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
from this their noninanity Praeterea nisi materies aeterna fuisset Ante hac ad nihilum penitus res quaeque redissent c. Besides had matter not for ever been We had long since all things reduced seen c. If in extream resolutions things should absolutely annihilate then certainly all things had long ere this perished and every individual extant resulted from nothing which were a most absur'd conceit therefore saith he they undoubtedly return to some solid matter again without which property Nec ratione queunt alia servata peraevum Ex infinitâ— jam tempore res reparare Nor may we also conceive ought lastinglie Can for eternal reparation be And that he may demonstrate how Nature proceeds to some final and determinate resolutions without any pretence to Infinite he shews for Si nullam finem natura parasset Frangendis rebus jam corpora materiai Vsque redacta forent aevo frangente priore Vt nihil ex illis c. Did Nature when she does in pieces take Things to her self no Bounds nor limits make Matter e're this had been so neer reduc'd To their first cause as nought could be produc'd c. There are therefore some solid Principles that can never be destroy'd And unless there were a certain period stated for the decay of things when it is proceeded as far as those bodies or Atomes they had long ago failed and been utterly annihilated nor were we for the future to have ever expected any successive mature productions since those Moleculae had e're this been obnoxious to so many strokes continual and uncessant encounters as must of necessity have reduced them At nunc nimirum â—rangendi reddita finis Certa manet quoniam refici rem quámque videmus Et finila simul generatim tempora rebus Stare quibus pâ—ssent aevi contingere florem But now to such destruction 't is most plain Limits are fixt since they 're restor'd again And to all sort of things times set in which They may attain their ages perfect pitch For as much as those perpetual agitations terminate being once vared to those solid and irrefragable principles which nothing can eternally alter And thus having partly asserted the Perennity of his Elements he endeavors in the next to demonstrate by another instance that notwithstanding his bodies are thus hard and wonderfully compact yet by being joyned and coupled to Void they may in composition of things be said to be of a Soft Nature Quae fiant aer aqua terra vapores Quo pacto fiant qua vi cunque gerantur c. So Air Earth Water so are vapors bred By what e're power or how engendered Continually pursuing the immutability of his Principles viz. by the indivisibility inconspicuity and simplicity of his Atomes which do not constitute bodies by the least mixture but a certain fortunate adhesion in which our Poet discovers the difference 'twixt Aristotle and Epicurus the one affirming that a body was divisible into parts infinite how small soever obnoxious yet to eternal divisions This our Carus refells by a plain deduction ad absurdum Empedocles was it seems of this judgement But the Other taught that his principles were so small that they were neither actually nor potentially subject to any farther division which Argument our Poet seems here to refer to the Treatise which his Praeceptor expresly writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a minimum as one may speculate to reside in the very point of an angle of some most acute Atome for of such the universal body of his principles consist or at least something Analogical to them as most meet for the generation and supply of things which if actually and infinitely divisible could determine to nothing certain neither if so could there be any difference 'twixt the greatest and the least which were most repugâ—ant to reason This admitted you are saith our Author necessitated to concede a minimum Let the Reader be again admonished that he mistake not our Poets minim for such a Mathematical point as is represented Sans magnitude our principles enjoy it and likewise figure as infinitely variable as theirâ— is divisible amongst the Peripateâ—icks which Apices or least of things upon serious and speculative disquisition may happly prove a notion to be hardly denied whether Physically or Mathematically taken as the much admired Gassendus largely demonstrates where he speaks de non esse magnitudinem Epicuro infinitè dividuam whether I refer the curious and to something which we shall speak hereafter Lastly Si minimâ—â— in Partis cuncta resolvi Cogere consuêsset rerum natura Creatrix Jain nihil ex illis eadem reparare valeret c. Now suppose Nature from whence all things created rose Did not each thing into least pieces take She never could a new the same things make The various readings of which Verses I suppose to have here reconciled The drift of the Poet being still to oppose the infinite divisibility of principles from their then incapacity of new productions Having thus established his own he falls next to examine and refel the opinions of some other renowned Philosophers And first he encounters Heraclitus who taught that Fire was the very first matter Atque ex igni summam consistere solo c. And that of Fire consisted the whole mass This is that Sceptick who also affirmed that the world was repleat with Daemons or Spirits that the Sun was onely an actual flame which yet he sensually believed to be no bigger then its Phaenomena But to return to our subject Thus Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all things consisted of fire and reverted again into it by a certain rarefaction and condensation flowing much after the manner that rivers do That Fire when it became condensed grew moist and so was made Aire Aire congregated resolved into Liquor and Water congealed and waxing more concrete turned into Earth all which was performed downwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and then it ascended gradually again beginning with the lowest and most ponderous The Earth attenuated dissolved into Water of the Water rarified was made Aire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reâ—â— after the same process which makes our Poet worthily reproach this Ephesian Philosopher as one Clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter inanes Quam de gravis inter Graios qui vera requirunt Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque Inversis quae sub verbis Laâ—itantia cernunt Veráque constituunt quae bellè tangere possunt Aures lepido quae sunt fucata sonore Cry'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 accenâ—s quaint Strike the pleas'd ear and with trim phrase doth paint This was that Maudline Philosopher whom they report to have wept so often at the vanities of other men
which yet say some he did but dissemble out of excess of fast and disdain as conceiting himself the onely person in the world for profoundness of Learning and Wisdom By the Character our Poet gives him it seems he much delighted to be little understood and Lucretius was no admirer of Hierogliphical learning yet not out of disaffection to pure and natural Eloquence but when it was empty and jejune of matter or that any science was delivered in obscure language which have made some write on this place as if by Inversis quae sub verbis c. signified how Heraclitus was addicted to the childish spelling or pronouncing his words backwards because Vitruvius and some others have named him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his affected obscurity and Laertius where he repeats divers reproachful Nicknames given to sundry of the Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi nimirum turbaâ—orem confusorémve c. ob affectatam in scribendo obscuritatem a great lover of enigmatical and tropical expressions which makes Nardius on this place very much in choler against our poor Chymists at whose canting he is exceedingly bitter and impatient But to our Poet whose first quarrel against Heraclitus is Cur tam variae res possent esse requiro Ex vero si sunt igni puróque creatae c. But how things can thus differ I enquire If they proceed from pure and real fire To prove that no solitary thing or Element alone can possibly be this catholick Principle especially since as it follows they neither admit of Rarefaction Condensation or Vacuum without which it must of necessity still remain Fire such yet as in defect of Vacuum to move in it could not be the principle being thus destroyed by reason of its density incompatible with its nature as is evident by the light heat and effects thereof which evidently discovers its Rarefaction and Admixtion with Vacuum But Quòd si forte ulla credunt ratione potesse Ignis in Coctu stingui mutaréque corpus c. If haply some perswade themselves that fire May shifâ— it's body and i th' mass expire c. And by this shift become Earth being endued with more crasse and thick particles for so Plutarch seems to deliver it for him viz. that by contraction it becomes Earth and again by laxation Water this evaporated and extenuated Aire c. It should by this process utterly lose the being and prerogative of fire as exceeding its terms and so not being what it is established for must of necessity annihilate of which Nothing we have already proved it impossible that any thing should consist Fire therefore by being extinct cannot properly be said to be changed into any other substance seeing a simple body is incapable of alteration without a total perdition And then if ought remain it is Atomes the common matter and principles which we all this while contend for and which by their Addition Detraction Transposition c. sometimes indeed appear in the form of Fire and sometimes of other things as the hath here expressed it Heraclitus saith he believes his senses by which he understands what Fire is 't is perspicuous Why doth he not as well credit them when it perceives or feels other things which be altogether as obvious and visible such as Aire Earth or Water which may all by this argument be as well Principles as his pretended Fire As much saith our Poet have erred those other Philosophers Qui principium gignundis aera rebus Constituêre c. Who Air the universal source have deem'd I suppose he means Cleanthes and Anaximenes Milesius Anaximents Infinitum aera dixit esse ex quo omnia gignerentur as Cicero The like is affirmed by Plutarch who also ascribes the same opinion to Archelaus the Athenian and thence it is reported that Apolloniates Diogenes believed it to be the common God or rather Principle in respect of its immense extension and the vast space which indeed it employeth aut Humorem quiâ—úmque putârunt Fingere res ipsum perse terramve creare Omnia c. Or that pure Water or the earth have esteem'd Forms all c. Of which opinion was Thales Milesius one of the seven Sages the same who named God the Mind though he reported water to be the first Principle out of which the Minde educed all other materials moisture the Principle and God the Cause Of which see the elegant Lactantius Cicero de Nat. deor l. 1. Vitruvius l. 2. c. 2. and in proaem l. 8. Indeed though some hardy men father this Philosophy on Moses yet that Water is really a very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universal Principle besides the fore-cited Thaâ—es Hippon Empedocles and Theophrastus were of the same saith Hippocrates himself attributes much to it and of later times the great Sendivogius and generally the best learned Spagirists But above all is famous that experiment delivered us by Helmont of the growth of his tree supplyed onely by this humor Let the curious consult his works for I hasten As concerning the Earth Hesiod and some others first broached In fine he concludes that whoever they are that constitue Fire Heat Aire the Water or indeed any other solitary Element to be the Universal and Common Principle Magnopere à vero longéque errasse videntur Have all alike at large from truth estray'd Adde etiam qui conduplicant primordia rerum Add those who principles of things combine The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or General of these Philosophers such were Archelaus and Parmenides the one making Fire and Water the other Earth and Water to be rerum principia was the learned Empedocles by Sect a Pythagorean by birth a Citizen of Agrigentum a town in Sictly now called Naro and Gergento whose coast our Poet here most elegantly describes together with the rivage and vorago of Charybdis the horrible and ignivomous mouth of Aetna not improperly mentioned in this place as into whose jaws some report he precipitated himself his hopes were to have made men think he had passed some extraordinary way to Immortality if the unlucky ejection of his iron Sandals which he forgot to dispose of had not detected his ambition and folly Some say he fell into that Barathrum by accident as the elder Pliny perished at Vesuvius whilst he was Philosophizing upon the cause of those terrible Vulcano's The particulars mentioned here by our Carus are onely in honor of this Illustrious Heroe whom he even Canonizes and makes a Demi-god of But certainly a very extraordinary person he was in imitation of whose former work upon the like subject some affirm that our Poet composed these six Books de Rerum Natura and how great a man he was may be seen at large in Diog. Laertius where he informs us how neerly he approached to the description of God whom whilst some with the Anthropomorphite imagined to be composed of humane form and shape that is to say
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
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
motion And that nor base nor superficies be Resolv'd since all things to the middle flee Should you suppose ought on it self can rest And all those weights beneath be upwards prest That they may on this Hemisphear repose Whence they maintain that as calm Water shows Shadows and Images of things that so Beneath our feet some Animals do go Which on th' inferiour Regions of the Skie Can no more fall then may our Bodies flye Up to Celestial Thrones that they see light Of Sun when we enjoy the Stars of night And th' Annual seasons interchang'd always Divide with us and have nights for our daies But some fond error first these things devis'd ' Mongst silly men for that they ne're compriz'd The pure Originals of things aright For since that voyd and place are infinite Nothing can Center be or if there were A Medium yet no reason doth appear To prove that it should but in one place dwel And in another not be found as well For every place and space we empty call Bee 't Medium or no it must yeeld all Alike to pond'rousness even wheresoe're Its motion drives nor any place is there Whither when heavy bodies are arriv'd They can in Vacuum stand of weight depriv'd Nor may the Voyd to Bodies yeeld a Base But as its Nature is must still give place Things therefore cannot in such sort be joyn'd As to the middle by desire inclin'd Besides 't is clear because they do not fain As if all bodies would the Center gain But such alone as the most Earthy be And liquid like the waters of the Sea And Cataracts which from steep mountains fall And what of Bodies is terrestrial Against this they oppose that the hot fire And Airs thin breath from the midst both retire That thence the Orbs revolve their trembling light And Sols bright flame fresh nourishments invite In azure Sphears ' cause heat the Center flyes And joyns to exhalations which arise But each thing mortal food from earth receives Nor could top branches of the Trees shoot leaves Unless insensibly the Earth them fed For else like hasty flames already fled The Worlds bright wals would vanish suddenly Through the vast Voyd dissolv'd the rest would be After the same sort hurried that from high Would drop the thundring Turrets of the Skie And under foot the sinking earth to bend Whilst the same ruin Earth with Heaven would blend Crushing all Bodies with disorder'd force Through the profound Abyss to steer their course So that one Moment would no relique leave Save Elements which no eye could perceive And Desert space for from what part soe're You would that Bodies first receding were That part an open sluce of death must prove Where Matter issuing forth would downwards move If then by this slight work thou knowledge gain For one thing will the other much explain Thou canst not err but shalt perceive aright Natures extreams So Things to Things give light The end of the First Book The Stationer to the Reader I Must acknowledge ingenuously That these Animadversions following were some scattered Collections encountred at the end of this Copy which it was the Authors express desires I should totally suppress as being conscious how justly they might importune the Learned to whom he told me they were so little considerable But to advance our particular Interest and gratifie the Printer who objected the Volume was too smal of it self I have adventured to publish this Addition and since I cannot but beleeve it will please some shall beg pardon both of the Writer and Reader for this presumption of their Most humble Servant G. BEDEL ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE FISRT BOOK OF T. LVCRETIVS CARVS DE RERUM NATURA Aeneadum genitrix hominum Divûmque voluptas Alma Venus c. Romes parent Venus joy of Gods above And men c. THe renowned Prince of Troy Aeneas feigned to be the Son of Anchises and the Goddess Venus espoused to his first wife Creusa daughter of King Priamus after the sack of that City with twenty ships he wandred into Italy and carried along with him his Son Ascanius named also Julus where in ad Nuptials he married Lavinia relict of the vanquished Turnus King of the Latines whom he succeeded Now after the Apotheosis of Aeneas Ascanius his successor left a son called Julus Sylvius of whom linealy descended the great Julius Caesar who for this cause as is reported dedicated a Temple Veneri Genetrici Thus the Goddess becomes Patroness of the Family of the Emperors and so by a figure of the Imperial City according to that of the Poet Genus unde Latinum Albanique patres atque altae moenia Romae Whence Latines come Great Albans Ancestors and towring Rome But as Venâ—s is here invocated by our Carus otherwise no great friend to Gods or Goddesses either it is because it was the custom of Poets in all Heroical works of this nature to implore the Divine aid or more probably for that Venus was feigned to preside in Gardens whence according to Varro she was frequently stiled hortensis and wherein our Lucretius his Master Epicurus spent so much of his time was so delighted and first delivered his so celebrated Institution But to approach the design of our Poet by Venus we are to understand that inseparable appetite and inclination to propagate and engender which saith Cicero is by Nature diffused into all living â—reatures for so the Etymologists Venus à Venire because of her universal access The old Poets have derived her original from the Genitors of Coelus cast into the sea whence mixing with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or scum of its waters the Greeks named her Aprodite Cicero in his book of the Nature of Gods makes mention of no fewer then four of this name but for that the Poets chiefly celebrate onely the second to whom they usually attribute all the actions of the rest we shall purposely omit them This was she on whom Mercury begat Cupid It is said that this Goddess being conceived in a great Concha or shell of mother of Pearl floated therein by the propitious aid of Zephyrus mentioned also within few lines of the beginning of this Poem by the name of Favonius a wind which spireth from the occidental point of the Aequinox especially in the spring as being most generative to the Isle of Cyprus where she fortun'd to be taken up by certain Nymphs of that Coast Plato in his Banquet reckons up two more the one very ancient daughter of the Heavens Vrania or Coelestis intimating the brightness and reâ—ulgency of the Divinity together with a most secret affection which she produceth endeavoring to attract our souls and unite them to the Essence of God But the second and yonger daughter of Jupiter and Dione whom he names Pandemia popular carnal and voluptuous comes neerer to the instance of our Poet in this place For Pausanias in his Misen and Plutarch in his Problem's make her
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
but they would out The Trees consume and burn the shrubs about 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 Lastly if in things obvious to our eyes You think they cannot be made otherwise Except you shall a similar matter find For every bodie in its several kind Then by this means the Principles of all Are quite destroy'd so that it must befall They might into excessive laughter break Or wet with briny tears the face and cheek Now give good heed and well observe the rest I know it most obsure but my warm brest Brave hope of praise hath pierced with his dart And rais'd Poëtique fervour in my heart By which instinct where foot did never tread My fancy through unhaunted coasts is led Pleasant it is pure streams in unknown bowres To drink it pleasant is to cull fresh flowres Whence a fair Wreath be for mine own head made With such the Muses never brow did shade First then I teach great things and so the mind From superstitions pressing chains unbind Next that dark things in such clear verse I write And season't with Poëtical delight In this too I my due design shall drive For as who children bitter Wormwood give For healths sake do the Cup first round the lip With the sweet yellow dew of honey tip That so the silly child allur'd by th' taste Off with the bitter wormwood Potion haste And unadvis'd may with a harmless cheat To perfect health be brought by this deceit So now since this discourse perhaps may show Harsh unto some who scarcely of it know As yet since so uncouth to th' Vulgar I My reasons do intend to signifie In soft Piërian verse whose sweet appast May recommend our Muse unto thy tast Whilst thou the nature of all things dost see Deck't with such beauty and variety But since I taught that Bodies most compact Unvanquished perpetually do act Whether their sum defined be or no Voyd too be 't space or place where all things go Let 's search if it admit of any Bound Or stretch immensely to a vaste profound Then sure this All can no way finite be For then it must have some extremity Now nought hath an extream unless beyond Some other thing be which should give it bound So that one may discern the utmost space Then which no further it our sence can trace Since then beyond the whole we needs must grant Nothing remains it Term and Bound must want Nor ought imports it on what clime one stands Since infinite its equal-self expands Throughout Besides were all which now is space Finite suppose one running to the Place Where that extream were should throw forth a Dart Think you t' would fly directly to that part The strong arme aim'd it at and pass out-right Or would something oppose it in the flight For one of them you must at least confess Whilst either doth your Argument distress So that no end to All you must concede For were there ought which did the dart impede That whither it were sent it could not tend Or flew beyond then that were not the end Then thus I urge where ere you fix the bound I ask ye where the Weapon may be found But 't will fall out an end will no where be The Voyd affording room eternally For flight Besides if this All every where With Bounds impaled be and finite were Then would the store of Matter on each side Beneath through poyse of solids downwards slide Nor could there ought under heavens cope be done Nor would there be a Skie or glittering Sun Because all matter must in one heap lye Prostrate and sunk from all Eternity But now have Principles no rest at all Since there 's no bottom into which they fall Or flowing tend and make a fixt repose But each thing by assiduous motion goes Through all parts and th' Eternal Bodies be Thus mov'd supplied from infinitie Lastly that one thing th' other bounds 't is plain For Air invests the Hills Hills Air again And Earth the Seas the Sea the Earth embraces But nought beyond the whole it's limit places Then is the space of place thus deep and wide For else the famous Rivers could not glide With everlasting course nor ever gain That near their journeys end they should attain So that throughout vaste compass does extend Into all parts leaving for things no end Nature her self seems this to have design'd That the whole mass of things be not confin'd Because she Bodies both in voyd includes And into Bodies voyd again intrudes Alternatly so that with one and other She renders all things infinite together For unless both of them conteined were Reciprocally then would each appear In their own nature Boundless Seas nor Earth Nor bright celestial Mansions mortal birth Nor sacred Bodies of the Gods so pure Could the least portion of time indure For this vast matter being once become Dissolv'd had sattered through this Vacuum Rather it nothing could have ere created Because it nere could joyn being dissipated For let 's not think these Principles did range Themselves in order and by Counsel change That each particular motion was decreed Before by Compact But 't was thus indeed That passing frequent changes and in those Induring as it were eternal blows After all Trials did in fine quiesce In the same posture which they now possess Whence the whole sum of al things else are made And keeping in due motion do not fade Nor are at all impeacht for many years This mass preserv'd in its fit posture steers The course of Rivers and doth cause they keep With pregnant waves intire the greedy deep That the Sun-quickned-Earth renews her fruits That Animals bring forth and new recruits Cherish Etherial Fires which in no wise Could be unless abundant matter rise From infinite whence all that lost have been Are wont in time to be repair'd again For as in Animals of nourishment Depriv'd Bodies are lost and Natures spent So all things must dissolve when Matter flies Or deviating fails of due supplies Nor could encounters in the masse each where United keep all that congested were Strike they indeed might often and thereby Retard a part till they the whole supply Others again rebound and are compell'd A space for Principles of things to yeeld And Time to slip away that they might be Thus disunited set at liberty Therefore there is extream necessity That still of things spring up vairety And that there should be infinite supplies Of matter which may for those stroaks suffise To these things Memmius then no credit lend When they say all things to the Center tend And for this reason that the World alone Subsists unpropt by outward
For they the Sense affect 't is manifest But to proceed Tangere enim tangi nisi corpus nulla potestres Touch and be Toucht nought save a body may This was a Proposition established by Epicurus and the tenent is so Catholique that no Philosopher ever made doubt of it viz. as it is a contact of two bodies secundum superficiem by which the sensation is made Our Poet goes on to illustrate his former assertion by the insensible evaporation of moysture in wet cloath or sails displayed in the Sun as also by the curious decrement of such things as we continually touch and handle such are rings long worn upon our fingers and stones wasted by the frequent and uncessant distillation of water according to that old one Gutta cavat Lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo Iron it self and paved ways diminish by the perpetual use nay our very delicate and softer kisses make impressions on the hardest Figures of Brass and Mettal For they used to place Statues in the Porches before their houses Hence Seneca Non facit nobilem atrium plenum fumosâ—s imaginibus animus est qui facit nobilem And Martial Atriaque immodicis artat imaginibus Over which they had also their Titles or Pedigrees engraven Vt eorum virtutes posteri non solùm legerent verùm imitarentur Valerius l. 5. c. 8. And then for the touching of them it was by kissing them as Cicero in Verrem l. 5 speaking of that rare Statue of Hercules in brass And Lipsius Electorum l 2. citing this of our Author Tum portaes propter aena Signa c. Saith Saepe etiam eminus osculabantur porrecta manu What reverence they bore them may also be gathered from that passage in Minutius his Octavius And it seems it was a custom that those who went out of the Cities and return'd into them were used to salute the Images of their Gods which were frequently placed at the Gates of great Towns with a kiâ—â— and indeed wheresoever they saw them The like did they to the Effigies of their Patrons placed over their Palaces which their Sycophants used to kiss and complement as often as they went in and out of which maner of saluting Martial in Epist l. 4. somewhere taketh notice of and Alciat in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juris l. 8. c. 10. in imitation whereof peradventure the Arms or Statues of the Cardinal Patron is to this day in Rome so frequently placed over every Favorites Gate And as for the impression which kisses make I my self have seen at Rome and other places superstitious Devota's even wear the very marbles of reputed Holy Places and Shrines with the often kissing and touching them particularly the Scala Santa near St. Jo de Laterano c. And this I rather take to be the meaning of this place then that they should be Rings Knockers or other Ornaments of Doors and Gates as Nardius seems to interpret But as things wear thus insensibly away by decrement so do they also as strangely delude our curiosity by Increment and Augmentation Touching which Additionals as we perceive not how we our selves decay become lean and consume so neither do we discover how we grow tall and burnish nor how trees shoot up to that monstrous height and bulk and particularly that as the corrosive salâ—ness of the Ocean frets away the very rocks in some places so in other again the stones and quaries themselves do manifestly increase as may be seen in a certain Well in Somersetshire called Ochy-holle the petriâ—ying Well at Knaresborow near York in many parts of Derby-shire and as I my self have beheld in the Cave Goutiere near Tours in France from which rock I brought away many morsels which the water had augmented superinducing a viscid calculous humor or matter like scales or new coaâ—s upon them through the uncessant trickling of a cold spring very â—ar in the bowels of the earth to which we were lighted by torches Not to omit those stately pillars of the high Altar in St. Chrysogono's Church at Trastevere in Rome which seeming to have been formed of the purest oriental alabaster the Friers assured us were made of conjealed water accidentally found in an old Aquaeduct amongst whose ruines they were digging I could readily produce other instances of this nature But that Rocks and Stones themselves grow and daily increase I think no Philosopher can doubt Those extravagant shells and pretty curiosities which we finde in the very â—â—trails of some of them broken do methinks evidently discover that they were sometimes inclosed in a softer and less copious matter Now the cause of this Petrifying property is a stonyjuice for the water which contains the Seeds of so many things that of stones doth especially coagulate therein producing those wonderful varieties which we daily encounter some diaphanous and transparent other dull and opake according to the purity or impurity of that lapidescent humor and the vapors which happâ—ns to subside in their Matrixes and Cavities wherein they are hardned by the Sun and the Ayr And hence it is that they have observed the reason why divers Insects Leaves Straws and the like are so frequently found even in the very bodies of stones an admirable collection whereof is shewed amongst other Rarities by Signor Rugini an Illustris of Venice Thus it chances that many Plants and pieces of Wood nay Fishes Beasts and even Men themselves Niobe-like have been sometimes found Metamorphosed and plainly Lapidescere subeunte puriore humore insinuating its lapidious particles into the pores of such substances by which they become in time so united to them that they do even induere Lapideam naturam For indeed the principia soluta of all things are in a liquid form however in stones they become so exceedingly concrete as was curiously observed by Jo Brunus the French Chyrurgeon mentioned in vita Peireskii who having taken three stones from a childe the first that came was altogether hard the second soft but the last almost fluid and little more consistent then a jelly which yet after a few days became as hard as the rest Not to repeat what is there spoken also of the flexible Whetstone mentioned by the same Author c. And thus it is without question that those innumerable quantities of stones are engendered upon many Plains and places especially such as are obnoxious to slimy Inundations which gathered off never so industriously are yet within a short time covered as plentifully with them again receiving their variety of form by their receptacles volutation detrition and often breakings whilst their matter as we affirmed was not yet arrived to that perfect concretion it afterward attained Corporibus caecis igitur natura gerit res Nature with bodies then unseen to th' eye All things doth manage With which our Carus concludes this present Argument We are now arrived to that great Vacuum which hath for so many ages exercised the pens aud enquiries of
for which there is no little stir 'twixt the Critical Interpreters of this place The sense of our Author is Principles could never have altered their present position and conjunctuâ—â—s and so by consequent men must have expected no more creations New compositions or repairing of things decayed in the world which we have hitherto described to be their constant and natural office whilst they were thus pressed and surcharged under a burthen so vast and weighty for that being naturally heavy as devoid of inanition the sole principle or cause of Levity they must of necessity have been thus miserably percipitated At nunc nimirum requies data principiorum Corporibus nulla est quia nihil est funditus imum Quo quasi confluere sedes ubi ponere possint Semper assiduo motu res quaeque geruntur Partibus in cunctis aeternáque suppeditantur Ex infinito cita corpora materiai But now have principles no rest at all Since there 's no bottom into which they fall Or flowing tend and make a fixt repose But each thing by assiduous motion goes Through all parts and th' eternal bodies be Thus mov'd supplyed from Infinitie Lastly Postremâ— ante oculos rem res finire videtur Aer dissaepit collis atque aera montes Terra mare c. That one thing th' other bounds is plain For Aire invests the Hills Hills aire again And Earth the Seas c. Our incomparable Poets last argument taken from the evidence of our own senses which the learned Bruno thus illustrates Our very eyes saith he acknowledge as much because still we see that one thing ever comprehends the other mai sentiamo ne con esterno ne con interno senso cosa non compresa da altra O simile c. And there is nothing which terminates it self In fine after no less then eight arguments he concludes Che non si puo negare il spacio infinito se non con la voce come fanno gli pertinaci c. nor can it be denyed he addes but by the lewdness and clamor of some impertinents whom he there convinces in no fewer then twenty skilful and very close arguments which it would be here over prolix to repeat In short thus There is nothing which contains or can indeed be said to embrace and bound the Universe but is immensly profound and in a manner infinite so as the most rapid rivers and exuberant streams in the world can never arrive to the limits thereof and therefore do they uncessantly glide Out of this vast space new and never failing supplies are brought to every thing by a perpetual succession of a like number of Atomes to a like number Et medesime parti di materia câ—n le medesime sempre si convertano as the same Bruno expresseth it which is clearly the minde of Epicurus who proves that not onely the Universe is infinite from its number of Atomes or indefiniteness of Vacuum but by both together for so the verses immediately declare yet not as if this Vniverse were continuous but that there are some empty interstices or intermundiums distant from the body for Ipsa modum porrò sibi rerum summa parare Ne possit natura tenet quia corpus inani Et quod inans aâ—tem'st finiri corpore cogit Vt sic alternis infinita omnia reddat Nature her self seems this to have design'd That the whole mass of things be not confin'd Because she bodies both in void includes And into bodies void again intrudes Alternately so that with one and other She renders all things Infinite together Excluding all maner of doubt touching their immensity without at all contradicting their natures operations In the mean time the obscurity of the three ensuing lines hath made some learned Commentators desert them as inexplicable whilst yet they seem to present us with this sense If either there were onely an Infinite or immoderate-immixed Vacuum without as infinite a number of Atomes or bodies to give it term and limits or were there an infinity of bodies and not as infinite a spice for them to act in for Corpus terminatur inani inane corpore then Nec mare nec tellus nec Coeli lucida templa Nec mortale genus nec divûm corpora sancta Exiguum possent horai sistere tempus Seas nor Earth Nor bright celestial mansions mortal birth Nor sacred bodies of the Gods so pure Could the least portion of time endure Nor could any thing enjoy the least permanency but all would incontinently be dissolved for it doth not appear that he any where affirmed the Corruption of one thing was the product of another according to the vulgar sense of Schools and peradventure he had considered those creatures which are so long nourished by sleep and other solitary ways as Bears Tortoises Dormice some sorts of Summer Birds Flies and other Insects which makes Nardius thus wittily exclaim Edaciores proinde atque infirmiores sunt Lucretiani Divi gliribus abstinentibus c. That Lucretius's Gods were more hungry voratious and weak then even Dormice and such abstemious and inconsiderable Animals He thought that portion of matter which is necessary for the quotidian supply of decaying compounds would have else been lost and utterly dispersed in so vast bottomless and indeterminate Abyss nor that any thing could ever likely meet again produce or create if supplies were not equally as infinite The truth is there is no such extream difficulty to comprehend a space in a manner indeterminate to say Infinite were impious so many learned persons having contended the Infinite God being able to effect things infinitely exceeding our slender speculations Heraclitus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the greatest of Gods wonderful works were not known to some men because of their incredulity And as Chrysippus addes Si quid est quod efficiat ea quae homo licet ratione sit praeditus facere non possit id profecto est majus fortius sapientius homine c. if there be any thing created which exceeds the skill and utmost comprehension of the wisest man upon earth it is certainly made by one who is infinitely greater more powerful and wiser then man c. And so an actual multiplicity though not infinity of worlds there may be whilst we content our selves with the belief of a possibility that there may be more then we are aware of For Indefinite is not Infinite man may not finde the Term and yet a Term there may be Let men only modestly remember to reserve the Infinite which the Divines term Essentiae that the speculation may be the safer The rational aud acute Bruno so frequently cited hath travelled far on this Argument Sed Concedamus ut impune de mundis deliravit We are not to look on him as the first that broached it Anaximenes Xenophon Zeno being all of the same Creed Thales indeed affirmed that there was but one World and that
Philolaus a disciple of his interserted another continent of Fire which opinion Sandivogius and other Hermetick Philosophers have also illustrated but that which the Tragedian hath left us upon record if it were not by inspiration and prophecy was certainly next that of our Poets rare encounter of Atomes most happily guâ—ssed Venient anniâ— secula seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet ingens pateat tellus Typhiâ—que novos detegat Orbes Nec sit Terris ultima Thule Hereafter there an Age shall spring Wherein the bands of every thing Seas shall enlarge Typhis moreover Large Tracts and New worlds shall discover Then Thule the Earth shall bound no more In the mean time Lucretius imagined the Earth to be as it were riveted or rooted in the Aire as Anaxagoras did according to Aristotle and that the radices thereof were fungous light and of no considerable weight towards its foundation where as it approached â—igher and deeper so it became more thin delicate and of neer affinity to the aire so as we may conceive some sponge or plant to grow in the sea and that onely the â—uperior face or inhabitable part was the compacted solid and heavy Thus Lucretius and some others thought good to give the world a Cushion whilst commiserating the mistakes of the rest of mankinde he tells them that their ignorance onely proceeded from this ill comprehending and mis-information of his Principles Nam medium nihil esse potest ubi inane locâ—sque Infinita n'que omnino si jam medium sit Possit ibi quidquam hac potius consistere caussâ Quà m quavis alia longè regione manere For since that void and place are infinite Nothing can center be or if there were A medium yet no reason doth appeare To prove that it should but in one place dwell And in another not be found as well For as hath been said Epicurus admitted not of any Center or Medium the space being infinitely Vacuum But as touching the motion of his Principles he affirmed that there was a Superior or an Inferioâ— Region from whence they freely came in a perpendicular and paralâ—l motion perpetually descending yet so as that from whatsoever part they issued as suppose it in respect to our common accepâ—ation from beneath our feet or over our heads Zenith or Nadir yeâ— that he established for above whence they came aâ—d that for beneath whither they tended albeit I say they seemed in our apprehension to mount upwards fly obliquely or collaterally from what point of the Compass soever As for Plato's opinion of medium extremum we are to understand it comparatively as that to be inferum towards which a body did spontaneously and naturally â—end that supremum whither that body was compelled by force of which sort of motions whether they be performed naturally or by some clandestine and magnetick attraction impressed or by any other existent qualities of the Peripateticks let the more learned define it would appear a digression uncapable of an Apology to dilate thereon in this place We conclude therefore with our Poet. Haud igitur possunt tali ratione teneri Res in consilio medii cuppedine victae Things therefore cannot in such sort be joyn'd As to the middle by desire inclind Praeterea quoniam non omnia corpora fingunt In medium niti sed terrarum atque liquoris Humorem ponti c. Besides 't is clear because they do not faign As if all bodies would the center gain But such alone as most terrestrial be And liquid like the waters of the sea c. Which two last verses together with a full dozen following Dionysius Lambinus hath placed next the four extream lines of the first book but finding no other edition to follow him in the transposition nor indeed that it doth much import the sense which all agree to be one of the most obscure passages in our Author I have chosen rather to follow the more frequent and general impressions the thing being no more then this Lucretius findes fault with his Antagonists that whilst they first affirmed all things tended to the Center now as unmindeful of what they had formerly established seem onely to destine some bodies particularly to the medium such as the Earth and Water which â—â—ith our Poet is utterly false since it is notorious that even the most ponderous bodies ascend also This he infers from the production of Animals and Plants which both arise out of and are nourished by the Earth that is by the ascention thereof in juice and other materials whereby they are fed and propagated nay the trees seem to be even thrust out from beneath it piercing as it were the surface thereof with their circular or boaring motion whereas they whom here he contends withal affirm onely the more light such as Ayr and Fire to mount upwards and minister nourishment to the Planets and so per consequens move from the medium contrary to what they before asserted And if this be not the interpretation of this difficult place I shall leave it to the more penetrant judgements and satisfie my self with what a learned Author hath said thereon who yet hath not adventured upon this exposition Omnino hic locus est aliquantum difficilis atque obscurus together with the rest which follows for even the Critical Lambinus is forced to confess it Totus hic locus qui deinceps sequitur miserabilem in modum perturbatus confusus erat ex qua ordinis perturbatione ita obscurus erat ut nulla ex ea probabilis sententia elici posset c. which makes him though to small purpose repeat Quin sua quod natura petit concedere pergat But as its nature is must â—till give place Which verse he used once before speaking of the Center and Johannâ—s Nardius to insert Terra det at supra circumtegere omnia Coelum Ne Volucrum ritu c. But Pareusâ—will â—will have it joyned to the antecedent Verses Illud iâ— his rebus longè fuge credere Memmi c. As we have already explained it which makes him to exclaim also on this passage as an ingens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I conclude Ne volucrum ritu flammarum moenia mundi Diffugiant subitâ— magnum per Inane soluta Et ne cetera conâ—imili ratione sequantur Néve ruant Coeli tonitralia templa supurnè Terráque se pedibus raptim subducat omnes Inter permixtas rerum coelique ruinas Corpora solventes abeant per inane profundum c. For else like hasty flames already fled The worlds bright walls would vanish suddenly Through the vast void dissolv'd the rest would be After the same sort hurried that from high Would drop the thundring turrets of the skie And under-foot the sinking â—arth to bend Whilst the same ruine earth with heaven would blend Crushing all bodies with disordered force Through the profound abyss to steer their course So that one moment would no relique leave Save