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And next the TREE, with spreading Branches, fhoots,
But closely fixt, and bound with fteddy Roots.

AS BRISTLES, HAIRS, and PLUMES are firft defign'd
O'er Limbs of BEASTS, and o'er the WINGED KIND;
$40 So new-born EARTH with HERBS and TREES began,
And then by various Ways bore BEAST, and MAN:
For HEAV'N, 'tis certain, did not fashion all;
Then let the various CREATURES downwards fall:
Nor SEAS produce an earthly Animal.
845 And therefore Parent EARTH does justly bear
The Name of MOTHER, fince all rofe from her :
SHE now bears Animals, when foft'ning Dew (new :
Descends; when SUN fends Heats, SHE bears a thousand
Then who can wonder now, that then SHE bore

850 Far ftronger, bulky Animals, and more,

When both were young, when both in Natures Pride;
A luftly BRIDEGROOM HE, and SHE a buxome BRIDE?
Firft, of all ANIMALS, in teeming SPRING,

The FEATHER'D KINDpeep'd forth,and clap'd theirWing:

NOTES.

As

Their Branches hung with copi- in the Beginning of the World, ous Fruit, or gem'd when they were both in the Their Bloffoms: With high Prime, and Flower of their Woods the Hills were crown'd, Age. With Tufts the Valleys, and each Fountain-fide,

853, 854. Firft, &c.] In thefe 19: v. he fays, That first of all AniWith Borders long the Rivers.mals, and that too in the Spring, for that was the moft proper Seafon, the Birds were hatch'd from Eggs, which, as Milton expreffes it,

847. She now, &c. Here the Poet proves by a Similitude, that all Animals did in the Beginning proceed from the Humidity ofthe Earth, warm'd and impregnated by the Heat of the Sun, in like manner as we now fee Worms and Infects generated.

849. Then who, &c.] Lucretius foreseeing that it might be objected, that perfect and adult Animals do not now burst out of the Earth, intimates in this

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Place, that the Sun is now grown For, fays our Poet, they had a difabled Lover, and the Earth Growth and Strength fufficient paft her teeming Time: and thus to go in fearch of their Food : their Vigour being exhausted, Then from certain little Bags they can not now produce Hor-or Bladders, which he calls fes, Lions, &c. nor any of thofe Wombs, and that stuck to the large Animals, which they did Earth, the other Animals, and

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855 As éven now our tender INSECTS ftrive
To break their Bags, get forth, and eat, and live,

NOTES.

Men themselves burft forth:, while for their nourishment, a proper Liquor, very like Milk, flow'd from the Veins of Mother Earth into their infant Mouths: For we ought to believe, that the Earth, when he brought forth her young, had Milk no lefs then Women now a-days, when they bring forth their Children. Thus the Earth fupply'd them with Food, the Temperature of the Air was fuch that they needed no Garments, and the Meadows, thick with Grafs, afforded them eafy Beds.

Next

folidated and harden'd by the Heat. Laftly, When they that grew in the Wombs of the Earth, had attain'd their due Growth, the Membranes, being burft and broken to pieces, difclos'd the Forms and Shapes of all Kinds of Animals: And fuch of these as had the greateft Share of Heat, went to the higher Places, and became Birds: but fuch of them as had retain'd the earthly Solidity, were reckon'd in the tank of Reptiles, and other terreftrial Animals: And those that participated most of the Nature of Man, ran together to the Places, where human Kind affembled, and which was call'd the Place of their Birth. Thus far Diodorus.

854. The feather'd Kind, &c.] is queftion'd by fome, whether Birds, which are generally call'd Genus aëreum, and in the facred Scripture it felf, Volatilia Cœli, may be properly reckon'd among terreftrial Animals. Ovid, in his Diftribution of Animals at the Creation, feems not to allow them to be fo.

This firft Manner of the Origine of Things Lucretius explains according to the Opinion of Animaxander,and of fome others of the antient Philofophers, as we fee in the firft Book of Diodorus Siculus, near the begin-It ning, where he fays, That the Earth firft ftiffen'd and grew together, when the circumfus'd Fire of the Sun had enlighten'd, and warm'd it all around: Then, when, by reason of its being thus heated, the outmoft Surface of it was in a manner fermented, fome Humidities fwell'd in many Places, and in them there grew certain flimy stinking Subftances, involv'd in tenuious Membranes: the like to which may be seen to this Dayin Fens and Marshes, where the Waters ftagnate, when after cold Weather, the Air grows hot on a fuddain, Cicero obferves the like Difpofi, and is not chang'd by Degrees: tion in the fecund Book of the Now thofe humid Things, Nature of the Gods, and in Tiwhich we mention'd before, be-mæus: fo too does Ariftotle, as ing animated by the Heat, re- he is cited by Plutarch in 5. de ceiv'd Nourishment in the Night Placit. Philofoph. To thefe by the Mifts that fell from a- may be added the Belief of bove: but in the Day were con- the antient Greeks, and which

Aftra tenent cœlefte folum, for-
mæque Deorum,
Cefferunt nitidis habitandæ pi-
fcibus undæ,
Terra feras cepit, volucres agita-

bilis Aër. Metam. 1. v. 73.

they

Next BEASTS, and thoughtful MAN receiv'd their Birth:
For then much vital Heat in Mother EARTH,

NOTES.

Much

they had from the Egyptians, a Bird without an Egg: for fo That Birds were produc'd before Cenforinus propofes the Queftithe Earth itself was form'd, to on; Avefne ante, an ova genewhich Ariftophanes in Avibus rata fint, cùm & ovum fine ave, alludes. But Manilius more tru- & avis fine ovo gigni non poffit? ly places them upon Earth: de die natali, cap. 14. Difarius fpeaking of which he fays,

Hanc circum variæ gentes hominum atque ferarum, Aëriæque colunt volucres.

lib. 1. v. 236.

tan

in Macrobius Saturnal. lib. 7. cap. 16. fums up the Arguments on both fides, and gives the Decifion, of which the Reader may there be inform'd.

The Earth obey'd, and,

freight Op'ning her fertile Womb, teem'd at a Birth Innum'rous living Creatures, perfect Forms,

Limb'd, and full grown out of the Ground up-rofe,

As from his Lair, the wild Beaft
where he wons

In Foreft wild, in Thicket,
Brake, or Den:

857. Next Beafts, &c.] Milton's defcription of the firft Apuleius agrees with Manilius, Beafts rifing out of the Ground and ends the Controverfy in at their Creation, is fo lively and thefe Words: Si fedulo animad- fublime, that it well deferves to vertas, ipfæ quoque aves, ter- be tranfcrib'd by way of Illuftrareftre animal, non aërium, per-tion, to this Paffage of our Poet, hibeantur: femper enim illis victus omnis in terrâ; ibidem pabulum, ibidem cubile, tumque aëra proximum terræ volando verberant: iterum cum illis feffa funt remigia alarum, terra ceu portus eft. That is, If you weigh the Matter aright, Birds may truly be affirm'd to be rather a terreftrial, than an aërial Animal, for they have all their Food from the Earth there they feed, and there they reft: when on Wing, they in-Among the Trees in Pairs they deed fan the Air that is next the Earth: but when their Wings grow weary, the Earth is their refting Place. But as to this Question fee Hieron, Magius, lib. 1. Mifcellan. cap. ult. Jaco-Paft'ring at once, and in broad bus Cruteus Syllog. 3. and Kircher in his Iter. Ecftatic. 2. Dialog. 2. cap. 5. I will only add, that another Difficulty, not much unlike the former, if either of them deferve to be call'd fo, has puzzled the Brains of Ariftotle, Theophraftus, and most of the antient Peripateticks, to wit, which were first created Birds or Eggs, fince neither an Egg can be produc'd without a Bird, nor

rofe, they walk'd:

The Cattle in the Fields, and
Meadows green:

Those rare and folitary, thefe in
Flocks

Herds up fprung

The graffy Ĉlods now calv'd ; now half appear'd

The tawny Lion, pawing to get free

His hinder Parts; then springs;

as broke from Bonds, And rampant thakes his brinded Mane: the Ounce,

The Libbard, and the Tygre, as the Moal

Rising,

Rifing, the crumbled Earth In which Paffage that Poet hints

about them threw
In Hillocks: the fwift Stag from
under Ground
Bore up his branching Head:
fcarce from his Mold
Behemoth, biggest born of Earth,
upheav'd

His Vaftness: Fleec'd the Flocks,
and bleating rofe,
As Plants: ambiguous between
Sea and Land,

The River Horfe, and fcaly Cro-
codile, &c. Paradife loft. B. 7.

at two other Ways of the Creation of Man: the one from Trees, the other from the Earth. As to the firft Britannicus fays, Quum primâ illâ ætate in fpelun cis fylvifq; more ferarum, habitarent, quumq; ex arboribus vetuftate cavatis, tanquam ex domicilio exirent, putabantur ex arboribus effe nati. Then alledging this Verse of Virgil, Æneid. 8. 315.

Genfque virûm truncis, & duro robore nati,

Thoughtful Man, &c.] Lucretius in this Place fpeaks not after the Opinion of Epicurus he fhews in thofe Words the proonly, but partly too of the bable Cause of the Fiction: that Stoicks, who, as Lactantius wit- as they dwelt in Woods, so they neffes, believ'd, Homines in om- feem'd to be born of the Trees: nibus terris & agris tanquam but furely he forgets himself a Fungos effe generatos: That Men little, when he fays ex arboribus were born, like Mushrooms in vetuftate cavatis, having but juft every Field and partly after the before faid, primâ illâ ætate, Opinion of Animaxander, who, for how then could the Trees tho' he held that Men, and all have had time to decay and grow the other Animals were pro- hollow? yet Autumnus commits duc'd of the Water, yet as Plu- the fame Overfight. The fetarch de Plac. Phil. 1. 5. c. 19. cond way, mention'd by Juvenal fays, he taught, that they were of Man's Original, gives just contain'd in thorny Bags, and Grounds to believe, that tho' fhut up in them, till the Age of many of the more learned among Puberty, and then bursting from the Heathens had read the Hithofe Prifons, they came out ftory of Mofes, yet that they Men and Women, already able either defpis'd, or corrupted, or to nourish themfelves And oppos'd the Inftruction: Witlaftly, partly after the Opinion nefs Julian the Apoftate, who in of Archelaus, who in Lactantius, a Fragment of an Epiftle publib. 2. teaches, homines ortos elifh'd with his other Works by terrâ, quæ limum fimilem lacti| Petavius, pag. 534. &c. feqq. ad efcam eliquaverit, that Men delivers it as the Theology of were born of the Earth, which the Antient Heathens, that Manfor their Nourishment ooz'd out kind, increas'd not from two a Slime like Milk. Others had Perfons, as, Mofes taught, but yet other Opinions concerning that when Jupiter created the the Original of Mankind: Juve- World, Drops of facred Blood fell nal Sat. 6. v. II. down, out of which arofe Mankind, ὡς ότε Ζευς κόσμει τα Quippe aliter tunc orbe novo, πάντα, κάμνων αίματα ἱερά σε coloque recenti φατῶν, ἐξ ὧν σε τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων Vivebant homines, qui rupto ro-Brastσete yer impiously urging, that otherwife the World

bore nati,

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Compofitique luto, nullos habu-could not have been fo foon inêre parentes. creas'd, though Women, as he

lewdly

Much moisture lay: And where fit Place was found, 860 There WOMBS were form'd, and faften'd to the Ground. In these, the yet imperfect Embryo's lay,

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Thro'thefe, when grown Mature, they forc'd their way, Broke forth from Night, and saw the cheerful Day: Then NATURE fashion'd for the Infant's Ufe

865 Small BREASTS in Earth, and fill'd with MILKY JUICE:
Such as in WOMEN'S Breafts fhe now provides
For future Infants: thither NATURE guides

The chiefeft Parts of FooD, and there they meet
Fit Ferment, there they grow both white and fweet:

NOTES.

EARTH

And if

860. There Wombs, &c.] Lactantius, lib. 2. de Origine Error. cap. 11. and 12. cites this Verfe of Lucretius, and makes this Remark upon it. Aiunt certis converfionibus cœli: & aftrorum motibus maturitatem quandam extitiffe animalium ferendorum: itaque terram novam femen genitale retinentem folliculos ex fe quofdam in uterorum fimilitudinem protuliffe, de quibus Lucretius, lib. 5.

lewdly adds, had been as fruitful large of this Matter. as Swine. But what wonder is it, you think it worth your while to that Men had fo mean an Opini-fee this fabulous Rife of the on of their own Original, who World confuted, you may find believ'd but little better of that it well done by Firmianus, lib. 2. of their Gods? Witness Varro, cap. 12. who in his Fragments, Antiquitatum rerum divinarum,blaming their fabulous Theology, Mythicon genus Theologiæ,fays, in this we find, That one God is born out of the Head, another out of the Thigh, a third from drops of Blood: In hoc enim eft, ut Deus alius ex capite, alius ex femore, alius ex guttis fanguinis natus. Nor were fome of the antient Philofophers lefs ridiculous in their Opinions, concerning the Reparation of Mankind: To inftance only in one: Every one knows, that there are in the Joints of the Fingers little Bones, commonly call'd Seed-Bones: oné eofque, cum maturâffent, naof which, about half as big as a turâ cogente, ruptos animalia Pea, is plac'd in the first Joint of cætera profudiffe: Deinde terthe Thumb: This the Arabians ram ipfam humore quodam, qui call Abadara, as Bartholinus ob- effet lacti fimilis, exuberâffe, eoferves in his Anatomical Inftitu- que alimento animantes effe nutions, lib. 4. cap. ult. Now fome tritos. Thus too Cicero lib. 1. of the wife Antients foolishly de Leg. & Cenforinus de die Naheld, that out of that Bone, as tali, cap. 2. where he tells us be out of Seed, Mankind should at fides, that Democritus too was laft be propagated anew. You of the fame Opinion. may find likewife other Opini-Faften'd to the Ground:] ons concerning Man's Original, Lucret. terræ radicibus apti: in the learned Cenforinus de Die i. e. affix'd and fticking in the natali, cap. 4. where he treats at Earth, by their Roots, 872. The

Crefcebant uteri, terræ radicibus apti,

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