Hence we derive our nature; born to bear Laborious life, and harden’d into care.

The rest of animals, from teeming earth Produced, in various forms received their birth. The native moisture, in its close retreat, Digested by the sun’s ethereal heat, As in a kindly womb, began to breed, Then swell’d, and quicken’d by the vital seed. And some in less, and some in longer space, Were ripen’d into form, and took a several face. Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields is fled, And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed, The fat manure with heavenly fire is warm’d, And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are form’d; These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find; Some rude, and yet unfinish’d in their kind; Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth; One half alive, and one of lifeless earth.