ciples of things; for nothing comes from nothing. There is, therefore, an immu able matter, which, being variously moved and disposed, produces now air, now water, now fire, now earth.

Ver. 794. Hefychius says, άyśvara caixa agà 'Euridoxia. If then the grammarian be not mii. taken, Lucretius difputes to no purpose; and Plutarch will not fuffer him to be mistaken, who fo often affirms that Empedocles acknowledged 50xax Twv saxéon, the principles of the elements, and Helychius nut be underttood of thefe firft principles. Empedocles, therefore, and Epicurus agree very well, except that the opinion of the first of them is more abftrufe and intricate, and that of the latter more plain and fimple; for Empedocles compofes his elements of the first principles, and of thofe elements conftitutes all things: but Epicurus will have all things proved immediately from the first principles.

Ver. 797. Laertius fays of Heraclitus, and the like may be affirared of Empedocles, that he held that fire, when it is condensed, humectates and becomes air; that air, when compreffed, becomes water; that water, contracting and growing concrete, becomes earth and that this is the way down: On the contrary, that earth, being diffufed, is changed into water; and of water the reft in like manner: that this is the way up. Πυκνό μενον τὸ πᾶς ἔξυγρανισθαι καὶ αέρα γίνεσθαι, συνις ά. μενον αέρα γίνεσθαι ὕδωρ πυκνόμενον τὸ ὕδωρ εἰς γῆν τρέπεσθαι, και ταυτῶν ὁδὸν ἐπὶ τὸ κάτω εἶναι Παλιν δὲ αὐτὴν τὴν γῆν κέσθαι, ἐξ ἧς τὸ ὕδωρ γίνεσθαι, ἐκ δι ταῦτα τὰ λοιπὰ ὁμοίως αυτήν δὲ εἶναι τὴν ἄνω ὁδόν. Which Ovid fully explains in theie veries: Metam. xv. 245.

In fuperos aer tenuiffimus emicat ignes:
lude retro redeunt, idemq. retexitur ordo:
Ignis enim denfum fpiffatus in aera ranfit;
Hic in aquas; tellus glomerata cogitur unda.
Which Dryden renders thus:

Earth rarefies to dew, expanded more
The fubtle dew in air begins to foar :
Spreads as the flies, and, weary of her name,
Extenuates ftill, and changes into flame.
Thus having by degrees pertection won,
Reflefs, they foon untwift the web they spun;
And fire begins to lofe her radiant hue,
Mix'd with grofs air, and air defcends to dew;
And dew condenfing does her form forego,
And links a heavy lump of earth below.

Ver. 812. In the fe twenty-three verfes, he ftarts an objection, and folves it. Plants and all animals owe their nourishment and growth to the four elements; for no man denies that all things grow out of the earth; but yet, without the af fittance of the kindly warmth of the air, of the heat of the fun, and of feafonable fhowers, the earth will produce nothing of herself, therefore it must be allowed, that water, fire, &c. are the

principles of all things. To which Lucretius anfwers, that they are no more the principles than wine, wheat, and the other things with which we fupport our life; for the things that nourish are not therefore principles, but thofe from which they receive fuch a contexture as makes them fit nourishment for things.

Ver. 816. Phabus.] As it were pus rỡ ßix," the light of life;" the fame with Apollo and Sol, the fun. He was fon of Jupiter and Latona, born at the fame birth with Diana. He invented phyúc, and was the god of divination, music, and poetry. Ovid. Metam. i. v. 517. Jupiter eft genitor: per me, quod eritque, fuitque, Enque, patet: per nie concordant carmina nervis: Certa quidem noftra eft; noftra tamen una fagitta Certior, in vacuo quæ vulnera pectore fecit. Inventum medicina meum eft, opiferque per orbem Dicor; et herbarum fubje&ta potentia nobis.

Which Dryden thus tranflates:

The king of gods begot me: what shall be,
Or is, or ever was in fate, I fee.
Mine is th' invention of the charming lyre;
Sweet notes and heav'nly numbers I inspire:
Sure is my bow, unerring is my dart;
But, ah more deadly his who pierc'd my heart.
Med'cine is mine, what herbs and fimples grow
In fields or forefts; all their pow'rs I know;
And am the great phyfician call'd below.

Ver 83. In these fix verfes, he illuftrates his opinion with the fimilitude he fo often ufes. The fame letter, by the various changes of their order, only compofe innumerable words that are very different both in fenfe and found. Why then do we doubt but that the fame feeds, which far esceed the letters in number, and which have dif and, in fhort, all the immenfe variety of things! ferent figures, are able to produce fire, water,

For fo i fares with them as with the different dilpofition and various location of these Miranda Naturæ, as Voffius, lib. 1 de Arte Grammat. calls the few letters the diftinction of words; as with the pofition of fix or seven notes in mufic the change of tunes; and, as with the wonderful variety of fums by figures, the amazing diversity of numbers. And, if it be really fo in thele famar inftances, what fupenduous variety cannot then the changes and forday tcites, orders, and p f tions of atoms, the gel and principles of our poet produce? And, indeed, the comparifans are exceedingly juft and appofite; fince in all cou fufed and tumultuous commision of any of them, neither articulate words nor harmonious concerts; nor proportionable numbers, can poffibly relul from them. So, neither in thefe natural things, all atoms are not in general to be thought fit and ca pable to produce and conflitute all forts of concrete bodies, but only fuch as are endued with a particular and prone difpofition fo to do

Ver 838. Letters; fo called by way of fimili. tude; for, as the elements are called the fiel prin ciples of things; fo the letters are commonly cal led clements, because of them are firft formed fyl lables and words.

Ver. 841. Having refuted the opinions of Hera-, clitus, Empedocles, and other philofophers, concercing the principles of things, he now, in 86 verfes, attacks Anaxagoras, who held the matter of which all things are produced, to be infinite, and that it confifts of very minute particles, exactly like one another; and at first confufed, but afterwards brought into order by the Divine Mind. Cicero, Acad. Quæft. lib. 4. he afferted, that all things are made of fimilar parts; as bones of little bones, blood of small drops of blood, &c.

Ver.842. Anaxagoras.] He was the fun of Hegefibulus, or of Eubulus, and born at Clazomena in lonia, twenty years before the traject of Xerxes, as Laertius witneffes. He applied himself to the study of the Nature of Things, and left his country for the lake of philofophy. He lived fixty-two years, and died 286 years after the building of Rome; 368 before the birth of Jefus Chrift. He was difciple of Anaximenes of Miletum, and of Pherecydes the Syrian. This opinion of his, which Lucretius here mentions, is thought to have been taken out of a book which he composed, of physiology, and which is much commended by Socrates in Plato. Ver. 843. Like nefs of parts, from the Greek words pois, like, and Migos, part. We call homaomeries those things whofe minutest parts have the name of the whole; as ftones, gold, blood, &c. It may be called in Latin fimilaritas, fays Faber, but Lucretius complains in the next verfe, that his language had no word to express it by.

Ver. 855. The opinion of Anaxagoras not pleafing Epicurus, Lucretius gives him no quarter, and begins to fall upon him in these two verses, in which he makes ufe of two arguments which he had alleged before against Heraclitus, Empedocles, and others. The first, that there is a void; the fecond, that no continuous body is infinitely

divisible.

Ver 877 Thirdly, He argues, in thefe twelve verfes, tha feeing Anaxagoras was of opinion, that like things confifted of like; and that the principles are exactly of the fame nature with the compounds, it follows, that they are both of them equally able to perish. And certainly no reafon can be given, why a fmall portion of flefh fhould not be obnoxious to corruption as well as a greater; nor does it appear, even though it do confift hat of a least; yet, fince it is fleih, why it fhould not fuffer from exterior violence, and be at length detroved. But, if the principles are corruptible, they will fall into nothing, which he has fufficiently proved already to be abfurd and impoffible

Ver. 169 His fourth argument, contained in thele eight verfes, is very cogent. Our bodies are Dourifhed with feveral forts of wood, which most evently confists of diffimilar parts; whence it flows, that the parts of our body confift of diffmilar likewife: for the feveral parts of it, the bres, the veins, the nerves, &c. are nourished wth different and diffimalar aliments. But, if it be pretended that thofe aliments contain fome particles of bones, nerves, &c. it must of neceffity be granted, that there is not in thefe bodies that komgomery, which Anaxagoras imagined. Lu

cretius calls the different and diffimilar parts, alienigenas of another kind; but retaining the Greek word, we commonly call them heterogeneous, as we do the fimilar homogeneous.

Ver. 877. In these seven verfes he propofes his fifth argument against Anaxagoras. If every thing that the earth produces, lay hid in the earth, then even the earth muft of neceffity confift of diffimilar things. He argues yet farther: if flame, smoke, and afhes, that are things very unlike one another, be in the wood, then wood is compofed of diffimilar things, and therefore there is no homœomery.

Ver. 844. In these eighteen verfes, he propofes and answers an opinion of Anaxagoras, which Ariftotle expreffes in this manner: "Res et apparere, et denominare, invicem differentes aiunt, ab eo, quod in infinitorum miftura maximè abundat: Non enim effe totum pure aut album, aut nigrum, aut dulce, aut carnem, aut os: Cujus autem amplius unumquodque habet, eam talis rei naturam videri." Which Gaffendus thus interprets: Under the name of flesh, for example, is not to be understood a nature that is fimple and of one fort; but an united heap of many, nay, innumerable and different particles, which then make this fpecies of the body which we call flesh, when there is a certain greater plenty of thofe particles which are fit and proper to exhibit that fpecies, and to appear in it, than of all the reft whatsoever, which lurking among them might give them a form and name. But if thofe particles be refolved, and tranflated into any other mafs or body, then the fleshy particles that are lurking with the others, will yield, and give likewife a name and form to those of which there happens to be a greater plenty, and whofe fpecies is the most visible. To this Lucretius anfwers, that, if this opinion were true, then in the detrition, bruifing and crumbling to pieces of corn, herbs, or any the like things, there must of neceffity appear at fome time or other, the fpecies or likeness of blood, milk, or other things of the like nature, &c.

Ver. 885. Anaxagoras.] Of him, fee ver. 842.1 Ver 902 The poet, in eleven verses, propofes and folv:s what Anaxagoras urged to prove, that all things are in all things; and confequently that all things are made of all things. For inftance, fire muft lie hid in the trees that take fire by a vehement collifion, which Thucydides, lib. 2. witnoffes has fometimes happened. See Book v. ver. 168. Lucretius anfwers, that there is not indeed any fire in the tree itself, but that the feeds of fire, or the molecule of the atoms being difpofed in a certain and new order, and dashing with violence against one another, exhibit and produce the fpecies of fire: for otherwife, and if there were actually and indeed any fire in woods and forefts of trees, it would, without doubt, fhow its ftrength, and make a wide deftruction.

Ver. 911. Virg. Æn. x. ver. 405. has an excellent defcription of a wood fet afire: Ac velut optatò, ventis æftate coortis, Diperia immittit fylvis incendia paftor: Correptis fubito mediis, extenditur upa

}

Horrida per latos acies Vulcania campos : Ille fedens victor flammas defpectat ovantes. As when in fummer welcome winds arife, The watchful fhepherd to the foreft flies, And fires the midmoft plants; contagion fpreads, And catching flames infeft the neighb'ring heads; Around the foreft flies the furious blaft, And all the leafy nation finks at last, And Vulcan rides in triumph o'er the waste : The paftor pleas'd with his dire victory, Beholds the fatiate flames in fheets afcend the fky. Dryden. Ver. 913. He afferted above, that many feeds of fire lie concealed in wood; but that they do not confume that wood, because, being hindered by other feeds of a different figure, they cannot put on the fpecies and form of fire: and from hence, in these eight verfes, he takes occafion to confirm the above-mentioned opinion of Epicurus, viz. That the common feeds or principles of many things are in many things; and that the fame principles made the heavens, the earth, the fea, in a word, all things: but that the things themselves are different, because feeds of a different higure are joined to others of a different figure, and in a different order, even as in the words, ligna, wood, and ignis, fire; the letters are common, and almoft the fame, but the words very different in fenfe and found. In like manner, wood is compounded of a vaft variety of corpufcles, which being difpofed in a certain order, conftitute the forms as well of wood as of divers other things that are lefs concrete; infomuch that fome more fubtle and moveable bodies that are contained in the wood, may specify and produce fire, flame, fmoke, &c. according to its compofition, density, coherence, laxity, refolution, &c. So that in truth only, this finiple connection, difpofition, and fabric of the parts, is at any time deftroyed when the matter is fired, and to all appearance confumed, viz. its external form, fpecies, and accidents which denominate it wood; the rest being refolved into flame, fire, fmoke, afhes, phlegm, fpirits, falts, &c. all of which are only thofe minute particles that lurk in it, though ever fo imperceptible to our fenfes.

Ver. 921. His laft argument against Anaxagoras is contained in these fix verfcs, and drawn from the abfurdity of the opinion. For, to evince that all things proceed from fimilar things, it would be abfolutely neceffary, that laughing, weeping, &c. Homœomeries fhould fometimes be feen in the world: if becaufe men laugh, weep, &c. they had those faculties from laughing, weeping, &c. principles; to imagine which is altogether ridiculous and abfurd. To affert that the principles of things are joyful or lugubrous, is, indeed, very ridiculous philofophy: and yet fome of the later philofophers feem at least to favour this opinion of Anaxagoras, when they affert that the affections do indeed " præeffe in Elementis," though not altogether after the fame manner as in man. St. Augustin himself may be a sittle fufpected, fince he affirms, "Omnium rerum femima occulta eztare ab initio."

Ver. 925. Cowley in the third book of his Da videis:

Sometimes a violent laughter fcrew'd his face, And sometimes briny tears dropp'd down apace. Whether he took this from Lucretius, or whether our tranflator has copied him rather than his author, may be seen by comparing the originals.

Ver. 927. In thefe thirty-three verses, he first befpeaks the attention of his Memmius, whom he cerning the principles of things; and tells him, fuppofes wearied with this long difputation conhe is now going to enter upon a more noble and fublime fubject. He fpeaks haughtily of his own poem; he confeffes that the doctrine of Epicurus is dark, intricate, and not adapted to the vulgar tafte: however, he promises to adorn and sprinkle it with his fmooth and flowing verfes. And this at least he will do like phyficians, who, when they are to give an ill-tafted potion to fick children, tinge the brims of the cup with fweets, by whofe flavour and taste deceived, they swallow down the naufeous draught. The task is indeed great; but the hopes of future praife fpurs him on, and to explain to his Memmius the nature of things, he undertakes a difficult and painful work, unat tempted hitherto by any man in Latin verse.

Ver. 932. Mufes.] They were daughters of Jupiter and Mnemofyne, born in Pieria, a country of Macedonia, and dwelt upon Helicon in Baotia, and Parnafius in Phocis, two hills that were near one another: the goddeffes of poetry, learning, and mufic, and nine in number: 1. Calliope, fo called from ads, good, and "v, voice; fhe was the mother of Orpheus, and prefided over heroic verfe. II. Clio, from xλése, I celebrate; fhe was believed to have invented history. II. Erato, from eám, I love; the ruled over lovers. IV. Thalia, from 922, I live, or flourish because the fame of poets never dies. V. Melpomene, from μír, I fing or celebrate in verfe; fhe was the firft that writ tragedies. VI. Terpsichore, from rigru, I delight, and xogès, dancing, in which he took delight; the invention of the harp is afcribed to her. VII. Euterpe, from , well, or pleasantly, and rigre, I delight: fhe invented the flute and mathematics. VIII. Polyhyninia, from E, many, and vos, a hymn; the prefided over panegyrics. IX. Urania, from à aves òpera, contemplating the things above; the is faid to have invented aftrology.

Ver. 933. This is a kind of boast which may not be charged with immodefty, fince almost all the poets, as well the ancient as the modern, make ufe of the fame allegory. Virgil exactly imitates this paffage of Lucretius, Georg iii. ver. 289. Nec fum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum Quam fit, et auguftis hunc addere rebus hono

rem :

Se me Parnaffi deferta per ardua dulcis
Raptat amor juvat ire jugis qua nulla priorum
Caftaliam molli divertitur orbita clivo:

Because none of the Latins had written on the fubject of agriculture before him; fo Horace, Epift. i. lib. i.

Libera per vacuum pofui veftigia princeps,
Non alieno meo preffi pede.-

Thas too Manilius, lib. i. ver. 4.

Aggredior primufque novis Helicona more Cantibus.

Hofpita facra ferens nulli memorata priorum.

And in his fecond book, v. 59. he uses the fame allufion. And Nemefianus:

-Ducitque per avia, quà fola nunquam Trita Rotis.

Though in this he does wrong to Grotius, who treated of the fame argument before him. And we may obferve the like in our own poets too : particularly in Milton and Cowley. The first of whom fays his fubject was

Unattempted yet in verse or profe.

And the other:

Guide my bold steps

In these untrodden paths to facred fame.

The very expreffion Creech ufes; and indeed he has taken occafion, in this tranflation, to rifle that puet.

Ver. 939. Lucretius makes no mention of laurel; and indeed garlands or wreaths of ivy feem to have been the first ornaments of poets and other learned men, and laurels of conquerors: Thus Horace :

Me doctarum hederæ præmia frontium
Diis mifcent fuperis

And Virgil:

-Atqua hanc fine tempora circum Inter victrices hederam tibi ferpere lauros. However, that poets did wear wreathes of laurel is most certain; though ivy seems to have been more proper for them, because it requires the fupport of fome stronger tree, as learning does of princes and great men.

Ver. 944. This paffage of Lucretius the incomparable Taffo has rather tranflated than barely imitated; and if we may give credit to his countryman Nardius, has furpaffed his author: Dum amulatur, says he, palmam auctori eripuit; the verfes are in his Goffredo, and well deferve to be tranfcribed:

Sai che là corre il mondo, ove più versi
Di fue dulcezze il lufinghier Parnaso,

E che'l vero condito in molli versi

I più fchivi allettando hà perfuafo:

Cofi al 'egro fanciul' porgiamo aspersi
Di foavi licor gli orli del vafo
Succhi amari, ingannato, in tanto ei beve,
E dal ingauno fuo vita riceve.

Cant. i. St. 3. Of which I will give likewife Fairfax's interpretation, which perhaps equals, if not excels this of our trapilator:

Thither thou know'st the world is best inclin'd,
Where luring Parnass most his beams imparts;
And truth, convey'd in verse of gentlest kind,
To read fometimes will move the dulleft hearts:
So we, if children young difeas'd we find,
Anoint with sweets the veffel's foremost parts,
To make them taste the potions sharp we give,
They drink deceiv'd, and so deceiv'd they live.

Ver. 960. Lucretius has proved by many argu ments, that bodies are, and that they are perfectly folid and indiffoluble; and likewife that there is a void. He has farther taught, that the universe confifts of these two, body and void, and that there is no third kind of things. Now, in thefe four verses he starts a noble question, whether the univerfe be infinite, or included and circumfcribed in bounds? And he will now endeavour to evince by feveral arguments, that the universe is terminated on no fide, but is altogether infinite, as well in the multitude of bodies, as in the extent and magnitude of the void.

Ver. 965. The first argument, by which, in thefe eight verfes he endeavours to prove the infiniteness of the univerfe, is explained by Cicero, lib. ii. de Divinit. fect. 154. Whatever is finite has an extreme; but whatever has an extreme, may be feen by what is without or beyond it. Now the univerfe, or the ALL, is not feen by any thing that is beyond it; therefore the univerfe has no extreme. Empiricus adv. Phyf. Stobæus, Eclog. Phyf. and Plutarch, i. de Placit. 3. confirm this to be the doctrine of Epicurus, who himself writes thus to Herodotus : 'Aλλà μìv rò πὰν ἄπειρον ἐςὶ, τὸ γὰρ πεπερασμένον ἄκρονἔχει, τὸ δὲ ἄκρον πὰν ἕτερον τὶ θεωρείται, ὥτε τὸ ἐκ ἔχεν ἄκρον πέρας ἐκ ἔχει, πέρας δὲ ἐκ ἔχεν ἄπειρον ἂν εἴη, καὶ τ πεπερασμένου.

Ver. 973. In these twelve verfes, Lucretius ftruggles bravely with his dart for the immensity of the univerfe. Grant the universe to be finite, and let any man be placed on the extremeft verge of it, and ftrive to throw a dart, either that dart will fly forward, or fomething will stop it; if it flies forward, there is a fpace beyond the extremeft brink; if it be ftopt by any thing, there must be fomething without the utmost part. Thus wherever you fix the extremeft bound of the univerfe, there Lucretius will prefs on, and brandish his dart against you.

This convincing inftance is likewise used by the learned and judicious Bruno, who has written an excellent treatife on purpofe to prove not only the infinity of space, but even that of worlds alfo: and in his first dialogue we find these words, which exactly agree with, and may serve to explain this argument of our poet : "Mi pare cofa "ridicola," &c. In my opinion, fays he, it is extremely ridiculous to affirm, that there is nothing without, or exterior to the heavens, and that the heaven itself is a thing placed, as it were, per accidens, or by its own parts; for be their meaning by thefe notions what they please themselves, it is impoffible, nor can they any ways elude it, but they must make two of one, fince there will eter