772 
POE 
F.xoritur ; neque fit laetum, neque amabile quicquam, 
Te fociam ftudeo fcribundis verfibus efle. 
After this invocation, the poet proceeds to the praife of 
Epicurus, and to the refutation of Heraclitus, Empe¬ 
docles, and others. The fecond and third books are 
chiefly occupied in developing, illuftrating, and praifing, 
the principle of his favourite philofopher; viz. That 
every thing was fortuitous. The fifth book is occupied 
with fome obfcure {peculations as to the nature of the 
mind ; and then proceeds to thefe abfurd and impious 
conclufions: Firft, that the world has not exifted from 
all eternity ; nor will it remain to all eternity ; what 
one would think one of his own firft principles, that 
nothing can be reduced to nothing, would confute. 
Secondly, that God did not create the world, becanje 
that God is not fufficiently generous to do any thing 
for the fake of man, but that whatever he does is 
for his own eafe and quiet. The belt antidote we can 
oppofe to this poifonous doftrine, is Lucretius’s own 
defcription of the caufe of the world. The atoms, he 
fays, are moved by their own weight; they meet; this 
makes them rebound, and, according to the differences 
of the ftroke and weight, the refilition is made into dif¬ 
ferent places, where they continue and grow into bodies! 
This is philofophy, as fome fay. The fixth book is the 
leaft obfcure of any, taken up with defcriptions of na¬ 
tural phenomena, and fome {peculations as to the caufes 
of the eruptions of Etna, the overflow of the Nile, the 
phenomena of magnetifm, and plagues and other difeafes. 
The genius of Lucretius was in a high degree lofty and 
poetical; and, where he is not fettered by the recurring 
difficulties of his fubjeCt, it difplays itfelf in the molt im- 
preffive epifodes, and the moft magnificent defcriptions. 
His thoughts are mafculine, full of argument, and deli¬ 
vered in a ftyle warm, animated, and clear. From this 
warmth of natural temper, proceed the loftinefs of his 
expreffion, and that perpetual torrent of verfe, where the 
barrennefs of his fubjeCt does not too much reftrain the 
quicknefs of his fancy. He would no doubt have been 
every-where as poetical as he is in his defcriptions and in 
the moral part of his philofophy, had he not aimed more 
to inftruCt the reader in his fyftem of nature than to 
delight him by the richnefs of his fentiments or the glow 
of his imagery. There are many parts of the poem, 
indeed, which in their own nature could not be capable 
of ornament. He is employed on fubjefts in themfelves 
not fufceptible of beauty, and which in other hands 
would hardly have been fufceptible of regularity. But 
there are alfo many others, in which all that the poet’s 
art can reach is fuccefsfully difplayed. Where Nature 
is the theme, he has rifen to heights beyond which no 
poet has ever foared. Dr. Warton particularly directs 
our attention to thofe pi< 5 t ures this author has pourtrayed. 
The firft, Venus, with her lover Mars ; the fecond, the 
Demon of Superftition; the third, the facrifice of 
Iphigenia. How beautifully, too, Lucretius defcribes 
the eft'eCt of the vernal (Lowers in the following paflage: 
Poftremo pereunt imbres ubi eos dater .ffitlier 
In gremium matris Terrai prsecipitavit; 
At nitidse furgent fruges, ramcique virefcunt 
Arboribus ; crefcunt ipfae, fetuque gravantur. 
Hinc aliter porro noftrum genus, atque ferrarum. 
Hinc lastus urbeis puerfim florere videmus, 
P'rundiferafque novis avibus canere undique fylvas : 
Hinc feflse pecudes, pingues per pebula lseta 
Corpora deponunt, etcandens lacteus humor 
Uberibus manat diftentis : hinc nova proles 
Artubis infirmis teneras lafciva per herbas 
Ludit, la&e inero menteis perculfa novellas. Lib. i. 
To thefe paflages we may add, the defcription of a perfon 
in a deep lethargy, lib. iii. 465 ; of the effects of drunken- 
nefs, 475 ; of the falling ficknefs, 4865 the noble per- 
fopopceia, 944, where Nature is introduced chiding her 
ungrateful fons for their folly and difcontent; and the 
7 
T R Y. 
conclufion of the fame book, where the poet allegorizes 
all the punifhments of hell. From thefe beauties it may 
be aflerted, that, had he not embraced the philofophy of 
Epicurus, in itfelf fo little fufceptible of poetical in¬ 
vention, he poflefled a genius capable of the nobleft com- 
pofitions. His poem proves him to have been endowed 
with all the fire, the fublimity, and harmony, of expreflion, 
and dignity of ftyle and fentiment, requifite to adorn the 
epic. In this, the firft of poetical ftudies, it is to be 
lamented he did not engage ; or that, in preferring the 
didactic, he did not feleCt a fubjeCt more worthy of his 
powers. His qualifications for either talk are undeniable. 
Heisfententious and fuccinCl ; ftrongin his admonitions ; 
nobly elevated, and awfully ferious, in his exhortations; 
gay and florid in his defcriptions; and in his difputes, 
although they are upon the moft difficult and intricate 
fubjeCts, where right, he is clofe, argumentative, and con¬ 
vincing. 
As Epicurus found a poetical expofitor in Lucretius, 
Zeno found one in Manilius. The fed which Zeno 
founded, acknowledged one infinite eternal almighty 
intelligence, which, being diffufed through the whole 
univerfe of well-ordered and regularly-difpofed mat¬ 
ter, actuates every part, and is as it were the foul of 
this vaft body. The parts of this body, they aflerted, 
are of two forts; the celeftial, i. e. the planets and 
the fixed (tars; and the terreftrial, viz. the earth and all 
the other elements about it. The celeftial bodies con¬ 
tinue (till the fame, without any change or variation ; but 
the whole fublunary world is not only liable to difiolution, 
but often has been, and will be again, diffolved by fire. 
From this chaos, which, becaufe it was made by fire, they 
called fire, they aflerted that another fyftem would arife, 
its feveral particles fettling according to their refpeCtive 
weights. Thus the earth would fink lowed, the water 
would be above that, the air next, and the fire encompafs 
the whole. But, becaufe all the earthly parts are not 
equally rigid, nor equally difperfed through the chaos, 
there would be cavities and hollows in fome places, fit 
to receive the waters, and to be channels for rivers. In 
other places, hills and mountains would rife, and the 
whole fyftem appear in that form and figure which it now 
bears. They added, that this infinite mind has made 
one general decree concerning the government of the 
lower world, and executes it by giving fuch powers 
to the celeftial bodies, as are fufficient and proper to 
produce the defigned effects. This hypothefis of Zeno, it 
was the endeavour of Manilius to explain in Latin verfe. 
Among many abfurd pofitions, there are not wanting 
fome which are juftified by modern obfervation, and cor¬ 
roborated by more recentrdifcoveries. He even hints at 
fome opinions which are fuppofed to belong to later ages. 
Thus he defends the fluidity of the heavens, inoppofition 
to the hypothefis of Ariftotle. He aflerts that the fixed 
ftars are not all in the fame concave fuperficies of the 
heavens, and equally diftant from the centre of the world. 
He maintains that they are all of the fame nature and 
fubftance with the fun, and that each of them has a par¬ 
ticular vortex of its own ; and he affirms that the milky 
way is only the undiftinguifhed luftre of a great many fmall 
ftars, which the moderns have fince feen to be fuch, 
through the glafs of Galileo. 
The title of the poem is “ Aftronomicon, though, with 
greater propriety, it might be entitled “ Aftrologicon. 
The fifth book is fuperior to all the reft. It contains an 
enumeration of the extra-zodaical constellations, and of 
the degrees of the twelve figns with which they rife. He 
then hazards a fanciful hypothefis, that.the riling of thefe 
conftellations gives birth to our various inclinations, 
manners, and characters ; and produces our attachment to 
different arts, fciences, profeffions, and trades ; the de¬ 
fcriptions of which are extremely poetical, and almolt ab- 
forb the whole book. Thefe defcriptions are mingled with 
epifodes, particularly the beautiful epifode of Andromeda, 
which many have deemed not unworthy of Virgil. ^The 
