420 As 'tis in VENERY, or when the SEED Wherefore these SEEDS must be of diff'rent Size, Farther, what Things feem HARD and THICK, are (join'd Of PARTS More HOOK'D and FIRM, and closely twin'd; As Iron, Flints, Brafs, Steel, and Diamonds, 430 Gems free from Pow'r of Stroke, fecure from Wounds. But FLUIDS are compos'd of SMOOTH and ROUND; For their small PARTS, by noftrong Union bound, Are very eafily disjoin 'd, and move 435 Or here, or there, at ev'ry little Shove. Laftly, whatever's foon diffolv'd, or broke, As Morning Mifts, or yielding Flames, or Smoke; NOTES. If too is of the fame Opinion in the and hard Bodies of Brafs, Iron, Treatife, De primo Frigido. Stones, and the like. Other ParThen he defcribes the Touch:ticles are smooth, and approachthe darling Senfe of the Epicu-ing to an orbicular Figure, and reans, and the feveral Kinds of of thefe are compos'd all fluid it, not without fome Tranfport Bodies: For the smooth and and Exultation of Mind. round Particles will not join to 421. And ftrange, &c.] The others, yield to the leaft Thrust, Seeds being tumultuoufly mix'd are always in Motion, and roltogether, confound the Senfe, be-ling up and down from Place to cause they are in a fort of Com-Place. motion and Uproar. 430. Gems free, &c.] A Dia427. Farther: what, &c.] He mond is efteem'd the hardest of has hitherto been proving the all Stones, and scarce any Blows Diverfity of the Figures of his can break it. Pliny, lib. 37. C. 4. Atoms from the different Moti-fays of it, Incudibus deprehenons which the Objects excite and ditur ita refpuens ictum, ut fercaufe in the Organs of the Sen-rum utrimque diffiliat. It is fo fes: he now brings other Ar-proof to Blows, that beat it on guments to the fame Purpofe, an Anvil, and the Iron on both taken from the Firmnefs as well Sides will give Way to its Hardas from the Fluidity of Things: nefs. For fome Seeds have little Hooks 435 Laftly, &c.] In these and Clafps, by which they catch 6. v. he fays, there are fome Boand hold fast one another: and dies we may reckon in the Numthe little empty Spaces being ber of Fluids, as Smoke, Mift, fill'd up as much as poffible, they Flame, &c. which may be diffi have not the Liberty of mutual-pated and diffolv'd with the ly disentangling themfelves, and lighteft Stroke, and therefore do getting free from one another: not confift of hooky Seeds inand thus they compofe the firm tangled with one another. Yet thefe If all its LITTLE BODIES be not SMOOTH And ROUND in Figure, Form or Shape, or both, Yet are they not all twin'd, all have not Hooks, 44° And fo may pass thro' Stones, and hardest Rocks. Nor muft you think it ftrange, the fame should be FLUID and BITTER too, as is the SEA: For FLUIDS are of SMOOTH and ROUND combin'd: To these are little PUNGENT BODIES join'd ; (TWIN'D: 445 Yet there's no need they fhould be Hook'D or For they may GLOBOUS be, tho' ROUGH, and thence Are fitted both to Move, and HURT the SENSE. But to convince you with a clearer Proof, That ACID FLUIDS have SMOOTH join'd with ROUGH, 450 They may be fep'rated with Eafe enough, NOTES. For thefe very Bodies hurt and prick the right, and ought to affirm, the Senses; for Mift and Smoke as he does, That fince thofe Fluoffend the Eyes; and Flame pe-id Bodies affect and penetrate innetrates hard Things, and paffes to hard, they are compos'd of even thro' Stones and Rocks: pungent, penetrating and acute therefore they are not compos'd Principles,no less than of smooth of Principles intirely fmooth and round. He for this Reason afferts, that they are made partly of acute Principles. Our Tranflatour has omitted the three laft Verfes of this Argument, which are as follows: Non tamen hærere inter fe, quod quifque videmus Sentibus effe datum: facile ut cognofcere poffis Non è perplexis, fed acutis effe Elementis. Lambinus rejects them likewife, and afferts them to be needlefs: for which Faber commends him, and adds, that they cannot be of Lucretius. The other Editours, Nardius, Fayus, &c. retain them: and fo' too does even Creech himself in his Latin Edition; but only wishes for another Word in lieu of fentibus: in which he feems too critical and hard to please. I take the Verfes to be, not only not ufelefs, but even neceffary; and am of Opinion that Lucretius was in and round: For the Atoms that are either smooth or round, can not prick, offend, nor cafily penetrate into Bodies; nec tamen hærere inter fe, &c. nor do their Particles nevertheless adhere and mutually ftick to one another, as the Particles of Thorns do: infomuch that from thence you may rightly conjecture, that all thofe Things that are fo foon and eafily diffipated, are not compos'd of Principles, that are hook'd, intangled and perplex'd among themselves: but of acute: Non è perplexis, fed acutis effe Elementis: And this is the meaning of this Paffage, which has fo much imploy'd the Interpreters. 441. Nor muft, &c.] There are other Fluids that are both bitter and fharp: For Inftance, the Water of the Sea. And the Poet afferts in thefe 14. v. that all fuch Things are compos'd partly of fmooth and round Prin 132 455 For when SALT STREAMS thro' winding Caverns pass, This being prov'd, I'll now go on to shew, For think that fome minutest Parts compose The SEED; add two; or three, or more to those; Now when the TOP-MOST Parts are plac'd BELOW, And the RIGHT turn'd to LEFT; you'll plainly know, 465 By changing ev'ry way their former Place, What FIGURE each POSITION gives the MASS. NOTES. But ciples, from whence they have receive, fo many different Fitheir Fluidity; partly of fharp gures there will be: Attempt to and rough, from which they de-do the like with an Atom, turn rive their Tartnefs and Bitter- and tranfpofe every Way the nefs. Laftly, he demonftrates Parts that can be conceiv'd in it, that Bodies of that Nature are and you will find only a finite made of Particles different in Variety of Figures in fo fmall a Figure; because they may be fe- Body. Epicurus taught that the parated. For train Sea-water Figures of the Atoms are incomthro' Sand, it lofes its fharp Par-prehenfible, but not infinite, ticles, and becomes fweet, fo that εἶναι τὰ χήματα τῶν ἀτόμων it retains only its fmooth and απερίληπια, ἐκ άπειρα, fays round Principles. 455. This being, &c.] What he here undertakes to prove is this : The Atoms vary in their Figure, and in their Bigners too, as is prov'd already: But yet that Variety is not infinite : thor it be indefinite or incomprehenfible: This he proves, first in 19. v. from the Minutenefs of the Seeds, which he has before demonftrated: for to make an infinite Variety of Figures, the Mafs of fome of the Seeds muft of Neceffity be immenfely great, fince an immenfe Magnitude only is capable of an immenfe Variety of Figures. If you would change the Figure of a Body, tranfpofe its Parts; and as many different. Pofitions, as it can Plutarch, de Placitis Philofoph. lib. 1. c. 3. And Epicurus himfelf writes thus to Herodotus: Ατόμοι 7 Ναφοραῖς ἐκ ἀπλῶς ἄπειροι ἔσιν, ἀλλὰ μόνον απερί Autioi, ei μù μéma TIS TE TOIS μεγέθεσιν ἁπλῶς εἰς ἄπειρον αὐτὰς εκβάλλειν, ἅτε ἐν τῷ ὡρισμούς Myles atteiges comer Apoca's aduratov, 462. Add two, &c.] He does not mean, that you should add two, three, or more Parts; but fuppofe it to confift of three or more, that is to fay, of a definite Number of Parts? Each Figuration requires a peculiar Pofition of the Parts: Now the Parts of any finite Magnitude may be tranfpos'd fo many Ways, But if you'd make it capable of more, You must fubjoin NEW Parts to thofe before, 470 Thus with the SHAPES, the BODY GREATER grows: Unless you grant fome SEEDS IMMENSELY GREAT. } 475 Or GAWDY PEACOCKS Plumes, that court our Eye, Excel'd by FINER COLOURS Would seem LESS BRIGHT, And lose their wonted Power to delight. So Things more SWEET than HONEY would appear, And SOUNDS more SOFT than SWANS falute the Ear. 480 Nay, MUSICK's sweetest Airs would cease to please ; Because there might be better than all these : So on the contrary, we ftill might fall From BAD to WORSE, but ne'er to WORST OF ALL. 485 Still more offenfive to our Ears, our Eyes, Our Smell, our Tafte. But now, fince 'tis confefs'd NOTES. Efteem: while the Things that feem now moft offenfive and difpleafing, and to which we are moft averfe, would be valued above worse that might arife daily. Ways, that no new Way fhall remain to change the Pofition from what it had been in before for otherwife there would ftill be new and new Parts even to an Infinity: from whence the 479. Sounds more foft than Magnitude might at Length be Swans] For Swans, when they conceiv'd to be infinite; but are near their Death, are faid to Nothing of this can be in an A-fing very fweetly: Thus Martial tom, which is too little even lib. 13. Epig. 77. to be seen. 474. Befides; &c.] He brings another Reason in these 16. V. If we grant ftill other and other Figures even to an Infinity, no external Qualities of natural Things would be certain and determin'd fince they might be fo diverfify'd by a new Figuration; that at Length there might arife a better than every beft, and a worse than every worft. Garments of the moft pretious Colours, the fweeteft Odours, Sounds and Taftes, might be furpafs'd by others, and would be no longer in And we can fear no HIGH'R, 'tis likewise true, Thefe various Shapes are finite, and but few. (intense, 490 Laftly; in FIRE and SNow, the HEAT and COLD'S The utmoft Qualities that ftrike our Sense: (troul, These two, as BOUNDS, the MIDDLE WARMTHS CONWhich rise by juft Degrees, and make a WHOLE: 'Tis certain then that these Varieties 495 Are FINITE; and that two Extreams comprize, On this Side melting FLAMES, on that Side ICE. } (Frame 500 That those Varieties of Shape ne'er reach To INFINITE, there must be INFINITE of EACH. NOTES. mö Or terpreter here mentions the Senfe the most intense Power and of Smelling, yet he, at the Be-Force of Fire and Froft, which ginning of this Argument, fays, are the Extreams that bound the Et contemptus odor Myrrha,the Odour of Myrrh would be contemn'd, which Lucretius there alledges as an Inftance of an Object of that Sense. middle Degrees of Heat and Cold: For Fire is the most hot, and Froft, or Ice, the most cold of all Things. 497. This prov'd, &c.] Ha488. No higher] That is, ving prov'd the different Fifrom either Extream; either of gures to be finite, he now adds worft or beft. Nor can there in 7. v. another of Epicurus's Obe an infinite Number of Things pinions; which is, That the between either Extream: be- Seeds of a like Figure are inficaufe every Thing is inclos'd nite in Number: that the glowithin certain Bounds, and can bous are infinite, the oval infineither enlarge it felf into an in- nite, the pyramidal infinite, and finite Magnitude, nor contract it in like manner of all the other felf into an infinite Littleness: Figures: Then he adds a Reason So neither can the Goodness of for this Opinion, from the InfiThings be improv'd to an Infinitenefs of the Atoms which he nite, nor the Badness of Things has prov'd before: For fince the be impair'd to an Infinite. different Sorts of the Figures are 490. Laftly, &c.] In thefe finite, it is evident that if the 7. v. he confirms his foregoing Atoms contain'd under each Arguments. Because, fays he, Sort were finite in Number, Things are generally determin'd there could be no Infinity of Aand bounded by their contrary toms in the Univerfe. Epicurus Qualities; which are fo ex-writes to the fame Purpose in the tream, that tho' they may in- Epistle to Herodotus: Kal' exadeed have middle Degrees, yet slutiti, atras aterthey can have no Degree whatever without or beyond then eg ἔσιν ἀτόμοι, ἐγὼ τὸ πᾶν εἴη felves. Lambine interprets this τῷ πλήθει τῶν ἀτόμων ἄπειρον, of the Zones : but I rather think εἰ μὴ ἀπλῶς ἂν ἔςιν αἱ καθ ̓ ἐκά our Tranflatour in the right,and slu τὲ χημάτισιν ὁμοῖαι. that Lucretius meant to fpeak of او او 504. This |