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The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical NotesDarwin, Erasmus

Philosophy

The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes

Name: The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes
Author: Darwin, Erasmus

Darwin, Erasmus

Cosmology -- Poetry; Life -- Origin -- Poetry

Particular attraction, or chemical affinity, must likewise
         occupy the spaces between the particles of matter which they
         cause to approach each other. The power of gravity may
         therefore be called the general attractive ether, and the
         matter of heat may be called the general repulsive ether;
         which constitute the two great agents in the changes of
         inanimate matter.]

         [Footnote: _And quick Contraction_, l. 245. The power of
         contraction, which exists in organized bodies, and
         distinguishes life from inanimation, appears to consist of an
         ethereal fluid which resides in the brain and nerves of
         living bodies, and is expended in the act of shortening their
         fibres. The attractive and repulsive ethers require only the
         vicinity of bodies for the exertion of their activity, but
         the contractive ether requires at first the contact of a goad
         or stimulus, which appears to draw it off from the
         contracting fibre, and to excite the sensorial power of
         irritation. These contractions of animal fibres are
         afterwards excited or repeated by the sensorial powers of
         sensation, volition, or association, as explained at large in
         Zoonomia, Vol. I.

         There seems nothing more wonderful in the ether of
         contraction producing the shortening of a fibre, than in the
         ether of attraction causing two bodies to approach each
         other. The former indeed seems in some measure to resemble
         the latter, as it probably occasions the minute particles of
         the fibre to approach into absolute or adhesive contact, by
         withdrawing from them their repulsive atmospheres; whereas
         the latter seems only to cause particles of matter to
         approach into what is popularly called contact, like the
         particles of fluids; but which are only in the vicinity of
         each other, and still retain their repulsive atmospheres, as
         may be seen in riding through shallow water by the number of
         minute globules of it thrown up by the horses feet, which
         roll far on its surface; and by the difficulty with which
         small globules of mercury poured on the surface of a quantity
         of it can be made to unite with it.]

         [Footnote: _Spontaneous birth_, l. 247. See additional Note,
         No. I.]

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The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes

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