So, too, the hound, amid his soft repose, Oft starts abrupt, and howls, and snuffs the breeze With ceaseless nostrils, as though full at hand He tracked the an tiered trembler. And, at times, 1015 E'en while awake, with vigour he pursues Vain semblances of deer as though themselves Started before him, till the phantoms void Vanish at length, and truth regain her sway. E'en the soft lap-dog his inglorious sleep 1020

Breaks not unfrequent, rousing all erect, Urged by the semblance of some face unknown. And as of harsher seeds the trains are formed Of floating phantoms, with augmented force Strike they the mind. Hence birds, with flight abrupt, 1025 Oft to the centre of the sacred groves At midnight hurry, in their dreams disturbed By hideous sight of hawks, on outstretched wing, Prowling aloft all active for the pounce.

Then what vast toils engage men when asleep ! 1030 How pants the mind beneath superb exploits ! Kings strive with kings in combat; or at large Contend, surrender, pour the cries of death; While some fight on, though wounded, loading still All heaven with groans, as though to atoms torn 1035

By some huge lion, or remorseless pard. Some, too, aloud their machinations tell, And thus in sleep full oft themselves accuse. Some on their death-bed seem; and some to leap Headlong from precipices ; by the fright 1040

Awoke, of reason so bereft, the mind Scarce with the day resumes its wonted reign.

While, oft, the dreamer, all athirst, o'erhangs Some joyous stream, and drinks the total tide. So boys asleep, too, deeming near at hand 1045

The public sewer, or close appropriate vase, Oft lift their skirts the native brine t' eject, And stain with saffron all the purple bed.

As the remaining portion of Good's Translation of this book has already been given at page 182, it has been deemed unnecessary to reprint it in its place here.

BOOK V.

WHO, from his burning breast, a strain may strike

Meet for the boundless majesty of things ?

Things now developed ? who, in words alone,

May pour forth praises worthy his desert

Whose matchless mind such wonders first disclosed ? 5

No mortal, doubtless. For, of things explored,

Such the majestic dignity, the sage

Must, so to speak, have been a god indeed:

A god, illustrious MEMMHJS ! he who first

The rules of life devised, now termed by all, 10

Sole, solid WISDOM ; he whose happy art

From such wild waves, such shades of ten-fold night,

Leads us to truth, tranquillity, and day.

What are to him the gods of earlier times ? CERES, who taught the fruits of earth to rear, 15

As fame reports ? or BACCHUS, first who stole The vine's purpureal spirit ? foods mankind Without may flourish, and, through many a clime, This moment know not; but of virtue void, And purity of heart, man ill can thrive. 20

Hence ampler far his claim to rites divine Whose dulcet solaces whole nations feel, Soothing the wounded spirit as they flow.

Should'st thou with him e'en HERCULES compare, Famed for exploits, from reason far thou err'st. 25

For what were now to us, with all their threats, NESLEA'S lion, or th' ARCADIAN boar ? The bull of CRETE, or hydra-headed snake That reared, o'er LERNA'S banks, his dreadful fangs ? Or what to us the triple-breasted strength 30

Of three-faced GERYON, or the horses wild Of DIOMED, o'er ISMARA, and THRACE, And all BISTONIA, snorting ceaseless fire ? What woes could these now menace ? or the birds With huge, uncleanly talons that defiled 35

The climes of ARCADT ? or, feller still, Th' enormous dragon that, with eye severe, Clung round the tree of vegetable gold,

And in HESPERIA kept the glittering fruit ?

How now could such affect us ? fixt remote 40

O'er boundless seas, beyond th' ATLANTIC shores,

Where never mortal else, refined or rude,

Dared urge his desperate sail ? E'en though alive,

Unconquered still, from monsters such as these

What need we dread ? Nought, doubtless, or I err. 45

For savage monsters crowd the world e'en now,

Fearful and gaunt; and hills, and groves remote,

And pathless woods re-echo to their roar;

Scenes, still, our feet with ease may ever shun.

But, with the mind unpurged, what tumults dire, 50

What dangers inly rage! what hosts of cares,

From various lusts, convulse the total man !

What terrors throng ! what dread destruction flows

From pomp, pride, passion, indolence, and vice!

He, then, that these o'erpowers, and from the breast 55

Drives, not by arms, but precepts sage and pure—

Say—ought not this man with the gods to rank ?

Since of themselves, too, and in strain divine,

Much to the race of mortals he disclosed,

And oped the nature of created things. 60

His steps I follow; and, by him illumed, Unlock the laws whence first the world-uprose; Laws that still guide it, and to utmost time Will guide resistless; whence the human soul Was stampt corporeal, impotent to live 65

Age after age triumphant o'er decay, Proving that nought but phantoms cheat the mind, When oft in sleep we deem the dead appear.

What then, in order, waits us but to sing How Nature's perishable system sprang, 70

As sure of fate as erst of natal hour; How, from the mass material, heaven and earth, Sun, moon, and stars, harmonious swelled to life ; What animated tribes, from age to age, Have peopled space, and what have never lived: Whence man, in various tongues, the power possessed Of naming all surveyed ; whence the deep fear, Felt through the soul, of potentates divine, Urging the nations to the culture dread

Of lakes, groves, altars, images, and fanes. SO

Ours, too, the task to show how Nature bends, With power presiding, the reluctant sun And moon through all their courses; lest thou deem These of themselves, 'twixt heaven and earth, fulfil Their ceaseless rounds ; renewing, as they roll, 85

Fruits, and the sentient tribes; or hold the gods Guide the vast frame, unwearied, and unseen. For he who justly deems th' immortals live Safe, and at ease, yet fluctuates in his mind How things are swayed, how chiefly those discerned 90 In heaven sublime,—to superstition back Lapses, and rears a tyrant host, and, then, Conceives, dull reasoner ! they can all things do ; While yet himself nor knows what may be done Nor what may never ; nature powers defined 95

Stamping on all, and bounds that none can pass.

First, to delay no more then, we maintain That earth, air, ocean, these stupendous scenes, These triple bodies so diversely reared, These, MEMMIUS ! these one common day shall doom 100 To utter ruin ; when, for ages propt, The world's vast system shall itself dissolve.

Nor hid from me how new the creed we teach, How wondrous to the mind, that heaven and eartli Should perish ever; or how hard the task 105

By words alone such tenets to confirm. For thus thou e'er wilt find it when thy tongue Opes some fresh subject sight has ne'er surveyed, Nor touch developed, the main roads belief Treads to the breast, and temple of the mind. 110

Yet will I strive; facts, haply, shall themselves Aid me, and thou the world's vast fabric own By dread convulsions shortly must be shook. May fortune's smile this hour from us avert! And truth, not feeling, the tremendous roar 11 •"

Teach, with which all to ruin then shall rush !

Yet on this theme before the muse unlock Her mystic treasures, sager and more true Than e'er the PYTHIAN maid, with laurels crowned, Spoke from the tripod at APOLLO'S shrine,— 120

•2 E

Some salutary precepts would I add,

Lest, chained by superstition, thou should'st deem

Heaven, earth, and ocean, sun, moon, stars exist

Gods in their frame, and of eternal date,

And fear for those the vengeance that pursued 125

The race gigantic, who, with lettered lore,

Shake the world's walls, the radiant eye of heaven

Quench, and th' immortals sketch in mortal terms.

For these, so far from arrogating, proud,

Celestial honours, and the rank of gods, 130

Full proof exhibit, rather, how devoid

Of vital action matter may exist,

And that not every compound frame alike

Boasts the high powers of intellect and mind.

Trees not in ether, not in ocean clouds, 135

Nor in the fields can fishes e'er exist; Nor blood in planks, nor vital juice in stones; But all springs definite in scenes defined. So in the bosom lives, and there alone, Mixt with its blood and nerves, the secret mind. 140

There only lives ; for, could it roam at all, Then rather should we through the body's self, The heel or shoulder, or where else it chose, Oft trace it wandering than forlorn abroad. Since, e'en in body then, the soul and mind 145

Are fixt thus definite, we amply prove That out of body, and a reasoning frame, In putrid glebes of earth, or solar fire, In air, or water, sense can never dwell. And hence these ne'er divinity can boast, 150

Since e'en devoid of animated life.

Nor deem the sacred mansion of the gods O'er aught extend of this material frame: For their immortal nature, far removed From human sense, from matter gross and dull, 155

Scarce by the mind's pure spirit can be traced. Hence, as no touch of matter these can reach, Their finer textures never can impress Material objects, for whate'er exists

Intangible, itself can never touch. 160

And, thus, th' immortal regions must from ours

Wide vary, congruous to their purer frames: As soon the muse in ampler verse shall prove.

T" assert moreo'er the gods for mortal man Reared this vast fabric, and that duty, hence, 165

Bids us extol the workmanship divine, Deem it immortal, and of deathless date, And that most impious is it to arraign Aught thus constructed by the gods themselves From earliest time, for man's perpetual use ; 170

Most impious, though in words alone, to shake The world's firm basis,—such conceits to feign, To talk thus idly, MEMMIUS, is to rave. For what vast gain can e'er th' immortal powers, Blest in themselves, from human praise derive 175

To rouse them in our favour ? what new hope, Such ages after of unsullied peace, Could tempt them once to linger for a change ? New scenes to welcome, joyless proves the past; But where no ill can rise, where every hour, 180

Age after age, propitious still must glide, How can the breast here burn for what is new ? Dragged they their lives in darkness, then, and woe Till sprang th' illumined world ? or, if ne'er born, What cause could man have marshalled for complaint? 18-j Born, it behoves him, doubtless, to remain In life while life one blessing can afford; But what of vital joy ne'er tasted, ne'er Ranked with the living, how can such object, And with what reason, that it ne'er was formed? 190

Whence could the gods the model, too, deduce Of things create, the portraiture of man ? Or in their minds how first the notion spring Whence, too, the powers of atoms could they learn, Changing their act us in position changed, 195

If nature ne'er the visual world had reared ? Atoms, innumerous, that in countless modes, From time eternal have been so convulsed By repercussions, by intrinsic weight

So urged and altered, and, in every form 200

Combined, evincing still some action new, In every mass some effort to create, 2 E 2

That nought stupendous seems it they, at length, Should gain those stations, those connexions gain, Whence sprang th' Entire of all things, and subsists. 205

E'en though the rise of things I ne'er could prove, Yet dare I, from the heaven's defective frame, And many a scene alike perverse, affirm No power divine this mass material reared With ills so gross, so palpable to sight. 210

First, all beneath th' ethereal cope's wide whirl What hills rapacious rise ! what woods beset With tribes ferocious ! what uncultured rocks ! How stretch the stagnant lakes, of life devoid, And the vast main that severs shore from shore ! 215

Then torrid heat, too, and perpetual frost Shut from mankind near half the solid earth : While what of glebe remains, from power innate So throngs with briers, human art can scarce The growth restrain ; by love of life led on 220

O'er the tough spade, or delving plough to groan : For if the share we thrust not through the soil, Subjecting earth, and rearing for ourselves The stores demanded, birth were never theirs. Yet e'en, at times, when, sought by long fatigue, 225

With flowers and foliage laughs the total scene, Th' ethereal sun with rage untempered burns, Or showers abrupt destroy, or biting frosts, Or the wild winds with winnow too severe.

And why, moreo'er, in ocean, or on earth, 230

Does nature nourish, and the tribes augment Of savage brutes and monsters ? why renew Diseases with the seasons ? and with deaths Green and untimely thin the race of man ?

Then the poor babe, too, like a sea-man wrecked 235 Thrown from the waves, lies naked o'er the ground. Weakly and void of every vital aid, When nature first, amid his mother's pangs, Casts the young burden on the realms of light; And leaves to pine full sore, as well he may, 240

That e'er the suffering lot of life were his. While herds, meantime, and beasts of various name, Flourish at ease; no rattles they require,

No broken lullaby of dandling nurse,

Nor varying dress adapted to the day: 245

Nor arms they need, nor garners to protect

Their hoarded treasures, earth and nature boon

To each acceding every latent wish.

And since earth, ocean, heat's redundant stream, And the light spirits of the gentle airs, 250

Whence chief the world is reared, of frames consist Create and mortal, mortal and create Must, too, the total world itself be deemed. For where we see the separate parts of things Of figures formed, now rising, now destroyed, 255

There see we, too, the mass those parts compose Must have alike an origin and end. So, where we view the world's chief members rise, And waste alternate, heaven and earth we hold Erst was created and must soon decay. 260

Nor here, O MEMMIUS ! unconfirmed by proof Deem we maintain that earth, or ether pure, Moisture or heat, are perishable all; Reviving still, and urged to growth mature. For much of earth perpetual suns to dust 265

Burn most impalpable ; and much the tread Of ceaseless traffic into clouds compels, Blown by the winds o'er all the void of heaven. While part, if glebe, the rushing rains dissolve, Or restless tides, if formed of bank abrupt. 270

Whate'er, moreo'er, some other substance feeds Itself must waste proportioned ; whence, since earth The common parent lives, and grave of all, She, too, alike must dwindle and augment.

Then that the fountains, floods, and boundless main 275 Swell with new waters from perpetual springs, Words need not prove; the lavish streams that flow Still undiminished, turn where'er we may, This, of themselves, demonstrate ; while above Mounts all excess attenuate as it forms. 280

For part the bickering winds brush ceaseless, part The sun exhales ethereal, and through earth Part still retreats, and, percolated pure, Fresh bubbles distant at some fountain-head :

Whence winds again the dulcet tide through paths 285 Its liquid feet have printed oft before.

To air now turn we, varying every hour In every mode: for all that pours profuse From tnings perpetual, the vast ocean joins Of air sublime; which if to things again 290

Paid not, thus balancing the loss sustained, All into air would dissipate and die. Hence, born from things, to things air still returns Ceaseless, as prove their fluctuating forms.

Then, too, th' ethereal sun, exhaustless fount 295

Of liquid light, all heaven with flame bedews, And pours o'er lustre lustre ever new. For, fall where'er it may, th' impinging beam Dies in the contest instant. This full clear See we, whene'er by interposing clouds, 300

The solar disc is blotted, and its rays Fractured abrupt; for the bright stream below Then fades, and all the sickening scene is shade. Hence may'st thou learn that things for ever claim New radiance, and that every wave propelled 305

Wastes instantaneous—while alone survives Perpetual shine from rays perpetual poured.

So from our earthly lights, too, trimmed at eve, The pendant lamp, the taper, or the torch Flaring bituminous through clouds of smoke, 310

Stream new-born lustres from their several fires With brandish ceaseless, ceaseless or the scene Would instant frown with discontinuous blaze. So rapid rush they ! such the headlong speed With which the present triumphs o'er the past. 315

So sun, moon, stars alike are deemed t' eject, Birth after birth, still fresh-engendered rays, Glittering through time with light that never lives.

E'en seest thou not how stones themselves decay ? How turrets totter, and the rigid rock 320

Crumbles in time to dust ? how yield, at length, Fanes, altars, images by age worn out ? Nor can the gods resist th' impending fate, Or war with nature. Moulder not, moreo'er, The marble tombs of heroes? as though each 325

Sought, like the form it clasps, an early end.

And rush not oft huge crags, from mountain heights

Hurled headlong, powerless to resist the rage

Of finite time ? for had they flourished firm

From time eternal, they had flourished still. 330

View this vast concave that above, around, Folds all creation in its mighty grasp; This whence, as some tell, all first rose, and where All shall at last return—this too exists Create and mortal; for whate'er augments 335

Aught else, and nurtures, must itself decrease, Repaired alone by matters re-absorbed.

Yet grant this heaven, this earth the heaven surrounds, Time ne'er produced, eternal of themselves— Whence ere the THEBAN war, and fate of THOY, 340

Have earlier bards no earlier actions sung ? Whence fell each chief unhonoured ? and his deeds Shut from the tablet of immortal fame ? But, or I err, the world's vast scope exists New from its nature, and of recent birth: 345

For many a liberal art now first unfolds, And much is still progressive; genius much, E'en at this hour, to navigation adds; Nor minstrels long have struck the dulcet lyre: While the vast science of the RISE OF THINGS 350

Throughout is novel ; and, among the first, I first am numbered who the lore devised, And taught its dictates in our native tongue.

Yet should'st thou deem that all things erst ensued As now, but that the race of men unknown, S~>~>

With all their records, conflagrations dire Swept from the world, or earthquakes deep ingulfed, Or floods, rapacious from perpetual rains, Drowned, and their towns and citadels dissolved: Then flows it doubly thou must own, convinced, 360

That heaven and earth hereafter may decay. For since such woes, such dangers can assail Created things, when once the cause augments Perdition boundless must perforce ensue. Nor by aught else can we ourselves decide 365

Mortal, but that with maladies we droop

Like those whom NATURE ceaseless calls from life.

What lives immortal, too, must so exist Or from its own solidity, empowered

Each blow to conquer, undivided still 370

As primal atoms, long anterior sung ; Or since, like vacuum, of all friction void, Free from all touch, by impulse unimpaired; Or from the want of circling space in which The severing atoms may dissolve and fall: 375

Such want the boundless whole of nature proves, And hence eternal, for no place beyond Spreads where its seeds could waste ; nor from without Can foreign force e'er enter to destroy. But nor, as urged above, exists the world 380

All solid, since in all things void combines, Nor yet all vacuum ; nor, from the profound, Are wanting powers adverse that, into act Once roused tempestuous, may the world derange, Or sever total; nor deficient space 385

Spread widely round, through which, in countless modes, The frame mundane may crumble and dissolve; Hence not precluded from the gates of death Is heaven, or earth, or sun, or main immense, Gates in full view, unfolded wide to each. 390

Hence too, since mortal, each alike exists Of frame created ; for no mortal make Could, from eternal time, the rage have borne Of countless ages urgent to devour.

And since, moreo'er, the world's vast members strive 395 In ruthless war, contending each with each, Seest thou not clear some final shock must soon Decide the contest ? that the fiery sun Perchance may conquer, and each flood drink up Till nought survive ; as oft disposed he seems; 400

Yet idly. For so vast the stores supplied From springs perpetual, such the boundless main, A daily deluge threats us; yet alike Threats us in vain ; for much the winnowing winds Skim from the surface, and th' ethereal sun 405

Such draughts exhales insatiate, that the world With drought than deluge rather must expire :

80 strive they equal, so with powers alike

Pant for the lists. And hence, as lame reports,

Flame triumphed once, and once the boisterous waves 410

Leaped o'er their boundaries, and the world ingulfed.

Flame triumphed, and the total orb Avas fire

When the wild fury of the solar steeds

Whirled through the heavens, and o'er th' astounded earth

Ill-fated PHAETON, whom, deep-incensed, 415

Almighty JOVE hurled headlong from the skies,

While PHCEBUS caught th' eternal lamp, restrained

Abrupt the trembling coursers, reined afresh,

And into peace re-organized the world.

So feign the bards of GREECE, devoid alike 420

Of trutli and reason. Yet the power of fire

Doubtless might triumph, should the fiery seeds

Collect too largely from th' abyss of things :

When or some fiercer force their rage must quell,

Or the red siroc burn the world to dust. 42.5

Thus, too, th' insurgent waters once o'erpowered, As fables tell, and deluged many a state; Till, in its turn, the congregated waves By cause more potent conquered, heaven restrained Its ceaseless torrents, and the floods decreased. 430

But from this boundless mass of matter first How heaven, and earth, and ocean, sun, and moon, Rose in nice order, now the muse shall tell. For never, doubtless, from result of thought, Or mutual compact, could primordial seeds 43.5

First harmonize, or move with powers precise. But countless crowds in countless manners urged, From time eternal, by intrinsic weight, And ceaseless repercussion, to combine In all the possibilities of forms, 440

Of actions, and connexions, and exert In every change some effort to create— Reared the rude frame at length, abruptly reared, Which, when once gendered, must the basis prove Of things sublime ; and whence eventual rose 445

Heaven, earth, and ocean, and the tribes of sense.

Yet now nor sun on fiery wheel was seen Riding sublime, nor stars adorned the pole,

Nor heaven, nor earth, nor air, nor ocean lived,

Nor aught of prospect mortal sight surveys ; 450

But one vast chaos boisterous, and confused.

Yet order hence began ; the mingled mass

Unveiled its various powers ; congenial parts

Parts joined congenial; and the rising world

Gradual evolved: its mighty members each 455

From each divided, and matured complete

From seeds appropriate; whose wild discord erst,

Reared by their strange diversities of form,

With ruthless war so broke their proper paths,

Their motions, intervals, conjunctions, weights, 460

And repercussions, nought of genial act

Till now could follow, nor the seeds themselves,

E'en though conjoined, in mutual bond cohere.

Thus air, secreted, rose o'er labouring earth;

Secreted, ocean flowed ; and the pure fire, 465

Secreted too, towards ether sprang sublime.

But first the seeds terrene, since ponderous most, And most perplext, in close embraces clung, And towards the centre conglobating sunk. And, as the bond grew firmer, ampler forth 470

Pressed they the fluent essences that reared Sun, moon, and stars, and main, and heaven's high walls. For these of atoms lighter far consist, Subtler, and more rotund than those of earth. "Whence, from the pores terrene, with foremost haste 475 Rushed the bright ether, towering high, and swift Streams of pure fire attracting as it flowed. Not differing wide from what full oft we view When, at the dawn, the golden-tressed sun Flames o'er the meadows rich with rory gems, 480

And from the mountains, lakes, and teeming glebes, Draws many a vapour; which, when once aloft By the chill air condensed, to clouds concretes, And with its filmy drapery veils the heavens. So the light ether, as from every point 485

Fluent it rose, concreted, and a bound Gradual assumed, and, thus assuming, grasped In its vast compass all th' evolving world.

Then mounted, next, the base of sun, and moon,

'Twixt earth and ether, in the midway air, 490

Rolling their orbs; for into neither the.^e

Could blend harmonious, since too light with earth

To sink deprest, while yet too ponderous far

To fly with ether towards the realms extreme:

So 'twixt the two they hovered; vital there 495

Moving for ever, parts of the vast whole ;

As move for ever in the frame of man

Some active organs, while some oft repose.

These from the mass discharged, much next of earth Subsided sudden, and the gulf disclosed 500

Where ocean rolls his blue and briny tide. And as th' ethereal gas, and solar blaze Flowed more profuse, and lashed, with ceaseless rage, The porous surface, firmer thus condensed Towards its own centre, the corrosive lymph 505

Ampler transuded; and with livelier streams Filled the wide hollow of the liquid plains: And ampler, too, th' attenuate textures rushed Of air, and fire, and, borne on swifter wing, High reared the radiant temples of the sky. 510

Low sunk the vales, the mountains still sublime Stood, for no power their rocky base could shake, Nor equal settled e'en the softer soils. So all was formed : the ponderous bulk of earth Concentred close, and to the lowliest base 515

Fell, the foul faeces of th' unfolding world : While ocean, air, and ether filled with fire, Sprang from the remnant atoms more refined. Yet these, too, differed; for, though liquid all, And light, yet ether far the rest surpassed, 520

Most light, most liquid, and in heaven sublime Hence loftiest towered it, never mingling once With the rude tumults of the lowlier air : For whirlwinds this, and wayward tempests, oft, Shatter abrupt, while ether glides through time 525

In one smooth course, and bears its fires along ; As flows th' undevious EUXINE, and preserves One ceaseless tenor, limpid and serene.

How move the stars, now next the muse shall sing. And first, if heaven's vast orb we deem revolve 530

Round the fixt earth, some subtle gas, perchance, Bounds it on all sides, and with two-fold stream, Whirls round its poles; the current urged above Steering the course the gliding planets point, Themselves hence soon propelled ; while that below 535 Flows adverse, and the nether sphere drives on, As drives the tide the mill's unwearied wheel.

Yet, if unmoved the heavenly orb we deem, Its fires may still revolve: some restless seeds Of all-elastic ether, close pent up, 540

Panting for ease, may agitate their balls, And round the sky's refulgent concave whirl. Or air absorbed extrinsic may, alike, With restless rage compel them ; or themselves Each choose his various path as food invites, 545

Their lucid lamps recruiting through the heavens. But of these causes which in this world rules 'Tis hard t' affirm ; whence rather here we teach What through th' ENTIRE OF NATURE may subsist Mid various worlds to various models framed, 550

And strive t' unfold whate'er may haply bend, In different systems, different stars, than aught Assign precise for either. One alone Of those now numbered, one sole cause propels The stars of earth, but which that cause the sage 555

Yet dares not name, who treads with cautious foot.

But, that this mass terrene might hold unmoved The world's mid regions, its excess of weight, From its own centre downwards, gradual ceased ; And all below a different power assumed 560

From earliest birth, a nature more attuned To the pure air on which it safe reposed. Hence earth to air no burden proves, nor deep Grinds it with pressure; as the limbs no load Feel to the body, to the neck no weight 565

Th' incumbent head, nor e'en the total form Minutest labour to the feet below: While yet each foreign substance, though but light, Grieves oft severely instant as imposed; So vast th' importance things their like should join. 570 For from a distance earth was never brought,

And into air at once abruptly hurled ;

But both sprang equal when the world first rose,

Each part of each as limb with limb combines.

When, too, with thunder shake the realms above 575 Earth feels the dread concussion, and rebounds; Effect which ne'er could flow did nought of tie Bind it to ether, and the world of air: For each to each, as with commingled roots, Cleave from their birth, congenial, and conjoined. 580 Seest thou not, ceaseless, how th' attenuate soul Bears up the ponderous body, since alike Conjoined, congenial; when the total frame Leaps up abrupt, whence flows the salient force But from the soul the members that commands ? 58.5

Seest thou not hence, then, what the subtlest power May compass when with ponderous frames conjunct, As earth with air, or with the body mind ?

Nor less, nor larger much the solar wheel Measures than meets the view: far be the space 590

Of utmost length through which aught igneous throws Its liquid heat, its lustre o'er the limbs, While these yet reach us it can ne'er so far Lie that the distance should curtail its size. Since, then, the sun flings down his fires, profuse, 595 His light on all things, he must still exist Nor less, nor larger than the vision views.

Thus too the moon, shine she with borrowed blaze, Or pour essential splendour from herself, Moves with the magnitude the sight surveys. 600

For all discerned through tracts of air remote Grows first confused and indistinct of form Ere yet its size diminish ; but the moon, Since traced precise through e'en her utmost orb, Must prove the sphere the sight descries sublime. 605

Th' ethereal stars, moreo'er—since lights terrene Receding gradual, while they yet maintain Their lambent fires, their radiance unimpaired, Scarce obvious dwindle,—must themselves alike In size scarce vary from the form they show. 610

Nor deem it strange that so minute a sun Should pour forth flame sufficient heaven to fill,

And earth, and ocean, and whate'er exists

Tinge with its glittering dew; for, from abroad

The myriad seeds of fire dispersed at large 615

Through all things, here as to their fountain flow,

And hence well forth o'er all th' exulting world

In boundless flood: seest thou how small a spring

Feeds with its liquid treasures meads, full oft,

Of amplest breadth, and all their glebe o'erflows ? 620

Or the small globe of solar flame, perchance, Th' effusive air may fire, than aught besides Ignited easier by th' impinging ray; As oft some casual spark the field inflames Of full-ripe corn, or stubble crisp and sear. 625

Or haply stores, impalpable to sight, Of latent heat the rosy lamp surround, Whence amply draws it its eternal blaze.

Nor trace, we clear by what unvarying law, When summer fades, the sun his downward path 630

Bends towards the wintry goat, and thence, in turn, Reclimbs the heavens, and, from the red crab, pours The sultry solstice ; or, why seems the moon O'er the same space to voyage every month The toiling sun claims twelve t' achieve complete. 635 These nought unfolds decisive; for the dogm Of sage DEMOCRITUS we, first, may deem Haply efficient, that the radiant signs, As nearer earth affixed, less rapid far Roll in the heaven's vast whirlpool, heaven below 640

Gradual its race relaxing ; whence the sun And solar satellites must more and more Be backwards left, deserted, since full deep Lie they beneath the blue ethereal fires: While the bright moon lies deeper still, and hence 645 Still powerless more, as nearer earth's low bounds, To match the speed the loftier signs display. As tardier moves she in her proner path Than moves the sun, as swifter o'er her rolls The wondrous vortex of sublimest heaven. 650

Whence seems she speedier through each sign t' advance, While o'er herself each sign but fleeter flies.

Or different airs, perchance, at times defined,

Rush o'er the converse hemispheres of earth;

This the moon driving from the summer fires 655

Down towards the wintry arc, and realms of ice ;

And that, alternate, raising her again

From frost's drear solstice to the sultry signs.

Thus moves the sun too, haply, and the stars

Alternate thus, by converse airs propelled, 660

Roll their vast rounds, and fill the mighty year.

Seest thou not oft, from different winds, the clouds

Above borne different from the clouds below ?

Why then, alike, may different streams of air

Bend not the stars, the planets through their paths ? 665

Then night, at length, the world with darkness shrouds, Or since the sun, at heaven's remotest verge, Tired with his toil, his remnant lamp blows out, Curtailed already by the race achieved Through long concussive air; or the same power 670

Still drives his restless axle earth beneath, That, through the day, propelled his orb sublime.

Then the young MORNING, too, at hour precise Leads through th' ethereal realms the rosy dawn, New light diffusing ; either since the sun, 675

Th' inferior earth encompassed, now once more Tries his fresh strength, and with projected rays Anticipates his orb; or that the seeds Of embryo-fires, in full divan convened At punctual periods in the purple east, 680

Gradual condense, and rear the solar blaze. For thus, we learn, from IDA'S top surveyed, Seem they, the flames diffused conglobing firm Till springs, at length, the radiant orb complete.

Nor strange conceive it that the seeds of fire 685

Should thus assemble, and, at hour precise, Renew the solar splendour: facts like these All nature wide displays ; at hour precise Blossoms the shrub, at hour precise its bloom Loses deciduous ; fixt, determined time 690

Throws from the boy his infant teeth, arrays In downy puberty, and, o'er his cheeks, Flings the first feathers of th' unripened 1 beard. Clouds, thunders, tempests, rains, and gelid snow-.

At punctual seasons all alike recur. 695

For as the train of causes first uprose, And the young world its earliest features found, Things follow things in order most exact.

And day elongates, and the night contracts, And night augments, and day curtails its course, 700

Since the same sun, earth under and above Revolving, ether with unequal curve Cleaves, and to parts of magnitude unlike Severs the globe; alternate this o'er that Prevailing gradual till the nodes he reach 705

Where night and day assimilate their reigns. For, in the central realms 'twixt north and south, His utmost wanderings, midway, heaven divides: So traverse winds the star-enamelled path Through which his mazy steps the seasons lead, 710

With ray oblique illuming earth and sky. For thus they hold the heavenly orb who mark Throughout arranged with constellations fair. Or, earth beneath, the atmosphere, perchance, Hangs, in fixt places, heavier; whence the seeds 715

Of congregating fires, with toil immense, Wade through, and later weave the trembling dawn : And whence, through winter, long the tedious night Drawls, ere the day-star rears his radiant front. Or, haply, the young fires that frame the sun 720

More swift or tardy towards the purple east Alternate rush, as round the seasons roll.

The moon may shine by solar lustres struck, Her argent front augmenting every day As from the sun she wanders, till, at length, 725

Now full opposed, her total disc is light, And, rising east, she marks his westward fall : Then step by step retracting, earth beneath, Her full-blown lamp, as towards the sun she curves, Through all the remnant of the radiant signs ; 730

As deems the sage who holds her form globose, And that below the solar orb her path Punctual she winds ; and sound the doctrine seems.

Yet may the moon with lustre all her own Shine, every phase unfolding, if, in front, 735

Some other orb attend her, through her course

Gliding complete, in every mode convolved,

While viewless still to sight since reared opaque.

Or she may still, if spherical of form,

Each change disclose, though luminous but half: 740

For, as she self-revolves, her gradual lamp

Must grow till all her bright side beams complete ;

Then, rolling still, as gradual must she close

Her lucid eye, till all opposed is shade;

As teach CHALDEAN magi, striving strong 745

The schools of GREECE t' o'erpower, as though the creeds

Waged endless war, or this than that adduced

Proofs more conclusive to th' unbiassed mind.

Why too may not each rising moon be new ? Its time, form, place, by nicest order swayed, 750

And, springing daily, daily too decay, Still reproduced for ever ? this to solve Both words and reasoning arduous find alike, Since things throughout in order flow precise.

SPRING comes, and VENUS, and, with foot advanced, 755 The light-winged ZEPHYR, harbinger beloved, Maternal FLORA strewing, ere she treads, O'er every footstep blooms of choicest hue, And the glad ETHER loading with perfumes. Then HEAT succeeds, the parched ETESIAN breeze, 760 And dust-discoloured CERES ; AUTUMN, then, Follows, and tipsy BACCHUS arm in arm, And STORMS and TEMPESTS ; EURUS roars amain ; And the red SOUTH brews thunders: till, at length, COLD shuts the scene, and WINTER'S train prevails, 765 SNOWS, hoary SLEET, and FROST with chattering teeth. Whence scarce stupendous seems it that the moon Should punctual rise, and, rising, punctual die, Since things at large, so punctual, things succeed.

Thus, too, to various causes may'st thou charge 770 The sun's eclipse, or shade of lunar light. For why should rather, 'twixt the sun and earth, The moon rush rampant, and with shadowy orb, Shut from mankind the radiant fount of day, Than aught besides that haply may subsist 775

Rolling sublime, but ever void of light? 2 F

Why may not, too, in time and place prescribed,

The sun himself grow languid, his bright beam

Powerless to pour, till now the spot he pass

That thus obstructs his glory and renews ? 780

And why, moreo'er, should earth alone arrest Light from the labouring moon, and, riding high, Blindfold the solar disc, the lunar sphere, Still loftier, gliding through her shadowy cone, While nought of body else, 'twixt moon and sun 785

Rushing, can quench the ray profusely dealt ? So, if the moon herself be lustrous, why May ne'er that lustre languish till the bound Joyous she pass that poisons all her lamp ?

Thus having traced the causes obvious most 790

That sway the sapphire heavens; whence the bright sun, The moon fulfil their courses, and the shade How reared that 6ft their radiant front enwraps, Hiding abrupt, as though their eyes now winked, And now re-opened, o'er the face of things 795

Shedding afresh clear floods of lucid white ; Once more return we to the world's pure prime, Her fields yet liquid, and the tribes survey First she put forth, and trusted to the winds.

And first the race she reared of verdant herbs, 800

Glistening o'er every hill; the fields at large Shone with the verdant tincture, and the trees Felt the deep impulse, and with outstretched arms Broke from their bonds rejoicing. As the down Shoots from the winged nations, or from beasts 805

Bristles or hair, so poured the new-born earth Plants, fruits, and herbage. Then, in order next, Raised she the sentient tribes, in various modes, By various powers distinguished: for nor heaven Down dropped them, nor from ocean's briny waves 810 Sprang they, terrestrial sole ; whence, justly, EARTH Claims the dear name of mother, since alone Flowed from herself whate'er the sight surveys.

E'en now oft rears she many a sentient tribe, By showers and sun-shine ushered into day. 815

Whence less stupendous tribes should then have risen More, and of ampler make, herself new-formed,

In flower of youth, and ETHER all mature.

Of these birds first, of wing and plume diverse, Broke their light shells in spring-time : as in spring 820 Still breaks the grasshopper his curious web, And seeks, spontaneous, foods and vital air.

Then rushed the ranks of mortals ; for the soil, Exuberant then, with warmth and moisture teemed. So, o'er each scene appropriate, myriad wombs 825

Shot, and expanded, to the genial sward By fibres fixt; and as, in ripened hour, Their liquid orbs the daring fetus broke Of breath impatient, nature here transformed Th' assenting earth, and taught her opening veins 830 With juice to flow lacteal; as the fair Now with sweet milk o'erflows, whose raptured breast First hails the stranger-babe, since all absorbed Of nurture, to the genial tide converts. Earth fed the nursling, the warm ether clothed, 835

And the soft downy grass his couch composed.

For the fresh world, as yet, no chills severe, No parching heats, nor boisterous whirlwinds knew ; These, like all else, by time alone matured.

Hence the dear name of mother, o'er and o'er, 840

Earth claims most justly, since the race of man Long bore she of herself, each brutal tribe Wild-wandering o'er the mountains, and the birds Gay-winged, that cleave, diverse, the liquid air. Yet drew, at length, the moment when herself 845

Could bear no longer ; like her daughters since, By age divested of parturient power. For age the total world transforms, from state To state for ever passing ; nought remains Long its own like ; all migrates sight surveys, 850

Varying each hour, from change to change propelled. This grows and ripens, and with age corrupts; That, from its ruins, springs, and perfects life. So time transmutes the total world's vast frame, From state to state urged on, now void of powers 855

Erst known, and boasting those unknown before.

Hence, doubtless, earth prodigious forms at first Gendered, of face and members most grotesque ; 'l i '2.

Monsters half-man, half-woman, not from each

Distant, yet neither total; shapes unsound, 860

Footless, and handless, void of mouth or eye,

Or from misj unction, maimed, of limb with limb :

To act all impotent, or flee from harm,

Or nurture take their loathsome days t' extend.

These sprang at first, and things alike uncouth; 865 Yet vainly ; for abhorrent NATURE quick Checked their vile growth ; so life's consummate flower Ne'er reached they, foods appropriate never cropped, Nor tasted joys venereal. For with cause Cause ceaseless must combine, or nought can rise 870

Of race generic ; genial foods must spring And genial organs, from the total frame The vital seeds concocted to collect; And male must blend with female, and the bliss Educed prove mutual, ere effect can flow. 875

Hence, doubtless, many a tribe has sunk supprest, Powerless its kind to gender. For whate'er Feeds on the living ether, craft or speed, Or courage stern, from age to age preserves In ranks uninjured : while full many a class 880

Man guards himself, incited by their use.

In strength ferocious thus the lion trusts, In guile the fox, the stag in peerless flight ; While the light-slumbering dog, of heart sincere, The bounding courser, herds, and fleecy flocks, 885

These, MEMMIUS, these protection claim from man. For these the baser broods fly anxious, fond Of quiet soft, and meals themselves ne'er bought ; Boons we bestow from certainty of gain. But those such powers that boast not, void of means 890 Formed, for defence, nor tribute to mankind Repaying ever—why should human aid To such be lent, redeeming them from death ? These, from their native bondage, must perforce Fall to the feller sports, and victims rude, 895

Till the whole order cease, from earth extinct.

Yet CENTAURS lived not; nor could shapes like these Live ever, from two different natures reared, Discordant limbs, and powers by powers reversed.

E'en this the dullest thus with ease may learn. 900

The steed, o'er whom the year has thrice revolved, Grows firm and vigorous; but the babe a babe Still proves, and haply still explores, asleep, The dulcet breast whose stores were late his own. When, too, the steed's strong fibres faint with age, 905 And every member feels the coming fate, Youth o'er the boy his fairest flower expands, And the soft down sprouts earliest from his chin. Deem not that man, then, and the servile horse, Seeds mixt with seeds, can CENTAURS e'er create ; 910 Or, false alike, that SCYLLAS e'er exist, Half-maid, half-mastiff; or aught else of shape Engendered equal, dissonant of limb, Whose flowery strength at different age matures, And fades as different; whose connubial fires 915

Burn not the same ; whose total tempers jar, And from discordant foods who nurture life : For hemlock, oft, rank poison to mankind, Fattens the bearded goat with foul repast.

So, too, since flame the lion's tawny skin 920

As fiercely burns as aught of brute besides, Whence, when three natures into one combine, The front a lion forming, the vile rump A dragon, and the midst a goat grotesque, Hence termed CHIMERA, can the breathing lungs 925

Pour streams of fire innocuous from the rnouth ?

Hence those who hold, when heaven and earth were new, Urged by that newness as their total proof, Such monsters rose, and shapes alike absurd, On equal ground might feign the world's first floods 930 Were liquid gold, her earliest blossoms pearls, And the first men such massy limbs displayed That seas might rush beneath each ample stride, And their vast fingers twirl the heaven's high orb. But though, commixt, then various seeds of things 935 Thronged through the teeming soil, it flows not hence That tribes unlike sprang forth witli blended limbs. Still from the soil herbs, fruits, and trees diverse Shoot in profusion ; but each separate class Ne'er blends preposterous. Things throughout proceed 940

In firm, undevious order, and maintain, To nature true, their fixt generic stamp.

Yet man's first sons, as o'er the fields they trod, Reared from the hardy earth, were hardier far; Strong built with ampler bones, with muscles nerved 945 Broad and substantial; to the power of heat, Of cold, of varying viands, and disease, Each hour superior; the wild lives of beasts Leading, while many a lustre o'er them rolled. Nor crooked plough-share knew they, nor to drive, 950 Deep through the soil, the rich-returning spade; Nor how the tender seedling to re-plant, Nor from the fruit-tree prune the withered branch. What showers bestowed, what earth spontaneous bore, And suns matured, their craving breasts appeased. 955 But acorn-meals chief culled they from the shade Of forest-oaks ; and, in their wintry months, The wild wood-whortle with its purple fruit Fed them, then larger and more amply poured. And many a boon besides, now long extinct, 960

The fresh-formed earth her hapless offspring dealt.

Then floods, and fountains, too, their thirst to slake, Called them, as now the cataract abrupt Calls, when athirst, the desert's savage tribes. And, through the night still wandering, they the caves 965 Thronged of the .wood-nymphs, whence the babbling well Gushed oft profuse, and down its pebbly sides, Its pebbly sides with verdant moss o'erspread, Oozed slow, or sought, redundant sought, the plains.

Nor knew they yet the crackling blaze t' excite, 970 Or clothe their limbs with furs, or savage hides. But groves concealed them, woods, and hollow hills; And, when rude rains, or bitter blasts o'erpowered, Low bushy shrubs their squalid members wrapped.

Nor public weal they boasted, nor the bonds 975

Sacred of laws, and order; what loose chance Offered, each seized instinctive ; for himself, His life, his limbs, instructed sole to care.

Wild in the forests they fulfilled their loves, Or urged by mutual raptures, or the male, 980

Stung by fierce lust the female form subdued,

Or bought her favours by the tempting bait Of acorns, crabs, or berries blushing deep.

And in their keen rapidity of hand

And foot confiding, oft the savage train 985

With missile stones they hunted, or the force Of clubs enormous ; many a tribe they felled, Yet some in caves shunned, cautious; where, at night, Thronged they, like bristly swine ; their naked limbs With herbs and leaves entwining. Nought of fear 990 Urged them to quit the darkness, and recall, With clamorous cries, the sunshine and the day: But sound they sunk in deep, oblivious sleep, Till o'er the mountains blushed the roseate dawn. For, from their birth, with ceaseless sight they traced 995 Night and the noon alternate, nor e'en once Sprang the dread thought that such alternate night Would ere long reign eternal, and the noon O'er their closed eye-balls never glitter more. This ne'er distressed them, but the fear alone 1000

Some ruthless monster might their dreams molest, The foamy boar, or lion, from their caves Drive them aghast beneath the midnight shade, And seize their leaf-wrought couches for themselves.

Yet then scarce more of mortal race than now 1005 Left the sweet lustre of the liquid day. Some, doubtless, oft the prowling monsters gaunt Grasped in their jaws, abrupt; whence, through the groves, The woods, the mountains, they vociferous groaned, Destined thus living to a living tomb. 1010

And some, by flight though saved from present fate, Covering their fetid ulcers with their hands, Prone o'er the ground death-still, with horrid voice, Called, till vile worms devoured them, void of aid, And all unskilled their deadly pangs t' appease. 1015

But thousands, then, the pomps of war beneath, Fell not at once ; nor ocean's boisterous waves Wrecked, o'er rough rocks, whole fleets and countless crews. Nor ocean then, though oft to frenzy wrought, Could aught indulge but ineffectual ire: 1020

Nor, lulled to calms, could e'er his traitor face Lead, o'er the laughing waves, mistrustful man,

Untaught the dangerous science of the seas. Then want consumed their languid members, now Full-gorged excess devours us : they themselves 1025

Fed, heedless, oft with poisons : ofter still Men now for others mix the fatal cup.

Yet when, at length, rude huts they first devised, And fires, and garments ; and, in union sweet, Man wedded woman, the pure joys indulged 1030

Of chaste connubial love, and children rose, The rough barbarians softened. The warm hearth Their frames so melted they no more could bear, As erst, th' uncovered skies; the nuptial bed Broke their wild vigour, and the fond caress 1035

Of prattling children from the bosom chased Their stern ferocious manners. Neighbours now Joined in the bonds of friendship, and resolved The softer sex to cherish, and their babes ; And owned by gestures, signs, and sounds uncouth, 1040 'Twas just the weaklier to protect from harm. Yet all such bonds obeyed not; but the good, The larger part their faith still uncorrupt Kept, or the race of man had long expired, Nor sire to son transferred the life received. 1045

Then nature, next, the tongue's innumerous tones Urged them to try; and sage convenience soon To things applied them: as the embryo speech Of infants first the aid of gesture claims, And pointing finger to define its sense. 1050

For all their proper powers perceive, and feel The use intended. The young calf, whose horns Ne'er yet have sprouted, with his naked front Butts when enraged : the lion-whelp or pard With claws and teeth contends, ere teeth or claws 1055 Scarce spring conspicuous : while the pinioned tribes Trust to their wings, and, from th' expanded down Draw, when first fledged, a tremulous defence. But to maintain that one devised alone Terms for all nature, and th' incipient tongue 1060

Taught to the gazers round him, is to rave. For how should he this latent power possess Of naming all things, and inventing speech,

If never mortal felt the same besides ?

And, if none else had e'er adopted sounds, 1065

Whence sprang the knowledge of their use ? or how

Could this first lingu^t to the crowds around

Teach what he meaned ? his sole unaided arm

Could ne'er o'erpower them, and compel to learn

The vocal science, nor could aught avail 1070

Of eloquence or wisdom : nor with ease

Would the vain babbler have been long allowed

To pour his noisy jargon o'er their ears.

But why so wondrous seems it that mankind, With voice and tongue endowed, to notice things 1075 That voice should vary with the things themselves, When the mute herds, and beasts ferocious, urged By grief, or fear, or soft, emollient joy, Press from their lungs sounds various and unlike ? This every hour displays. When half-enraged 1080

The rude MOLOSSIAN mastiff, her keen teeth Baring tremendous, with far different tone Threats, than when roused to madness more extreme, Or when she barks, and fills the world with roar. Thus when her fearless whelps, too, she with tongue 1085 Lambent caresses, and with antic paw, And tooth restrained, pretending still to bite, Gambols, soft yelping tones of tender love— Far differ then those accents from the din Urged clamorous through the mansion when alone, 1090 Or the shrill howl her trembling bosom heaves When, with slunk form, she waits th' impending blow.

Neighs not the steed, too, different, when at large, Mid the young mares, in life's luxuriant prime, Pierced by the goads of pinioned love, he raves,— 1095 And when his full-blown nostrils snort for war, And every quivering limb the tumult hails ?

So, too, the feathery tribes of wing diverse, Osprey, or hawk, or cliff-delighted gull Gathering its vital nurture from the deep, 1100

Far different sounds at different times protrude Than when they strive, in hostile guise, for prey. E'en with the seasons some, as fame reports, Change their hoarse accents, as the social rook,

And time-triumphant raven, when for showers, 1105

Or limpid rills they croak; or, sultry, pant, Beneath the dog-star, for the freshening breeze.

Since then such various feeling% can compel Kinds the most mute such various sounds to eject, How just ensues it that the race of man 1110

Should things diverse by countless tones denote ?

If through such subjects thou would'st farther pry, Know, then, that fire from thunder earliest sprang, Each flame hence gendered. For full many a scene Worked into blaze, th' ethereal flash beneath, 1115

See we the moment the dread shock is dealt. Oft see we, too, when, waving in the winds, Trees war with trees, the repercussion fierce 'Twixt branch and branch, stupendous, heat evolve, Heat oft by flame succeeded; whence, perchance, 1120 From both mankind their primal fires deduced.

But from the sun first learned they to prepare The cultured meal hot-hissing o'er the hearth. For all the plains produced the genial sun They saw subjecting, by perpetual warmth 1125

Matured, and sweetened : whence the wiser part First dared the change, and taught their wondering peers The powers of coction, and the crackling blaze.

Those, too, elected rulers, now began

Towns to project, and raise the massy fort, 1130

Heedful of distant dangers. Into shares Their herds and lands they severed; and on those Chief famed for beauty, eloquence, or strength, Allotted ampler portions: for the form Much then availed, and much the potent arm. 1135

But wealth ere long was fashioned, gold uprose, And half the power of strength, and beauty fled. And still the brave, the beauteous still, too oft, Alike to riches bow the servile knee.

Yet truest riches, would mankind their breasts 1140 Bend to the precept, in a little lie, With mind well-poised; here want can never come. But men will grasp at fame, will pant for power, As here though fortune fixed her firmest foot, And, these once gained, all else were peace and joy. 1145

Fools thus to reason ! for the total path

"Whoe'er attempts finds thronged with toils and pain ;

And ENVY oft, like lightning, many a wretch

E'en on its summit fixt, and free from fear,

Abrupt hurls headlong into gulfs profound. 1150

Whence safer seems it far in low estate

Peaceful to serve, than reign, and rule mankind.

But, vainly wearied, let them their life-blood

Sweat out, thus labouring up the tortuous steep,

O'er which, like lightning, ENVY brews her storms, 1155

Fond of high stations—since to tales they trust

Told them by others, while each sense possest

Belies the daring fiction ; men not more

Thus act, nor will do, than they erst have done.

But kings, and tyrants fell, their thrones reversed, 1160 Their sceptres shivered, and the sparkling crown That decked their temples, to the dust condemned, Weeping its fate beneath the people's tread, Soon roused to trample what too much they fear. So to the rabble sunk, and ranks most vile, 1165

The power supreme ; in one gross scramble all Striving for office, and superior sway. Yet order hence re-issued: some, at length, New magistracies planned, new laws devised, And all concurred t' obey them : for the strife 1170

'Twixt man and man exhausted all their strength; Hence easier led, spontaneous, to the yoke Of equal rule and justice. Passion oft Roused them, they saw, to vengeance too severe, Broils heaped o'er broils the most ferocious tired, 1175 And ceaseless fear marred all the bliss of life. For force and rapine in their craftiest nets Oft their own sons entangle, and the plague Ten-fold recoils; nor can the wretch with ease Live blest and tranquil whose atrocious soul 1180

Bursts the dear bonds of peace and social love. For, though from men, from gods, his guilt he hide, Detection fears he still; since oft in dreams, In deep deliriums oft, th' unshackled tongue Tells crimes aloud for ever else concealed. 1185

Next learn what cause, through many a mighty realm,

The system first of gods, and altars reared ;

Whence the dread rites with solemn pomp pursued

When aught momentous man presumes t' attempt;

The sacred horror, whence, that, through the world, 1190

Builds temples, statues, feasts and fasts ordains.

This to resolve the muse not arduous deems.

For the first mortals effigies of gods Oft traced awake, when mused the mind profound, Yet, mid their dreams, still ofter, and in shape 1195

More vast and wondrous ; these of sense possest Quick they conceived, since moved they every limb, And spoke majestic with enormous voice Worthy their matchless make. Immortal life Next they bestowed, since with unvarying face, 1200

Unvarying form, the phantoms ever rose (As rise they, must); and o'er such massy strength No power, they deemed, could triumph. Blest supreme Then, too, they held them, since the dread of death Such ne'er could haunt, and deeds stupendous oft 1205 Seemed they, in dreams, with utmost ease t' achieve.

Each various phase, moreo'er, the heavens disclose, Each various season, punctual to its hour They marked incessant; and, the cause unknown, These to the gods, with subterfuge most prompt, 1210 Nodding omnific, idly they referred.

And in the heavens their blest abodes they placed, Their awful temples, since both sun and moon Here radiant reign; sun, moon, and day, and night, And night's dread fires, and meteors wandering wild, 1215 And swift-plumed lightnings, showers, and crystal dews, Clouds, snows, winds, thunders, hail, and countless storms, Through ether threatening with tremendous roar.

O hapless mortals ! that could first ascribe Such facts, such furies to th' immortal gods. 1220

What myriad groans then reared ye for yourselves ! What wounds for us ! what tears for men unborn !

No:—it can ne'er be piety to turn To stocks and stones with deep-veiled visage; light O'er every altar incense; o'er the dust 1225

Fall prostrate, and, with outstretched arms, invoke Through every temple every god that reigns,

Soothe them with blood, and lavish vows on vows.

This rather thou term piety, to mark

With calm, untrembling soul each scene ordained. 1230

For when we, doubtful, heaven's high arch survey,

The firm, fixt ether, star-embossed, and pause

O'er the sun's path, and pale, meandering moon,

Then superstitious cares, erewhile represt

By cares more potent, lift their hydra-head. 1235

" What! from the gods, then, flows this power immense

That sways, thus various, the bright host of stars ? "—

(For dubious reason still the mind perturbs :)

" This wondrous world how formed they ? to what end

Doomed ? through what period can its labouring walls

Bear the vast toil, the motions now sustained? 1241

Or have th' immortals framed it free from death,

In firm, undevious course empowered to glide

O'er the broad ravage of eternal time ? "

Then, too, what breast recoils not with the dread 1245 Of gods like these ? who, with unshuddering limbs, Can view them dart o'er earth their forky flash, And roll their deep-toned thunder ? shrink not then Whole lands, whole nations ? o'er his shivering throne Starts not the tyrant, through each tendon starts, 1250 Mad with the sense of perfidies and blood, And in the storm contemplating his due ?—

Then faints not, too, the warlike chief who guides His fleet o'er ocean, when around lu'm roars The maniac whirlwind ? falls he not profound 1255

Mid his vast elephants, and victor hosts, And tempts the gods with vows, and prays, aghast, For winds appeased, and soft succeeding gales ? Yet vainly : for the wild tornado oft

Hurls him all headlong to the gates of hell. 1260

So, from his awful shades some POWER UNSEEN O'erthrows all human greatness ! treads to dust Rods, ensigns, crowns—the proudest pomps of state, And laughs at all the mockery of man !

When, too, the total earth beneath us quakes, 1265

And tottering towns loud tumble, or so threat, What wonder men their littleness should feel, And to the gods all power and might ascribe,

Whence rule they, ceaseless, this stupendous world ?

This clear discussed, learn next that silver, gold, 1270 Lead, hardier copper, iron, first were traced When, o'er the hills, some conflagration dire Burned from its basis the deep-rooted grove ; By lightnings haply kindled, or the craft Of hosts contending o'er the woodland scenes, 127-5

A double fear thus striking through their foes: Or by the shepherd's wish his bounds t' enlarge O'er tracts of specious promise ; or, perchance, Wild beasts to slaughter, and their spoils possess ; For such, with fire, and guileful pit, mankind 1280

First caught, ere hounds were marshalled to the chace, Or round the copse the mazy net-work drawn.—

Whate'er the cause, when now the unctuous flame Had from their utmost roots, with hideous crash. Felled the tall trees, and, with its torrid heat, 1285

The soil deep-reddened, rills of liquid gold, Lead, silver, copper, through its fervid pores Glided amain, and every hollow filled. These when, condensed, long after men surveyed Glistening in earth, attracted by the glare, 1290

The splendid mass they dug ; and marked, surprised, Each formed alike, and. to the channeled bed Where late it lay, adapted most precise. Then instant deemed they, liquefied by flame, The power were theirs each various shape t' assume, 1295 Drawn dexterous out, of point or edge acute ; The power unrivalled theirs each tool to frame Art needs to fell the forest, and its trees Mould into planks or beams ; to cleave, or smooth, Pierce, hollow, scoop, whate'er the plan conceived. 1300

Nor strove they less such instruments t' obtain From gold, or silver, than stern copper's strength. Yet vainly : for their softer texture failed, Powerless to bear the sturdy toil required. Whence copper chief they courted, while all gold 1305 Neglected lay, too blunt and dull for use. Now triumphs gold, while copper sinks despised. So rolling years the seasons change of things : What once was valued loses all its worth,

And what was worthless rises in its stead, 1310

Swells into notice daily, every hour

Blooms with new praise, and captive leads the world.

And hence how first the vigorous iron charmed, Thyself, O MEMMIUS, may'st with ease deduce.

Man's earliest arms were fingers, teeth, and nails, 1315 And stones, and fragments from the branching woods. Then fires and flames they joined, detected soon ; Then copper next ; and last, as latest traced, The tyrant iron, than the copper vein Less freely found, and sturdier to subdue. 1320

Hence first with copper ploughed they; in the waves Mixed of wild warfare, dealt its deadly wounds, And ransacked fields, and cattle; for th' unarmed Soon yielded all things to the armed foe. But, by degrees, the blade of iron gleamed, 1325

Triumphant rising o'er the copper tool. With iron sole the genial soil they clove, And with its fury tried the doubtful fray.

First, too, on horse-back strove the martial chief, The reins his left hand guiding, and his right 1330

Ruling the battle: then appeared he next Drawn by twin steeds in warlike car sublime, Both hands in action, by the driver sped. Then twins to twins he joined, and to the car Fixed the curved scythe. And next the TYRIAN tribes Taught the huge elephant, with fortress loins 1336

And lithe proboscis, to delight in wounds, And break the hostile squadrons. Step by step So DISCORD poured her plagues accurst o'er man, And heightened daily all the woes of war. 1340

Some too, as story tells, wild bulls and boars Trained to the strife, and taught to face the foe. While the rude PARTHIAXS marshalled, mid their ranks, Troops of fierce lions, by their keepers led, To chain or loose them as the combat called. 134.">

Yet vain th' attempt; for, maddened by the blood Promiscuous spilt, o'er friends and foes alike Rushed they voracious, shaking their dread crests; Nor could the horseman his affrighted steed Calm, or goad on the battle to renew. 1350

Wide sprang the forest-tyrants, all in front

Instant o'erpowering ; and, full oft, behind

Tumbling abrupt, the backward crowds, aghast,

Fixed they to earth, vain-grappling,—by their paws

And teeth terrific torn alike to death. 1355

Then, too, the boars, high tossed th' infuriate bulls,

Or crushed them with their hoofs ; or through the steeds

Drove deep their gory horns, appalled and faint,

Or 'gainst the ground their frantic foreheads dashed.

While the mad boars against their owners aimed 1360

Their tusks remorseless, tinging with their blood

Th' unbroken darts, (the broken they themselves

Tinged with their own blood, trailing o'er the ground,)

In one joint tumult slaughtering man and horse.

And though the steed strove oft by sudden start, 1365

Sidelong, to fly the fang, or pranced erect

Beating th' unsolid air, 'twas idle all,

Since, rent through many a tendon, down he sunk,

Shaking the champaign. Thus the beasts they deemed

At home tamed amply, mid the battle's rage, 1370

Its wounds, its shrieks, its terrors, and its toils,

Frantic once more surveyed they, void of rule.

All, rampant, raved alike, as frequent now

Raves the young elephant to arms unused,

Trampling his keepers with tremendous crush. 1375

Thus men, perchance, have fought; or, rather, thus Their fights have planned in secret, pausing deep O'er the dread ills such schemes were sure t' unfold. Whence, if such wars have raged, 'tis safer far, Amid the various worlds through space that throng, 1380 To leave their seat uncertain, than towards earth Specific point, or aught of world besides. Yet must they, doubtless, have been waged from hope Far less of conquest than revenge, each host Unarmed, unmarshalled, and of death assured. 1385

The rude-stitched hide preceded the wove vest, Planned after iron, and with iron wrought: For without this the loom had ne'er been framed, Its shuttles, treadles, sley, and creaking beam.

Yet men first used the distaff, and the wheel, 1390

Ere learned the female race ; since males throughout

Prove prompter far, more dexterous, and expert;

Till the rough swain, at length, such labours mocked

As sole the woman's province, sterner toils

The man's rude strength demanding, hardier arts 1395

His form to harden, nerved with double force.

But Nature's self th' untutored race first taught To sow, to graft; for acorns ripe they saw, And purple berries, shattered from the trees, Soon yield a lineage like the trees themselves. 1400

Whence learned they, curious, through the stem mature To thrust the tender slip, and o'er the soil Plant the fresh shoots that first disordered sprang.

Then, too, new cultures tried they, and, with joy, Marked the boon earth, by ceaseless care caressed, 1405 Each barbarous fruitage sweeten and subdue. So loftier still and loftier up the hills Drove they the woodlands daily, broadening thus The cultured foreground, that the sight might trace Meads, corn-fields, rivers, lakes, and vineyards gay, 1410 O'er hills and mountains thrown ; while through the dales, The downs, the slopes, ran lavish and distinct The purple realm of olives ; as with hues Distinct, though various still the landscape swells Where blooms the dulcet apple, mid the tufts 1415

Of trees diverse that blend their joyous shades.

And from the liquid warblings of the birds Learned they their first rude notes, ere music yet To the rapt ear had tuned the measured verse; And ZEPHYR, whispering through the hollow reeds, 1420 Taught the first swains the hollow reeds to sound: Whence woke they soon those tender-trembling tones Which the sweet pipe, when by the fingers prest, Pours o'er the hills, the vales, and woodlands wild, Haunts of lone shepherds, and the rural gods. 1425

So growing time points, ceaseless, something new, And human skill evolves it into day.

Thus soothed they every care, with music, thus, Closed every meal, for rests the bosom then. And oft they threw them on the velvet grass, 1430

Near gliding streams, by shadowy trees o'er-arched, And void of costly wealth found still the means 2 o

To gladden life. But chief when genial Spring

Led forth her laughing train, and the young year

Painted the meads with roseate flowers profuse— 1435

Then mirth, and wit, and wiles, and frolic, chief,

Flowed from the heart; for then the rustic muse

Warmest inspired them : then lascivious sport

Taught round their heads, their shoulders, taught to twine

Foliage, and flowers, and garlands richly dight ; 1440

To loose, innumerous time their limbs to move,

And beat, with sturdy foot, maternal earth;

While many a smile, and many a laughter loud,

Told all was new, and wondrous much esteemed.

Thus wakeful lived they, cheating of its rest 1445

The drowsy midnight; with the jocund dance

Mixing gay converse, madrigals, and strains

Run o'er the reeds with broad recumbent lip:

As, wakeful still, our revellers through night

Lead on their defter dance to time precise; 1450

Yet cull not costlier sweets, with all their art,

Than the rude offspring earth in woodlands bore.

Thus what first strikes us, while ourselves as yet Know nought superior, every charm combines, But when aught else of ampler boast succeeds 1455

We slight the former, every wish transferred. Thus acorns soon disgusted ; the coarse couch Of herbs and leaves was banished, and the hides Of savage beasts deemed barbarous, and uncouth. Yet the vast envy such these first inspired 1460

Their earliest wearer by the faithless crowd Fell, and the garb, ferocious fought for still, Rent into tatters, perished void of use.

Then man for skins contended: purple now And gold for ever plunge him into war; 1465

Far slenderer pretext! for, such skins without, The naked throngs had dreaded every blast: But us no ills can menace, though deprived Of purple woof brocaded stiff with gold, While humbler vests still proffer their defence. 1470

Yet vainly, vainly toil earth's restless tribes, With fruitless cares corroding every hour; L T ntaught the lust of wishing where to bound,

And where true pleasure ceases; rendering time

One joyless main, where sail they, void of helm, 1475

Courting for ever tumults, storms, and strife.

But, through the heavens, the wakeful sun and moon Driving, meanwhile, their radiant cars sublime, Taught first to mortals how the seasons rolled, And things rose punctual ruled by punctual laws. 1480

Now many a fort they reared, and into shares Severed the cultured earth ; the daring bark O'er ocean now its light-winged canvass spread, And state with state in social compact joined: While rising bards, the types of sound just traced, 1485 Stamped each exploit, and told to times unborn. Whence nought of earlier date, as facts precise, Know we, alone by reason led to guess.

Thus navigation, agriculture, arms,

Laws, buildings, high-ways, drapery, all esteemed 1490 Useful to life, or to the bosom dear, Song, painting, sculpture—their perpetual need, And long experience fashioned and refined.

So growing time points ceaseless something new, And human skill evolves it into day: 1495

And art, harmonious, ever aiding art, All reach, at length, perfection's topmost point.

BOOK VI.

ATHENS, of peerless name, to savage man

First taught the blessings of the cultured field,

His life re-modelled, and with laws secured.

She, too, the soul's sweet solaces first oped

When erst the sage she reared, whose boundless breast 5

Swelled with all science, and whose lips promulged;

Raised, such th' applause his heavenly dictates drew,

Raised after death, in glory to the skies.

For when he saw with what vast ease mankind Food, health, enjoyment, length of days obtained, 10

•-• o -J

How wealth full oft o'erflowed them with its tide,

How honours thronged on honours, and a race

With every virtue gifted, round them rose,

While still their hearts beat anxious, and their minds

Raged with complaints, vexations, and alarms,— 15

Then deemed the sage the mental vase itself

Unsound throughout; despoiling, hence, the power

Of all that entered, useful or beloved ;

Fractured, perchance, or porous, and each boon

Wasting profuse the moment it arrived ; 20

Or, from innate corruption, all received

Poisoning perpetual through its total frame.

With truth-instilling precepts, hence, the soul Purged he, the bounds of wishing and of fear Pointed precise, and showed to mortal man 25

The good supreme his heart would fain possess. He oped its essence, he the path disclosed, Narrow, but straight, that leads us where it dwells. He, too, evinced what ills on life must wait; What casual spring, from nature what uprise, 30

At random roaming, or by fate compelled, And how such ills the soul may best resist; Nor sink, as frequent sinks the world, ingulfed In boundless tides of turbulence and care. For as the boy, when midnight veils the skies, 35

Trembles and starts at all things, so full oft E'en in the noon men start at things as void Of real danger as the phantoms false By darkness conjured and the school-boy's dread. A terror this the radiant darts of day 40

Can ne'er disperse, to TRUTH'S pure light alone And WISDOM yielding, intellectual suns. Whence, with more haste, our subject we resume.

Since this vast globe, then, mortal we have proved Begot, and mortal ether, and that all 45

Reared punctual from their atoms must dissolve, Mark what remains, attentive ; since once more The master of the gale invites to mount The daring bark majestic, and each storm Soothes with his fostering favour as we sail. 50

This mark attentive: for whate'er in heaven,

In earth man sees mysterious, shakes his mind,

With sacred awe o'erwhelms him, and his soul

Bows to the dust; the cause of things concealed

Once from his vision, instant to the gods 55

All empire he transfers, all rule supreme,

And doubtful whence they spring, with headlong haste

Calls them the workmanship of powers divine.

For he who, justly, deems th' immortals live

Safe, and at ease, yet fluctuates in his mind 60

How things are swayed ; how, chiefly, those discerned

In heaven sublime,—to superstition back

Lapses, and rears a tyrant host, and then

Conceives, dull reasoner, they can all things do,

While yet himself nor knows what may be done, 65

Nor what may never, nature powers defined

Stamping on all, and bounds that none can pass :

Hence wide, and wider errs he as he walks.

These notions if thou chase not, driving far Thoughts of the gods unworthy, and adverse 70

To the pure peace they covet, thou wilt oft Foretaste the heavenly vengeance that thou dread'st. Not that the majesty of powers like these Rage e'er can violate, or dire revenge Rouse into action ; but that thou thyself 75

Hence thy own ease wilt shipwreck with the storms Of passions fierce and foul; nor e'er approach With hallowed heart the temples they possess, Nor, deeply musing, mark with soul serene The sacred semblances their forms emit, 80

Traced by the spirit, thus of gods assured. Judge, then, thyself what life must hence ensue.

Such life the wisdom we propound rejects : Whence, though already much the muse has sung, Much still remains that claims her noblest powers ; 85 Much of the heavens, and scenes that roll sublime, Of storms, and thunders—what their dread effect, And how produced: lest, mid the rending skies, Fear-struck, thou ask whence flows this winged fire ? Where speeds its fury ? by what means empowered 90 To pierce through walls, and then triumphant die ? And, doubtful whence it springs, with headlong haste

Deem it the workmanship of hands divine.

Muse, most expert ! beloved of gods and men, CALLIOPE ! O, aid me as I tread 95

Now the last limits of the path prescribed, That the bright crown with plaudits I may claim.

First the blue cope of heaven with thunder shakes When, borne through ether, clouds with clouds contend By winds adversely driven ; for nought of sound 100

Strikes us where pure the concave; but where thick Clouds heaped o'er clouds, there, measured by their mass, The deep-toned peal with broadening bellow roars.

Then less compact their texture than the frame Of wood or stone, while less diffused by far 105

Than the loose web of mists, or light-winged smoke. For else, like those, plumb downward must they rush With flight abrupt, or swift as these dissolve, Powerless to buoy the measured hail or snow.

Then, too, resound they through the sapphire vault, 110 As oft resound the flickering curtains drawn O'er the thronged theatre from beam to beam. And oft to fragments frittered by the blast, Like crackling scrolls they rattle through the skies: Whence peals the thunder, as the fluttering sheet 115

Of parchment crisp, or canvass broad unfurled, Lashed by the tempest, and to tatters torn.

And frequent the fierce clouds with front direct Fight not, but jostle side-long, with the strife Their total tracts abrading; whence the harsh, 120

The long-drawn murmur that the soul appals Ere yet the full-mouthed clangour burst its bounds.

Then things with thunder oft, perchance, may quake, And heaven's high walls be shattered through their cope, When air elastic, by capacious clouds 125

Absorbed redundant, once ferments abrupt, Broadening their central hollows as it spreads, And close their sides condensing, till, at length, Rends the pent power its prison, and aloft Roars o'er the world the repercussive shock. 130

Nor wondrous this, since, filled with vapour, e'en The bursting bladder loud alike resounds.

Oft, too, perchance, the bickering blast itself,

Borne 'gainst the clouds direct, the crash creates:

For ragged oft in -various shapes they fly, 135

Ramous and wavy, hence sonorous too;

As when the north-east whistles through the groves

The leaves all rustle, and the branches crack:

Or, haply else, the horizontal gust,

Urged on abrupt, may rend the cloud in twain. 140

For what its force here oft on earth we learn,

On earth where gentler, but where still its rage

Roots up the forest headlong from its base.

Worked into billows, too, the clouds, at times, Conflicting murmur as the torrent tide 145

Of streams or ocean by the tempest tost.

Oft springs the roar, too, when from cloud to cloud Darts the blue lightning sudden : these, if filled With limpid vapour, instant the fierce flash Quench with vast clamour, as the red-hot steel 150

Fresh from the forge wide hisses when the smith Deep drowns its fury in the gelid pool.

But if the cloud be sear, with blaze abrupt Flames it sonorous; as, when blown by storms, Fires the loose brand the laurel-crested hills, 155

Decrepitating loud, for louder nought In conflagration crackles than the tree Sacred to PHCEBUS on the DELPHIC mount.

While not unfrequent may the din resound From ice or hail-clouds, by the whizzing wind 160

Lashed till they fracture, and, with clattering crash, Falls the dread avalanche, down dashed amain.

But the blue lightning springs from seeds of fire With seeds conflicting mid the war of clouds. As when the flint with flint, or steel, contends, 165

Swift flows the flash, and sparkles all around.

Then earlier see we, too, the rushing blaze Than hear the roar, since far the fluent films Of sight move speedier than of laggard sound. As, when the woodman fells some branch remote, 170

It drops conspicuous ere the bounding blow Strike on the ear—so the keen lightning far Anticipates the thunder, though alike Reared from one cause, from one concussion reared.

Or haply hence the winged lustre springs 175

Trembling amid the tempest; that when air, Pent in the hollow of a cloud, ferments, That hollow broadening, as already sung, And close its sides condensing, the pent air Heats from its motion ; as, from motion, heats 180

All sight surveys ; worked oft to flame, and oft Melted, as melt the missile balls, at times, Of lead shot rapid. Heated thus, at length, Th' expanded air bursts sudden from its tomb, Scattering long trails of corruscating fire. 185

Then rolls the dread explosion, after heard, Since sound than light far tardier meets the sense. Yet scenes like these in clouds alone exist Of utmost depth, whirled mass o'er mass immense.

Nor such conceive exist not, but that sole 190

Breadth they possess, of substance ever void. For mark what clouds of mountain-bulk the winds Drive thwart the welkin when the tempests rave ; Or climb the giddy cliff, and, e'en in calms, View what vast loads, accumulated deep, 195

Roll, tire o'er tire, through ether; and thou, then, Must own their magnitudes, and well may'st deem What caves stupendous through such hanging rocks Spread; what wild winds possess them, through the storm Roaring amid their bondage, as, at night, 200

Roar through their dens, the savage beasts of prey. How strive they stern, now here, now there convolved, Through every point, for freedom, and the seeds Of latent fire elicit as they roll

Till the full flame concentrate, and the blaze 205

Shoot o'er the heavens as now the big cloud bursts.

Hence, too, perchance, the golden-tressed stream Of liquid fire through ether oft may play: That the pure texture of the cloud itself Holds many an igneous atom whence, when dry, 210

Springs the bright flame, the splendid hues evinced. For from the sun such seeds the clouds must drink, Poured down perpetual, or their rainbow skirts No lustre e'er could redden. These when once To narrower spheres the lashing winds compress, 215

Forth from their pores the radiant atoms start, And wave the serpent-brandish through the skies.

Thus springs the flash, too, when the filmy clouds Abrade beneath the whirlwind: for, so thin Wears oft their web by friction, the red seeds 220

Drop, unconfined, wide-glittering. But the blaze Then noiseless spreads, innocuous, and serene.

What next ensues, the substance what that forms The bolt, at times, the mystic meteor shoots, This its own stroke betrays, its caustic scathe, 225

And the foul scent of sulphur steaming round ; Marks not of wind, or shower, but fire alone: While, oft, the volant mischief we behold Domes, towers, and temples kindling into flame.

This igneous shaft, then, Nature rears, recluse, 230

From subtlest fires, from atoms most minute, Vivacious most, that nought can e'er resist. For e'en through walls it pierces, as the power Of voice or sound, through rocks and solid brass; The solid brass hence, instant, turned to stream. 235

While oft the vase it empties of its wine, Yet leaves uninjured ; loosening all around, And wide each pore relaxing, that within May wind its heat mysterious, and to seeds Primal, resolve and scatter all contained. 240

Effect the solar lustre in an age Could ne'er accomplish—so superior this In force severe, and keen vivacious flight.

Next whence these fires are gendered, and the power Peerless they boast e'en ramparts to subvert, 245

Whole towns to tumble, and their splintered beams Whirl through the heavens,—the hero's tomb dispart, Shattered to dust, and prostrate o'er the ground Sheep, and the shepherd, breathless all alike— Whence these, and equal wonders they achieve 250

Haste we to solve, nor longer urge delay.

From dense, dark clouds reared mass o'er mass sublime, Spring, then, these missile fires : for when the cope Smiles all serene, or but o'ershadowed light, Such ne'er we mark ; since daily ether first 255

Blackens throughout, beneath the clustering crowd

So blackens fancy might conceive all hell

Had, with his direst shades, the welkin stormed,

Shivering with horror every human nerve,

Ere yet the tempest forge his glittering bolts. 260

Oft, too, o'er ocean, like a flood of pitch, Some negro cloud prone rushes from the skies, Dire leader of the darkness, followed close By hurricanes and thunders, and itself With fire surcharged, and fierce fermenting air, 265

Driving appalled each mortal to his home. Whence high through ether must the tempest reach, Piled cloud o'er cloud, the sun obstructing deep, Or ne'er such ten-fold darkness could be reared, Nor rush those headlong torrents that o'erpower 270

Oft every stream, and drown the cultured plains.

These all with fires, with furious airs are filled, Whence spring the flash, and repercussive roar. For, as we erst have sung, full many a seed Igneous, the hollow-bosomed clouds contain, 275

And many alike absorb they from the sun. These, when th' aerial tide, expanding still, Has from the cloud's condensing frame exprest, And with their fury its own rage combined, Then springs the fiery vortex, and within 280

Forges profound, and points its deadly darts. Doubly enkindled, by the boisterous air Rapid convolved, and touch of fiery seeds : Then springs, and raves, and ripens, till, at length, Grown full mature the shackling cloud it cleaves, 285

And down abrupt, with vibratory flash Diffused o'er all things, flings the missile fate. Roars next the deep-toned clangour, as though heaven Through all its walls were shattered; earth below Shakes with the mighty shock, from cloud to cloud 290 Redoubling still through all th' infuriate vault: While, loosened by the conflict, prone descends Th' accumulated torrent, broad and deep, As though all ether into floods were turned, And a new deluge menaced man and beast. 295

Such the vast uproar when the red-hot storm Bursts forth abrupt, and hurls its fiery bolts.

BOOK VI. ON THE NATURE OF THINGS. -\'i\)

Oft, too, th' external whirlwind, as it flies, Against the cloud strikes sudden, that within Holds the ripe tempest, and its form divides. 300

And, hence released, the fiery vortex quick, The vivid bolt, descends, now here, now there, In varying path, apportioned to its strength.

And oft the gas projected, though at first Void of combustion, in its course inflames, 305

Rapid and long; forsaking, as it flies, Its grosser atoms impotent of speed, And, from th' abraded air, those more minute Collecting, prompt th' incipient blaze to rouse. As when, swift-winged, the ball of missile lead 310

Heats, by degrees its gross unkindling parts Losing, and fires by atoms gained from air.

Nor seldom may the stroke itself excite The dread combustion, as with fury flies, Void of all flash, the fulminating bolt. 315

For, from itself, the shock may seeds alike Igneous elicit, and the substance struck,— Instant combined; as, when with steel we ply The sparry flint, the spark immediate springs, Nor lingers sluggish from the steel's cold touch. 320

So by the bolt each substance struck must flame, Inflammable if gendered ; nor, though cold Its elemental air, can hence delay Once rise, since urged so rapid in its flight; Flight that, if powerless of itself to fire, 325

Alone, must warm the mischief in its fall.

So speeds th' aerial shaft, its wing so fleet, So fierce its fell encounter; mid the clouds So wide its infant forces it collects,

And strives, impatient of restraint, t' escape ! 330

Till, grown mature, the full-distended cloud Bursts instantaneous, and, with matchless might, Rushes the rampant meteor, as the storm Of rocks and darts, from giant-engines hurled.

Then too most light, moat subtle are its seeds : '.,'.'•',

Whence nought can e'er resist it, and, with ease, Winds it, unchecked, through pores minutest traced, Void of delay, and peerless in its speed.

All, too, of weight possessed, below must tend E'en from their nature: but when once to weight 340

Its power propulsion adds, the substance urged In force, in fleetness doubled must descend, Direct in travel, and more potent far Borne towards the spot that feels its final brunt.

Where long the flight, moreo'er, the substance winged Augments in haste, and swift, and swifter still 346

Flows ever on, and sturdier strikes its blow: For seed with seed condenses as they rush, Pressed to one central focus, till, at length, Falls with full force th' agglomerated shock: 350

Joined too, perchance, by atoms drawn from air Whose ceaseless lash gave pinions to its speed.

Then many a frame the missile bolt pervades, And leaves unhurt, its pores the liquid fire Transpiercing unresisted ; while, reversed, 355

Full many a frame it shatters, since the seeds Igneous with those th' objective mark that rear, And stamp it solid, in close conflict meet.

Thus brass with ease, thus, instantaneous, gold Melt its light seeds, its principles minute 360

Deep-winding sinuous, and, when wound, at once Bursting each bond, and solving the stern mass.

But chief in autumn, and when spring expands Her flowery carpet, earth with thunder shakes, And heaven's high arch with trembling stars inlaid. 365 For few the fires that warm the wintry months, And soft the gales of summer, nor so dense Throng then the gathering clouds ; but, 'twixt the two When roll the zodiac-lustres, every cause Concentrates close the clamorous storm demands ; 370 The frith of time then reached that heat and cold Blends, whose joint power alone the flash creates, The reign of discord, and the rage of air Tumultuous torn 'twixt winds and rival fires. For heat's first rise and cold's ulterior verge 375

Rear the young spring ; whence things with things diverse Must meet, and, meeting, into wrath ferment: While cold's first chills, and heat's last lingering beams, Mutual convolved, create th' autumnal times,

Still summer striving with stern winter's rage. 380

Whence spring, whence autumn claim alike the term

Of WARRIOR-SEASONS, thus to fight attached.

Nor wondrous, then, that thunders here should rise,

And storms defile the concave, by the war

Doubtful, disturbed, of whirlwind, rain, and fire. 385

Hence may'st thou clear the thunder's essence trace, And its vast force develope; from thy hands Hurling the TUSCAN legends that pretend Vainly each purpose of the gods t' unfold, And thus decide whence flows this winged fire ; 390

Where speeds its fury; by what means empowered To pierce through walls, and then, triumphant, die; Or what portends its brandish when displayed.

For if from JOVE, or JOVE'S associates, flow The roar tremendous, shattering heaven's high arch ; 395 If these, at will, the flaming bolt direct,— Why 'scapes the guilty from its vengeful stroke, Nor falls, transpierced, a monument to man ? Or, rather, why, beneath the fiery storm, Sinks he unconscious of committed crime, 400

Void of all blame, yet victim to its ire ?

Why seek the gods, too, solitary scenes And labour fruitless ? need they, then, essay Their wontless arms, and nerve them for the fight ? Why thus their sire's tremendous wrath exhaust 405

O'er the bare ground ? or why himself permit, Nor, for his foes, the fiery bolt restrain ?

Why waves the god, moreo'er, the serpent-flash, Why rolls the thunder ne'er in cloudless skies ? When throng the gathering clouds, adown the storm 410 Descends he first, that, from a nearer point, With surer aim, his javelin he may dart ? Yet why attack the ocean ? o'er the waves Waste his wild ire, the floods, and liquid fields ?

If, too, he mean mankind the bolt should miss, 415

Why form its structure viewless to the sight ? While, if he hope to strike us unprepared, Why flash, conspicuous, and invite escape? Why first fill heaven with groans and darkness dire ?—

Then, canst thou deem him competent at once 420

Through various points to thunder ? or the fact

Dar'st thou deny that many a fatal bolt

Falls at the same dread moment ? while the year,

Ceaseless, such fact renews, and proves precise

That as the shower at once o'er many a scene 425

Rushes amain, so darts th' ethereal shaft.

And why, moreo'er, the temples of the gods, Why his own altars, with the fiery storm Fells he, promiscuous ? into atoms why Rends their best statues ; and, with frantic aim, 430

E'en from himself his image-honours wrest ? Or o'er the hills why hurls he chief his ire, The rocks abrupt, and mountains most sublime ?

Hence, with much ease, the meteor may we trace Termed, from its essence, PRESTER by the GREEKS, 435 That oft from heaven wide hovers o'er the deep. Like a vast column, gradual from the skies, Prone o'er the waves, descends it; the vext tide Boiling amain beneath its mighty whirl, And with destruction sure the stoutest ship 440

Threatening that dares the boisterous scene approach. Thus solve th' appearance ; that the maniac wind, In cloud tempestuous pent, when unempowered To burst its bondage, oft the cloud itself Stretches cylindric, like a spiral tube 445

From heaven forced gradual downwards to the deep ; As though some viewless hand, its frame transpierced, With outspread palm had thrust it from above. This, when, at length, the captived tempest rends, Forth flows it, fiery, o'er the main, and high 450

Boils from its base th' exaggerated tide. For, as the cone descends, from every point A dread tornado lashes it without, In gyre perpetual, through its total fall: Till, ocean gained, the congregated storm 455

Gives its full fury to th' uplifted waves, Tortured, and torn, loud howling midst the fray.

Oft, too, the whirlwind from the .clouds around Fritters some fragments, and itself involves Deep in a cloudy pellicle, and close 460

Mimics the prester, lengthening slow from heaven;

Till, earth attained, th' involving web abrupt

Bursts, and the whirlwind vomits and the storm.

Yet, as on earth the mountains' pointed tops

Break oft the texture, tubes like these, at land 465

Far rarer form than o'er the marble main.

The rise of clouds next calls us. When in heaven Meet various bodies subtile and sublimed, Of jagged figure, instant they cohere; Not strong the junction, but cohesive still. 470

Thus spring the lighter clouds ; and these conjoined, Comprest, condensed, and congregated close, Urged by the winds, to boundless bulk augment, Till broad o'er ether frowns the finished storm.

Chief o'er the mountain-tops, as nearest heaven, 475 In tide perpetual smoke the yellow steams That clouds engender, here conspicuous first. For, undiscerned at birth, the winnowing wind Here in huge masses, palpable to view, Dense, and redundant, drives them, whence aloft 480

Mount they embodied from the humid height. For fact itself demonstrates, as we climb The tall, steep cliff, that breezy scenes like these Ope the best path for vapours to the skies.

Then from the seas that nature much selects 485

Prove the light garments fluttering o'er the strand That catch the rising moisture ; doubtless whence Much, too, the clouds from ocean's restless brine Draw ceaseless forth, their airy base to build: For, as the blood, so fluids all transpire. 490

Thus from each river, e'en from earth itself, We trace th' ascending moisture, and the mist, Like vital breath, borne upwards: which, when once Firmly condensed, and congregated close, Veil all the heavens with clouds, and darkness deep; 495 While tides of rushing ether closer still Drive the light woof, and weave a thicker shade.

Then, too, perchance, the primal seeds of things, Borne from without, the mingled mass may join, And swell the cloudy drapery. These how wide 500

Diffused through space, how countless their amount, With what vast speed, what instantaneous flight

O'erpower they every distance, we erewhile

At large developed. Nought of wonder, then,

That storms, and blackness, gendered e'en above, 505

Should oft abrupt o'er mountains, plains, and seas

Of amplest breadth, their dreary mantle stretch ;

Since through all ether's nice, innumerous pores,

O'er the wide world like spiracles bespread,

The thronging atoms enter and retire. 510

Come, now, and next, how rain in clouds sublime Forms, and o'er earth in genial showers descends, Attentive, learn. And, first, the muse shall show That seeds at once of clouds and water rise From all created, whence alike augment 515

Water and cloud, and all that cloud contains, As with its frame augments the vital blood, Or aught besides of moisture through the limbs. Then, too, the cloudy floscules, as they fly O'er the broad main, the briny dew imbibe, 520

As pendant fleeces from the new-shorn flock. While from each stream, alike, their spongy webs Drink the light moisture; which, when once comprest, Atom with atom, in innumerous modes, Innumerous masses, the redundant clouds, 525

Prest by the winds, strive doubly to discharge: For, while such pressure bursts them, their own weight. Cloud thronged o'er cloud, compels the falling shower.

Then, too, abraded by the winnowing winds, Or by the sun relaxed, the cloudy film 530

Pours down its moisture, as the strainer thick Of woof redoubled, near the solvent fire, Drops o'er the vase its juices clear-refined. But fierce the torrent falls when fierce at once Clouds press o'er clouds, and winds with winds contend. 535

And much the rain persists, and long its stay, When countless crowd th' irriguous seeds above, Profuse the louring vapours, and the clouds Roll multitudinous, of bound devoid, And all the smoking earth the wet rehales. 540

And when the sun, amid the rushing shower, Gleams from a point all adverse to the storm, The crystal moisture, as it falls, his rays

Ceaseless reflects, and rears the gaudy bow.

Thus all, through heaven, that forms or floats sublime, Or in the clouds concretes, wind, hail, and snows, 546

And hoary pearl, and frost's stupendous power, Stern hardener of the waters, the restraint That chains the rivers panting to be free, These all the mind may hence, with ease, unfold ; 550

Their rise develope, why created solve, Taught by the seeds that form their various frames.

Next learn the cause why earth's firm frame, at times, Quakes wide around. And, first, conceive her shaped Below as upwards ; filled with roaring winds, 555

Fissures, and caverns, crags, and pools profound, And fractured rocks, through all her bosom spread: While, mid her hollows, boundless rivers roll, Wave after wave, and hide their secret heads : For fact itself proves earth throughout the same. 560

These truths premised, earth trembles, then, profound, Shook into ruins, when the rage of time, Deep down the caves immensely scooped below, Tumbles th' incumbent hills ; abrupt they fall With vast concussion, while, from scene to scene, 565

A\ T inds the dread tremour, propagated quick : And well may wind; since e'en the sluggish wain, Though filled but half, as o'er the street it rolls, Shakes every mansion ; since, alike disturbed, Quake they when, near, the light aerial car 570

Drawn by fleet coursers whirls its rattling wheels.

Earth trembles, too, when, undermined by age, Wide into lakes of boundless breadth beneath Th' incumbent glebe sinks sudden, her vast shell By the deep dash far staggered, as the bowl 575

Reels, filled with fluid, when its fluid rocks.

And when the winds, that oft her hollows crowd, Rush all collected, with fermenting force, Towards one vext quarter,—where the fight prevails Earth nods o'erpowered; each building reared above 580 Totters throughout, while those of loftier height Dread instant ruin, their connecting beams Disjointed, torn, and tumbling from their posts. And shrink mankind, then, from the creed that soon 2 a

Some ruthless conflict the wide world itself 585

Shall crush with wreck unbounded—while they see Earth shook so largely through her inmost mass ? E'en now, should ne'er such winds their rage relax, Their boisterous ferment, nought of power opposed Could stem th' assault, and instant fate must flow. 590 But as, by turns, these labour, and forbear, Now firm advance, and now, exhausted, fly, Earth ofter far is menaced than destroyed. For, from her centre thrown, she straight returns, Confirms her balance, and her course resumes; 595

While, mid the shock, each building reels; the high Most, less the low, the lowliest least of all.

Hence, too, the mighty tremour: that when wind, Or air elastic, into tumult worked,

Upreared within, or entering from above, 600

Still towards one point of earth's vast caverns pours, Whirled in wild vortex, its enormous force At length bursts sudden—and the solid soil Fractures amain, with broad tremendous yawn. Such SYRIAN SIDON saw, and -ZEoiUM such, 605

Pride of MOREAN plains. What earthquakes dire, What towns o'erthrown has this disruption sole Of frantic air engendered ! what vast walls Have tumbled from their base ! what peopled ports Deep down the main in common ruin sunk ! 610

E'en should th' elastic vapour the stern soil Cleave not abrupt, yet, issuing through its pores, Earth trembles still, with quivering horror shook, As shakes the frame, through every limb convulsed, When cold severe assaults us unprepared. 615

A twofold terror, then, mankind appals ; Above, the buildings menace, and, below, The shuddering ground threats instant into depths Boundless to sink, or ope its giant jaws And, in a moment, swallow all that lives. 620

E'en those who hold that heaven and earth exist Each incorrupt, and of eternal date, Touched by the present danger, then betray Strong latent dread lest earth forsake their feet, Down plunging headlong to th' abyss below; 625

Lest nature fail, and, o'er the total world, Void of all bounds promiscuous ruin rush.

Next why the main o'erflows not let us solve. And, first, man wondrous deems it the hoarse fall Of mountain cataracts, the ceaseless press 630

Of streams innumerous from innumerous points, Year after year, its limits never swell. Yet add to these whate'cr from heaven descends In showers and tempests, scattered wide alike O'er earth and ocean, every fountain add, 635

And still the vast accumulated mass, Weighed with the deep, would scarce a drop exceed. Whence nought stupendous that it ne'er augments.

Next, daily, much the solar heat exhales. For as the sun o'er humid garments pours 640

His beams profuse, with instant haste they dry. But broad and spacious spreads the liquid main ; Whence, from each spot though small the lymph absorbed, Yet large th' amount its total surface yields.

Then, too, the flickering winds with ceaseless wing 645 Winnow an ample portion. Such their power Oft, in a night, the swampiest paths they cleanse, Brush oif the wet, and harden all the mire.

And earlier have we taught that every cloud Imbibes, luxurious, the redundant dew 650

Raised from the face of ocean ; and o'er earth, Lashed by the breeze, in copious showers distils.

And as this mass terrene of frame consists Porous throughout, and with a thousand coasts Girds all the deep—since to the deep it sends, 655

In part, its fluids, doubtless so, alike, Part still retreats, and, percolated pure, Fresh bubbles distant at some fountain-head. Whence winds again the dulcet tide through paths Its liquid feet have printed oft before. 660

Now next explain we whence, from ./ETNA'S jaws, Bursts the bright storm of wild projectile fire ; Storm that, once kindled o'er SICILIA'S plains, Raves with no common ruin, as around From many a realm the general eye it draws, 665

And strikes the general heart with dread severe, 2 H 2

Wondering, beneath the dingy-flaring cope, What new adventure Nature means t' achieve.

Such facts t' unfold thy mind must deep, and wide, And long expatiate o'er their separate parts; 670

Recall the doctrine that th' ENTIRE OF THINGS Throughout is boundless; and how small, reflect, One system sole when with th' ENTIRE compared With systems thronging ; systems so complex That each to all weighs less than man to earth. 675

A creed once rooted that will raise thee oft O'er vulgar wonders, and each fact evolve.

Who strange conceives it that this mortal frame Should rage, at times, with fever, or aught else Of keen disease through all the body spread ? 680

That gout the foot should madden ? ache severe Torture the teeth, or wound the visual orb ? Or that the hallowed erysipelas O'er every limb should trail his serpent fires ? Here nought lurks wondrous: for from various seeds 685 Spring they, confest, in various modes combined; While heaven and earth alone such seeds adverse Amply supply to rear the tyrant ill.— Deem, then, alike, that heaven and earth themselves Draw from the boundless whole the stores evinced 690 When, with wild horror, quakes the world abrupt; O'er earth and main when rushing whirlwinds sweep. Or heaven inflames with fires from ^TNA thrown. For heaven thus blazes from the seeds of fire Countless collected, as the ponderous storm 695

Falls in full shower when aqueous atoms throng.

" But far too vast the sparkling deluge poured ! " And vast alike to him the stream must flow, In earlier life who ne'er so vast has seen: And vast each tree, each sentient tribe, and all 700

Till now ne'er witnessed ; while each sight so vast, While heaven, earth, main, united ne'er augment The boundless compass of th' unbounded whole.

Explain we, then, from ^ETNA'S forge immense How flows the fiery deluge when enraged. 705

And, first, the mighty mount is scooped throughout, High arched with sparry columns: winds and airs

Fill all its caves, for agitated air

To wind converts, resistless in its might.

This, when once heated, and its torrid breath 710

Has heated, too, the mingled mass around

Of rocks, and earths sulphureous, and a flood

Of frantic flame engendered—bursts abrupt,

And, through the mountain's monster-jaws, ejects

Towards every point its embers, and its blaze; 715

Belches whole atmospheres of smoke, and high

Hurls from its base huge crags of weight immense.

To air incensed such wonders, all, resolve.

Then to the main, too, spreads th' enormous hill Its roots profound, the rough, rebellowing surge 720

Baffling at each encounter: for thus far Doubtless extend its glimmering halls, and hence Draws it, at times, fresh stores of maddening wind; An ampler storm hence brewing, and its flames, Its rocks, its sands projecting wider still: 725

While, at its top, the whirlwind craters throng, By us termed aptly its voracious jaws. Thus many a cause we bring ; for many a cause Oft it behoves us, though but one subsist. As when, at distance, some dead corse thou view'st 730 Stretched o'er the ground, full many a cause thy mind Must state whence fell it ere it state the true. For whether poison triumph or disease, Cold, or the sword, it ne'er can prove remote; Though of such deaths thou learn, from those informed, 735 One here prevail.—Thus judge of things at large.

The NILE now calls us, pride of EGYPT'S plains: Sole stream on earth its boundaries that o'erflows Punctual, and scatters plenty. When the year Now glows with perfect summer, leaps its tide 740

Broad o'er the champaign, for the north-wind now, Th' ETESIAN breeze, against its mouth direct Blows with perpetual winnow ; every surge Hence loiters slow, the total current swells, And wave o'er wave its loftiest bank surmounts. 745

For that the fixt monsoon that now prevails Flows from the cold stars of the northern pole None e'er can doubt; while rolls the Nile adverse

Full from the south, from realms of torrid heat,

Haunts of the Exniop-tribes ; yet far beyond 750

First bubbling, distant, o'er the burning line.

Then ocean, haply, by th' undevious breeze Blown up its channel, heaves with every wave Heaps of high sands, and dams its wonted course: Whence narrower, too, its exit to the main, 755

And with less force the tardy stream descends.

Or, towards its fountain, ampler rains, perchance, Fall, as th' ETESIAN fans, now wide unfurled, Ply the big clouds perpetual from the north Far o'er the red equator ; where, condensed, 760

Ponderous, and low, against the hills they strike, And shed their treasures o'er the rising flood. Or, from the ETHiOP-mountains, the bright sun Now full matured, with deep dissolving ray May melt th' agglomerate snows, and down the plains 765 Drive them, augmenting, hence, th' incipient stream.

But come, th' AVEKNI beckon; and the muse Their nature, next, their depths, their lakes shall pierce.

And first, their name from power adverse to birds Draw they: for when the feathery people once 770

Touch but their confines, instant they forget Their pinioned oars, their plumy sails relax, And down, plumb down, profuse, with fluent neck Plunge they to earth, if earth their bottom form, Or into pools, if pool the mystic depth. 775

Such the dread gulf at CUM^E, belching high Fumes of hot sulphur o'er the mountains round. Such, too, at ATHENS, deep within her walls, Steams from the tower, MINERVA'S temple near ; Where never raven, e'en when victims smoke 780

O'er the red altar, shows his jetty plumes. Yet not restrained, as GRECIAN poets sing, By wrath of PALLAS o'er the tell-tale spy Profusely lavished, but the place alone. Such place in SYRIA, too, as fame reports, 785

The traveller traces, o'er whose dire domains The brute that treads drops instant, as though felled In prompt oblation to th' infernal powers.

These all subsist from Nature's general laws,

And whence their source their earliest rise unfolds ; 790

Lest we should judge them the first gates of hell,

And through such portals deem th' infernal gods

Draw the pale spirit to the shades below ;

As, with their breath, the foot-winged deer, 'tis said,

Draw from the furze the spotted race of snakes ; 795

A creed how false our numbers now shall prove.

First we maintain, then, and have earlier oft Maintained the same, that Nature's primal seeds In shape wide vary, whence the frame of things Much holds nutritious, baneful much, and big 800

With certain fate; while different foods, to kinds Different themselves, an ampler nurture yield, As reared with bond, with texture reared unlike. This have we erst decided. Sounds abhorred Wound the vext ear ; the shuddering nostrils drink 805 Oft atoms harsh and hateful to their smell; Nor fewer far the bodies touch rejects; Hostile to sight, or grievous to the taste.

Then, too, how frequent things with power adverse, Noxious to life, e'en man himself oppress. 810

Thus there are trees whose shade malignant strikes With instant head-ache all, in idle hour, Who fcosely throw them on the grass beneath. While some, o'er HELICON, a blossom bear Of scent so deadly, few the smell survive. 815

These spring from earth; for earth within her holds Innumerous seeds of things innumerous, joined In countless modes, and yields them as they blend.

The midnight taper, as its dying snuff Pours o'er the nostrils, stupifies with sleep 820

Deep as, the brain, when apoplexy numbs. So stupid swoons the maid, too, who in hour Of full, o'erflowing nature, castor gross Scents, floating round ; and from her graceful hands Drops, loosely drops the polished work she plies. 825

But endless are the substances that, thus, Melt all the members, and the soul subvert. If long thou loiter in the public bath, Or bathe at home o'erloaded with repast, Wilt thou not faint, unsinewed by the warmth ? 830

Dies not each sense beneath the charcoal-fume If from the brook we drink not ere they fail ? While the foul gas, that from fermenting must Springs, like a blow deep stuns us with its force.

Then breeds not earth, imbedded in herself, 835

Bitumens, sulphurs, ever steaming forth In dews malignant ? from the mines profound Of gold, or silver, rise not such o'er those Who delve, unblest, amid their rigid veins ? What ills hence issue ! o'er the miner's limbs 840

What ghastly hues ! what horrors o'er his face ! Hast thou not heard how soon existence fails, How languid life, mid wretches thus condemned ?— These vapours all earth genders in herself, And breathes through many an opening to the day. 845

Thus breathe th' AVERNI through their openings dire Fumes reared from earth, and fatal found to birds, Tainting far round the heavenly breeze that blows. Here, as the plumy people first approach, The fluent bane arrests them, and below 850

Deep plunges headlong down th' envenomed gulf, Where their last pulse soon fails through every limb. A wontless thrill, a giddiness of brain First feel they, falling, till, profounder sunk, Life flows amain, since more condensed th' assault. 855

Then, too, perchance th' AVERNI may, at times, With deadly blast the total air dissolve, Full nigh to vacuum, 'twixt the flutterer spread And earth beneath ; whence, once the spot attained, Vain prove his wings, each utmost effort vain 860

To prop the parent body : robbed abrupt Of buoyant ether, powerless, and forlorn, Down, like a weight, he tumbles through the void, And from each pore his airy soul exhales.

In wells profound the gurgling lymph that springs, 865 Springs chilliest in the summer:—for all earth Expands beneath the sun-beams, and emits The seeds of fire far prompter to the day: Whence more her surface burns with heat evolved, And colder flows the fountain deep-concealed. 870

While, mid the wintry frosts, her frame contracts,

Condenses closer, and, condensing, strains The fiery atoms into caves and wells.

A fount, 'tis rumoured, near the temple purls Of JOVE AMMONIAN, tepid through the night, 875

And cold at noon-day: and th' astounded sage Stares at the fact, and deems the punctual sun Strikes through the world's vast centre, as the shades Of midnight shroud us, and with ray reverse Maddens the well-spring :—creed absurd and false. 880 For if, full blazing o'er the naked tide, Poured from above in fierce meridian might, No heat he gender—how can his deep orb Flame through earth's solid substance, and the lymph Lash into fervour ? how—since e'en at noon 885

Scarce can his rage the cottage wall transpierce ?

Dost thou the cause demand, then ? clearly hence. That round the fountain earth more spongy spreads And seeds of fire throng ampler ; whence, when night Pours o'er the world his dew-distilling shades, 890

The chilled, contracting soil here strains abrupt, As though comprest by fingers, towards the fount Such seeds profusely, and the bubbling wave Proves to the touch, the taste more tepid proves. But when, reversed, the sun with new-born beam 895

Earth rarefies, and quickens, back profound Fly the young fire-seeds to their native haunts, The fount forsaking ; whence the sparkling tide Tastes in the day more frigid than at night.

Then, too, the crystal fluid, by the sun 900

Thrilled, deep dilates beneath his trembling ray, And yields its embryo fires ; as, when congealed, Yields it alike its frost beneath the blaze, Melts all its ice, and every bondage bursts.

A fount there is, too, which, though cold itself, 905

With instant flare the casual flax inflames Thrown o'er its surface; and the buoyant torch Kindles alike immediate, o'er its pool Steering the course th' ethereal breeze propels. Nor wondrous this ; for countless seeds of heat 910

Throng through the water, raised from earth profound, And thence, in turn, projected into air:

Yet ne'er so active as the wave to warm.

Some latent energy the seeds, moreo'er, Thus scattered, forces to the water's brim 915

Sudden, and there concentrates ; as, at times, Springs the fresh fount amid th' unbounded main, And drives the brine broad circling as it flows. Nor thus unfrequent to the thirsty crew Does bounteous nature ope the dulcet draught, 920

High-spouting freshness through the world of salt. So through the well-spring that the flax inflames Burst forth the lurking fire-seeds to the day, Commingling with its fibres ; which achieved, Or with the torch once blended, all is blaze; 925

Themselves alike high-charged with latent fire.

When, just extinct, the taper we apply To one full blazing, seest thou not how soon, E'en ere it touch, th' extinguished snuff relumes ? Relumes not thus the torch, too ? and alike 930

Full many a substance, useless to recount, At distance kindled ere the flame arrive ? So acts the fountain, such the cause concealed.

And next explain we by what curious law The stone termed MAGNET by the GREEKS, attracts 935 Th' obsequious iron ; magnet termed since first Mid the MAGNETES men its power descried.

Vast is the wonder, mid th' admiring crowd, This stone excites; for oft a pendant chain Forms it of rings unlinked and loosely joined. 940

And frequent see they, sporting in the breeze, Such rings quintupled, in succession long, The lowlier cleaving to the sphere above, And this to that, proclaiming, as it hangs, Its deep-felt conscience of the magnet's power. 945

Such the resistless energy it boasts.

In facts like these full many a truth profound First must we prove, ere yet their power thou trace, And many a maze unravel;—thou with heed List, then, for now thy closest ear we claim. 950

And, first, from all things bodies most minute Flow forth for ever, scattered, and diffused, Wounding the pupil, and compelling sight.

From forms defined spring odours ; from the sun

Thus heat exhales ; cold, dewy damp from streams, 955

And the rough spray from ocean, with fierce fang

Gnawing the mound that dares resist its waves.

Thus sounds, too, flutter through the breezy air;

And when the beach we traverse, oft the tongue

Smarts with the briny vapour; or, at hand, 960

If the bruised wormwood yield its acrid juice,

We taste th' essential bitter and abhor.

Thus some light effluence streams from all create,

Streams forth for ever, void of dull repose,

Towards every point diffused ; for man perceives, 965

Where'er his station ; sight alike exists,

The sense of fluent odours, and of sounds.

This thus premised, recall we next to mind How rare the frame of all things, as erewhile Conspicuous proved we in our earliest strain. 970

A theme, though ever useful, useful most Found, when compelled, as now, to re-affirm That nought exists but matter mixt with void.

For, first, the roofs of rocky caverns sweat With dews, and crystals ; and the frame of man 975

Throws through each pore the perspirable lymph. Beard through the visage permeates, through each limb Peeps the young down, and every meal imbibed Flows through the veins profuse, and feeds, augments, And quickens all things e'en to th' utmost nails. 980

Cold the tense brass, and heat alike transpierce: So pierce they gold, and silver, as the vase Proves, filled with fluids by the fingers clasped. Through the stone wall voice winds its sinuous way, And frosts, and odours, and the power of heat: 985

Heat that pervades e'en steel, and through the helm Rushes, where rests it round the fretted neck. So rushes, too, contagion from without Deep through each quivering organ. The red storm In heaven engendered pierces earth profound ; 990

Or, if in earth it ripen, heaven above Shakes with the shock through all its shattering walls. For nought combines through nature void of pores.

Then not unvarying in exterior shape

All atoms flow from all things ; nor alike 995

On all things act they, with effect unchanged.

The beam that burns and dries the moistened earth, Fluxes the frost, o'er mountains piled sublime Rolls, in loose tide, the macerated snows, And with its effluence melts th' adhesive wax. 1000

Fire fuses gold and copper, but contracts The flesh of beeves and shrivels their tough hides. Red from the flame, steel hardens in the pool, But hides and flesh relax. The bearded goat On the wild olive most luxurious feasts, 1005

Deems it all nectar, all ambrosia deems, While nought so hateful to the mouth of man. Swine fly perfumes, sweet marjoram is death, Scents that, with us, the spirit oft revive. While the gross slough, mere filth among ourselves, 1010 To them proves cleanliness ; and deep within Plunge they, all joyous mid its miry waves.

This, too, the muse should notice ere we yet Full on the magnet enter ; that, as things Oft various classes hold of pores within, 1015

Each class from each must differ, and a breadth, A shape possess, appropriate to itself. For many a sense each vital tribe endows, Various, empowered as various parts t' achieve And mark its proper objects as they rise. 1020

Thus sounds by one assail us, this conveys Taste from each juice, and streams of odour that. So the firm stone some substances transpierce, Some wood, some gold, some silver, crystal some, Heat those pervading, the light image this. 1025

And thus through all things different objects rush With ease far different; nature to their forms, Their powers diverse, as long anterior proved, Th' appropriate duct adapting most exact.

These axioms thus premised, then, and maintained, 1030 All else flows obvious, and the total cause Unfolds spontaneous that the steel compels.

First, from the magnet countless atoms stream In tide perpetual, chasing the mid air 'Twixt the stern iron placed, and stone itself. 1035

This space once emptied, and a total void

Formed broad between, abrupt the seeds of steel,

Thrown forth alike, usurp it, close conjoined,

Dragging the ring resistless as they rush.

For nought exists with primal seeds more harled, 1040

More clinched, more tangled in commutual bonds

Than the cold steel, all horror to the touch.

Whence wondrous less the doctrine thus announced,

That from the steel those atoms ne'er can part,

Urged through the vacuum, but the ring succeeds: 1045

Abrupt succeeds it, gains the stone abrupt,

And fixt and firm in mystic league coheres.

So flies it, too, towards every point alike,

Borne upwards, or transverse, where'er the void

Spreads round the magnet, following, in its course, 1050

The seeds that nearest touch the vacant sphere,

Themselves hence foremost prest from strife within,

And powerless, else, through ether e'er t' ascend.

Hence, too, the ring draws pinions in its flight: That as, at once, secedes th' anterior air, 1055

And forms the void, th' elastic tide behind Drives it, perpetual plying at its back. For air encircles all things ; but alone Can act coercive, and the steel protrude, When first the momentary void exists, 1060

Opes its pure passage, and admits it free. Then potent acts it; through the total ring, Through every pore, its puny atoms darts, Chasing the steel as winds the bark impel.

Then air, moreo'er, whate'er exists, within 1065

Holds, doubtless ; since of tenuous frame composed, And by surrounding air for ever lashed. Whence air through iron roves, too, deep-concealed, Ceaseless in action, and the docile ring Plies with internal tempest, doubly hence 1070

Borne towards the void where centres all its aim ; Armed with new speed, new succour for the flight.

Oft from the magnet, too, the steel recedes, Repelled by turns, and re-attracted close.

And oft in brazen vessels may we mark 1075

Ringlets of SAMOTIIUACE, or fragments fine

Struck from the valid iron, bounding high

When close below the magnet points its powers.

So vast th' aversion, e'en the brass beneath,

Feel they at times ; the discord such induced. 1080

Thou thus resolve the problem : that the brass

First throws, as nearest, its attenuate breath,

And fills the pores of iron ; which when, next,

The stream magnetic reaches, it in vain

Toils to transpierce, each avenue possest. 1085

Checked in its course, with wave perpetual, hence,

The rings, the raspings beats it, and above

Far off repulses, else embracing strong^

Nor strange conceive it the magnetic stream Nought drives besides: for powers there are resist, 1090 Like the firm gold, confiding in their weight; While some a frame so loose present and rare The rushing vapour permeates, void of touch. Such frame all timbers offer. But the steel Springs 'twixt the two : and hence, when through its pores Clogged with the brass effluvium, the full flood 1096

Flung from the magnet dashes it sublime.

Nor are such unions through created things Discerned unfrequent, nor severe the task To point affinities of equal strength. 1100

Lime only stones connects ; the strong steer-glue Joins planks so firm, a bond so valid rears, The closest-textured table through its veins Will easier sever than the glue desist.

The vine's pure juice in close alliance dares 1105

League with the fountain; while the ponderous pitch The light-winged oil refuses. With the fleece The purple murex so minutely blends Nought e'er can part them: no—though e'en thou toil Day after day with all great NEPTUNE'S waves: 1110

No—his whole sea the stain would ne'er wash out.

One cement sole with gold concentrates gold, And nought but pewter brass with brass unites.

Such facts how numerous ! but why more recite ? To thee 'twere labour useless, and perplext; 1115

And to the muse unjust; for much remains, Much, though but few the numbers we design.

Where things once fit with textures reared reverse, Rare and o'ercharged, and this to that, and that Responds to this, alternate, they combine 1120

With firmest junction : but combine they, too, Oft as though hooks and ringlets formed the bond: And thus, perchance, the magnet meets the steel.

Now whence diseases rise, the morbid power What, that, once gendered, spreads its baneful blast 1125 O'er man's pale offspring, and the brutal throngs, Next will we sing. Already hast thou heard That seeds exist, from many a substance flung, To life salubrious, yet, too oft, reversed, Noxious, and big with death. When spring the last 1130 Through heaven full flocking, all the vital air Sickens immediate, through its texture changed. And thus full flock they, their pestiferous power Fanning around them, from intrinsic birth In heaven itself begot as mists or clouds ; 1135

Or breathed from earth, when once her soddened soil Ferments corrupted, plied by ceaseless rains Untimely poured, and hot succeeding suns.

Seest thou not, oft, the restless crowds that rove Far from their homes, their countries, tried severe 1140 With the new stream they drink, the heaven inhale ? From the dread change such sickness sole results. How wide must BRITAIN differ in her clime From EGYPT'S tribes, o'er whom the northern pole Gleams never ! orient PONTUS, how, from those 1145

Far westward, scattered o'er the GADIAN isles, Or the swart ETHIOP, blackening in his blaze! And since the world's vast quarters, each from each, As various heavens and atmospheres divide, So man himself in tincture, face, and form 1150

Alike must vary, and disease sustained.

High up the NILE, mid EGYPT'S central plains, Springs the dread leprosy, and there alone. Gout clogs the feet in ATTICA ; the sight Fails in ACHAIA : different regions, thus, 1 \~>~>

With different organs wage eternal war, As urged by atmospheres of frame unlike.

But when the heaven, of poisonous power to us,

First moves remote, its hostile effluence creeps

Slow, like a mist or vapour ; all around 1160

Transforming as it passes, till, at length,

Reached our own region, it the total scene

Taints, and assimilates, and loads with death.

Abrupt then falls the new, pestiferous bane, Broad o'er the fountains, or the food invades 1165

Of man, or beast, the pasture or the grain. Or, haply, still along the breezy air It floats commingled; whence, with every breath, Drink we alike the poison through our veins. And hence the murrain that assaults, at times, 1170

The lusty herd, the blight that thins our flocks. Nor aught imports it whether, urged by gain, We change the covering of the skies, and seek Ourselves the noxious climate, or its breeze Meet us spontaneous; or aught else assail 1175

Of nature new, and strange to every sense.

A plague like this, a tempest big with fate, Once ravaged ATHENS, and her sad domains ; Unpeopled all her city, and her paths Swept with destruction. For amid the realms 1180

Begot of EGYPT, many a mighty tract Of ether traversed, many a flood o'erpast, At length, here fixed it; o'er the hapless realm Of CECROPS hovering, and th' astonished race Dooming by thousands to disease and death. 1185

The head first flamed with inward heat; the eyes Reddened with fire suffused; the purple jaws Sweated with bloody ichor ; ulcers foul Crept o'er the vocal path, obstructing close ; And the prompt tongue, expounder of the mind, 1190

O'erflowed with gore, enfeebled in its post, Hoarse in its accent, harsh beneath the touch.

And when the morbid effluence through the throat Had reached the lungs, and filled the faltering heart. Then all the powers of life were loosened ; forth 1195

Crept the spent breath most fetid from the mouth, As steams the putrid carcass: every power Failed through the soul—the body—and alike Lay they liquescent at the gates of death.

While with these dread, insufferable ills 1200

A restless anguish joined, companion close,

And sighs commixt with groans; and hiccough deep,

And keen convulsive twitchings ceaseless urged,

Day after day, o'er every tortured limb,

The wearied wretch still wearying with assault. 1205

Yet ne'er too hot the system could'st thou mark Outwards, but rather tepid to the touch : Tinged still with purple-dye, and brandished o'er With trails of caustic ulcers, like the blaze Of erysipelas. But all within 1210

Burned to the bone; the bosom heaved with flames Fierce as a furnace, nor would once endure The lightest vest thrown loosely o'er the limbs. All to the winds, and many to the waves, Careless, resigned them ; in the gelid stream 1215

Plunging their fiery bodies, to be cooled : While some, wide-gasping, into wells profound Rushed all abrupt; and such the red-hot thirst Unquenchable that parched them, amplest showers Seemed but as dew-drops to th' unsated tongue. 1220

Nor e'er relaxed the sickness; the racked frame Lay all-exhausted, and, in silence dread, Appalled, and doubtful, mused the HEALING ART. For the broad eye-balls, burning with disease, Rolled in full stare, for ever void of sleep, 1225

And told the pressing danger; nor alone Told it, for many a kindred symptom thronged. The mind's pure spirit, all despondent, raved; The brow severe; the visage fierce and wild ; The ears distracted, filled with ceaseless sounds ; 1230

Frequent the breath ; or ponderous oft, and rare ; The neck witli pearls bedewed of glistening sweat; Scanty the spittle, thin, of saffron dye, Salt, with hoarse cough scarce laboured from the throat. The limbs each trembled; every tendon twitched l'2l]~> Spread o'er the hands; and from the feet extreme O'er all the frame a gradual coldness crept. Then, towards the last, the nostrils close collapsed ; The nose acute ; eyes hollow ; temples scooped ; Frigid the skin, retracted; o'er the mouth 1240

2 i

A ghastly grin; the shrivelled forehead tense ; The limbs outstretched, for instant death prepared ; Till with the eighth descending sun, for few Reached his ninth lustre, life for ever ceased.

And though, at times, th' infected death escaped 1245 From sanious organs, or the lapse profuse Of black-tinged feces, fate pursued them still. Hectic and void of strength, consumption pale Preyed on their vitals ; or, with head-ache keen, Oft from the nostrils tides of blood corrupt 1250

Poured unrestrained, and wasted them to shades.

And, e'en o'er these triumphant, frequent still Fixed the morbific matter on the limbs, Or seized the genial organs ; and to some The grave so hideous, they consented life 1255

E'en Avith th' excision of their sexual powers Dearly to ransom: some their being bought By loss of feet or hands; and some escaped Void of all vision ; such their dread of death. And in oblivion some so deep were drowned 1260

Themselves they knew not, nor their lives elapsed.

And though, unburied, corse o'er corse the streets Oft thronged promiscuous, still the plumy tribes, The forest monsters, either far aloof

Kept, the foul stench repulsing, or if once 1265

Dared they the plunder, instant fate pursued.

Nor feathery flocks at noon, nor beasts at night Their native woods deserted; with the pest Remote they languished, and full frequent died. But chief the dog his generous strength resigned, 1270 Tainting the highways, while the ruthless bane Through every limb his sickening spirit drove.

With eager strife th' enormous grave was snatched, By friends untended : nor was aught of cure Discerned specific ; for what here recalled 1275

To day's bright regions the vanescent soul, And gave the living ether to the lips, Proved poison there, and ten-fold stamped the fate.

But this the direst horror, that when once Man felt th' infection, as though full forewarned 1280

Of sure destruction, melancholy deep

Preyed o'er his heart, his total courage failed, Death sole he looked for, and his doom was death.

Thus seized the dread, unmitigated pest Man after man, and day succeeding day, 1285

With taint voracious: like the herds they fell Of bellowing beeves, or flocks of timorous sheep: On funeral funeral hence for ever piled. E'en he who fled th' afflicted, urged by love Of life too fond, and trembling for his fate, 1290

Repented soon severely, and himself Sunk in his guilty solitude, devoid Of friends, of succour, hopeless, and forlorn. While those who nursed them, to the pious task Roused by their prayers, with piteous moans commixt, 129o Fell irretrievable : the best, by far, The worthiest, thus most frequent met their doom.

From ceaseless sepulchres, where each with each Vied in the duteous labour, they returned Faint, sad, and weeping ; and from grief alone 1300

Oft to their beds resistless were they driven. Nor lived the mortal then, who ne'er was tried With death, with sickness, or severest woe.

Then the rude herdsman, shepherd, and the man Of sturdiest strength, who drove the plough afield, 1305 Languished remote; and in their wretched cots Sunk, the sad victims of disease and want: O'er breathless sires their breathless offspring lay, Or sires and mothers o'er the race they bore.

Nor small the misery through the city oft 1310

That poured from distant hamlets ; for in throngs Full flocked the sickening peasants for relief From every point diseased ; and every space, And every building crowded; heightening hence The rage of death, the hillocks of the dead. 1315

Some, parched with thirst, beneath th' eternal spout Dropped of the public conduits ; in the stream Wallowing unwearied, and its dulcet draught Deep-drinking till they bursted. Staggering, some Threw o'er the highways, and the streets they trod,- 1320 Their languid limbs ; already half extinct, Horrid with fetor, stiff with blotches foul, •> i •>

With rags obscene scarce covered ; o'er the bones

Skin only, nought but skin ; and drowned alike

Within and outwards, with putrescent grume. 1 325

At length the temples of the gods themselves, Changed into charnels, and their sacred shrines Thronged with the dead: for superstition now, The power of altars, half their sway had lost, Whelmed in the pressure of the present woe. 1330

Nor longer now the costly rites prevailed Of ancient burial, erst punctilious kept: For all roved restless, with distracted mind, From scene to scene ; and worn with grief and toil Gave to their friends th' interment chance allowed. 1335

And direst exigence impelled them oft, Headlong, to deeds most impious ; for the pyres Funereal seized they, reared not by themselves, And with loud dirge, and wailing wild, o'er these Placed their own dead; amid th' unhallowed blaze 1340 With blood contending, rather than resign The tomb thus gained, or quit th' enkindling corse.

THE END.

ACCIDENTS, or events, what they are, i.

450 Achaia, said to be hurtful to the eyes; no

cause assigned, vi. 1114 Acheron, the river of Tartarus, iii. 3", 628, 997, 1036; iv. 41, 171; vi. 250, 763; regions of, vi. 250 Acherutia tem/t/a, i. 121; iii. 25, 86

stulturum rita, iii. 1036

Acorns, the food of the first men, v. 937 Acoustics, Epicurean theory of, iv. 527,

teq.

Action. All substance either acts upon other substance, or is itself acted upon, ! i. 441

Adjuncts, see Accidents jf.gium, a town near Helice and Bura, in the Peloponnesus, destroyed by an earth quake, vi. 5M jEgypt, see Ejjvpt jEneas, race of, (jEneada,) i. 1 jEolia, for Italy, i. 712 ./Ether, feeds the heavenly bodies, i. 232.

Father jfcther, i. 151 /Ethiopian mountains, vi. 736 jEtna, i. 723; ii. 594 ; vi. 640, 670, 682 Apiculture, commencement of, v. 1366 Air, not the origin of things, i. 708; wastes and is renewed, like other bodies, v. 27fi. Unwholesome atoms mixed with air the cause of diseases, vi. 1094, 1118 Alinda, a city of Caria, garments from, iv.

1126. See'Chian

Ambition, vanity of it, ii. 37; v. 1126 Ammon, Jupiter, a spring near his tem ple, cold in the day, and warm in the night, vi. 849 Anaxagoras, his homceomery explained, i.

830; refuted, i. 843 Ancus, king of Rome, iii. 1038 Androgynes, or hermaphrodites, v. 837 Animals, could not be constantly pro duced, unless there were abundance of atoms constantly supplied for the pur pose from the dissolution of bodies, i. 226; mode and causes of their growth and decay, ii. 1122; first produced from the earth, v. 789; why in perpetual want of nourishment, iv. 859 Annihilation. That nothing can be anni hilated, i. 216. 218, 249, alqut altl.i Anonymous substance, combined with

three others, heat, aura, and air, in th» composition of the soul, iii. 241

Apollo, tee Phoebus

Arabian odours, tee P^nchsean

Arados, in Phoenicia, sea near it, in which rises a spring of fresh water, vi. 891

Arbutus tree, v. 939, 963

Arcadian boar, v. 25

birds, v. 32

Aristoxenus, his opinion that the soul was a. harmony, iii. 100; refuted, 118—136

Arts, of comparatively recent invention, v. 333

Athens, inventress of agriculture, and promoter of the polite arts, vi. 1: one of the places called Averni within its walls, vi. 750

Atoms, or primary particles of things, proved to be perfectly solid, i. 484—528; also indivisible, and consequently eter nal, i. 529—635; those who have thought otherwise refuted, i. 636, irq.; sense less, ii. 842; absurdities which would follow from supposing that sensible beings must be produced from sensible atoms, ii. 900, 906 ; proved to be colour less, ii. 730—842; in falling through space, some declined a little from the right line, otherwise there would have been no collisions and combinations, ii. 217—224 ; the shapes of atoms are limit ed in number, but the number of each shape is infinite, ii. 478—52S; with n ference to generation, the positions, con nexions, and reciprocal impulses of atoms, are of the greatest importance, i. 817,908; ii. 1008. See Matter. Speed with which atoms move, ii. 141

Averni, certain places so named, vi. 739; why so called, vi. 741; .where situate, vi. 748—760

Augmentation of things, how caused, i. 177, 189

Augury, vanity of, vi. 379

Aura, one of the four subtle subntance* of which the soul and mind are composed, iii. 233, 248

Aurora, her rising, ii. 143 ; iv. 713 ; v. 65^

Babe, new-born, helplessness of, T. tIS Babylonian astronomy, v. 726 coverlets, iv. 1026

INDEX.

Bacchus, used figuratively for wine, ii. 655 ; his benefits bestowed on mankind, v. 14. See Ceres. Loss of flavour in wine not attended with loss of weight, iii. 222

Barrenness, in women, not caused by di vine influence, iv. 1239 ; its real causes, ibid. ; why some women are barren to some men, and fruitful to others, iv. 1244

Beasts, see Brutes

Beauty. Kings chosen on account of beau ty of person, v. 1110

Beaver. Effects of the smell of castoreum on women in a certain condition, vi. 795

Birds, were produced first of all animals, v. 739 ; sprung from the earth, v. 823; have dreams, iv. 1004; change their notes with changes of feeling, v. 1077; or with changes of the weather, as crows, v. 1082

Bistor.ian regions, where the horses of Piomede were, v. 30

Boar, Arcadian, v. 25

Body, see Substance

, the vessel or receptacle of the soul,

iii. 441, 554

Brass, more valued than any other metal, before iron was known, v. 1272, 1286

Britain, allusion to the climate of, vi. 1105

Brutes, sprung from the earth, v. 821; the young know their dams, and the dams their young, from difference of shape, ii. 349—370; have dreams, iv. 987, 992, 999; utter different sounds of voice according to their different feel ings, v. 1058—1089

Bull of Crete, v. 26

Cadiz, vi. 1107

Calliope invoked, vi. 94

Candles, their flame sustained by atoms perpetually rising, and perpetually pass ing off, v. 295 ; stench of a newly extin guished candle causes some persons to swoon, vi. 792

Capricorn, v. 614

Carthage, iii. 1047

Carthaginians contending with Rome, iii. 845

Castor, Castoreum, see Beaver

Cecrops, territory of, (i. e. Attica,) vi. 1137

C entaurs, why such monsters could never have existed, v. 875; see Chimaera; how the images of them are produced, iv. 741

Centaury, the bitter herb, ii. 401; iv. 124

Centre. Bodies do not tend to a centre, i. 1051 ; no central point in the universe, i. 1069 ; if there were one, bodies would not rest at it more than in any other place, ib.