< 



xriii INTRODUCTION TO THE 



Erucker and his tranflator Enfield, as well as in the poem of Lu- 

 cretius, who has confeffedly attempted a poetical difplay of thefe 

 very doctrines. A general view, comprrfing a mere fketch of the fyf- 

 tem of this /YyJe5$«f*7os or felf-taught man, as he called himfelf as far 

 as connected with the prefent fubject, is all I fliall offer here. An 

 Epicurean would explain himfelf thus : — " It is clear, from the chang- 

 " es which natural bodies undergo, that there is a perpetual formation 

 " and dedruction of them going on ; there muft then exift matter of 

 ' which thefe things are formed, and into which they are refolved ; 



and hence proceeds the conclulion which is the ground-work of the 

 " fyftem, that a thing car. neither be made out of nothing, nor reduced 

 M to nothing. " Nullum rem e nihil o gigni divinitus unquam." The 

 " univerfe, therefore, as to its conltituent atoms or particles, was al- 

 " ways as it is at prefent ; and confequently matter is eternal. The 

 " workman cannot perform any thing without materials ; and thefe 

 11 felf-exiftent materials, in the decay and renovation they undergo, ac- 

 " count for the phenomena of nature and of art. If things were cre- 

 " ated out of nothing, then every kind mould proceed from each, and 

 " the greateft irregularity enfue ; men mould be produced in the fea, 

 " fifties on the land, and cattle in the clouds ; generation would be ufe- 

 " lefs. and food unnecefTary : if they returned to nothing, then, in the 

 " courfe of pail ages, through wafte, confumption, and lofs, much 

 " muft have vanifhed to non-exiftence, and have been completely anni- 

 M hilated. But neither of thefe fuppofitions is true, fmce out of the 

 " wreck or ruin of one being or exiitence, nature, we know, without an 

 " aft of creation or annihilation, can work up the old materials into a 

 " new fabric. 



" All exigences in nature are referable to two kinds, I. Bodies ; 

 11 and, 2. The inane , or void in which they exift. 



" Our fenfes fatisfy us of the exiitence of bodies, as alfo do their 

 " actions, paffions, and refilling powers ; particularly as they operate 

 * l upon each other, and upon our touch : 



" Tangcre cnim et tangi nifi corpus nulla poteft res." — Luc ret. 

 ■ For nothing but a body can touch or be touched." 



" From the exiitence and motion of bodies is inferred the exiftence 

 " of fpace ; and the effect: of bodies operating upon each other is de- 

 " nominated " an event ;" and if there was not a void there would not 

 «' be a poffibility of motion ; for if a plenum exifted, then every portioa 

 " of fpace being clofely impacted and wedged with folidity, the molt 

 " uniform reft and dead ftilinefs would pervade the whole of nature. 



" As to bodies, they cither confift of elementary atoms, or of fub- 

 '• lances formed from thefe ; and thefe primordial particles, notwith- 

 " (Landing fome appearance:, to the contrary, are fimple, folid, and 

 4i indivisible. 



" Sunt igitur solida, ac fine inani corpora prima." — Lucrkt. 



'■ Therefore Llenicntary bodies are folid and deftitute of vacuity." 



a 



All 



