Though ch with men and fruit, has rarely shown And juftly too, to think him more than man. That nature never refts 761 780 If all things from four elements arose, And are again by death diffolv'd to those; What reafon we fhould rather fondly deem Them principles of things, than things of them? For they alternately are chang'd, and show Each others figure, and their nature too : And if you think that earth is join'd with fire, With water, air, their nature still entire, Nothing could first be made; or, made, increas'd; Nor tree, nor man, nor tender fruit, nor beaft: For each component in the various mass Would keep its nature, and be what it was; And we should view, confus'dly join'd and fix'd, Thin air with earth, and fire with water mix'd. Bat principles of things must be unknown, Of nature undifcern'd, left any one Rifing above the other should appear. And how that things not truly compounds are. Befides, they all these four from heav'n derive; And firft, that flame is turn'd to air, believe; Thence water, and thence earth; and fo retire From earth to water, thence to air and fire: Their change ne'er ceases, but about they're driv'n From heav'n to earth, from earth again to heav'n. But feeds can never change their nat'ral state; They muft endure, free from the pow'r of fate, 800 Left all fhould fink to nought, and thence arife; For what is chang'd from what it was, that dies. Now, fince these four can die, fince thofe can fail, Of other feeds, o'er,which no ftrokes prevail, They must be fram'd; left all fhould rife, and all return 790 To nought; and nothing be both womb and urn: Then rather grant feeds fuch, that they did frame A fingle body; as, for instance, flame; Yet take away, or add fome new to thofe ; . Their fite and motion chang'd, would air compofe; And fo of other things. 810 But you'll object, and fay, 'tis manifeft From earth rife trees, are nourish'd and increas'd; And if the feafons prove not kind and good, Moisture and foaking fhow'rs corrupt the wood; And did not Phœbus fhed enlivening heat, No fruit or beafts could grow, lock fair and great; And we, unless upheld by means, should die, Swallow'd by treacherous mortality; Life loos'd from nerves and bones, long fince had fled, 820 And left the wafted carcafe pale and dead. And thus it matters to the grand defign, By copious Greece term'd homœomery. 840 860 Besides, too weak, too feeble seeds he chofe, As thofe, which force deftroys before our eye;. Befides, fince by our meat our bodies grow, Are nourish'd and increas'd, we plainly know 870 That bones, and blood, and veins, and nerves are made Of parts diffimilar, in order laid. But if the meat in perfect form contains Small parts of nerves, of blood, of bones, and veins; Then meat and drink would in themselves preferve Diffimilar parts, as blood, bone, vein, and nerve. Yet more if all those things, that spring from earth, Before they rofe, before they show'd their birth, Lay hid within; the clods mug needs comprife, As proper parts, thofe various things that rife: 880 Now change the fubject, keep the terms the fame; In wood, if smoke lies hid, and sparks and flame, It must confift of parts of diff'rent frame. 889 But there's a little fhift, a flight excufe, Which Anaxagoras' fcholars ufe. Though fuch lie mix'd in all, that part alone Appears, which only to the fenfe is shown; Which in the compofition does comprise The greatest part, and on the furface lies. But this is falfe; or through the weighty mill, From broken corn would bloody drops diftil; Or fome fuch parts as in our bodies grow; From herbs and flow'rs a milky juice would flow; In broken clods each fearching eye might fee Some lurking, fcatter'd herb, or leaf, or tree; And in cleft wood, and broken sticks, admire Smoke, afhes, flame, and little sparks of fire. But fince, on ftricteft fearch, no parts appear, We must not fondly fancy they are there; That bodies are compos'd of fuch combin'd; 909 But common feeds in various order join'd. But you will answer thus: 'Tis often known, Yet there's no actual fire, but feeds of heat, And hence, as we difcours'd before, we find With vi'lent grin distort their little face, Now what remains obferve; diftinctly mark; I feel, I rifing feel poetic heats, And, now infpir'd, trace o'er the mufes' feats, 'Tis fweet to crop fresh flow'rs, and get a crown 950 Their vigour, ftrength, and baffle the disease. 961 The all is ev'ry way immenfely wide, Or else it would have bounds on ev'ry fide. Now, what can be a bound, but that which lies Beyond the body, whofe extreme it is? That nought's beyond the all, ev'n common fenfe Declares therefore the all must be immenfe. 970 Thus ftand on any quarter of the space, That's nothing; 'tis immenfe from ev'ry place. But grant it finite. Suppose a man on the extremeft part; Suppofe him ftand and ftrive to throw a dart; The dart would forward fly, or, hinder'd, stay: Choose which you will, the reafon's good each So earth the feas, and feas the earth controul; Again; nature's eternal laws provide, ΠΟΙΟ And by that nat'ral preffure this whole frame But this ridic'lous dream, this fancy fprings Why may not bodies end their tedious race, Nor man, nor earth, nor heav'n, nor could the To pond'rous movents easy passage through : fea, Nor bodies of the gods one moment be; For feeds of things, their union all destroy'd, Or rather into things had ne'er combin'd, By fun-beams quicken'd, gives new fruits their birth; Why rivers ftill the greedy deep fupply; Nor can external ftrokes preferve the whole; Nay, that thefe ftrokes might be, this lafting fight, The mass of matter must be infinite. 'Tis certain then, that there must come fupply From the vast mafs, repairing things that die. But fcorn their dreams, who fondly can believe, 1050 And teach, that all things to the middle strive; 1070 1086 For there's no place, to which by nature preft, If earthly parts rofe not, and gave them food? 1190 Through the vast space; the fabric of the sky This learnt, 'tis no uneafy task to know Her greatest works, and please thy curious eye. NOTES ON BOOK I. LUCRETIUS begins his poem with an invocation | his fpite to religion, and scatters bitter reflections of Venus, a gay and beautiful goddess, a friend of Mars, and, as the fabies fay, fometimes too immodeftly familiar with him but by whose power all animals are generated; by whofe charms all nature is governed; and who alone can give all beauty and gracefulness. He therefore, makes choice of her as the fittest patron for a man, who is going to treat of the Nature of Things: he afks of her to befrow fmoothnefs on his verfe, and to procure a peace for Rome, which the may easily obtain from her dreadful fervant the god of war. For, while the republic was engaged in arms, neither himself nor his Memmius, to whom he inTcribes this poem, could find leifure to attend to the fludies of philofophy. Now, whatever may be the opinion of others, he, by this invocation, excellently well performs the part of a poet, who intends to treat of nature and of an Epicurean philofopher likewife: for he derides while he invokes; and, as we seldom find a more beautiful, fo we never can a more reproachful image of Venus and of Mars. But they feem too wittily pious, who believed that the poet, a profeffed enemy to Providence, was compelled by the Deity, as it were in fport and derifion, to implore the aid of a most notorious goddefs: nor are others lefs trifling, who obferve, that Venus took care of gardens; and, therefore, was the most proper patronefs for the Epicureans, who chiefly dwelt, or at least spent most of their time in gardens. Nor they neither, who difcover, I know not what mysteries, that lie concealed under the names of Venus, Mars, Calus, &c. Such trifles are beneath the difdainful and foaring wit of Lucretius; for, as Cicero tells us in the first book of the Nature of the Gods, fect. 59. the Epicureans defpifed the myfteries of the ancients no lefs than they did their religion. Hence, too, the grammarians, with their Venus Genetrix, unless they will allow Lu cretius to have been infpired with fo divine and prophetic a fury, as to have forefeen that Venus would one day be honoured with that title by Julius Cæfar. We need not then look any farther for a reafon for the invocation. Lucretius was a poet, and therefore neglected not the rules of his art; an Epicurean, and therefore craftily conformed with the fuperftition of his country: befides, the practice of the poets is not more obvious, than the wantonnefs of the Epicureans is notorious and, therefore, both like a poet, and according to the principles of his philofophy too, he might very well apply himself to Venus, that is, to the common natural appetite to procreation, which nevertheless he treats as a goddess, and gives her all her titles, as if he really expected fome alliance from her; yet, even here he fhows on the then fafhionable devotion. Ver. 1. We learn from Cicero, in book iii. of the Nature of the Gods, that there were four of this name. The two chief of them were she who was born of the froth of the fea, and another who was daughter of Jupiter and Dione. They are often coufounded one for the other, both in regard to their actions and their name: for the Greeks called either of them Aphrodite, from aggs, froth: but the Latins, Venus, because, as the fame Cicero fays, " ad omnes veniat," he comes to all; for he was the goddess of pleasure; " & trahit fua quemque voluptas." Ver. 2. Because the Romans deduced their ori gin from Æneas, who was the fon of Venus by Anchifes. Ver. 9. Because the earth produces flowers and fruits of all kinds and colours. his Ver. 10. This and the four following verfes are an improvement of our translator upon author, who only fays, -tibi fuaveis dædala Tellus Submittit Flores Which thought is fully expreffed in the two im mediately preceding verfes. Ver. 14. He means Arabia Felix, a country that produces fo great an abundance of aromatic fpices, that when they are in bloom, their fragrancy may be perceived at a great distance off st fea. Thus Milton, in his Paradise Loft, -As when to them, who fail Pleas'd with the grateful smell old ocean smiles. So we th' Arabian coaft do know Ver. 19. From this paffage of our poet, Virgil has borrowed part of his excellent defcription of the fpring, which we find in Georg. 2. ver. 328. Avia tum refonant avibus virgulta canoris, Ver. 21. The weft wind, fo called " à favore, quia favet genituræ," because it favours and helps forward the generation and production of things. Ver. 37. The confused and unordered heap of matter, of which the poets fuppofed all things were made in the beginning. Hence Milton calls it, The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave. Non bene junЯarum discordia semina rerum. -Rude undigested mafs; A lifeleless lump, unfashion'd and unfram'd, Of jarring feeds, and justly Chaos nam'd. Dryden. Chaos was likewise the first of the gods, according to Hefiod, in Theogon. ver. 116, where he fets up Chaos, Tellus, and Amor, for the progenitors of the gods. Ver. 4. C. Memmius Gemellus, with whom Lucretius had travelled to Athens, where they ftudied philofophy together; and they were ever afterwards very intimate. He was defcended of the noble family of the Memmii, who derived their extraction from the Trojans, as Virgil witnelles, Æn. s. ver. 116. Mox Italus Mneftheus, genus à quo nomine Memmi. to Greece, where he died in exile. Whoever defires to know more of him, may confult Gifanius, in his Differtation de Genti Memmia. Ver. 46. The fon of Jupiter and Juno, or of Juno only without a father; as Minerva was of Jupiter only without a mother. She is faid to have conceived him by touching a certain flower, which Flora fhowed her for that purpose. Ver. 49. The court of Venus, who herself was called Paphia, from Paphos a city of Cyprus, where fhe had a stately temple. It is now called Baffo. Ver. 58. Lucretius, a few years before his death, was an eye-witnefs of the mad administration of affairs in the time of Clodius and Catiline, who gave fuch a blow to the republic of Rome, as occafioned its total fubverfion, which happened not long after. And this is what he speaks of in thefe fix verfes H lo, the god of learning. See the note on ver. 152 Ver. 59. Becaufe that tree was facred to Apolof the fixth book. Ver. 60. For as Cicero fays, "Nemo bene potest inter Belli ftrepitus, ac plebis feditiones, æqua animo philofophari," Tufcul. 1. No man can well apply his mind to philofophy, amidst the noife of war and the feditions of the people. Ver, 64. In these fourteen verfes, he unfolds to his Menimius, whofe attention he befpeaks, and wishes him free from all cares and anxieties, the argument of his future difputation: and tells him, he is going to treat of the nature of the heavens. and of the gods; as likewife concerning the first principles, of which all things are made, and into which they are again refolved. For, as to the gods, fays he, they enjoy a blissful eafe and idlenefs, and are exempt from all cares and bufinefs; nor did they, as moft philofophers believe, either Deorum immortalitate nemo dubitavit: quod au make the world, or do they take care of it. "De tem æternum beatumq. fit, id non habere ipfum negotii quicquam, nec exhibere alteri; itaque neque ira neque gratia teneri, quod, que talia effent, imbecilia effent omnia." No man doubts of the immortality of the gods: but whatever is happy and eternal, must have nothing to do itfelf, nor find out employment for others: thus it will ex. empt itself from anger and gratitude, to either of which, whatever is fubject, must be frail and imperfect, fays Epicurus in Cicero, lib. 1. de Nat. Deor. Ver. 76. He means the atoms. And let it fuffice to give notice once for all, that he calls them by feveral other names likewife: as corpufcles, elements, firft matter, first causes, first bodies, lit-, the bodies, &a. Then Mueftheus, from whom the Memmian race. This C. Memmius, to whom Lucretius infcribes his poem, arrived to the dignity of Prætor, and Ver. 78. Here Lucretins begins his impiety. Had obtained Bithynia for his province; but was foon he contented humfelf with deriding only the fuperrecalled, being accused by Cæfar of mal-gefture inftitious devotion of the age he lived in; had he flophis office. However, not many years after his return to Rome, he came to be tribune of the people; and, in a little time, food candidate for the confulship: of which he not only failed, but being accused of bribery, was, even though Cicero plead ed in his defence, convicted of it, and banished in ped there, and not propofed principles of irreligion drawn from the happinefs of the Deity, which, therefore, must be univerfal, and against all religion under whatsoever denomination: he might have been read with much profit and fatisfaction as an excellentfatirist against the heathen worship; for |