PART XIII.

E T I C
fition and Order^ are carried through the f'^a- cmm^ and, where they concur, being mutually entangled, are condens’d ; whence it happens, that a different temperature of the thing refults, for they are conjoined. according to proportion of Magnitude, Figures, Pdfitions , Order, and by this means the generation of compound things comes to be perfefted.
But where the Generation of oiie is made out . 'of the Corruption of another, that ufually hap¬ pens after a threefold manner,wbich we touched, fpeaking of alteration *, either only by Tranfpo- fition of the Parts or Atoms, as when a Frog is generated of Dirt, a Mite ofCheefe • or by ad~ fition of things acceflbry, as when, by acceflion of the Seed to a greater mafs, (as of Rennet into Mik, or of Leaven into Dough, } there is begotten a Plant, or Animal - after which man¬ ner alfo Augmentation is made, by vVhich the generated thing becomes bigger Or laftly, by taking away fomthing pre-exiftent, as when Fife is generated by the levering of watery, afhy, or other parts which were in Wood ^ Wax, by the fevering of Honey which was in the Comb j and fo of the reft.
Here the former co'mparifon of Letters will ferve to make us uaderftand tVvo things. One, that the particular manners of generation, and their oppolite corruptions, which may be com¬ prehended under any of thefe three manners,are ( if not infinite, at leaft ) innumerable,inexpref- fible, and incompfehenfible, fince of Four and twenty Letters only, which are in the Alphabet, there may be produced a multitude of words almoft incomprchenfible.
The other is, that as words, accommodated to Pronunciation and Reafon, are not made of every combination of Letters ; fo in natural things, all things are riot made of all things ; nor are all Atoms fit, by being joined together, to conftitute any Species of compoand thingp. For every thing requires fuch a difpofition, as that the Atoms conftituting it match, and, as it were, afibciate themfelves with thofe which are agreeable to them, but pafs by, and, as it were, rejed others. Whence again it comes to pafs, that when a thing is diffolved, all the agreeing Atoms draw one another mutually, and difen- gage themfelves from thofe which arc difagree- ing. This is manifeftly feen in Nutrijtion,wbich is Aggeneration, and is evident even from this, that otherwife Monfters would be ordinarily generated, as Half- men, Half-beafts j Chimera’s, and Zoophyts.
In a word, certainly he never had the leaft tafte of Phyfiology , who conceiveth, that any thing which is generated can be eternal ^ for what Compofition is there, which is not dif- folveable ? Or what is there,that hath, a Begin¬ ning, and no End ? Though there were no ex¬ ternal Caufes to deftroy its Frame, yet wants there not an inteftine motion, and, even within the moft compadt and durable Bodies, an un- vanquifhable inclination of Atoms downwards, whence their diflblution rauft necefiarily fol¬ low'.
Yet, this dilTolution b not always immediate¬ ly made into Atoms, but for the moft part in¬ to little bulks, or parts compounded of them ^ which are certain kinds of compouRd bodies, as
U, R U A.
when there is a dillblutron of Woodvpartly into fire^ partly into fmoke, partly into 'fonre wacerifi moifture, partly into allies. But-'ivbSt^ way fo- cver it be done, we muft always that in Generation there is no new Subton^rfiade, b'dt piieexifcent Subftances are made':iuq3 fo in Corruption, no Subftanee abfolutely cea’ fech to be, but is diflipated into more Subftan- ccs,, which remain after the deftfuftion of the former. . jsp a:
,
CHAP. XVIII. " - ^
/ - Ti ■
Whence it comes ^ that a generated Bde^ ii in a cer¬ tain k ind of things^ and dijiinguijhed' fro^ other things'. '
O
Moreover, feeing that every Body is gene¬ rated only of the aggregation of Matter, or ot material and fubftantial Frincipl is, knit¬ ting together in a certain Order and Pofition ; therefore, that which is concrete or generated, is underftood to be nothing elfe but. the Prin¬ ciples themfelves, as they are knit together in fuch an order or pofition, and thereupon are ex¬ hibited in fuch a form or quality.
This form or quality, whereby athinggene- rate,is eltablilhedinfuch a certain kind of things, as of Metal, or of Stone, or of Plant, or of Ani¬ mal, and is diftinguilhed from all the Species and Individmms of the Genus wherein it is ; this form^ I fay, is not one arid fimple, but rather, as it were, an aggregation and colleSiott of many, which colledtion cannot be found in any thing, but in this . , )
‘ Wherefore we muft here obferve, that the inert. ‘figures of things, their, colours, magnitude,
‘ gravity, and ( in a word, ) ‘ all other qualities ^ which are ufually predicated of a compound ‘ Body, as its Accidents, ( whether perceived by ‘ fight, or by other fenfes, ) are lo to be under- ‘ ftood ^ not as if they were certain natures or ‘ fubftances, exiftent by themfelves, ( tor our ‘ underftanding cannot reach this ^ ) nor,on the ‘ other fide, as if truly they did not exift, or t were abfoutely nothing ^ neither again, as if j they were fuch, as are thofe other incorporeal ^ things, which arc accident to it *, nor,laftly, as ^ if they were parts of the Body. But they are 4 thus to be efteemed, that whereas a Body may 4 be difpofed after feveral manners, the whole ^ complex gains, by the aggregation of them, a certain nature proper and peculiar to its ‘kind. ^ ,
‘ ‘ Not that a Body comes to be fuch, as is a ‘ greater bulk made up out of a lelfer, whether ‘ thofe be the firft, leaft, greateft, or in general ‘ made up of others more minute } but only, as ‘ 1 faid, that of all thefe joined together* and ‘ by this conjundion differencing it from others,'
‘ it poflelfes a nature proper to itfelf,and difeind ‘ from any other.
‘ All thefe are comprehended by certain fpcr ‘ cial Notions and Conceptions, but fo, that ftill ‘ the Body, which refults out of them as a certain ‘ whole, and is not divided in itfelf,but conceived ‘ as one undivided thing, obtains thedenomina- ‘ tion of a Body, which is reckon’d up in fuch a ‘ certain kind of things.
D d d d The
570
EPICURUS. PARTXIIu
The fame, may, in a manner, be conceived to happen, j^ tbe concurrence of certain accidents, which aifel . found the fame in no other body ^ {|;^at i^, the^jbings indeed, to which thofe acci- jdentS; agree, -may be diftingoifhed and denomi-’ "nated fr^Doji the notions of them, but yet only Then, when each of thofe accidents is conceived to be there. . For thefe are not of that kind of accidents, which, exifting in the thing, become therefore neceffary and perpetually conjoin’d to it, and confequently beftow on it a perpetual denomination.
Here it may be demanded. Whether, if we were difTolved by death, it might happen in pro- cefs of- ijffie, that the very fame Principles, of which we confift, might, by fome odd chance, be ranged and ordered again in the fame man¬ ner as they are now, and fo we come to be deno¬ minated the fame which we are at this prefent ? To which we anfwer. That it isdoubtleQy true, but ftill fo, that, to have been fornterly would nothing appertain to us, becaufe in our very dif- folution, every difpofition which we had, and all memory of thofe things which compounded us, and which we were, would utterly be loft ; by which i:neans,all our remembrance too would fo , have been totally decay’d, that it were im- oflible it fhould come into our minds that we ad ever had a Being. Thus much concerning the Uniwerfe.
? . ■
is E C T. 3-
Of the World,
IT followcth that we fpeak of the World, which is a Portion of the Univerfe,or Infini¬ ty of things, and may not unfitly be deferibed. Tlx whole Circumference of Heaven., containing the Stars., the Earth., and aU things vifible.
When I lay, tht Circumference of Heaven, I imply. That Heaven is the outmoft part of the World, which may alfo be called tAither^ and the Region of Fire, from the Stars which it con- taineth, and are, as it were, Fires lighted there.
When 1 fay the Earth, 1 mean the loweft, or, as it were, the middle part of the World, in which alfo there is the Water, and next oyer it the Air, immediate to the Region of Fire, And, becaufe the things which we fee created of thefe, and in thefe, are various *, therefore we compre¬ hend them under the name of things vifible.
But feeing it may, and ufeth to be dem.anded concerning the World, what Form it hath with¬ in, what Figure without? Whether it be Eter¬ nal, or had a Beginning ? Whether it require any other Author, than Nature or Fortune ? In what manner was the produftion of the Whole, and of its Parts ? Whether it require any Ruler, or perform its viciffitudes by it felf ? Whether, How, and When it (hall perifli ? Whether it be One, or, befides it, there be Innumerable ? We muft therefore fpeak a little of each,
CHAP.
C H H P. 1.
Of the Form and Figure of tlx World.
And as to the firft Head, the World, by its internal form or conftitution, is not animate, much lefs a God., as fome think but whereas what is conceived to be one in its form or conftitution, is fuch,- either for that its parts are contained under one difpofition, as a Plant or Animal ; or, that they are artificially joined one'to another, without mingling their tempers, as a Houfe, or Ship ; of,', that they aredifereet- ly diftinguilh’d from one another, yet have fome mutual relation to'each other, as an Army, and a Common-wealth ; the World is only to be conceived One, partly thefecond way, part¬ ly the third.
The feqond way it may be efteemed one, in regard between the Sun, the Moon, and the reft of the more folid and compacted parts of the Vy orld, there is intercepted either Air or &ther diffulive, whereby a kind of Coherence is made. It may alfo be efteemed one the third way, in regard the Sun, Moon, Earth, and other com- paded Bodies, are fo Separated from one ano¬ ther, that, after a determinate order, they pof- fefs the Scituations or Seats of Superiors and.In- feriors, Antecedents and Confequents, things Illuftrating, and things lUuftrated.
But to fay, that the World js one the firft way alfo. How can it be made good ? Since that if it were fo, that the World,, as fome will, were animate, nothing could' be thought inanimate ; not a Stone, not a Carkafs, not any thing what- foever; that fame difpofition, called Soul,, being diffufed through all things.
Neither do they, who alTcrt, the World to be animate and wife, fufficiently mind and un- derftatid, what kind of nature that muft be to which fuch exprefiions are proper, fince as a Tree is not produced in the air, nor a Filh on dry ground, nor Blood in Wood, nor Moifture in a pumice ; fo neither can the Mind or the Soul be produced, or be, indifferently, in any kind of Body. But feeing it muft be decermi- nately ordered where every thing (hall grow and inexift,the nature of the Soul muft be looked for about the Nerves and Blood, not in putrid Globes of Earth, in Water, in the Sun, in the Sky, ^e.
Now whereas fome hold. That the World is not only endued with Mind and Senfes, but that alfo it is a round burning God, and ever-moving with reftlefs Circumvolutions ; thefe are Prodi¬ gies and Monfters, not of Philofophers difeour- fing, but dreaming. For who can underftand, what this ever-moving and round God is, and what Life is aferibed to him, to be turned about with fo great fwiftnefs, as is unimaginable to be equall’d ? With which I fee not how a conftant Mind and a happy Life can confift.
But granting the World to be a God, not on¬ ly the Sun, Moon, and the reft, are parts of God, but even the Earth it felf, as being a part of the W’oi ld,muft be alfo a part of God. Now we fee, there are very great Regions of the Earth unhabitable, and uncultivated, part of them be¬ ing burnt up by the approach of the Sun, part