And thus your matter, by its native force,

To different points would fteer a different courfe;
Determin'd by the fame impulfive weight,

Move in a line oblique, and in a straight.

To heal your fyftem's deep and ghastly wound,
Which this objection gives, Lucretius found
A method; who a motion did invent
Not ftraight entirely, nor entirely bent,

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510

Which forms a line to crooked somewhat like,
Slanting almoft, and, as it were, oblique.
Who does not now this wondrous bard adore?

See reafon's conquering light, and wit's refiftless power? If atoms, after their eternal dance,

Into this beauteous fabrick leap'd by chance;

If they combin'd by cafual concourfe; say,
What, in a free and unobstructed way,

Did in a full career your atoms ftay?

515

What mounds, what force, when rufhing from the height:
Of space immenfe, could stop them in their flight?
Why in their road did they not forward pafs?
But fay, where now we find the fettled mass,
Why did they ceafe from moving in despite
Of their own nature, and impelling weight?
Had the wife troops fagacity to know,

That, there arriv'd, they fhould no further go?
That in this point of all the fpacious void,
To form a world they were to be employ'd?
Did they, in profpect of fo great a good,
In this one place of all the liquid road,
All their encumbering gravity unload ?

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Fatigued,

Fatigued, and spent with labour infinite,
Did they grow torpid, and unapt for flight?
Or, in th' embrace and downy lap of air
Lull'd and enchanted, did they fettle there?

Grant in this fingle place by chance they met,
That there by chance they did their weight forget;
It happen'd there they form'd a mighty mafs,
Where yet no order, no distinction, was:
Let this be fo; we ask you to explain

The wondrous Power that did the parts fuftain,
For ftill their nature and their weight remain.
What from defcent fhould ponderous matter stay,
When no more ponderous matter stops its way?
Can airy columns prop the mighty ball,
Its preffure balance, and prevent its fall?
And after this remains a mighty task,

Which more than human fkill and power will afk,
The ftrong myfterious cements to unfold,
Which atoms ftrictly complicated hold.

But let us leave the heap in air's embrace,

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}

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559

To reft unmov'd within the empty space, ale place:}

Tell, how you build the chambers of the sky,
Extend the spheres, and hang the orbs on high?
You fay, when matter first began to fall,

And fettle into this terreftrial ball,

Prefs'd from the earth thin exhalations rofe,

555

Vapours and steams, materials to compose
The fpacious regions of the liquid air,
The heavens, and all the luminaries there :

560

Thefe

Thefe vapours foon (miraculous event!),
Shuffled by chance, and mix'd by accident,
Into fuch ranks and beauteous order fell,
As no effect of wifdom can excel.

Hence did the planets, hung in æther, stray!
Hence rose the stars, and hence the milky way!
Hence did the fun along the fkies advance!

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The fource of day, but fprung from night and chance!
But who can fhew the legends, that record
More idle tales, or fables fo abfurd?
Does not your scheme affront ev'n vulgar sense;
That fpheres of such a vaft circumference,
That all the orbs, which in the regions roll,
Stretching from eaft to weft, from pole to pole,
Should their conftructure, and their beauty, owe
To vapours prefs'd from this poor ball below?
From this fmall heap could exhalations rise
Enough, and fit, to fpread and vault the skies?
Lucretius thus the manner has difplay'd

How meteors, not how heavenly globes, are made.
But grant the fteams, which by expreffion rofe,
Did all the spheres and every orb compose;
Since their ingenite gravity remains,

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What girder binds, what prop the frame sustains?

The fun's bright beams, which you of matter make,

From Heaven their downward flight perpetual take:

Why does not then his body, which outweighs
By infinite degrees his golden rays,

590

By its own force precipitated fall,

And hide in ruins this terrestrial ball?

Can

Can air, unable to fuftain the light,
Support the fun of fuch fuperior weight;
And all the ponderous heavenly orbs fufpend
Against their nature, which does downward tend?
Tell, wife Lucretius, tell the fecret art,

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610

Which keeps the heavens and earth fo long apart. Thus too the air, prefs'd from this mafs, you fay, Between the earth and skies expanded lay; Not with intention that the folar light Through the thin gulph might take an eafy flight; Or that with nitrous food it fhould infpire The breathing lungs, and feed the vital fire; But mere contingence did the gulph extend, Regardless of convenience, ufe, or end. Now, vaunting poet! fhould it be confefs'd, That from the earth the air is thus exprefs'd; Since things by heavier things are upward thrown, Which tend with ftronger gravitation down; Why are the fun, and the fair orbs of light, All which fo far exceed the air in weight, Hung from the centre at a greater height? Why do not these their Nature's law obey, Rush from above, and near the centre stay, And make all lighter bodies give them way? Tell us, Lucretius, why they ne'er pursue This natural bent, and this undoubted due? Since to the earth, you give the middle place, To which all heavy things direct their race,; If nothing does obftruct, by certain fate Things would in order of their different weight

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Lie round the earth, and make one mighty heap;
They would their place, as different strata, keep.
Nor would the air, or interceding fky,
Between the distant orbs and worlds divided lie;
Æther and air would claim the highest place,
The stars and planets would the earth embrace,
As now the ocean floats upon its face.
In vain you labour by mechanic rules,

In vain exhauft the reason of your fchools,
These questions to refolve, and to explain

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630

How separate worlds were made, and separate still remain.
Since to your uncompounded atoms you

Figures in number infinite allow,

635

From which, by various combination, fprings

This unconfin'd diverfity of things;

Are not, in this, design and counsel clear?

Does not the wife Artificer appear,

Who the corporeal particles endued

640

With different fhape, and different magnitude,

That from their mixtures all things might have birth,

In the wide fea, and air, and heaven, and earth?

To all these figures of diftinguish'd kind,

And different fizes, are not ends affign'd?

Then own their caufe did act with wife intent,

645

Which did thofe fizes fquare, and every shape invent.
When atoms first the world began to frame,

Is it not strange that every number came

Of fuch a figure, and of such a fize,

650

As ferv'd to found the earth, and fpread the fkies?

Had they not met in fuch proportion, were
Their form and number not as now they are,

In