Or elfe, what I before fuccessfully oppos'd, The ALL is FINITE, and in Bounds inclos'd. This taught, my lab'ring Muse next sweetly fings, 505 That proper SEEDS for ev'ry KIND of Things Are INFINITE; that these preserve the MASS, (EV'RY PLACE: And KINDS of Things, by CONSTANT STROKES İN For tho fome KINDS of Beafts we rarely view, As if unfruitful NATURE bore but few: 510 Yet other Countries may fupply our Wants: Thus INDIA breeds fuch Troops of Elephants, As fight their Wars, and ufually o'ercome; So num'rous are they there, fo few at Ro M E. But grant in NATURE fuch a SINGLE ONE, 515 The LIKE to which nor is, nor e'er was known: Yet were, its proper SEEDS but FINITE; how Could that be made; or when 'twas made, how grow? For think the SEEDS of any fingle Mass, Being FINITE, scatter'd thro' the MIGHTY SPACE, 504. This taught, &c.] Gaf-ber than others: To which he fendus has omitted the four firft aufwers, that the Animals that of these Verses, as being impro-are foarce in one Country, abound per to the Explication of the in another: for Inftance, that Argument and indeed we may there are many Elephants in Indifpenfe with the Want of them, dia, tho' he fcarce ever saw one if we take Lucretius to be difat Rome. In the next Place, puting ftill concerning the Fi- that granting there were but one gures of his Atoms: but if we only Thing of one certain Kind confider the particular Argu- in the World; yet unless the ment that follows, they feem Atoms of the fame Figure were even neceffary. For he has juft infinite, that only Thing could prov'd the Infinity of the Atoms not be born, nor grow and under each Figure: but forefee- laftly he brings a Comparison to ing an Objection hanging over illuftrate this Affertion: And as his Head, and that it might be it is difficult to find a Simile the better understood together more elegantly exprefs'd, fo we with the Anfwer, he in thefe can never meet with one more 4. V. gives Notice to the Reader properly apply'd: For what can what he is to expect: and cer- better reprefent the perpetual tainly our Tranflatour was in Motion of his Atoms, than the the Right to retain them. But difturb'd and restless Agitation to return to the Explication of of the Sea. Lucretius, who in thefe 33. v. firft objects againft what he has been already arguing, that the Atoms under certain Figures may feem to be finite, because we fee that fome Animals are more scarce and fewer in Num 11. India] A Region of Afia, where there is great Plenty of Elephants, as there is likewife in Africa, tho' none are bred in Europe. Pliny, Nat. Hift. lib. 8. cap. 1o. and Polybius, lib. 5. fay, that in India the 525 520 Where, how, or when, what Force, or what Defign, Nor can DESTRUCTIVE MOTIONS ftill prevail, NOTES. Nor fill all the Space that is: because if there be any Place that can receive another, there may be conceiv'd an Addition to the former Number; and therefore to say it was infinite is abfurd: And this proves that the infinite Atoms of Epicurus can be nothing else but a vaft Heap of dull moveless the Houfes, and even the Stalls (nable. For infinite Atoms must of their Beafts were inclos'd with the Trunks of Elephants: And who knows not that the chief Strength of the Indians confifted in their Elephants, by the Help of which they defended both themselves and their Countrey. 525. That Men, &c.] Cowley in his Davideis feems to have imitated this Paffage of Lucre-Matter, coextended with the intius, :wo The Sea it felf fmooths her rough 536. Are infinite] Lucretius ftruggles hard for the Infinitenefs of his Atoms, the Figures of which he will have to be very various, and thofe of each Shape to be infinite: which laft Affertion is the greatest Abfurdity imagi finite Space. And how then could the World be made, how these various Alterations of Bodies, all which proceed from Motion, is difficult to be conceiv'd. And this likewife preffes the Hypothefis of Cartes, and his indefinite Matter, as a little Appli- . cation will discover. 537. Nor can, &c.] Thefe Io. V. contain an Argument that is a neceffary Confequent of the Former. Ifwe grant the Seeds of one Sort of Figure to be finite, then the Things that are compos'd of thofe finite Seeds, when, they once come to be diffolv'd could never be reftor'd. If the Seeds Nor Motions, which compofe or else encrease, 540 Always preferve Things made, but fometimes cease: So these two CONTRARIES do always jar With equal Force, and ftill maintain the War: 545 And ev'ry Day and Night the tender Cry Of new-born Babes joins with their Sighs that die. The EARTH does in it self such PARTS Contain, T NOTES: Seeds were finite, we should in vain expect the Growth and Generation of Things. And what is more certain than that fome Things are born, and grow; and that others decrease and dy? From whence it must be concluded, that the Seeds of a like Figure are infinite in Number. And Nourishment to Man and Beast. For all thofe Things can not proceed from Seeds of the fame Magnitude, Weight and Figure. Then in 64. v. he fubjoins many Things concerning the Earth: how the antient Poets feign'd her to be the Mother of the Gods, and call'd her Cybele: he defcribes the Ornaments of that Goddess, explains the Mysteries of the whole Fable, derides the Superftition of it, and at length falls foul upon Providence it felf. 547. Now you, &c.] He has hitherto been proving the Infinity of Atoms under all the feveral Sorts of Figures: and now in 4. v. he teaches, That Things can not be compos'd of Seeds of one and the fame Figure; and 554. For many, &c.] As Hethat the various Qualities of cla, Vefuvius, and other MounThings proceed from the Varie-tains, which, as well as Etna, ty of the Seeds, which muft ne eject Flames; a convincing Proof ceffarily produce a Variety like- that there are fubterranean Fires, wife of Contexture: And this and thofe too, great and many, indeed he fufficiently proves in as appears likewife by the Vulca feveral Places. nian Islands, and by the Hot 551. The Earth, &c.] In thefe Baths and Fountains that break 6. v. he brings his firft Argu-out of the Earth in many Places ment from the Earth, which, and which, as Vitruvius lib. 2. none will deny, confifts of feveral rightly obferves, could not be, Sorts of Seeds, if they confider fi non in imo haberent aut de the Springs that bubble, and the fulphure, aut de alumine, aut Flames that burst out of its bitumine ardentes maximos igBowels, together with what nes: in which Words he briefly Variety of Trees and Plants it declares the Caufes of them. To produces, and that it fupplies which, as a farther Proof, not T τα Book II. 555 And fuch whence Trees and tender Shrubs do fhoot; And Grafs for Beafts, for Man fweet Corn and Fruit. Hence term'd the MOTHER of the GoDs; confess'd The common PARENT too of Man and Beast. The POETS fing, that thro' the Heav'ns above, 560 She CHARIOTS, drawn by fierce yok'd Lions, drove; NOTES, And to mention divers others, may be animantibus victum, Magnam The Mother of the Gods] So 557. Hence term'd, &c.] The Earth,which produces all Things, is faid to be the Mother of the Gods, of Men and of Beafts. Holy Rites are inftituted to her, which Lucretius applies, partly to natural, partly to moral Philofophy. Thofe which relate to Jupiter he proposes as a Subject worthy of Derifion; but he is defervedly own'd as a Goddefs for the Reafons he enumerates in these 49. v. in which he tells us why Men gave the Earth the Name of Magna Parens, Great Mother, and why he was worfhip'd as a Goddess : And he takes Occafion to explain the Ceremonies that were obferv'd in the Myfteries of that great Mo ter Qualis Berecynthia Ma Invehitur curru Phrygias turrita Læta Deûm partu, centum com- -In Pomp fhe makes the A hundred Gods her sweeping Her Offspring all, and all com- In a Palace at Rome, belonging DOMUS ETERNA FLAVIE 560. She Chariots, &c.] Vir ther, and gives the Reafons of gil fpeaking of this Great Mothofe Rites. The fame Ceremo-ther, fays, nies are likewife mention'd by St. Auftin, de Civit. Dei, lib. 7. Hinc fida filentia facris, c. 24. And Arnobius, lib. 3. adv. Et juncti currum Dominæ fubi Gent. fays, Quidam è vobis ere leones. Æn. 3. v. 112. She And riding to and fro, fhe wanders there : 565 They yoke fuch Beafts, to fhew that ev'ry Child, NOTES. } And She fecret Rites and Ceremonies was admitted into the Secrets of Nature as far as any of the La ons brought. taught, And to the Yoke the favage Li- tins, vifibly favours this Belief: Dryd. Hujus aeris vi fufpenfam cum quarto aquarum Elemento librari medio fpatio tellurem, fays he, lib. 1. Nat. Hift, cap. 5. And Achilles Tatius, in Arat. Phanomen, illuftrates the Libration or Sufpenfion of the Earth in the following Manner: Put, fays he, one fingle Seed of Millet, or any other fmall Grain whatfoever into a Bladder, and by blow 562. They teach, &c.] Macrobius Saturnal. lib. 1. cap. 21. Hæc Dea leonibus vehitur, validis impetu atque fervore animalibus; quæ natura coeli eft, cujus ambitu aer continetur, qui vehit terram. This Goddess is carry'd by Lions, impetuous and firy Animals; of which Nature is the Heaven, within whofe Circum-ing the Bladder full of Air, the ference is contain'd the Air, that carries the Earth. Thus too Claudian : Et qui perpetuo terras ambitque vehitque, Nec premat incumbens oneri, nec cefferit aer. And Lucan: Seed or Grain will be carry'd up, and remain in the Middle of it: After the fame Manner, the Earth being on all Sides forc'd by the Air, fufpends pois'd in the Midft of it. See Turnebus, 1. Adverfar. 4. c. 17. where he explains thefe Verses of Ovid. Et circumfufo pendebat in aere Tellus' Dum terra fretum, terram- Ponderibus libraţa fuis. que levabit Aer. Metam. 1. 1. 565. They yoke, &c.] Thus To which Ariftophanes, in Nu- too Ovid, 4 Faft. bib. likewife alludes: Ὦ δέασολ ̓ ἀναξ αμέτρων αήρ, ὃς έχεις ἢ γιῶ μητέωρον. And indeed if this Opinion were to be examined into, according to the Decrees of Nature, rather than to the Doctrine of the Poets, it would appear ridiculous to leonum Cur huic genus acre Præbeat infolitas ad juga curva comas? coepit: feritas mol Defieram: Creditur: id curry testificatą 568. A Mural Garland] The Philofophers, "Yet Pliny, who Romans had feveral Sorts of T3 Crowns |
