From their continu'd growth, nor more increase, Still wafte he more, their parts difperfe with eafe. The nour thing parts come flowly on, and few, And thus the world muft fall, though new fupply The mafs affords to raise those things that die : 1100 Even now the world's grown old: th' earth' that bore Such mighty bulky animals before, Can fcarce afford to all our pain and toil : 1121 je NOTES ON BOOK II. Ver. I. LUCRETIUS had made choice of a fubnaturally crabbed, and therefore he adorned it with poetical defcriptions and precepts of morality, in the beginning and ending of his books: And thus intending in this book to treat of the motions and figures of his atoms, and of their other properties, which we call qualities, he introduces his fubject by the praise of that philofophy which Epicurus taught, as well to give fome refpite and relaxation to the wearied mind of his Memmius, as by laying before his eyes, and forewarning him of the dangers and calamities of others, to allure him to the study of that philofophy which he calls the doctrine of the wife. Thus, the first twenty verfes contain two comparifons and a metaphor, in which he afferts, that the life of a wife man confifts in a perfect tranquillity of mind, and indolence of body; and, at the fame time, he derides and bemoans the anxieties and reflefs defires of other men. But there are fome who accufe Lucretius of ill nature and cruelty of temper, on account of the first veries of this book, where he fays, 'Tis pleasant fafely to behold from fhore But much more sweet thy lab`ring steps to guide To virtues heights, with wifdom well fapply'd, And all the magazines of learning fortify'd: From thence to look below on human kind, Bewilder'd in the maze of life, and blind. Dryd. But their cenfure feems too fevere and unjust. The poet afferts only the fentiment of all mankind, for who beholds another in any great affliction, or groaning under the violence of torments, and does not prefently think within himIfidorus Pelui. Jib. i. Epift. 240. fays, that no felf, how happy am I not to be in that condition' thing is more picafant than ἐν λιμήνι καθῆσθαι, καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων σκοπεῖν ναυάγια, to fit in the har bour, and behold the shipwreck of others. Cicero too is of the fame mind, in the fecond epistle to Atticus. And our excellent Dryden, describing the life of a happy man, fays to the fame purpote with Lucretius: No happiness can be where is no reft; Th' unknown, untalk'd of man, is only bless'd; : Ver. 7. In this excellent metaphor, the poet tius in the life of Epicurus: who fays himfelf in teaches, that the life of a wife man is placed in the book περὶ αἰρέσιος· Ἡ μων γὰρ ἀπαραιξία τὲ tranquillity of mind and indolence of body. And ἀπονία κατατηματικαὶ Εἰσιν ἡδοναί, ἡ δὲ χαρὰ τὸ this was the doctrine of Epicurus, who, in Cicero, | ίυφροσύνη κατὰ κίνησαν ἐνεργειαι βλέπονται. Tufcul. 3. fays: Ergo is, quifquis eft, qui moderatione et conftantia quietus eft animo, fibique ipfe placatus, ut neque tabefcat moleftiis, neque fragrantur timore, neque fitientur quid appetens ardeat defiderio, nec alacritate futili geftiens deliquefcat, is eft fapiens quem quærimus.' He, therefore, whoever he be, who by moderation and conftancy is fedate in his mind, who is at peace within himself, fo as not to pine and languifh with forrow, fo as not to be difquieted with fear, nor to burn with a thirsty defire for any thing, nor to be foolishly tranfported with unfeemly mirth, he, I fay, is the wife man whom we are feeking. And what Lucretius here propofes to his Memmius, Epicurus had written long before to Menaceus: Mrs vos ris ἂν μελλίζει φιλοσοφών μήτε γέρων ὑπάρχων κατία τω φιλοσοφῶν· ἔτε γὰρ ἄωρος ἀδεὶς ἰσὶν, είτε πάρωρος πρὸς τὸ κατὰ ψυχὲν ὑγιαίνειν ὁ δὲ λέγων, ἡ μήτω τῶ φιλοσοφειν ὑπάρχειν ὥραν, ὁμοῖος ἔστι τῶ λέγοντι, πρὸς Ευδαιμονίαν ἡ μὴ παρεῖναι τὴν ὥραν, ἡ μηκέτι εἶναι. Ver. 21. In these nineteen verses he afferts, that but few things are requifite for the ease and delight of the body, and that neither great riches, nor delicious eating and drinking, nor coftly apparel, or furniture, are of any confiderable advantage, fince without any of them, our natural wants may be supplied, and that too with pleasure enough and even though we enjoyed all those delights, our bodies would neverthelefs be liable to diseases and pain. How vain is it then to contend ambitiously for wit, for wealth, and for power; to bend our loft endeavours to outfhine each other; and to waste our time and our health in search of honour and in pursuit of riches! Lucretius was aware of this, and therefore had reafon to exclaim: Ver. 15. To be the chief in a government; than which state of life nothing can be more un. happy to an Epicurean, and to a man who delights to live by the rules of nature: For to what end doft thou burden thyself with the care of an untractable multitude? Live for thyself: Do good to thyfelf: τὰ πολιτικὰ ἐδὲν πρὸς τὸ εὖ Νο man is the happier for being at the helm: If thou governeft well, thy body will fuffer for it; becaufe a thousand cares and bufineffes will be always difturbing thy brain and quiet: if ill, thou wilt live in continual dread; in a word, thou wilt be a wretched flave; If thou convert any thing to thy private ufe, thou wilt one day perhaps be forced to restore it with intereft; therefore Ay from greatnefs, καὶ λάθε βιώσα. Thus fays Faber, who himself led a retired life. To which we may add what Epicurus fays in Laertius, lib. x. Ένδοξοι καὶ περιβλεπκαὶ τίνες εβλήθησαν γενέσθαι, τὴν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀσφαλειαν έτω νομίζοντες περιποιήσεσθαι ὅτι εἰ μὲν ἀσφαλῆς ὁ τῶν τοιύτων βίας, ἀπέλαβον τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἄγαθον ἐν δὲ μὴ ἀσφα τῆς, ἐκ ἴχεσαν ὁ ἔνεκα ἐξ ἀρχῆς παρὰ τὸ τῆς φύσιος ἐκεῖσι ἀρίχθησαν. Ver. 18. For the Epicureans did not chiefly follow those pleasures that affect the fenfes with delight; but held the greatest of all pleasures to conlift in an exemption from grief and pain. They did not, fays Cicero, lib. i. de Fin. think the chief happiness to confift in that pleasure, quæ fuavitate aliqua naturam ipfam movet, et cum jucunditate quadam percipitur fenfibus, fed quæ percipitur omni dolore detracto." And when Epicurus writes to Menaceus, that πᾶν ἀγαθὸν καὶ κακὸν ἐν aire, the word anais muit be taken in a larger fenfe, and as oppofed to death, which is chmous cas aisIs. For that philofopher dif. fered in opinion from the Cyrenaics, who held pleafare to be the "fummum bonum;" of μr yàg τὴν κατασηματικὴν ἐκ ἐγκρίνεσιν, μόνην δὲ τὴν ἐν κι γήσει, ὁ δὲ ἀμφοτέρον, ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος, fays Laer. TRANS. II. O wretched man! in what a mist of life, His cramm'd defires with more than nature needs: Dryd. Ver. 25. He means the golden statues, which were formerly used in the houses of the rich, inftead of fconces and candlesticks, in their entertainments by night; and he feems to blame the cxpenfivenefs and prodigality of the fuppers of the Romans in his age. This paffage, which Virgil has imitated in Culice, ver. 60. and in Georg. ii. ver. 461. Lucretius himself took from Ho mer, Odyf. vii. ver 100. Ver. 37. Thus Horace, in Epift. ii. B. 1. Which Dryden's tranflation of this paffage of Lu Nor will the raging fevers fire abate, Ver. 39. In these twenty-five verses, the poet declares, that fince even kings and princes, the moft potent and wealthy of men, are difquieted with fears and cares, and lead not happier lives than others, the greedy thirst of honour, power, riches, &c. muft proceed from the ignorance of true happiness; and no wonder that this ignorance is fo grofs, fince we walk as it were in the dark, and lead a life not yet enlightened with the rays of Epicurean philofophy. And he infifts from the vain and groundlefs fears and terrors of Cc men, that we all live in darknefs. For as children in the dark dread every thing, and imagine ridiculous dangers, fo all men are terrified with the belief of Providence, and punishments after death, which, according to Epicurus, are but the day-dreams of a crazy mind. Now Lucretius, to difpel this darkness, and deliver his Memmius from all fears and difquiet of mind, purfues his fubject, and fully and elegantly explains the nature of things. Ver. 46. Faber, in his note upon this paffage of Lucretius, fays, that Horace had it in his mind when he writ, Non enim gaze, neque confularis Scandit æratas vitiofa naves Which Otway thus interprets: Neither can wealth, nor power, nor state, And overtake us under fail. 'Twill dodge the great man's train behind, Outrun the doe, outfly the wind. To which I will add thefe excellent verfes of Non fit thefauris, non auro pectu folutum : Ver. 57. Seneca, in Epift. cx. fays: Such is the nature of the mind, as it feemed to be to Lucretius, when he said: Nam veluti pueri trepidant, atque omnia cæcis -As children are furpris'd with dread, Dryd. And are we then, who tremble in the light, more foolish than children? 'Tis falfe, Lucretius! We are not afraid in the light, but have made all things darknefs to ourfelves: We fee nothing neither what is hurtful, nor what expedient: We blunder on all our life long, and stumble at every ftep; yet we ftill continue to ftagger forwards in the fame method, and take no care to place our fteps with greater circumfpection: we fee how dangerous it is to make hafte in the dark, and nevertheless we perfevere in driving full speed to our journey's end: but if we would, we might have light upon the road; though there be but one way to get it, which is, by acquiring a tho rough, not a fuperficial knowledge of human and divine things; if we would continually contemplate and ftudy the fame things over and over again, even though we know them; and if we would apply them often to ourselves; if we would inquire diligently into what is good, and what evil; if we would examine with care and fubmiffion into the wonderful works of Providence; and lastly, if we would learn truly to distinguish between what is honourable, and what bafe. Ver. 64. The argument of this fecond book is briefly contained in thefe four verses. He promifes first to explain the motions of the feeds, by which motions things are generated and diffolved. Secondly, the caufe of thofe motions; and, thirdly, the swiftnefs of them. When he has performed this, every thing will be prepared and ready for him to enter upon the explication of the genera tion and diffolution of things. Ver. 68. Being about to difpute of the different motions of the atoms, and of the caufes of those motions, he fortifies his way beforehand, and in oppofition to fome weak and foolish philofophers, demonftrates in thefe thirteen verfes, from the growth and decrease of things, that there is motion: for the reafon why things grow is, because fome particles of matter fly and adhere to them; and the reafon why they diminish, is, because fome minute particles having loft their hold, retire and fly away from them. And it would be abfurd to fay, that thofe particles either come or go with out motion. Ver. 77. He alludes to the λapraòndgóμia, the race of torches, which were certain games celebrated at Athens in honour of Vulcan, and in which the racers carried torches in their hands, and trove who should get first to the goal with his torch not extinguished: Thus the Scholiaft on Ariftophanes in Ranis. These Athenian games were called λαμπάδεσται, από the victor, hapradhtogos, a bearer of torches; because all the torches of those that run were delivered to him as the prize of his victory: from whence the word haμèsidas is used to fignify, to deliver fuccefsfully and in order. Cafaubon. in Perf. Sat. 6. Thus Plato, in 6. de Legibus: Γινῶντες καὶ ἐκτρέφονται παῖδας, καθάπερ λάμπαλα τὴν βιὸν παραδίδοντες ἄλλοις ἐξ ἄλλων, begetting and breeding children, as it were delivering the lamp of life. But Paufanias makes this more plain. In the academy of Prometheus, fays he, there was an area, where men were wont to run in a circle, carrying lighted torches in their hands, and the main of the strife confifted in keeping their torches alight during the swiftnefs of their running: For he whofe torch was extinguifhed, yielded the victory to him who came next after him, and he in like manner to the third. Thus Paufanias. Now this custom Lucretius thus applies: As the runner whofe torch went out yielded the victory to the follower; fo a living thing when its light of life ving thing, as it were, is extinguished, yields and gives up to another li remains of the vegetable life in grafs, yields itself the lamp of life. Thus the up to the fenfible life of an ox: thus the remains, of the animal life in an ox, yields itself up into the life of man: thus the life of man yields itfelf up to worms. And thus the viciffitude is continued, and a new ftructure ever arifes from the ruins of the other; the forms only perish, the matter is eternal, and fuffers no decay. Ver. 79. Ovid. Metam. xv. ver. 252. -Rerumque novatrix Ex aliis alias reparat natura figuras: Nec perit in tanto quicquam, mihi credite, mundo: -For nature knows No ftedfaft ftation, but or ebbs or flows: : Dryd. others, iron, stone, and the other hard and folid bodies are composed: but those that rebound to a greater diftance, and wander in a wider space, produce the air, fire, and the other soft and rare bodies of the like nature. Ver. 105. Befides the feeds whofe motion is confined to a narrow space, and that are compacted into hard and folid bodies, and befides those that refult to a greater distance, and wandering in a wider space, compofe the bodies that are foft and rare, there are other feeds that are always in motion, and being exempt from all contexture and coalition, are continually dashing against the others, and difturbing them. Now to reprefent, as it were by a fimilitude, that careless and random agitation, with which the atoms that never unite with others, are, as I may fay, exercised in the void, he, in these fourteen verfes, borrows a comparison from Democritus and Alcippus; who, as Ariftot! fays, compared the atoms to thofe minute corpufcles that are called motes, which fly in the air, and ἀφαίνεται ἐν ταῖς διὰ τῶν θυρίδων ἄκτισ v, are very visible in the beams of the fun, when they strike through the chinks of windows or doors into a darkened room. Ver. 119 In these fifteen verses, he turns into an argument the fimilitude with which he has illuftrated the motions of his atoms. We fee that those motes that are dancing up and down in the Ver. 81. He eftcems all who believe the new motions of things, that is to fay, that their increafe or decrcafe can proceed from atoms lying ftill and at reft, to be fo void of fenfe, as not to deferve to be confuted. Then he teaches, in these eight verfes, that the feeds, which he has proved are always wandering up and down in the void, owe their motion either to their own weight, or to the blows of others. For whatever is folid (and folidity is the chief property of the feeds) is heavy but heavy things tend downwards, there-beams of the fun, are driven about in various and fore, the feeds must have a downward motion. But when thefe folid feeds, in their defcending motion, light upon bodies that are lying ftill, and without motion, or that move more flowly than themselves, they muft of neceffity rebound; for a folid body that ftrikes against another solid body, does not impart all its motion to that other, and therefore will be borne auother way by the degrees of motion which it ftill retains; and this proves the upward or afcending motion. One of thefe motions is natural, the other violent; and both of them are neceffary to the generation and diffolution of things. Epicurus taught, 9 τὰ ἄτομα κάτω, τότε μὲν κατὰ στάθμην, τὰ δὲ ἄνω κινόμενα κατὰ πληγὴν καὶ παλμὴν. Laert. Ver. 89. That Memmius may the more fully comprehend this agitation and motion of the feeds, be reminds him, in these fix verses, of what he taught him, in the first book, viz. that in the infipite space there is no middle or centre, nor any loweit place to which the feeds are tending, and where, when they have once reached it, they may reft from motion. Since, therefore, they are borne downwards by their own weight, and fometimes dafhing against one another rebound, who can deny that they are toit and agitated to and fro in a perpetual motion. Ver. 95. Since, therefore, the feeds are continually in motion, and since they strike and rebound, he teaches, in these ten verfes, that the refilition of thofe rebounding feeds is made to unequal diftances, and that the difference of the blows produces the difference of the refilitions. Now, of thofe feeds that rebound to the lefs diftances, and that are toffed to and fro in a narrower space than different manners. Now they feem to be striving to get into a line; now they are moved to the right, now to the left, in fhort, every way. But fince all bodies ever keep the fame line, unless they are turned out of their courfe by fome exterior violence, or by the pressure of their own interior weight; it must be granted, that fome motions of the feeds, though invisible to the eye, agitate those motes or little bodies, and drive them to and fro in that manner; for the primary cause of all motion and agitation whatfoever, that is obferved in things, is in the feeds themselves. Thus we fee that the Epicureans held, that the atoms were not only the fird principles of things, but alfo the frt caufe of all motion. An impious belief, and condemned by the Chriftian faith, which teaches us that God alone is the Crearor and first mover of all things. Ver. 125. When Democritus, as Plutarch tells us, lib. i. de Placit. Philofoph. had given only two properties to atoms, bulk and figure; Epicurus bestowed a third, weight : àváyên yàp (Onsì` và oúμura nivõiodai rỹ rõ ßágus wànyỹiæà & xivninoi]nı. It is neceffary that bodies should be moved by their weight, otherwise they would not be moved at all; and befides this, he endowed his atoms with other notions, κατὰ παρέγκλισιν, καὶ κατὰ τέλη ἦν· οἱ inclination and of ftroke, which two laft, though preft with a thoufand peculiar difficulties, yet becaufe they depend on the other motion xxjà sá0μην, downwards, which proceeds from the weight, are likewife liable to all thofe exceptions that may be made against that. Firil then, that weight is not a property of atoms is evidently proved from the difference of weight in bodies: for take a cube of gold, and hallow it half through, and weigh it against a folid cube of wood of the fame dimenfion; that gold, though it has loft half its natter, and confequently half its weight by the hollow, is twenty times heavier than the wood; from whence the confequence is natural and easy, For if weight were a property of matter, it would be impoffible that a hollow piece of gold fhould outweigh the wood, because the wood cannot contain a ten times greater vacuity than that hollow. And this argument, if applied to the air, more ftrongly concludes, because that is lighter, espe- | cially if we confider that the air is a continuum, and not a congeries of particles, whirled about without any union and connection; for innumerable experiments almoft in all fluids evince the contrary. I fhall pass by thofe Dr. Gliffon hath propofed, and content myfelf with one concerning the air, which may be deduced from the faithful | trials of the honourable Bayle. The 38th of his continuation of his Phyfico-Mechanical Experiments fufficiently evinces, that the exhaufted receiver is quite void of all particles of air, which Evidently proves (as little attention to the experiment will discover) that there is motus nexus, as Bacon calls it, in the air, which cannot be but in a continuum. The fame may be proved in water from refraction; for why are not the rays disturbed, if the parts are in motion? When ex. perience tells us, that a little ftirring with the finger troubles them. Not to mention, that this notion of fluidity, though embraced by the Plenifts, is inconfiftent with their hypothefis, an ambient attending circle being not to be found in nature for each moving particle; and to pafs by the difficulties that prefs their opinion, who fancy reft to be the cause of continuity, fince two fmooth bodies, whofe furface touch, and eternally reft, will never make one continuum; my next argument against the Epicureans is drawn from their own principles. For fuppofe weight a property of atoms, it is impoffible the world thould be framed according to their hypothefis; for how could the higher atom defcend, and touch the lower, when the motions of both were equal? Nor can that little declination, that xins à agiyxhs (which the Epicureans are fo bold to affume, contrary to all fenfe and reafon, and which Plutarch, "hoc "de Animæ Procratione, ex Timeo," declares as the great charge againft Epicurus ὡς ἀναίτων ἐπέςσάγοντι κίνησιν ἐκ τῇ μὴ ὄντες, as afferting a new motion without a caufe) leffen the difficulty; for, as Tully argues, if all atoms decline, then none of them will ever ftick together; if only fome, effet quafi provincias atomis dare, quæ rectè, que obliquè ferantur," that would be to preAcribe to atoms their particular offices, which of them fhould not decline, and which move obliquely. But grant there could be a combination, and grant that combination (which is impofiible) fhould ftop in fome parts of the space, yet from the very nature of weight, and motion, it follows that the world, according to their hypothefis, could not be made in that order we now perceive it. For fuppofe this quiet frame; the atoms that fall on it, as the laws of motion in folid bodies require, must leap backward; but meeting with other defcending atoms, their refilition is foon flopt, and so they must descend again, and then striking, return, but not to fo great a distance as before, because the velocity of the defcent was lefs; and fo the distance still decreafing, the atoms in a little time must rest, and only a vast heap of matter, close, and moveless, must lie on that fuppofed quiet frame as its basis. Ver. 127. Molecula] This Latin word is a diminutive of moles, and fignifies small heaps or lumps of any matter whatever. Our tranflator uses it to exprefs no lefs than two verses of his author; who fays that the atoms first move of themselves; and Inde ea, quæ parvo funt corpora conciliatu, Et quafi proxima sunt ad vireis principiorum, then the concrete bodies, that are of the leaft bulk or fize, and that approach nearest as it were to the exility of the principles (all which our interpreter has expreffed no otherwife than by the word Molecula). I&tibus illorum cæcis impulfu cientur. from them. are moved by the invisible blows they receive Ver. 128. The smallest bodies are moved first, and they move the greater; for the nearer any compound bodies approach to the unmixed fim. plicity of their principles, the more cafy they are to be put in motion. Ver. 134. To exprefs the celerity of his atoms, be brings an inftance of the swiftnefs of the beams. verfes, as an argument à minore. The Epicureans of the fun, and employs it in these twenty-leven believed that light confifts of small particles that flow out of the fun, who is the fountain of all light. Moreover, that thefe minute particles confift of feeds agitated by various motions, whence the motion of thofe minute particles must be retarded, and become more flow: and, laftly, that they do not find an open paffage through the air, but make one, and are hindered in their flight by meeting with particles of the air. But that atoms of their own parts; and are moved through the are fimple bodies, not obstructed by the motions free and unmolefted void. And hence they con clude, that the rays of the fun being compofed of a moft fubtle contexture of atoms, which do not at all agree in the same motion, nor pass through a fpace entirely free and empty, ought to yield in swiftness to the atoms, which are wholly difentangled from one another, and move through a pace altogether empty and unobstructed by any matter whatever : xaì μìv naì à diù rû novỹ fq κατὰ μηδεμίαν ἀπάντησιν τῶν ἀντικεψάντων γενομένη πᾶν μήκος περίληπῖον ἐν ἀπερινόητο χρόνο, συντελές, &c. Epicurus to Herodotus. Ver. 141. The very words of Cowley, in his hymn to the Light, Stanza 6. Swift as light thoughts their empty career run, Thy race is finish'd, when begun. Nor was he obliged to Lucretius for the thought, which our tranflator has taken wholly from him, not from his author. 1 |