When drowsy NIGHT came on, they naked lay, Spread o'er the GROUND like Bears, and rough as they. Their SLEEP WAS sound, they wak'd not all the Night, Nor wander'd here and there, whilft SHADES affright, 1035 Nor view'd the East with longing Eyes for Light: But all dissolv'd in sweetest SLUMBERS lay, Till the bright Sun arose, and brought the DAY. For fince they had beheld, e'er fince their Birth, The Day and NIGHT by Turns spread o'er the Earth;

The

1040 They never fear'd the Sun should lose his LIGHT, And all lie bury'd in eternal NIGHT.

NOTES.

læta renatis Syderibus, variosque dies, incer

taque noctis Tempora, nec fimiles umbras jam fole regreffo, Jam propiore, fuis poterat dif

cernere caufis.

Before that Time Life was an
artless State,

Of Reason void, and thoughtless
in Debate:
Nature lay hid in deepest Night
below;

Life of theirs was vext with fome | Tum velut amiffis mœrens, tum Inquietudes : the wild Beafts furpriz'd them, when they were fleeping: and then a fuddain Death was their Portion; or a tedious and painful Life, by means of their festering Wounds: for they knew not yet the healing Virtue of Simples: Famine kill'd many, and more the venomous Herbs they ignorantly fed on. But that none may think, that all Mankind was, by so many Ills and Mischiefs as befel them, involv'd in one common Ruin, and totally deftroy'd; let it be confider'd that the wild Beasts devour'd them only one by one, and that few dy'd by poyfonous Herbs, or for want of Food, in comparison of the many Thousands that fall in a Day in our Armies: Befides; what Numbers are now swallow'd up in the Sea; how many dy by Poyson, how many by Intemperance and Luxury?

1036. But all, &c.] Manilius is of another Opinion, lib. 1. v. 66. where speaking of the first Inventours of Arts, of Arts he he fays:

Nam rudis ante illos, nullo difcrimine vita

In fpeciem conversa operum ratione carebat,

Et stupefacta novo pendebat lumine mundi:

None knew her Wonders, and
none car'd to know :
Upward Men look'd, they saw the
circling Light,

Pleas'd with the Fires, and won-
der'd at the Sight :

The Sun, when Night came on,
withdrawn they griev'd,
As dead; and joy'd next Morn,
when he reviv'd:
But why the Nights grew long
or short; the Day
Is chang'd, and the Shades vary
with the Ray,

Shorter at his Approach, and lon

ger grown

At his Remove, the Causes were unknown. Creech.

And with Manilius agrees Statius, Thebaid. 4. where speaking of the primitive Arcadians, he fays,

The most they dreaded was the furious BEAST 2
For he, in Dead of Night, did oft moleft,
And lengthen into DEATH, their flumb'ring REST. S
1045 Sometimes they left their Caves by Night, and fled, 2
Rows'd from their softest SLEEP, all pale, half dead,
While Boars and Lions came, and seiz'd their Bed.S
Yet fewer dy'd than now: for fingly then
Each caught within the Limits of his Den,

1050 While the BEAST tore the living, trembling Food,
And revel'd in full Draughts of reeking BLOOD,
With dreadful Cries he fill'd each Wood and CAVE,
To see his LIMBS go down a Living Grave.
Others, that scap'd with Life, but wounded, groan'd, 2

1055 Holding their Hands on the corrupting Wound,
While trembling Echo's did restore the Sound,

NOTES.

Not

Hi lucis stupuisse vices, noctisque, lugebant, & renatum lætis excipiebant aufpiciis. Ita rudiores

feruntur

Nubila, & occiduum longè Ti- olim, & qui fimpliciorem vitam

tana secuti

degebant, prius quam ab Astronomis leges fyderum didicerant.

1053. A living Grave.] Lucretius.

Viva videns vivo sepeliri viscera busto:

Upon which Faber observes, that
Dionyfius Longinus blames an
Expreffion like this, in Gorgias
Leontinus, who calls Vulturs,
the living Sepulchres of Men,
γύπες ἔμψυχοι τάφοι· However
he excuses Lucretius, though he
condemns not the Censure of
Longinus: For, says he, Gorgias
was a Rhetorician, in whose Art
such Descriptions ought never to
find Place, tho' in Poetry they
have much of the Sublime.
1056, While trembling, &c.]
This Verse is the Tranflatours,
not the Poets.

1057. Not skill'd, &c.] Lucres

tius,

And the learned Selden, de Diis
Syris, Syntagm. 2. confirms their
Opinions, and believes the Ori-
ginal of the Festivals, which the
Antients instituted in Honour of
Adonis, to have sprung from no
other Ground: His Words are
thefe. Non aliud cogitarunt;
qui primum has nænias institue-
runt, quam folis accessum & re-
seffum: Quem ut amiflum nuneli.e.

Expertes opis, ignaros, quid vul nera vellent,

They knew not yet the Art

Aaaaa

of

Not skill'd in HERBS, and now grown desperate,
With horrid Cries they call'd on ling'ring FATE,
Till Worms increas'd, and, eating thro' the CLAY,

1060 Made Passage for the Soul to fly away.

But then no ARMIES fell at once, no PLAIN
Grew red, no RIVERS swell'd with Thousands slain :
None plough'd the FLOODS, none shipwreck'd made their

Graves

In Seas, none drank cold DEATH among the Waves, 1065 But oft the furious OCEAN rag'd in vain;

No mischief done, the WAVES grew mild again:

NOTES.

of Medicine, and were ignorant of the Remedies, requifite to heal their Wounds.

1059. Till Worms, &c.] This and the following Verse run thus in the Original.

Donicum eos vitâ privârunt vermina fæva.

Feftus says, That Vermina fignifies, the wringing of the Guts, when we feel a Pain, as if Worms weregnawing them: The Greeks call it segpòs. But perhaps Vermina may here fignify very Worms, that might be engendered in their rankling and corrupting Wounds: if so, our Trannatour is so far in the right; but how well their making a Paffage for the Soul to fly away, agrees with the Doctrine of Epicurus, the Reader need not be inform

ed.

1061. No Armies fell] They had yet no Wars; but were wholly ignorant of the cruel Arts of destroying one another: And Ovid fays. Metam. 1. V. 97.

as

No

Nondum præcipites cingebant And Manilius, lib. 1. v. 76.

oppida foffæ :

Non tuba directi, non æris cor

nua flexi,

Non galeæ, non enfis, erant:

fine militis ufu

Mollia fecuræ peragebant otia

Immotusque novos pontus fub

duxerat orbes:

Nec vitam pelago, nec ventis

credere vota

Audebant, fed quifque fatis fe noffe putabat.

No SHIPS were found, nor could the treach'rous Smile
Of smooth-fac'd WAVES tempt one poor Man to Toil.

Then WANT, now SURFEITS bring a hafty DEATH; 1070 Our BELLIES swell so much, they stop our BREATH. Then POYS'NOUS HERBS, when pluck'd by Chance, did Now Porson's grownan ART, improv'd by Skill. (kill; But when they built their HUTTS, when FIRE began, Any

NOTES.

None refign'd Their Lives to Seas, or Wishes to the Wind; Confin'd their search; they knew themselves alone, And thought that only worthy to be known.

1068. Tempt one poor Man to Toil.] For as Seneca in Medea fays,

What Form of Death could him
affright,

Who, unconcern'd, with stedfaft
Sight,

Could view the Surges, mountain
steep,

And Monsters, rouling in the
Deep?

Could through the Ranks of
Ruin go,

With Storms above, and Rocks
below ?

Audax nimium qui freta primus
Rate tam fragili perfida rupit; In vain did Nature's wife Com-

Terrasque suas poft terga videre,
Animam levibus credidit auftris,
&c.

Which the Tragedian took from
Horace, Od. 1. 3.

Illi robur & æs triplex
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem

truci

Commifit pelago ratem
Primus; nec timuit præcipi-
tem Africum, &c.
Thus render'd by Dryden,

Sure he, who first the Passage
try'd,

In harden'd Oak his Heart did hide,

And Ribs of Iron arm'd his

Side:

Or his at least, in hollow Wood,
Who tempted first the briny

Flood:

ing Roar,

mand

Ambitious Man
Pain;

The more confin'd, the more he
tries,

And at forbidden Quarry flies.

1069. Then Want, &c.] Penuria cibi: Want of Food. The next Verse, Our Bellies, &c. is a Thought of our Translatours, not of his Authours.

1073. But when, &c.] We have Nor fear'd the Winds contend-hitherto feen only Men, who were wild and savage, who wander'd in the Woods, and liv'd by Spoil and Rapine: But others now enter upon the Stage, who

Nor Billows beating on the

Shore;

Nor Hyades, portending Rain,
Nor all the Tyrants of the Main ; are mild, gentle, and studious of

And SKINS of murder'd Beasts gave CLOATHS TO MAN:

1075 When ONE to ONE confin'd, in chaste Embrace, Enjoy'd sweet Love, and saw a num'rous Race : Then MAN grew soft, the TEMPER of his MIND Was chang'd from rough to mild, from fierce to kind : For us'd to FIRE, his Limbs refus'd to bear

:

1080 The piercing Sharpness of the open Air;

And Lust enfeebled him; besides, the CHILD,
Soften'd by PARENTS Love, grew tame and mild.
Then NEIGHBOURS, by degrees familiar grown,
Made LEAGUES, and Bonds, and each secur'd his own:
And

NOTES.

civil Life. For by this Time, says | dorus Siculus, lib. 1. says, that the Poet in 20. v. that Tempe- the Poets feign'd Hercules to be rature and Calmness of the Air, cloath'd with the Skins of Beasts, which reign'd when the World and that he is painted too in that was in its Infancy, remain'd no Garb, to put Posterity in Mind longer; but fometimes piercing of this antient way of Dress of Cold, and sometimes scorching Heat, together with Storms and Tempests, perfecuted Mankind. Those Hardships and Inconveniencies weaken'd them by degrees, and forc'd them to the Blanditiis facilè ingenium fregêre

Contrivance of building them

selves Hutts and Houses, to shel

our first Fathers.

1081. Besides, the Child, &c.]

Lucret.

_ Puerique parentum

superbum.

Parents Temper. This Passage can have no other Interpretation, tho' Creech makes it say quite the contrary.

ter their Bodies from the Incle-i. e. The Children, by their mencies of the Seasons: They harmless innocent Smiles, eafily dwelt in these new Abodes, one foften'd the Roughness of their Man confin'd to one Woman, and were bless'd with a numerous Offspring, whose infant smiling Innocence soften'd the rigid Sourness of their Parents Temper, and chang'd their innate fullen Roughness into Calmness and Affability. After this, having found out the use of Fire, they became so tender, that, unable to endure any longer their primitive Nakedness, they made themselves Cloaths of the Skins of Beasts; and grew so civiliz'd in time, that they enter'd into Friendships and Societies, infomuch that they, who were defirous to be safe themselves, found it their best way to abstain from doing Injuries to others: Thus Concord preferv'd Mankind.

1074. And Skins, &c.] Dio

1083. Then Neighbours, &c.] They who endeavour to disgrace Religion, usually representit as a Trick of State, and as a politick Invention to keep the Credulous in Awe; which however abfurd and frivolous, yet is a strong Argument against the Atheist, who cannot declare his Opinions, unless he be a Rebel, and a Disturber of the Commonwealth: The Cause of God, and his Cxfar are the fame, and no Affront can be offered to one, but it reflects on both; and that the Epicurean Principles are pernicious to Societies, is evident from the Account they give of the Rife of them,