e, atoms are now
brought into contact with each other; "they strike against each other,
and by the percussion new movements and new complications
arise"--"movements from high to low, from low to high, and horizontal
movements to and fro, in virtue of this reciprocal percussion." The
atoms "jostling about, _of their own accord_, in infinite modes, were
often brought together confusedly, irregularly, and to no purpose, but
at length they _successfully coalesced_; at least, such of them as were
thrown together suddenly became, in succession, the beginnings of great
things--as earth, and air, and sea, and heaven."[801]

[Footnote 801: Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. ii. l.
1051-1065.]

And now Lucretius shall describe the formation of the different parts of
the world according to the cosmogony of Epicurus. We quote from Good's
translation:

But from this boundless mass of matter first
How heaven, and earth, and ocean, sun, and moon,
Rose in nice order, now the muse shall tell.
For never, doubtless, from result of thought,
Or mutual compact, could primordial seeds
First harmonize, or move with powers precise.
But countless crowds in countless manners urged,
From time eternal, by intrinsic weight
And ceaseless repercussion, to combine
In all the possibilities of forms,
Of actions, and connections, and exert
In every change some effort to create--
Reared the rude frame at length, abruptly reared,
Which, when once gendered, must the basis prove
Of things sublime; and whence eventual rose
Heaven, earth, and ocean, and the tribes of sense.

Yet now nor sun on fiery wheel was seen
Riding sublime, nor stars adorned the pole,
Nor heaven, nor earth, nor air, nor ocean lived,
Nor aught of prospect mortal sight surveyed;
But one vast chaos, boisterous and confused.
Yet order hence began; congenial parts
Parts joined congenial; and the rising world
Gradual evolved: its mighty members each
From each divided, and matured complete
From seeds appropriate; whose wild discortderst,
Reared by their strange diversities of form,
With ruthless war so broke their proper paths,
Their motions, intervals, conjunctions, weights,
And repercussions, nought of genial act
Till now could follow, nor the seeds themselves
E'en though conjoined in mutual bonds, co
Thus air,