I was born with mankind, and call'd forth to express,

More of evil than good and less joy than distress.

If Adam like us, e'er felt pain or surprize,

I was near to assist and first spoke in his cries.

Of all nations I am, and all languages know;

From Arabys deserts to th'regions of snow.

Of feelings so fine, that I'm sure to cry out,

From pain like an epicure twinged with gout.

Dame Nature's my mother tho’ some folks assert,

That most of my brethren are the children of art;

But I, tho’ oft heard in the earliest ages,

Ne'er made my appearance ’till the time of the sages:

Most certainly not, ’till long after the fall;

And now when I do, I'm oft nothing at all:

Yet indeed I am found in these modern times,

To multiply fast in European climes,

Especially since the bright Sun-beams of Science,

Dispell'd the dark gloom of the Gothic alliance;

When the planet call'd Earth, by philosophers rare,

Was prov'd to be much like an orange in air,

’Twas then too found out to be also like me

Which (to speak was you made) you would prove it to be.

July 1819.