950

For, first, the beauteous fun, with vig'rous ray,
Melts fnow, and ice, and wax, and hardens clay:
Thus leather shrinks in fire; but gold and brais
Diffolve; flames foften all the rigid mafs;
Thus water ftrengthens fteel, grown weak by heat,
But gently foftens fkins, and boiling meat:
Leaves of wild olives yield a fweet repaft
To goats; to man a rough and bitter taste:
Thus pigs fly fweetest odours; thofe that please
And tickle man, offend and poifon these;
Yet they will roll in dung, in filth delight;
Though fqueamish man cau fcarce endure the
fight.

Befides: We must remember,--

960

Ance things compos'd do num'rous pores comprife, [fize: Thofe must have diff'rent fhape, and diff'rent n animals, are various organs found, And each the proper obje&s gently wound; ne taste, another ímeil, another found. ame things through ftones, or filver, gold, or brass,

me move through wood alone, and others glass: nd thofe that pafs the fame, not always flow ith equal eafe, and cut their paffage through: nd this depends on the varieties,

ad difference of pores in fhape and size, hich things of diff'rent texture ftill comprize. Thefe things thus prov'd, I now will fing the cause, 970

plain the magnet, fhow thee why it draws ad brings rough iron to its fond embrace. Erft, from the magnet num'rous parts arife and fwiftly move; the stone gives vaft fupplies: Which, fpringing till in conftant ftreams, difplace The neighb'ring air, and make an empty space; when the fteel comes there, fome parts begin o leap on through the void, and enter in. at fince they're twin'd, the foremost parts must bring

980

The latter on, and fo move all the ring: or parts of fteel are very strictly join'd, carce any compounds are fo clofely twin'd. To wonder, then, that when the foremost trove, he other parts fhould ftir, and all should move; Which still they do, they ftill prefs farther on, intil they reach, and join the willing tone.

The steel will move to feek the ftone's em-" brace,

r up, or down, or t'any other place, Which way foever lies the empty space. Not that the heavy fteel by nature flies,

990

But blows without will force, and make it rife.
Befides, the air before the fleel is rare,
And emptier than it was, and weaker far;
And therefore all the air that lies behind
Grown ftrong, and gath'ring like a fubtle wind,

TRANS. II.

999

Muft force it on, for ftill the ambient air
Endeavours, fill contends to drive it near:
But then alone can move it, when the space
Is free, and fit to take the coming mass.
This fills the pores, and then with fubtle gales
Drives on the teel, as winds great fhips, and fails.
Befiles, all compounds hold fome parts of air;
For ev'ry compound is by nature rare :
This lurking air, no doubt, with nimble wing,
And conftant turus, ftili whirls and beats the ring:
Bat, once determin'd forward, keeps the courie
It first receiv'd, and that way bends its force.

But more than this: coy fteel will fometimes

move,

And fly the striving tone, and ceafe to love. 1009
And thus fteel filings, I have often known,
In little brazen pots held o'er the tone,
Will ftrive, and leap, as eager to be gone;
Because the little brazen parts, that rear,
Fill all the fteel's fmall pores, and fettle there:
And fo the other rifing streams, that come
From magnets, find no way, no open room,
And therefore ftrike: thus, flying through the
brafs,

They rudely beat, and drive away the mafs;
Which otherwise they'd take to their embrace.

Besides, no wonder this alone should feel 1020 The loadstone's power, and that move only feel, For fome their weight fecures, as gold; and fome Their pores: they give the streams too large a

1940

But oil and heavy pitch refufe to join :
The purple's blood gives wool fo deep a ftain,
That we can never wash it out again;
No, pour on all the fea, 'tis all in vain.
Solder ignobly weds the golden mass
To filver; proper folder lead to brafs:
Befides thefe mention'd, there's a thousand more:
But ftay; what need of fuch a num'rous ftore?
Why fhould I wafte my time, and trouble thee?
Take all in fhort: of things, whofe parts agree,
Whofe feeds, oppos'd to pores, fecurely lie,
The union there is frong, and firm the tie :
Others by rings and hooks are join'd in one:
This way combine the loving deel and stone.
Now next I'll fing what caufes plagues cre-
1050

ate,

Athens, the muses' seat, and chief delight,
Offends the feet; Achaia hurts the fight:
And thus in ev'ry land a new disease,
New pains on all the other members feize,
And diff'rent air is ftill the cause of these.
Thus often when one country's air is blown
Into another, and forfakes its own,
It fpoils the wholefome air where'er it goes,
And, like itself, makes all unfit for us.

1080 Thence plagues arife; and these descend and pafs

Into our fountains, tender corn, and grafs,
Or other food, or hang within the air,
Held up by fatal wings, and threaten there :
So, while we think we live, and draw our breath,
Those parts muft enter in, and foll'wing death.
Thus plagues do often feize the lab'ring ox,
And raging rots deftroy our tender flecks:
And thus the thing's the fame, if winds do bear
From other countries an unusual air,
And fit to raise a plague and fever here:
Or if we travel all, and fuck it there.

1090

A plague, thus rais'd, laid learned Athens wafte; [pafs'd, Through ev'ry fireet, through all the town it Blafting both man and beast with pois'nous wind: Death fled before, and ruin ftalk'd behind. From Egypt's burning fands the fever came, More hot than those that rais'd the deadly flame: The wind, that bore the fate, went flowly on, And, as it went, was heard to figh and groan. At last the raging plague did Athens feize, 1101 The plague, and death attending the difcafe. Then men did die by heaps, by heaps did fall, And the whole city made one funeral.

Firft, fierce unufual heats did feize the head; The glowing eyes, with blood-fhot beams, look'd red,

Like blazing ftars, approaching fate forefhow'd: The mouth and jaws were fill'd with clotted blood;

The throat with ulcers: the tongue could speak 1109

no more,

But, overflow'd and drown'd in putrid gore, Grew ufclefs, rough, and fcarce could make a

moan,

Nay fearce enjoy'd the wretched pow'r to groan

Next through the jaws, the plague did ra the breaft,

And there the heart, the feat of life, poffefs' Then life began to fail: ftrange finks

come

From ev'ry putrid breaft, as from a tomb: A fad prelage, that death prepar'd the room.

The body weak, the mind did fadly wait, ra And fear'd, but could not fly, approaching fa To these fierce pains were join'd continual cart, And fad complainings, groans, and deep depar Tormenting, vexing fobs, and deadly fighs, Which rais'd convulfions, broke the vital tin Of mind and limbs, and fo the patient dies. Yet touch the limbs, the warmth appear

great,

It feem'd but little more than nat'ral heat;
The body, red with ulcers, fwoln with pan,
As when the facred fire spreads o'er the ven
But all within was fire; fierce flames did b
No clothes could be endur'd, no garments w
But all, as if the plague that fir'd their blood
Deftroy'd all virtue, modefty, and good,
Lay naked, wishing ftill for cooling air,
Or ran to fprings, and hop'd to find it there:
And fome leapt into wells; in vain the heat,
Or ftill increas'd, or ftill remain'd as great.
In vain they drank; for when the water an
To th' burning breaft, it hifs'd before the fia:
And through each mouth did streams of vam
rife,

Like clouds, and darken'd all the ambient ka

The pains continu’d, and the body dead, And fenfelefs all, before the foul was fied: Phyficians came, and saw, and shook their tal No fleep, the pain'd and weary'd man's del Their fiery eyes, like stars, wak'd all the nig

Besides, a thousand symptoms more did wa And told fad news of coming hafty fate: Distracted mind, and fad and furious eye. Short breath, or conftant, deep, and hollows And buzzing ears; and much, and frothy's-Spread o'er the neck; and frittle, thin heat,

But falt and yellow; and the jaws, being rong Could hardly be thrown up with violent com The nerves contracted, ftrength in hands dic And cold crept from the feet, and spread o'er And when death came at last, it chang'd the And made it sharp, and prefs'd the moftris co Hollow'd the temples, forc'd the eye-balls in. And chill'd and harden'd all, and firetch'd ** fkin.

They lay not long, but foon did life refignThe warning was but short, eight days or nine If any liv'd, and fcap d the fatal day, And if their loofenefs purg'd the plague away Or ulcers drain'd; yet they would foon decay Their weakness kill'd them; or their pare

blood,

And strength, with horrid pains, through Lea But thofe that felt no flux, the strong dileafe Did oft defcend, and wretched members icize: And there it rag'd with cruel pains and fmart: Too weak to kill the whole, it took a part: 1179

lofs of hands: fo ftrong the fear of death! minds of fome did dull oblivion blot; I they their actions and therafelves forgot. nd though the fcatter'd bodies naked lay, beats refus'd; the birds fled all away, Ius'd their wings to fhun their eafy prey: y fled the stench: whom tyrant hunger pref'd,

I forc'd to tafte, he prov'd a wretched gueft; price was life: It was a cóftly feaft! 1180.) birds appear'd; no wing could ferve for flight:

den

[night:

beafts fcarce dar'd to trust themselves to plague walk'd through the woods: in ev'ry [men. y lay, and figh'd, and groan'd, and dy'd, like faithful dogs did lie in ev'ry ftreet, dy'd at their departing maflers' feet. forder'd funerals were hurry'd on; lecent mourners, nor a friendly groan : leding others' fates, all wept their own. o common remedy did health impart ll: phyfic was grown a private art : that which gave to one fresh vigour, ease, health, and strength, and conquer'd the difeafe;

1190

the fame thing, with equal art apply'd, her took, and by the phyfic dy'd. the infected lay in deep defpair, ing coming death with constant fear; ghofts did walk before their eyes, and fright: awning hopes broke through their dif nal night,

1199 oughts of help: this was a grievous ill, fharpen'd the plague's rage; thefe fears did kill.

ides, the fierce infection, quickly fpread, 1 one poor wretch was fall'n, to others fled : kill'd, the murderer did caft his eye ind, and, if he faw a witnefs by,

d him, for fear of a difcovery.

e wretches too, that greedy to live on, ed, or left infected friends alone,

t felt their punishment, and quickly found flight could fave, no place fecure from wound:

1210

rong infection all their walk attends; y fall as much neglected as their friends: rotten sheep, they die in wretched state; none to pity, or to mourn their fate.

Some rais'd their friends a pile; that office done, Return'd, and griev'd, and then prepar'd their A treble mifchief this, and no relief: [own: Not one but fuffer'd death, disease, or grief.

breath:

The fhepherd, midt his flocks, refign'd his [death: Th' infected ploughman burnt, and ftarv'd to By plague and famine both the deed was done : The ploughman was too ftrong to yield to one : Here dying parents on their children caît, There children on their parents breath'd their laft: 1230

Th' infected ploughman from the country came, They came, and brought with them additional flame:

Men flock'd from ev'ry part, all places fill'd: Where crowds were great, by heaps the fickness kill'd:

Some in the streets, fome near the fountains lay, Which quench'd their flame, but wash'd their foul away;

}

And fome in public, half alive, half dead,
With filthy cov'rings o'er their members fpread,
Did lie and rot; the skin, the poor remains
Of all the flesh, the ftarting bones contains, 1240
All cover'd o'er with ulcers, vext with pains.
Death now had fill'd the temples of the gods:
The priests themselves, not beafts, are th' altar's
loads:

Now no religion, now no gods were fear'd;
Greater than all the prefent plague appear'd:
All laws of burial loft, and all confus'd:
No folemn fires, no decent order us'd;
But, as the state of things would then permit,
Men burn'd their friends, nor look'd on juft and
fit:

1250

And want and poverty did oft engage
A thousand acts of violence and rage;
Some, O imperious want! a carcase spoil,
And burn their friend upon another's pile;
And then would ftrive, and fight, and still defend,
And often rather die, than leave their friend :
The other loft his pile by pious theft;
A poor poffeffion! all that fate had left.

CRETIUS, who, throughout his whole poem, profufely lavish in praife of Epicurus, begins fixth and laft book with the praises of ens, which city, he declares, men ought to cur and revere, not only becaufe humanity,

learning, religion, the tillage of the earth, the ufe of corn, laws, and civil focieties, are believed to have taken rife there, and to have been from thence diftributed amongst all the nations of the earth: [Cicero Orat. pro Flacco. "Ab Athenis

enim humanitas, doctrina, religio, fruges, jura, leges orta, atque in omnes terras diftributa putantur:" but chiefly because it was the place that gave birth to Epicurus, who, when he obferved men flowing in abundance of all things neceffary to lead a happy and quiet life, and that nevertheless they wafted their days in cares, and forrows, and anxieties, applied himself to inquire into the origin of this great evil; and at length difcovered, that the veffel itself, that is, the mind of man, was the caufe of this calamity: for, as whatever things we put into a ftinking veffel are foon corrupted and tainted with the fame offenfive odeur; in like manner, if the mind of man be infincere, and not found, he will never be able fo to govern himself, as may be most conducive to his own felicity: In the first place, therefore, he fays, that Epicurus was the man who first purged and cleanfed the minds of those whom he inftructed in wifdom; to whofe affections he put ftops and bounds of restraint; from whose minds he expelled terror; to whom he revealed the chief good, and fhowed the eafy and direct road that leads to the attainment of it; to whom he taught the means to obviate all evils, and, laftly, whom he proved to be tormented with vain anxieties, and to tremble, and be disquieted with caufelefs and empty fears. And this is what the poet fays in the first thirty-feven verses of this

book.

Ver. 1. Athens.] The most famous and ancient city of Greece, fituate on the fea coaft of Attica, and built by Cecrops, A. M. 2407. and from him called Cecropia: As to its name, Athens, the fables fay, that a conteft arifing between Neptune and Minerva, which of them fhould give the name to that city, the gods, to compofe the difference, were pleased to decree, that the city fhould be called by the name of either of them, who should confer the greatest benefit on mankind. The gods were affembled in judgment, and Neptune darted his trident again't the earth, which opening was delivered of a horfe, a warlike animal: Minerva ftruck her fpear into the ground, and up farts an olive-tree, the emblem of peace. The gods decided it in favour of Minerva, who named the city Athenæ, from her own name, 'Alm, for to the Greeks called her.

Justin. lib. ii. Cicero pro Flacc. Diodorus Sicul. lib. xii. Plin. lib. vii. cap. 56. fay, that the Athenians were the first who taught men, that fed before upon acorns, to plough the earth, and to fow corn; and that they were the first likewife who made laws, and compelled men to quit their favage way of life, and to enter into civil focieties.

Ver. 6. Epicurus.] Of whom, B. I. v. 88. and the beginning of B. III.

Ver. 9. This and the following verse are tranfcribed out of Cowley's Ode on the Death of Mrs. Phillips. A pyramid is a figure broad at bottom, and smaller and fharper by degrees upwards, till it end in a point like our fpire-fteeples. It is fo called from wig, fire, because flame afcends in that figure.

Ver. 17. This and the following verfe run the in the original:

Intellexit ibi vitium vas efficere ipfum,
Omniaque illius vitio corrumpier intùs.

Where by was, the veffel, the poet means t mind of man: for, in like manner as a vi when it is once imbued with an unfavoury od at corrupts all the liquors it receives: fo men fays the poet, because they have admitted their minds the fear of the gods, and the dred of punishments after death, do therefore their lives in tormenting inquietudes, anxious cares fluctuate in their unealy brea from which cares and terrors they might da› *| their minds if they would once confider and lieve that the gods are not the authors of th and that death to them is nothing: an imp affertion, but the main drift of our poet.

Ver. 19. Dryden from Juvenal, Sat. 10. Sch is the gloomy state of mortals here, We know not what to wifh, nor what to fear: Ev'n he who grasp'd the world's exhaufted Yet never had enough, but wish'd for more, Rais'd a top-heavy tow'r, of monftrous heigh Which, mould'ring, crush'd him underneat weight.

Ver. 20. Lucretius here alludes to the fie the Danaides, or daughters of Danaus; of win book iii. ver. 1005. The allufion is clear is original, though obfcure in this tranflation.

Ver. 26. For Epicurus would have had t fet bounds to their defires, and content them with what the neceffities of nature required he said, that the things, that are neither nor natural, are infinite in number, and for fools.

He delivered the minds of men from proving the foul to be mortal, by taking aw belief of Providence, and overthrowing all ro for he taught that the gods need not be feared cause they cannot be angry; and that no fent mains after death. An opinion no iefs weak impious.

Ver. 29. Epicurus held that all the ill which mortality is fubject, happen from cha or are the effects of nature: and that all the lamities that attend us, of what kind t they be, must be ascribed to one of thole caufes: all is chance or nature: there is noth to fly to for the god of Epicurus, as Tertt more than once obferves, " pene nemo et, next to nobody.

Ver. 32. You will find thefe fix verses in fecond book, ver. 58. See there the note p

them.

Ver. 38. Hitherto has been only the prais Epicurus and of Athens. Now follows in 58 ven an explication of the argument of this book. fays, that having in the preceding book treate the beginning of all things, and of the cele motions, he will now difpute of meteors, and the other wondrous effects of nature, which m

Ver. 47. This fimilitude, though it be not in the original, is fo pertinently applied in this place, that Lucretius himself, were he living, would judge it worthy of him.

Ver. 48. This and the two following verfes re in book i. ver. 185. and they should be reeated again below after ver. 91. of this tranflaion, for Lucretius does fo in the original, but reech has nevertheless omitted them in that lace.

Ver. 51. This, and the ten verfes that follow , are likewife repeated from book v. ver. 87. Ver 57. Severe and cruel gods; whom such wretches as are ignorant of the causes of things, ear and adore, as if they were the authors of hem. See Book v. ver. 94.

Ver. 60. This and the two next verfes are in book i. ver. 9. as well as book v. ver. 96.

Ver. 71. Horace in like manner :

-Namque Deos didici fecurum agere ævum, Nec fi quid miri faciat Natura, Deos id Triftes ex alto cœli demittere tecto.

Ver. 78. Epicurus foolishly believed, that a god, who forefees all, protects all, and provides for all, must be indeed, a terrible and dreadful god: infomuch, that the image of fuch a god can never enter into the mind of man, but anxiety, fear, and terror will be the immediate effect.

Ver. 82. It is next to incredible to believe, to how great a degree wilful ignorance and dulnefs prevailed among the ancients; and that too, even in the midst of Athens, the chief feat of learning. Plutarch, in the Life of Nicias, tells us; that they could not difcover the reaton of the eclipfes of the moon, but thought it a portent that foreboded fome great difafter. For, fays he, Anaxagoras, who first treated of the celeftial phenomenons, dartt not difcourfe of them in public, but only in private, and with fome particular friends: for either natural philofophers, nor thofe they cal

At

led Merswgoλógus, i. e. fuch as argued concerning meteors; were fuffered among them: they being leoked on as men, who endeavoured to limit the Divine Power, and to derogate from it, by afcribing all things to natural caufes: for which reafon Protagoras was banished, and Anaxagoras thrown into prifon : but Pericles with much ado, procured him to be fet at liberty: Socrates was taken off, merely for the name of a philofopher : for he was averfe to ftudies of that nature. length, the authority of Plato, as well by reafon of the probity of his life, as for that he subjected natural effects, to more potent and divine caules, wiped off the fcandal from thofe ftudies, and opened a way to the doctrine of the mathematics. Thus Plutarch; who, in the life of Pericles, farther teaches us, what great advantages that Athenian general gained by his acquaintance with Anaxagoras: for he there informs us, that he delivered his mind from all fuperftition, which ftrikes a terror into thefe, who are ignorant of the causes of the celeftial meteors; and tremble at the things above, which confternation, adds the fame author, the knowledge of natural caufes takes away; and, instead of that frightful and difquieting fuperftition, infpires a fecure and quiet religion together with good hope. Thus we fee to what tend the endeavours of Lucretius, in the following difputation, and how much they ought to be efteemed.

Ver. 89. This relates to the difcipline of the Thufcans of which Cicero in the fecond book de Divinat. "Cœlum in fex decim partes diviferunt Etrufci: facile id quidem fuit, quatuor, quas nos habemus, duplicare: poft idem iterum facere, ut ex eo dicerent, fulmen qui ex parte veniffet." The Thufcans divided the heaven into fi teen parts: it was indeed easy for them to do so, by doubling the four we have, and then doing the fame again that they might know by that means, from what part comes the lightning: but the fame quarters were fometimes reckoned lucky, fome times unlucky, lucky as in this of Virgil:

-Subitoque fragore Intonuit lævum. En. ii. ver. 692. Unlucky, as in this of the fame poet, Sæpè malum hoc nobis, fi mens non læva fuiffet, De cœlo tactas memini prædicere quercus : Sæpè finiftra cavâ prædixit ab ilice cornix.

Eclog. I.

Thus the left fide was ambiguously taken by the Romans; often as a good omen, often as a bad: and the right, in like manner, was fometimes a lucky omen, fometimes unlucky. But whence came the fame part to have fo different, nay, con trary a power? Was it becaufe, in the interpretation of their aufpices, they fometimes had regard to the place and fite of the gods, by whom thofe bodings were given them, and fometimes to that of the augurs. who afked thofe tokens of the gods for the right of the giver is the left of the afker or receiver: 1ome favour this opinion, and ground their belief on the testimony of