[Footnote: _Emblem of Life_, l. 47. The Egyptian figure of Venus rising from the sea seems to have represented the Beauty of organic Nature; which the philosophers of that country, the magi, appear to have discovered to have been elevated by earthquakes from the primeval ocean. But the hieroglyphic figure of Adonis seems to have signified the spirit of animation or life, which was perpetually wooed or courted by organic matter, and which perished and revived alternately. Afterwards the fable of Adonis seems to have given origin to the first religion promising a resurrection from the dead; whence his funeral and return to life were celebrated for many ages in Egypt and Syria, the ceremonies of which Ezekiel complains as idolatrous, accusing the women of Israel of lamenting over Thammus; which St. Cyril interprets to be Adonis, in his Commentaries on Isaiah; Danet's Diction.] II. "HENCE ere Vitality, as time revolves, Leaves the cold organ, and the mass dissolves; The Reproductions of the living Ens From sires to sons, unknown to sex, commence. New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots On lengthening branches, and protruding roots; Or on the father's side from bursting glands The adhering young its nascent form expands; In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns, And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns. 70 "So the lone Truffle, lodged beneath the earth, Shoots from paternal roots the tuberous birth; No stamen-males ascend, and breathe above, No seed-born offspring lives by female love. From each young tree, for future buds design'd Organic drops exsude beneath the rind; While these with appetencies nice invite, And those with apt propensities unite; New embryon fibrils round the trunk combine With quick embrace, and form the living line: 80 Whose plume and rootlet at their early birth Seek the dry air, or pierce the humid earth. [Footnote: _So the lone Truffle_, l. 71. Lycoperdon tuber. This plant never rises above the earth, is propagated without seed by its roots only, and seems to require no light. Perhaps many other fungi are generated without seed by their roots only, and without light, and approach on the last account to animal nature.] [Footnote: _While these with appetencies_, l. 77. See Additional Note VIII.]