that 's conjoyn'd which one can truly never Without the ruin of the subject sever As Water's wet Earth heavy Fire is hot So Bodies may be toucht and Vacuum not On the other side Subjection Freedom War Peace Riches Poverty be they what ere With and without which Nature 's still intire These justly of Events the name acquire Nor is Time of it self but from the things Results a sence what every age forth brings For present past or future 't is confest Without things motion and convenient rest Can never of themselves discerned be By any sensible capacitie Let 's therefore see in fine how men have sed That Troy was sack'd and Helen ravished Least such expressions us perchance constrain To yeeld they yet in Essence do remain When that whole race of men from whom alone Flow'd these events is long since past and gone What Action then so ere we understand Call it th' Event of such a Thing or Land Lastly were Matter from all things abstracted Nor space or place wherein they each were acted No such things ere had been that Paris breast Had with the fire of Helens love possest Kindled a War for bloody Bittel's fam'd Nor had the wooden horse Troys Towres inflam'd Of them not once suspected by a slight With disembowel'd Greeks in dead of night That Actions done then it is manifest Do not like Bodies of themselves subsist Nor yet as Vacuums themselves present But rather such as we must call event Of Bodies and of place by which and where Such Actions and such Things performed were Bodies are either Principles of things Or such as from their adjunation springs But Elements no stroaks can violate Their solid bodies dos all force rebate Although it may not over easie seem In Nature any solid to esteem For Lightning oft our thickest walls strikes through Voyces and Cryes Iron in fire doth glow The stony rock with fervent vapour cleaves And rigid gold fusion in heat receives And brass congealed melts i' ch' flame both cold And heat the silver peirce as when we hold A Mazor in our hands one both perceives When powr'd aloft it a moist dew receives So that no solid seems in things to be But since the certain cause and true decree Of Nature calls on us a while give ear We in few lines will this assertion clear That of a solid and eternal frame Bodies there be which Principles we name And seeds of things from whence the total sum And mass of all created beingâ— come Since of two things two Natuâ—es then we see Which no way in their properties agree Bodies and place which doth all motions bear Each do subsist and uncompounded are For wherefoere of Room Emptie is said No Body is again where ever 's laid A Body is no voyd firm therefore be Prime Bodies and from empty spaces free But since in things there is a voyd confest 'Bout solid matter it must surely rest Nor can it by right reason be suppos'd That Voyd is hid in Bodies or inclos'd Unless you grant what must in Justice follow Those Bodies solid are which hold the hollow And they be nought else but that firm compos'd Matter in which this Vacuum is inclos'd Matter then which confists in solid may Be permanent though all things else decay Besides did nought a Vacuum contain All would be solid and did not again Some real Bodies stand which fill up Places All were meer emptiness where now are spaces Alternatly then we must grant there be Bodies distinct and a vacuitie Since then nor all is full nor empty space Some Bodies are that garnish every place These nor by blows extern can wronged be Nor riveted between asunder flee Nor by what ere effort attaqu'd will â—lide That which above to you we justifi'd For broken cut in two or once annoy'd Could nothing be unless there were a Voyd Nor wet nor cold admit nor fires keen ray Which through all Concrete bodies makes his way And how much more things do include a voyd By these assail'd they sooner are destroy'd If as I taught then Principles are free From voyd they likewise must eternal be Besides had matter not for ever been We had long since all things reduced seen But as we shew'd Nought can of Nothing be Nor being once revert to Nullitie Bodies immortal Principles require To which all compounds may at last retire That there may matter be for things supplie Then Principles have pure soliditie Nor may we else conceive ought lastinglie Can for eternal reparation be Did Nature when she doth in peeces take Things to her self no Bounds nor Limits make Matter ere this had been so near reduc'd To their first cause as nought could be produc'd That e're would have attained perfectly To their full age and due maturity For things much sooner perish then attain Being once dissolv'd to be repair'd again Wherefore long tract of time which did expose Their naked bodies to eternal blows Could not in a large space repair anew What it so long together overthrew But now to such destruction 't is most plain Limits are fixt since they 'r restor'd again And to all sort of things Times set in which They may attain their ages perfect pitch Again though matter be most solid taught Yet concret's may nevertheless be Soft So Air Earth Water so are Vapours bred By what e're power and how engendered Since voyd to mix in things we entertain But if the Principles were soft again How Flints and Iron harden could be found No cause since Nature then would want a ground Bodies then simply solid we suppose Which more condens'd can render all things close And being thus together more compact Are thence indu'd with greater power to act Lastly since Nature to each thing doth give A bound and tearm wherein they grow and live Since 't is decreed what each thing can advance And do what not by the same ordinance Yet nothing change but all things still remain Hence Birds with proper spots their plumage stain To their own Family from whence we see Bodies unchanged in their matter be Could Principles of things be altered Or by corruption once be vanquished Then were it also an uncertain thing What had the pow'r and what had not to spring How the activity of things is bounded And how their force with limits is surrounded Nor would successions alwaies be inclin'd To live move feed and do after their kind Moreover each Bodies extremity Being something which the sharpest sence doth fly In such a point of matter doth consist Without all parts that it had n'er the least Division nor can since what we name The first or last in bodies is the same Hence similar parts one by another still Drawn up in order Bodies nature fill Which since they cannot of themselves subsist They must of force one with another twist Whence no divorce is then first bodies be Of a most pure solid simplicitie Which Pact in minute parts in one combin'd Nor
by th' access of other things conjoyn'd Are of eternal simple purity Nature not suffering them at all to be Diminish'd or dissolv'd but doth reserve Them for a seed perpetual to serve Vnless you grant a least the smallest mite Of Bodie would admit parts infinite For if one part of half doth yet pretend An half part still of things would be no end Which being so what difference would there be Betwixt the least and greatest quantitie Were infinite the sum of things the least Would then of parts as infinite consist Which since nor sense nor judgement doth allow To think then vanquished you must avow Such are as of no parts compounded be And the least magnitudes then must agree They 'r solid and Eternal Now suppose Nature from whence all things created rose Did not each thing into least peeces take She never could anew the same things make Since things of many parts made up can not Admit those qualities we must allot To matter that is generative as thus Poize Concourse Stroke Connexion various Motion which manage all in Natures round Besides admit there were at all no bound To Bodies dissolution yet 't is sure Some Bodies from eternity endure But since that a frail nature they retain It contradicts they always should remain And vexed midst so many stroaks subsist Which them uncessantly do thus molest More wide are they from reason that suppose Fire the first matter from whence all things rose And that of fire consisted the whole mass Of these the Captain Heraclitus was Cri'd up for 's dark expressions by the light Not sober Greeks such as in Truth delight For fools t' admire and love are most inclin'd What lurking midst obscurest terms they find And onely hold for truth what accents quaint Strike the pleas'd ear and which trim phrase doth paint But how things can thus differ I enquire If they proceed from pure and real fire For it would nought avail condens'd or rare If every part of the same nature were With the whole fire for the united heat Of Ignite parts would be more fierce and great And it again would be as much abated And languish if they were once separated But more then this you nothing can expect Which should in the like causes have effect Nor is it Fire condens'd or rare which brings In nature such variety of things Though would they grant that there a Vacuum were Then Fire indeed might be or Dense or Rare But since who none admit do plainly see Themselves gain-said with contrariety And a pure Emptiness in things oppose Whilst they the hard way fear the right they lose Not seeing how without vacuitie All things would dense and but one Body be Which of it self could not project aright As glowing Fire darts forth the smoak and light So that from hence you clearly may enact 'T is not of solid parts alone compact If haply some perswade themselves that fire May shift its body and i' th' mass expire If once it should do so its heat must fade To nought and all created things be made Of nothing since what doth its limits pass By change quite perishes from what it was Therefore something must needs intire remain Least all things else annihilate again And this whole heap of things from nothing grow Since therefore certain Bodies we allow Of constant nature by whose being near Or absent order chang'd things chang'd appear In Nature too and compounds do dissolve Then Fi'rie bodies we with ease resolve Are not things Principles neither at all Imports it what goes out or what doth fall What 's joyn'd to others or from order swerve If all things did Fires nature still preserve For whatsoever then produced were Would be but onely one continued fire But thus I tak 't Bodies there be whose right Encounter Motion Order Figure Site Compose the Fire which if you shall transpose Will with their order their own nature lose Neither resembling Fire nor any such As bring their Bodies to our sense or touch T' affirm then all things to be Fire and nought Real and true but Fire as this Man taught Is most egregious folly for he goes The Senses by the Senses to oppose And shakes their proof to whom all Truths we owe From whom what he cals fire himself doth know Beleeves the Sence knows fire but not the rest Though full as clear which seems to me a jest For what thing can there be more sure then Sence By which we truth discern from false pretence Besides why should one rather all remove And heat the onely nature left approve Then Fire deny and all things else allow Both which were equal madness to avow Who ere then takes for Matter which frames all The Fire and that of Fire consists this Ball Who Air the universal soâ—rce have deem'd Or that pure water or Earth have esteem'd Forms All and is into all Nature made Have all alike at large from Truth estrai'd Add those who Principles of things combine Who Fire to Air and Earth to Water joyn And who think all of four things have their birth Spring up of Air of Heat of Showre and Earth An Agrigentine Citizen ' mongst these Is chief and principal Empedocles Born on the shore of Sicils triple-bounds Which the Ionian in wide bayes surrounds Laving its Cliffs with azure waves whose force And rapid current Italie divorce By a smal strait Here 's vast Charybdis seat And here the murmuring Aetna's flames do threat To reinforce once more their dreadful ire And vomit yet again devouring fire Belching it forth out of his sooty jaws Which he at Heaven in lightning flashes throwes Although this Isle for sundry things may seem Famous and many Nations it esteem Renown'd for wealth and many gallant men Yet never had it ought more glorious then This Personage nought more miraculous More holy or which was more precious His Verse divine and his Inventions rare The Fruits of that rich breast do so declare An Vniversal knowledge that some doubt Whether or no he sprung from humane root Yet this man and the rest that mentioned are Beneath him greatly his inferiors far Though as if they divinely were inspir'd Have sundry things so difficult inquir'd And as if Oracles had from them broken More rational and sacred things have spoken Then Pythia herself whose voyce did breath From Phoebus Tripod and the Lawrel wreath Yet these great Persons all receiv'd great falls And split themselves on things Originals First that they Motion without voyd avow And yet of things do soft and rare allow As Air Sun Fire Corn Earth the Animal Yet in their bodies mix no voyd at all Next that they will at all no limits give To Bodies sections nor from breaking leave Nor yeeld a least in things whereas we see That the extream and top of all to be Which to our sence seems least from whence we learn There is a least in things which none discern Into another error here they fall
Who hold that soft is things Original Which we perceive from other causes flow And into those resolve if this were so Each thing to nought would turn and all renew From nothing which are equally untrue For whilst these are at mortal jars together It comes to pass that when they meet each other They perish or else scatter as in sight Winds Lightnings Showres and Storms are put to flight Lastly if of four things compos'd be all And in these four again dissolved fall Why should we then Originals esteem Of things not things Originals of them Since thus by turns successively they rise And change their hue their nature still disguise But if thou think bodies of Earth and Fire Air and moist dew together here conspire That in this combination Nature 's said To make no change nought from them can be made No living thing nor things inanimate As Trees for that it would discover strait Their natures in one variant heap and shew Air mixt in one with Earth and Heat with dew Bnt Principles in things production crave Nature occult and clandestine to have Least ought appear by which it be gain-said Things to be truly that which they are made This too from Heaven and from his Fires they bring And first the Fire to Air transform'd they sing Hence Rain sublim'd and Earth condens'd of Rain And so from Earth they all retire again First Water then the Air and Fire in train Nor once this course to cease but too and fro From Heaven to Earth from Earth to Heaven they go Which Principles refuse somewhat must stay Least all to nothing vanish quite away For whatsoever once its bounds doth pass Strait perishes from what before it was Since therefore thus they change as is confest Before then must it needs be manifest That they to other Principles relate Immutable lest all annihilate Rather such Bodies state that fire shall make Add some few things away some other take Order and Motion chang'd turn to thin Air Thus every thing doth every thing repair But you 'l object all things from Earth do spring Up into th' Air and thence have nourishing And that unless a proper season sends Indulgent showres and kindly moisture lends Unto the shrubs except the Sun them nourish And distribute his heat no Grain can flourish No Trees nor Animals and even we Our selves unless sustain'd and fed we be With solid meats and with mild juyce to drink Our Bodies ruin'd our whole Life would shrink From off our Nerves and Bones for without doubt We are maintain'd and nourished throughout With certain things as other Creatures be Of certain other Since there do agree Causes of many things in many joyn'd When various things by various nurs'd we find And now it would be truly comprehended How these Originals are oft times blended Their site and subject and what motion they Do mutually receive and give away For they 'r the same which Heaven constitutes Sun Seas Earth Streams Shrubs Animals and Fruits Although with different motions mixt they be Just as each where in these our lines you see To divers words are many Letters found Common which differ much in sense and sound Such change variety of Letters brings But Elements which are indeed of things The Principles are able to induce Greater and more variety produce And now let us a little cast our eye On th' Anaxagoran Homoeomerie By Greeks so term'd and which our native speech Poor in expression cannot fully reach However yet the thing it self be found Facil in words and easie to expound These Principles or Homoeomerie By this Philosopher so cal'd imply That Bones of smal and minute bones proceed That Intrails do of little Intrails breed And Blood of sanguine drops which meet likewise That Gold of little grains of Gold doth rise And Earth her form from smal Terrella's takes That sparks the Fire and humour Water makes By like proportion fains the rest to be And to no place assigns Vacuitie Nor any term or end doth he allow To Bodies sections both of which we know Extreamly err much like to those which we In that which went before have let you see Besides if these his Principles he name They are too feeble being just the same Even with those things of which they do depend Which fail together and together end Reciprocally nor can ought them free From ruining For what thing can there be Which may in such a violence opprest Death to envade Deaths very teeth resist Can Fire or Water can Air Blood or Bone Or any one of these I think not one Since the whole sum of things must be as frail As what we see before our eyes to fail Then I attest what we before related Nought springs of Nought or is annihilated Besides since Meats augment the body and Do nourish it then may we understand That Veins Blood Bones and likewise Sinews may Consist of divers parts or if they say All meats are mixed Bodies and contain Certain smal Bodies under them again As Nerves Bones Veins and particles of blood Then of all meats it must be understood Whether or no they dry or liquid are They all consist of parts dissimilar As Bones Nerves Veins and Blood likewise the Earth If she contain all which from her have birth Then of strange parts the Earth must needs consist Which thence arise 't is very manifest Change now the Subject keep the terms still good If Flame Smoak Ashes all do lurk in Wood The wood of divers parts it will imply Here is some slender probability For Anaxagoras which he assumcs Who all things thus to lurk in all presumes But onely that appears which hath most mixt And is more obvious in the front prefixt Which is as far from Truth for then should Corn Beneath the weighty milstone ground and worn Into smal parts some stains of blood there shed Or something whereof we are nourished Then should a stream of blood out-flowing gush When we one stone do with another crush By the same reason too Hearbs must distil And taste like Milk which from Ews teats doth drill Thus stirring up the Gleab one oft should find Parcels of hearbs and grain of every kind With scattered boughs hid in the ground thus broke Lastly in Wood cleft one should spy the Smoak Ashes and sparks of Fire therein to nest But since no such effects are manifest Mixtures of things with things no such we see But that the seeds of many things there be Diversly mixt which latent are and ought To be amongst themselves in common thought But thou affirmst on Mountains which aspire That tops of Trees are oft times set on fire Till they do flame again with glowing heat When Southern winds them on each other beat And bee 't so yet in wood by nature breeds No fire but there of heat are many seeds Which clash together and the Groves inflame Whereas were so great Fires hid in the same They could them not conceal
Natura non facit saltum she is not so hasty all things operate gradually and augment by little and little from their peculiar and specifying seeds or Atomes which do first require a convenient space and a very happy chance before they can propagate and encounter Huc accedit uti sine certis imbribus anni Laetificos nequéat fetus summittere tellus Nâ—â— porrò c. So that unless some Annual showers descend The Earth no fruits to humane use can lend Nor Animals c. For all seeds would putrifie in the bowels of the earth nothing could sprout or in case it did ever appear above ground would immediately wither and dwindle away to nothing If things proceeded from nothing they would likewise need as little to assist them Sine Cerere Libero friget Venus if they receive no nourishment neither can they propagate and if things result from Nothing they clearly need it not or admit it could be so Why then hath not Nature produced us more races of the Gyants such as the Poet hath seigned the Cyclopean breed that could stalk over the sea and of lives like Methusala Artephius or the wandring Jew since in Nature there could be no defect why these prodâ—ctions should happen so rarely nor indeed any definite magnitude or duration of Natural things if men sprung thus of Nothing wherefore upon evidence of the contrary he concludes That things have as well their principles as words their Elements whereof they be composed Lastly Quoniam incultis praestare videmns Culta loca manibus meliores reddier fetus Quae nos c. Since then rich fields surpass the Barren ground Which culture makes in choicer fruits abound For if it were not so as good fruits might grow in Greenland and under the Polar Star as in Perù nor would there be any further need of manuring the earth all which we finde to be most experimentally false These with some other were the Arguments which the School of Epicurus had furnished to prove that Nothing could result out of Nothing And indeed to a meer natural though never so discerning man 't were a truth undeniable according to the course of Nature I say and the ordinary constitution of things which are generated by motion or transmutation but to us that are taught to confess the Omnipotency of the great Lord of Nature it is nothing difficult to believe how something was first made by simple Emanation that is by Creation Voluntas Dei saith S. Aug. est causa Coeli terrae God educed light out of the obscurity which involved the Chaos which was certainly created immediately out of Nothing for it had no means proportional to it and of what materials the Glorified Spirits were made setting aside the Rabbinical conceits it is no where apparently delivered us Clearly therefore God created the world out of the praeexistent Chaos and that Chaos or matter of Tohu nothing as it is excellently and elegantly expressed by Lactantius against that of Cicero and Seneca which I would here recite at large were it not already done to my hand though long since the writing of these Animadversions by an ingenious person treating upon this subject out of Gassendus And thus Lucretius having finished his Argument assumes the following That as Nothing proceeds of Nothing so is Nothing annihilated Huc accedit uti quaeque in sua Corpora rursum Dissolvat natura neque ad nihilum interimat res Adde unto this Nature to their first state Doth all dissolve Nothing annihilate Which Persius thus expresses De Nihil Nihil in Nihilum Nil posse reverti For he held them to be solid simple and permanent therefore since they never reverted into their first principles it is evident saith he that of them they consisted Besides if we admit them reducible to nothing what should hinder their instantaneous destruction which might undoubtedly annihilate them without the least force or cause given them for in Nothing as there is no action so neither is there resistance nor any delay of time at all which might impede their instantaneous discomposure all which the leisurely failing and minute decay of things doth experimentally oppugn Praeterea quaecunque vetustate amovet aetas Si penitus perimit consumens materiem omnem Vnde animale genus generatim in Lumina vitae Redâ—lucit Venus Beside what things are with their ages past If time did kill and all their matter wast Whence doth sweet Venus give to souls new birth Through all their kindes As if he should say how is it possible that Generation Alteration Augmentation and supply of things should succeed in the world if things thus annihilate for both the Seas Rivers and fountains had been long ere this dryed up and utterly exhausted Beside Vnde aether sidera pascit Stars how are they nourish'd in the skies Whence that of Virgil Polus dum sidera pascet For we must understand that some Philosophers as Cleanthes Anaximander Dionysius Epicurus and divers others supposed these Celestial bodies to receive nourishment from the thinner and more subtil part of the ayr named aether as in this place our Poet from terrene evaporations and exhalations of the Sea And therefore it is very pretty what some conceited that the oblique motion which the Sun observed from one Tropique to another was onely to finde out drink and humor wherewithal to refresh his extreme thirst as if he were some African Tyger hunting out the springs of the parched desarts which opinion albeit Aristotle seems to deride yet saith Cicero Cum sol ingens sit Oceanique alatur humoribus quia nullus ignis sine pastu aliquo possit permanere necesse est aut ei similis sit igni quem adhibemus ad usum atque victum aut ei qui corporibus animantium continetur it follows probabileâ— igitur est praestantem intelligentiam in sideribus esse quae aetheream mundi partem incolant marinis terrenisque humoribus longo intervallo extenuatis alantur For to omit the drunken Catch in Anacreâ—n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 't is very evident that besides the sore-rehearsed Seneca was of this faith as may be collected out of his sixth Book of Nat. quaest c. 16. and Plutarch in Libello de Iside as also Plinie in hist Nat. l. 2. c. 9. Sydera verò haud dubie humore terreno pasci c. which albeit our Schools deny as in relation to the Earth yet some excellent modern Inquirers are very magisterial that the warers above the Convexity of the heavens perform it of which opinion I finde our Countrey-man Lydiat in his praelect Astronom and Book de origine fontium c. 10. and of later date our Cabbalistical and ingenious Moor as if by this means viz a Percolation through those glorious bodies a continual supply of Ayr for the furniture of Nature were derived To which doctrine I conceive may appositely be cited those conceits
be hidden to your kindeness then the most abstruse Author to your Apprehension or by that time you have done with him to any mans else Yet absence alone is a death not that it uses to kill friends but friendship The Spaniard calls it putting of earth between so both Death and Burial too and he hath a proverb that tells us A muertos y à ydos no ay Amigos the crossing whereof is the thing I now take so kindely at your hands Then to evidence that no Author whatsoever can stand in your way I know not where you could have made so crabbed a choice as you have done though for intrinsick value an incomparable one and well quitting your pains On my word Cozen this Piece is The taming of the Shrew What shall I say more Having as skilfully as I could confronted his Latine with your English they appear to me Lifes both or rather both pictures of one life the features being exactly the same in each onely yours as the younger so the smoother It puts me in minde of the two Amphitruo's in Plautus where the Translation was taken for the Original by her that should best have known which mistake had probably not hapned if the Divine Counterfeit could not have spoken the Husbands Thoughts as well as induced his Shape And if that Metamorphosis made a long night this of yours I am sure makes the day short But I injure it with the name of a Translation it is Lucretius himself A judged Case in a certain Italian Comedy Thus a Bondman of Naples is apprehended in open street No running away now no denying the fact for which he is accused What then he changes his language facing both the Officers and his Prosecutors down in perfect Spanish a concealed quality he had that he is not the man they take him for nay not so much as of the Nation In this maner fences for a good space against them All the Scene is not unplesant But do you think it served his turn in the end No nor would have done though he had for his better disguise shifted himself into a Gentile habit and garb And so shall we know LUCREâ—IUS in your Book though it retains neither his voyce nor yet his lineaments nor have you in my conceit however I finde it difficult to explain so much put him into your cloathes as out of his own person Sic parvis componere pulchra solebam One thing I must needs acquaint you with and it is that this came to my hands just when I had made an end of reading a Posthumous Translation by Mr. or Dr. Bat hurst lately printed at London I presume you have seen it of Spencer's Shepherds Calendar into Latine as if opportunely to prevent my idolizing that Language to the advantage whereof above ours I do not now impute that admirable work which unless my Augury deceive me will where its true Origine shall be unknown pass for a Native of old Rome and that as far as the utmost bounds extend of the Commonwealth of Learning For if the great wonder there be how a Poem which the Author made it his business to cloath in rugged English could be capable of so smoath Latine certainly it is no less a one here how so rugged a Latine Poem rugged in spight of your Authors teeth through the stubbornness of the Stuff and poverty of words as himself confesses can be rendred in so smooth English And if Mr. Bathurst by that exported commodity do more honor to England Abroad You by this imported will more enrich it at home making our Income proportionable to our Expence Thus Cosin since you will make a Countrey Fellow a Judge I have parted the Apple between you although it is true the other Gentlemans Cause is not before me yet because his Merits are But that which I give you intirely to your self is Tankersley 27 Decem. 1653. Sir Your very affectionate Kinsman and humble Servant Richard Fanshawe The Argument THe Poet invocates Venus by whom as a Philosopher he understands the Goddess Nature or rather Nature it self and under the persons of Venus and Mars most ingeniously infers his design to speak of Generation and Corruption Then after the dedication of his work he intreates of the nature of Gods and from them falls upon the praise of Epicurus for his bold discovery of the absurd superstition of the times the great inconveniences whereof he illustrates by the cruel Sacrifice of Iphigenia Then having divinely celebrated the Poet Ennius introduces his opinion touching the separation of souls from their Bodies with divers other speculations concerning the nature of Spirits the difficulty of which Argument causeth him to acknowledge the insufficiency of the Latine Tongue to treat of maâ—ters so Philosophick and abstracted Then he proves that nothing can be created out of Nothing but that there are certain Principles which belong to all kindes of things that nothing may be totally annihilatâ—d but that from the Corruption of one another still proceedeth and is generated Then he discourseth of the admirable effects of the Raine of Bodies imperceptible of the violence of Winds of the course and monstrous Inundations of Waters of Smells Heat Cold of the Voyce of descent of the Dew into Cloach of those things which diminish by frequent use and handling likewise of Voyd of Fishes in the Water of Solid Bodies which Separate themselves and how Void and Bodies constitute the nature of all other things That there is no such thing as any Third Nature Of Accidents of Time and of the other Principles of Things Of things which consist of a soft Nature as of Water and Atomes Disputes and argues against Heraclitus who would maintain Fire to be the Vniversal Principle Against Empedocles that affirms the same Original to result out of all the four Elements Against Anaxagoras who confoundeth Nature by his similar parts Then he sublimely intreats of solid Bodies and of Infinite affirming last of all that there is no such thing as Centre towards which all things do tend and are spontaneously carried T. Lucretius T. LVCRETII CARI DE RERUM NATURA LIBER PRIMUS Lib. I. AeNeadum genetrix hominum Divûmque voluptas Alma Venus coeli subter labentia signa Quae mare navigerum quae terras frugiferentis Concelebras per te quoniam genus omne animantuÌ„ Concipitur visitque exortum lumina Solis Te dea te fugiunt venti te nubila coeli Adventumque tuum tibi suavis daedâ—la tellus Summittit flores tibi rident aequora ponti Placatumque nites diffuso lumine coelum Nam simul ac species patefacta est verna diei Et reâ—erata riget genitalis aâ—ra Favon I Aeriae primum volucres te DIVA tuumque Significant initium percussae corda tuâ vi Indè ferae pecudes persultant pabula laeta Et rapidoÌ„s tranant amnis ita capta lepore Te sequitur cupidè qùo quamque inducere pergis Denique per maria
Out of nothing nothing ever came 'T is onely thus That men are aw'd with fear Because such things in Heaven and Earth appear Of which since they a reason cannot find To a celestial Author they 'r assign'd But when we find that nought of nought can be What we pursue we shall more clearly see And shew whence all things first produced were And yet the gods still unconcerned are For if of Nothing form'd no use of Seed Since every sort would from all things proceed Men from the liquid Seas might then arise Fishes Fowl from Earth Beasts from the Skies And other Cattel Bruits uncertain birth Would fill the wâ—ste cultivated earth Nor could from the same trees the same fruit spring But al would change all things all would bring For were not Bodies seminal to each kind How should we then a certain Mother find Legitimate since then from certain seeds Each thing results and naturally proceeds Where proper matter and first bodies grow From thence thus produc'd their essence show Therefore from All things All things cannot rise Since certain things have distinct faculties Whence is 't we see the Rose in Spring the Corn In Summer and ripe Grapes in Autumn born But that of every thing the constant seed Concurring with the time in which they breed What ere 's engendred in due season grows When the quick Earth her tender ofspring shows Things made of nothing would at once appear In doubtful space and unfit times o' th' year Because there would no Principles remain Which at improper times might them restrain From Generation nor yet would there need If things of nothing grew a space for seed Then Infants presently Young-men would be And from the Earth the Shrub as soon a Tree Which cannot be 't is plain since every thing So slowly from it's proper seeds doth spring And rising do their kinds preserve to show How of their matter nourished they grow So that unless some Annual showres descend The Earth no fruits to human use can lend Nor Animals would propagate their kind Or live unless due nourishment they find Then rather think that many Bodies be Common to many things even as we see To Words their Elements never surmise Any without their Principles can rise In fine why hath not Nature Mankind made So huge that he on foot through Seas might wade Whole Mountains with his monstrous hand displace And sundry Ages in long life surpass Unless to the production of all things There need a certain matter whence it springs Of Nothing then Nothing we must conclude Results but each thing is with seed indu'de From which all that 's created comes to light And clearly manifest themselves to sight Since then rich fields surpass the barren ground Which culture makes in choycer fruits abound We well perceive the causes of each thing How they result and from Earths bowels spring As oft as we turn up the Soyl and tear The Gleabe with Spades or with the crooked Share Else should you see Nature would still produce Things of her own accord and better use Add unto this Nature to their first state Doth all dissolve nothing annihilate For if in all parts any thing could fail Death over all things would in time prevail Nor needed there a force to discompose Their parts or their strict union unloose But since in all eternal Seeds reside Till such a blow it meets which it divides Or else dissolves by subtle Penetration Nature preserves it whole from dissipation Beside what things are with their ages past If time did kill and all their matter waste Whence doth sweet Venus give to souls new birth Through all their kinds how should the various earth Augment each kind with proper diet fed Whence flow the Seas whence have free Springs their head Whence do the far extended Rivers rise And Stars how are they nourish'd in the Skies Since length of times and daies so many past All mortal bodies had ere this defac'd If then from that large tract ought hath remain'd From whence the sum of things has been maintain'd Sure an immortal nature doth inspire Them nor can any thing to nought retire All from like force and cause dissolv'd would be Did not eternal matter keep it free And more or less them to their subjects bind One touch to them a cause of death they 'd find Had bodies no eternal permanence They would dissolve with the least violence But since the bands of various causes are Though matter permanent dissimilar Bodies of things are safe 'till they receive A force which may their proper thread unweave Nought then returns to nought but paâ—â—ed fals To Bodies of their prime Originals Those showres which Heaven Father-like doth send Down on our mother Earth there seem to end Yet thence delicious fruits from trees inlarge And the fresh branches with their burthen charge Hence she mankind and animals doth nourish And hence w th numerous children Cities flourish Hence the thick Groves with new fledg'd birds resound And fat Heards rest their limbs on fertil ground Hence pure milk from distended teats distils And late faln Young warm'd with sweet suck it fils Who frisking o're the Meadows as they pass Frolick their feeble limbs on tender grass Then nothing sure its being quite forsakes Since Nature one thing from another makes Nor is there ought indeed which she supplies Without the aid of something else that dies Since then I teach that nought of nothing breeds Or once produc'd to nought again recedes Least yet thou shouldst my Arguments diffide Because that Elements cannot be spi'd By humane eyes behold what bodies now In things thou canst not see yet must allow First mighty Winds the rolling Seas incite Huge Vessels wrack and put the clouds to flight Rushing through fields sometimes tall trees they crack And with their tearing blasts high mountains shake The Seas likewise in thundring billows rise And with their raging murmur threat the Skies Winds therefore unseen bodies are which sweep The fleeting clouds the Earth the Azure deep Bearing with sudden storm all things away Yet thus proceeding do they nought destroy Other then as the yeelding water flowes Augmented by large showres or melted snows rend Wch from deep clifts in Cataracts descend Whole trees they float and prostrate woods they Nor can strong Bridges their approach sustain Whose rapid torrent do's all check disdain The River with immoderate showres repleat Against their Piles impetuously does beat Roaring it ruins huge stones along it rowles All things it spoyles and nothing it controles Even so the gusts of sturdy winds do tend Like swiftest Rivers when they downwards bend And carrie all before with double might Sometimes they snatch and hurry things upright In rapid whirle Therefore I add agen The Winds are Bodies and yet are not seen Since their effâ—cts and motions every where Like Rivers be whose bodies do appear Besides of things we smel the various sents Which yet no substance to
the most refined spirits but in order to the end proposed by our Poet it will not be irrequisite that something were first spoken concerning Atomes And indeed there was long since this and much more prepared to have been delivered upon this occasion and some others which of necessity will follow it yet since there are lately extant so many ample volumes upon the subjects some of them not strangers to our tongue I should totally have forborn to repeat as I will onely touch them could the frame of this discourse which hath so long slept by me have supported so considerable an imperfection as the total omission of saying something would have amounted to The first that brought this Doctrine into credit was Leucippus I say before Democritus as Plutarch Laertius Tully and others affirm so that even Aristotle tells us the opinion was exceeding rife in his time Now as Epicurus from those so our Poet from Epicurus hath constituted them for the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principles and incompositas of all Natural things whatsoever I am clearly of opinion that the Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or unites were neer of kin to these Atomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something insecable it was indissoluble and perfectly sollid And yet by the way we must not conceive as many have dreamâ— that they consisted of points so nicely indivisible as it they retained no magnitude at all but such rather as in respect of their strict compactedness no force whatsoever is able to separate non quod minima sed quod non possit dividi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore that which is taught of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Materia prima by the Schools as to the incorruptibility thereof we may safely suppose concerning these with this onely difference That Epicurus determines into what nature their resolutions fix viz. ad insectilia Corpuscula or Atomes which none of the Peripatetikes have any where described touching their Principles But then again That these Elements should be thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very original of all things whatsoever as is the seed of Animals seems in truth something difficult to admit For Epicurus held that even Man himself sprung at first out of the womb of our common Mother the Earth and â—ater olerum more and out of the Parsley-bed as we say like the productions of the Cadmean teeth or rather after the manner that the monsters of the mud of Nilus Mushrums and other fungous excrescences arise as Censorinus and others recite Crescebant uteri terrae radicibus apti So our Poeâ— l 5. That of Diogenes Laertius in Democrito 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Void and Atomes were the Principles of all things which makes Leucippus Plutarch Cicero and the rest seem as it were to deliver that these two were the very Elementa rerum generalium is upon no hand to be so understood since we are onely to receive Atomes upon this account to which Vacuum affords nothing besides place and discrimination For albeit indeed we finde it mixed with all bodies yet we are in no wise to admit it as any constituent part of them and therefore Plutarch wittily expresses Corpus by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Inane by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he would have said abody is something void nothing which sense we must be sure to carry about us throughout the Poet. In the mean time there is a middle and more probable opinion as some conceive who allowing of no such Atomes pitch upon Insensible parts infinitely divisible which being uâ—ited with many become sensible Now to proceed how these Atomes were fancied to be hurried about in that immense inanity wherein was neither extreme top middle nor any bound how some of them being light some sharp others round angular crooked c. fell into that goodly form of the heavens and earth by a certain fortuitous coition encounter and happy concourse we shall demonstrate more at large in its proper place having here onely cleared the meaning of the notion whilst we proceed with our Poet who that we may the better comprehend it tells us first that there is In rebus inane Quod tibi cógnosse in multis erit utile rebus c. A Void in things Which rightly to conceive much profit brings Seeing there would else want room for his established Principles to move in This therefore our Poet signifies frequently by the name of Locus Place not as Logicians understand that term where we never encounter it without a body but conceive it as absolutely devoid of body as the Principles or Atomes themselves are sollid compact and without the least imaginable vacuâ—ty Aristotle names it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the space of body we may happily English it Room Qua propter locus est intactus inane vacansque Quod si non esset nulla ratione moveri Res possint c. Therefore there is a place Intangible and void else in no case Could ought be mov'd c. If there be motion there must of necessity be a void for so Epicurus Syllogizes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. nor were it otherwise possible that a body could subsist in place already assumed without the dislocation or thrusting some other body out of the place pre-occupied and taken up to salve the absurdity of penetration and therefore unleâ—s the first body recede to the succeeding there could be no such thing as any principle of motion or lation neither indeed could any thing proceed and stir any more then those flints and extravagant shells which now and then are found in the very heart of huge stones and the entrails of the hardest rocks Nor is it possible to relieve this by any device of Rare or Fluxil nature which some have contrived unless there be first admitted an intermixtion of inanity Lucretius therefore most industriously labors to fix this speculation in particular to demonstrate that unless we admit of Void all things would be pressed constipated and so wedged in on all parts that they could not onely not move at all but there would be no production of things Local motion being a requisite so absolutely indispensible to all generations whatsoever Yea so frequent is this inanity that even the most solid Concretes have no contexture without it as he very dextrously proves by the insinuation of moisture through the very rocks of the most obdurat marbles The diffusion of Nouriture the congelation of obstinate things and lastly by the strange penetration of voyces All which pass through by those intercepta spatiola's and pores which before we mentioned Nam si tantundem est in Lanae glomere quantum Corporum in plumbo est tantumdem pendere par est If in a ball of yarn the substance were Equal with Lead like weight it ought to beare Each body consisting of more or fewer Atomes and abounding more plentifully in Void The size proceeds from
with the very members of a man as is easily collected out of those Verses in Ammonius comment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he affirmed to consist onely of a divine and holy mind moving and governing the Universe by cogitations most swift and incomprehensible To this add his conjecture that all things were created by a certain amity consent or harmony amongst the Elements and that they perished onely by some unhappy discord as for the Soul that it onely resided in the blood essentially which was also the opinion of Critias whence the Poet Purpuream vomit ille animam And that those who were best furnished with that crimson humor were more generous spirited then other men and consequently of better judgement but I quit this It should seem he was a very rare person indeed that the great Aristotle should ascribe the invention of Rhetorick to him and whose discourses our Lucretius who else believed little of those fabulous divinations and Spirits should prefer to the very Oracles of Apollo the descant of whose Responses if our Carus have not sufficiently described let the curious Reader consult Porphyrius recited by Aug. de Civit. dei l. 20. Herod l. 1. c. And yet this person as learned and universal as he was for his thus blending and marring of Principles with the rest as the Stagyrist somewhere pronounces of other Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Poet interprets Principiis tamen in rerum fecere ruinas Et graviter magni magno cecidere ibi casu Yet these great persons all receive great falls And split themselves on false originals And such it seems besides Empedocles c. were those who Motus exempto rebus inani Constiâ—uunt res mollis rarásque relinqunt c. Motion without void avow And yet of things do soft and rare allow For Lucretius is far from denying the four vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are compositive parts of the Vniverse but onely when usurping on that prerogative of Atomes men affirm them to be the principles of the Concretes And again for that they utterly reject all Vacuum and yet admit of other things which cannot possibly subsist without it In the second place that they affirm all things to be infinitely dividuous rejecting Atomes to which when once a division is arrived there is a certain period to all farther Anatomization of Bodies Thirdly that they constitute soft and per consequens mutable principles such as Fire Earth Aire Water c. which must of necessity annihilate Fourthly for that they produce contrary and repugnant Elements such as Fire and Water c. expressed in our Poet by Inimica Venena inter se reciprocally destructive Fifthly that they make the Elements to be the principles of Bodies rather then Bodies to be the principles of the Elements And lastly because they acknowledge the four common elements to be changed into things being once dispoil'd of their natures which are immediately to revert into the Elements again or in case they still preserve their natures remain onely capable of making some confused and rude heap without producing any thing perfectly distinct Non animans non exanimo cum corpore ut arbos Quippe c. No living thing nor things inanimate As Trees for that c. For Epicurus did not admit of any Soul to reside in Plants but held that they were governed and grew by vertue of a certain nature not vegitable proper to them alone and yet affirmed that they live that is enjoy a peculiar motion as the water of Chrystal springs the fire which we excite to a flame is called living water and living fire something analogical to that which I think is more difficult to express then comprehend for such is fire without light c. But concerning this see the express Treatise written by the learned T. Campanella in his Book De sensu Rerum Magia c. The sum is that those four vulgarly reputed Elements are not the Principles of natural things to the prejudice of Atomes Lastly for that This too Repetunt à coelo atque ignibus ejus Et primùm faciunt ignem se vertere in auras Aeris hinc imbrem gigni terrámque creari Ex imbri retroque à terrá cuncta reverti Humorem primùm post aera deinde calorem Nec cessare haec inter se mutare meare De Coelo ad terram de terra ad sydera mundi Quod facere haud ullo debent primordia pacto From heaven and from his fires they bring And first the fire to aire transform'd they sing Hence rain sublim'd and Earth condens'd of rain And so from Earth they all retire again First Water then the Aire and Fire in trains Nor once this course to cease but to and fro From heaven to earth from earth to heaven they go Which Principles refuse c. Making a Transmutation to preserve them from destruction as repaired by a compensation of parts even as the Species are still conserved by a continual succession of new Individuals Thus like Antimonie they operate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doctrine is wholly repugnant to the nature of Principles which ought to be stable and fixed as hath abundantly been shewed All which considered saith Carus Potius tali natura praedita quaedam Corpora constituas ignem si forte crearint Posse eadem demptis paucis paucisque tributis Ordine mutato motu facere aeris auras Sic alias aliis rebus mutarier omnis Rather such bodies state that fire shall make Add some few things away some other take Order and motion chang'd turn to thin aire Thus every thing doth every thing repaire For so it is spontaneous things are produced as by the mutual conversion of Water and Aire viz. by the various disposition and conjugation of the very identical parts and so in like sort by access and addition as those things which spring up of seed by Fermentation Coagulation c. till they specifie accordingly so also by Detraction of parts as Wax by separating it from the honey Spirits from the Phlegm and other Chymical principles by fire as might be infinitely exemplified At manifesta palà m res indicat inquis in auras Aeris è terra res omnis crescere alique c. But you 'll object all things from Earth do spring Up into th' Airâ— and thence have nourishing To which objection that the Plants and Animals derive their nutrition from the four Elements it is answered That those Elements are nor really the first Principles of them for they are indiscernable these are evident But thus it is that in these compounded Elements those so abstracted and inconcrete are disguised and latent through which it happens that whilst these Vegetables seem to receive their nouriture from the moisture of the showers and propitious warmth of the Sun each of our Poets Corpuscles contribute to those of the same nature and which are homogeneous to them Namque eadem
and which generate our blood and produce our humors bowels bones c. would appear and by the same reason we may as well expect milk from herbs small cions trees and seeds of every species when men delve the earth without the industry of planting for if all things be thus universally mixed we might then certainly finde as well all things in every particular thing yea Grapes of Thorns and figs of Thistles For all this sain would Anaxagoras confirm his opinion because saith he I see fire to be produced by the collision of stones and other obstinate things forced one against another which in the mean time our Poet conceives to be onely the seeds of fire since if it were really fire we must of necessity perceive also the smoak ashes and other inseparable accidents thereof when at any time men cleave or excorticate wood for their use At saepe in magnis fit montibus inquis ut altis Arboribus vicina cacumina summa terantur Inter se validis facere id cogentibus austris Donec flammai fulserunt flore coorta Scilicet c. But thou affirm'st on Mountains which aspire That tops of trees are oft times set on fire Till they do flame again with glowing heat When Southern winds them on each other beat That this sometimes succeeds an accident in Thucydides and frequent experience confirms and our Carus denies it not yet it does not proceed from any actual fire in them but there are certain seminal Atomes which include indeed a potential fire which being extremely agitated moved and by that means the body opened are freed from their prisons can produce such an effect or conflagration but far from what Anaxageros dreamed of and therefore he is fixed to the purity and immixture of his Principles which being common to many things according to their position compose and terminate in such and such Individuals Jamne vides igitur paullo quod diximus antè Permagni referre eadem primordia saepe Cum quibus quali positura contineantur Et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque Atque eadem paullo inter se mutata creare Ignes è lignis quo pacto verba quoque ipsa Inter se paullo mutatis sunt elementis Cum ligna atque Ignis distincta voce notemus See you not then as we observ'd even now It much imports of the same seeds to know With what and in what posture being joyn'd What motions are receiv'd and what assign'd And how together changed they create Fire out of wood just as the words relate The Letters but a little chang'd when we Lignum and Ignem plainly signifie For wood is compounded of a very vast variety of Corpuscles which being so and so disposed constitute the forms as well thereof as of divers other things less concrete as some purer and moveable bodies therein may specifie and produce fire flame smoak c. according to its composition density coherence laxity and resolution c. so that there is in truth onely this simple connexion disposition and fabrick of the parts at any time destroyed when the matter is fired and to all appearance consumed viz. it s external form species and accidents which denominate it wood the rest being resolved into flame fire smoak ashes phlegm spirits salts c. all which are those minute particles that do seminarily lurk therein though never so imperceptible to our senses And as touching their connexion of what forms and how apt our principles are to effect that work we shall shortly demonstrate Denique jam quaecumque in rebus cernis apertis Si fieri non posse putas quin materiai Corpora consimili natura praedita fingas Hac ratione tibi pereunt primordia rerum Fiet uti risu tremulo concussa cachinnent Et Lacrumis falsi◠humectent ora genasque Lastly if in things obvious to our eyes You think they cannot be made otherwise Except you shall a similar matter finde For every body in its several kinde Then by this means the principles of all Are quite destroy'd so that it must befall They can into excessive laughter break Or wet with briny tear the face and cheek If there remain nothing save Corpuscles in the world and that they result from similar principles then must they in like manner be concrete rational and animate things such as principles cannot be imagined for if things sensible necessarily consist of parts of the like nature this absurdity will of consequence ensue that functions affections and actions should distinctly be ascribed to certain Elements proper onely to them and so those membranes and nerves the pores c. The pores of the brain opened by the received motion of several objects which do not onely concern and stir up such and such particular muscles apt to the moving of those members but which do even touch the very fibers of the Heart it self and other Organs upon which as on a Harp expressions and accents of sorrow joy fear anger and other perturbations and affections of spontaneous motion are incited must forthwith have every one of them its particular ridiculous or lachrymant principles now that principles should be joyful or Lugubrous were very ridiculous Philosophy indeed However some later Philosophers seem to favour the Anaxagoran opinion and that these affections do really praeesse in Elementis though nor altogether after the same manner quo in homine S. Augustine may be a little suspected too where he asserts Omnium rerum Sem ina occulta extare ab initio And so our Poet concludes his dispute with the Greek Philosophers who were in truth the chief oppugners of his doctrine But because what remains will be somewhat difficult to comprehend in most elegant Verses which really declare him to have been an incomparable Master in the faculty ingeniously confesses what it is which makes him so indefatigably pursue it namely the fame and future glory of his person especially when like him men attempt such difficulties as were never before adventured on and the rather in Verse that being matter hugely abstruse the deliciousness of his charming numbers may render it more agreeable to the Reader carmen autem compositum oratio cum suavitate decipiens capit mentes quo voluerit impellit saith the eloquent Lactantius emulating herein the Physician who being about to administer any unpleasant dose either gilds the Pill or conveys it in some sweet and tempting potion which passage not onely Themistius in an oration ad Nicomedienses did make bold with but the incomparable Tasso hath thus translated in his first Canto Str. 3. Sed veluti pueris absinthia c. For as who children bitter wormwood give Così à l'egro fanciul porgiamo aspersi Di so avi licor gli orli del vaso Succhi amari ingannato intanto ei beve E dal ' Inganno suo vita receve c. And I thus Interpret So we to the sick childe a cup appoint Whose brim with some