in the middle of the web, then let us farther imaWe call for more and more, and never have our gine, that fome flies come into the web, and, fill:

H

The fecond argument, from ver. 428. to ver. 440, the third from thence to ver. 456, and the fourth from ver. 457. to ver. 469, prove nothing. For we do not in the leaft perceive that the mind is born, grows, decays, and waxes old with the body. We perceive, indeed, that the body is born, grows and decays; but we have no experience of any increase or decrease in the mind. But, fays he, the mind is not ftrong in a child, and in the old it decays. And how does he prove this? Becaute, fays he, a child is foolish, and an old man doats. In like manner, place a very fkilful workman in an engine, and let us fuppofe that fome parts of that engine are too ftiff, others too limber, fome worn away, others clouterly, it would be foolish in us to expect any due and regular motions of that engine, even though that moft skilful artift took a great deal of pains, and employed his utmost art in working it. Befides, fays he, the mind is fafceptible of cares and grief, and therefore must be fubject to diffolution. fuppofe he means that it must be fo, for I cannot at prefent think of any other reafon for that conclufion, because grief is elfewhere faid to be pierc. ing, and rares devouring, "quia luctus penetrans, et cura euaces," fuch reafoning is worthy of this mortal and corporeal foul The fame anfwer that folved the fecond argument will folve the fourth.

the body, cannot therefore perceive, underfland, and reafon.

To the ninth argument, from ver. 533. to ver, 557, this anfwer may be given: In like manre, as when we see a foldier fighting with a sword, any other weapon, we do not fay, that withee thofe arms he could give no wounds, for he has hands befides to ftrike with; fo though the fl be clothed with members, as with a panoply, or complete fuit of armour, and thus performs ma functions with corporeal organs, yet we cann pretend that when he has put off, as it were, the military array, fhe has no function either of derftanding or perception remaining.

No man can allow any strength to be in the tenth argument, from ver. 556. to ver. 567, unlea he perceive that the foul is, as it were, the fors. dation of the whole animal, and that the bocy feafoned with foul, as with falt, that it may s ftink and putrify.

The eleventh argument, from ver. 567. to v 581, is nothing but a fort of quibble, for e whole ftrefs of it confifts in this, that the defec of fpirits, which we call a fwoon, the Latins ar "animi deliquium," a fainting of the mird

who

The two following arguments, from ver gây
to ver. 596, deny that the foul can go
of the body, unless it be expired through
jaws; nor is this in the leaft abfurd, if the
be corporeal and they add farther, that the
fearing its future diffolution, leaves the body

fwers in Cicero: "Quid quod fapier iflimus ç
que æquiffimo animo moritur, ftultiffimus int
fimo? Nonne vobis videtur animus is, qui pa
cernit et longius, videre fe ad meliora prof
Ille autem cujus ob'ufior acies, non videre? 1
dem effezer ftudio patres veftros, quos celi
dilexi, videndi. Neque vero eos folum cor
aveo, fed illos etiam de quibus audivi, et kr.
ipfe conteripa. Quo quidem me proficiftres m
haud fcio quis facile retraxerit. Quod f
Deus mihi largiatur; ut ex hac ætate repuert
et in cunis vagian, valde recufem: nec vero
lim, quafi decurfo fpatio, a calce ad carceres ***
vocari." What is the reafon that a wife mar ↑
with a fedate and quiet mind, and a fool with
the greatest impatience and reluctancy? Do
you think that the foul of the wife man, w
fees molt and fartheft, difcovers fhe is g
a better world? And that the foul of the for
dim fighted, and fees nothing of it? For my pa

To the three following arguments, from ver. 456. to ver. 05, let the phyficians give an anfwer, if there to need of it. Let the legs ftag-willingly, and with regret. To this Cato ger, the tongue faulter, and the eyes fwim, what is all this to the foul? Let brawls and unmanly quarrels be the effect of drunkennefs; what great matter is there in this either? For, though a player on the harp be ever fo fkilful, yet if you untune his inftrument, if you crew fome of the frings up too high, and flacken others too much, 'let him touch them ever fo artfully, th y will utter only difcordant and unharmonious founds; though before they were thus difordered and put out of tune, they made the fweeteft harmony. And in the epileptic difeafe, a foul humour dif orders and difturbs the organs, and thence proceed thofe boisterous and unruly motions.. But fince the difeafe affects and weakens the organs only, what else does the phyfic relieve? The feventh argument, from ver. 505. to ver. 524, afferts, that, as a man dies limb by limb, fo the foul too goes away, and dies by degrees, as if the limbs could not grow cold but the foul muft grow cold likewife. Befides, this argument fuppofes the foul to be corporeal, and diffufed through the whole body, which, nevertheless, he has not yet proved, and I dare promife, no man ever will.

The eighth argument, from ver. 524. to ver. 532, is of no weight: For the foul has not the power and faculty of understanding, and of reafoning, from any exterior thing, as the ear has that of hearing, and the eye that of feeing; but fhe has it in herself, and of herfelf, and therefore it is no wonder, nor does it follow, that though the ear, feparated from the body, cannot hear, nor a feparated eye fee; the mind, feparated from

burn with longing to fee your fathers, whe loved and honoured; nor do I defire to them only, but others alfa, of whom I have b and read, and writ. And were 1 going to th I know not who it is fhould eafily perfuade back. Nay, if any god would grant me the vilege of becoming a child again, and to baw. a cradle, I would abfolutely refufe it, for, hav run my race, I would not willingly go back t starting poft to run it over again. In the last pla they affirm, that the mind, becaufe, if we may lieve Epicurus, it is always feated in the hear man, cannot remain fafe and whole out of:

heart; as if birds, because they are hatched in a neft, cannot live out of it.

The fourteenth argument, from ver. 506. to ver. 606, is of the fame piece with the others, and favours of vulgar ftupidity to boot. Nor would the poet have been fo copious in explaining the fifteenth, from ver. 606. to ver 640, if he had rightly understood animal motion, and the inftruments that ferve to make it. To the next, from ver. 641. to ver. 649, let Plato and Pythagoras anfwer, for they only are concerned. The feventeenth and the eighteenth, from ver. 649. to ver 680, fuppofe the corporeal foul to be diffufed through the whole body, and to be annexed to all its parts, than which nothing is more falle, nothing more abfurd. It refides in the head, like a prince in his throne, and there it go

Let fuch as believe the tranfmigration of fouls folve the difficulties which the poet raises against them, from ver. 709. to ver. 739. And then, as to what he alleges from ver. 739. to ver. 748, I will only fay, that the foul would be a fool indeed if it did not defire a brifk and vigorous body, and fly from one that is decrepit and worn out with age. Of what he fays, from ver. 749. to ver, 755, let them take care, if any fuch are to be found, who think the abfurdities of Pythagoras worth a reply. And because the three and twentieth argument, from ver. 755. to ver. 770 is the fame in effect with the thirteenth, it fhall have no other andwer but what that has had already.

To his four and twentieth argument, from ver.

770. to ver. 776, we say, that the most excellent philofophers hitherto have not thought it incongruous and abfurd to join together a mortal and immortal being. And in oppofition to what he urges, from ver. 776. to ver. 797. I will eftablish a fourth kind of things, viz. incorporeal, immortal fubftances, and Epicurus will not have the confidence to deny them an exiftence, since he himself has bestowed on his gods immortality, and exemption from diffolution. Laftly, As to his fix and twentieth argument, which is the last he brings against the immortality of the foul, we do not deny but that the mind is affected with piercing grief, and vexed with devouring cares: nor but that when the body is feized with cer tain difcafes the mind cannot perform its due functions. But we ftiffly deny the confequence he draws from thence, viz. that therefore the foul is mortal.

I could here be more copious, and fhow that Lucretius has to no purpose brought this heap of argument, since they are incapable of delivering us from the fear of death; for to men who abound in profperity, and enjoy all the delights of life, what can be more calamitous than that death which is signos aisdows, a privation of sense: And to propofe to the unfortunate and miferable fuch a death as will utterly deftroy them, and thus put an end at once to them and their calamities together, would be the fame thing as to propofe fhipwreck to a man toft in a violent ftorm, that by being plunged and drowned in the waves, he may, once for all, exempt himself from the dangers of the raging deep. And thus behold the mighty comfort which the doctrine of Epicurus affords us! Such a relief will ever be unwelcome, and hateful to all pious and good men, and thofe pleafing only to the impious, whom no philofophy ought to avail.

BOOK IV.

THE ARGUMENT.

1. LUCRETIUS begins this fourth book, from ver. 1. to ver. 30, with the fame comparison he brought in the first book, ver. 931, to give the mind of his Memmius fome cafe and refpite from the crabbedness of the fubje& upon which he was then difputing; and he ufes it here again, to befpeak as well the docility as the attention of his readers. I. He propofes the fubject treated of in this book, which has a manifeft connection with the former three: For having, in the first and fecond books, taught at large what the principles of things are, and what their nature, how they differ from one anther in figure, how they are moved, and how they create all other things; and having, in the third book, fully explained the nature of the mind and of the foul, as being the chief and moft excellent of all created bodies, he very judiciously, from ver. 29. to ver. 47, fubjoins this other dif putation concerning the fenfation of animals, as well when they are awake, as when they are fleeping, which, to ufe the expreffion of Lucretius, is as much as to fay, concerning the fenfes of the mind as well as thofe of the body. And, to carry on this difputation the more regularly, he begins with the images of things, and warmly infifts, that ali fenfation is made by them. Therefore, Il from ver. 46. to ver. 115, he teaches, that certain moft tenuious and fubtle images are continally flowing from the furfaces of all bodies, that they fly to and fro in the air, but that, neverclefs, they are invifible, unless they be reflected upon the fight from mirrors, or water. Then, to ver. 127, he defcribes the extreme tenuity of fuch images, and from thence takes occaLon to confirm the doctrine he taught in the first bock concerning the exiguity of his atoms.

IV.

V. From ver. 126. to ver. 228, he diftinguishes between two kinds of images; one of those that of their own accord are bred in the clouds, which sometimes reprefent the images of giants, fometimes of mountains, and fometimes of huge monflrous beafts; the other, of those that fly off from the furface of things, and are, as it were, the films or membranes of them. Lucretius calls them" exuvia rerum," and then teaches, that these "exuvia" are continually flowing from the furface of all bodies, and that they are borne through the air with fuch wonderous celerity that they eafily outftrip the swiftness even of the rays of the fun. VI. Forafmuch as the fight is accounted the first and chief of all the fenfes, he begins with it, and from ver. 227. to ver. 480, he teaches, that it proceeds from the incurfion and ftriking of those images upon the eyes, in like manner as the other senses are caufed by corpufcles that come from without to the feveral organs of sensation. Meanwhile, he explains all things that relate to the efficient causes of fight, and proposes several problems touching vifion, of which he gives the true reafons and folutions. VII. But left any man fhould take pretext, from the explication of thefe problems, to accufe the fenfes of deception or fallacy, he, at large, afferts their dignity, from ver. 479. to ver. 536, and takes occafion, by the way, to confute the fceptics, but chiefly from ver. 479. to ver. 490, and at laft lays it down as an indifputable maxim, that all truth is grounded on the certainty, and on the belief of the fenfes. VIII. Having thus dif. puted of fight, he goes to work with the other fenfes likewife, and from ver. 535. to ver. 621, teaches, first, that voice and found are corporeal images, which ftrike the ear, and are the cause of hearing. Then he explains the nature of voice, and the manner of its formation, and gives a reason why the fame voice is heard by many perfons at once, tells what an echo is, and what causes it. IX. From ver. 621. to ver. 722, he gives inftructions concerning favour and tafte, and touching odour and fmell; namely, what favour and odour are, and why all do not perceive them; why the fame food is fweet to fome and bitter to others; why one odour is more agreeable to one than it is to another; and why the fame voice ftrikes a terror into some, and pleases, at least does not fright others. X. From ver. 721. to ver. 832, he treats of imagination, and cogitation, which, he fays, are made likewife by the fame moft fubtle images of things prefenting themselves to the mind. In the next place, he proposes and explains feveral problems relating to cogitation; why, for example, we feem to fee, in our dreams, perfons who are dead; why the images of things feem to tarry with us while we are thinking of the things whofe images they are; why any man thinks on a fudden upon whatever he will; why we seem to ourselves to move in our dreams. XI. From ver. 831. to ver. 905, he teaches, that the tongue, the eyes, the noftrils, the ears, in a word, that all the organs fenfation were made before the ufe of them, quite contrary to what has happened in regard to all artificial things, the invention of which fucceeded the forefeen want and usefulnefs of them. He gives the reafon, likewife, why animals feek after their own meat and drink; why we move when ever we pleafe; and tells what it is that actuates and drives forward the mafs of our body. Xil. From ver. 904. to ver. 1036, he treats of fleep, and of dreams; and teaches, in the first place, how fleep is caufed in us, and in all other animals; then he afligns several causes of different dreams; and, falling at length upon the fubject of venery, he difputes, from ver. 1029 to the end of this book, of love, of barrennefs, of fruitfulness, &c. with more freedom of thought, and broadness of expre fion, than perhaps fome will allow to be fitting. But in fubjects of fuch nature, all philofophers have been apt to indulge themselves very much, and to assume greater liberties than it frictly becomes them to take.

I FEEL, I rifing feel poetic heats,

10

And, now infpir'd, trace o'er the mufes feats
Untrodden yet. 'Tis fweet to visit first [thirst:
Untouch'd and virgin ftreams, and quench my
I joy to crop fresh flow'rs, and get a crown
For new and rare inventions of my own:
So noble, great, and gen'rous the defign,
That none of all the mighty tuneful nine
E'er grac'd a head of laurels like to mine.
For, first, I teach great things in lofty ftrains,
And loose men from religion's grievous chains.
Next, though my fubject's dark, my verfe is clear,
And sweet, with fancy flowing ev'ry where;
And this defign'd: For as phyficians use,
In giving children draughts of bitter juice,
To make them take it, tinge the cup with fweet,
To cheat the lip; this first they eager meet,
And then drink on, and take the bitter draught,
And fo are harmlessly deceiv'd, not caught:
For, by fuch cheats, they get their strength, their
ease,

Their vigour health, ad baffle the difeafe.

25

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