Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin (December 12,1731 – April 18,1802) trained as a physician and wrote extensively on medicine and botany, as well as poetry. He lived in Birmingham and Lichfield, England. He was one of the founder members of the Lunar Society. He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family, most famously including his grandson, Charles Darwin.

Quotations

Organic life beneath the shoreless waves

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Was born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves;

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First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,

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Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;

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These, as successive generations bloom,

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New powers acquire and larger limbs assume;

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Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,

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And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.

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