on your lengthened threads!

Erasmus Darwin
Or mark with shining letters Kunckel's name In the pale phosphor's self-consuming flame.

Erasmus Darwin
When air's pure essence joins the vital flood, And with phosphoric acid dyes the blood, Your virgin trains the transient heat dispart, And lead the soft combustion round the heart...

Erasmus Darwin
Hence with diffusive salt old Ocean steeps His emerald shallows, and his sapphire deeps. Oft in wide lakes, around their warmer brim In hollow pyramids the crystals swim; Or, fused by earth-born fires, in cubic blocks Shoot their white forms, and harden into rocks.

Erasmus Darwin
The mass starts into a million suns; Earths round each sun with quick explosions burst, And second planets issue from the first.

Erasmus Darwin
And hail their queen, fair regent of the night.

Erasmus Darwin
Ethereal Powers! you chase the shooting stars, Or yoke the vollied lightnings to your cars.

Erasmus Darwin
With vast convolutions Draco holds Th' ecliptic axis in his scaly folds. O'er half the skies his neck enormous rears, And with immense meanders parts the Bears.

Erasmus Darwin
Hence sable coal his massy couch extends; And stars of gold that sparkle pyrite blends; Hence dull-eyed naphtha pours his pitchy streams, And jet uncolour'd drinks the solar beams.

Erasmus Darwin