Note 90 — CANTO III. MANIFESTO.
Reading edition
Vast “monuments of past delight.”
“Thus the tall mountains, that emboss’d the lands, Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands, Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight, Are mighty monuments of past delight.”
These “monuments of past delight,” Darwin says,
“Rose from the wrecks of animal or herb.”
Thus taught by this wondrous sage, I trust the friend to humanity will suppose it best to let the poor, infirm and decrepid die off as fast as possible, to “manure the earth,” that the quantity of organized matter of which they were composed, may revive in the forms of millions of microscopic animals, vegetables and insects, make “monuments of past delight,” &c. Therefore it is to be hoped, that the promoters of the Perkinean institution will prove as despicable in respect to numbers, as they are deficient in understanding, especially in comprehending the great and glorious truths of modern philosophy.