A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and then was man design’d; Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire form’d, and fit to rule the rest: Whether with particles of heavenly fire The God of nature did his soul inspire, Or earth, but new divided from the sky, And pliant, still retained the ethereal energy, Which wise Prometheus temper’d into paste, And, mix’d with living streams, the godlike image cast. Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies. From such rude principles our form began, And earth was metamorphosed into man.
During the reign of Saturn the inhabitants of the earth enjoy a state of primeval happiness, secure from the intrusion of evil passions.