An essay on the first book of T. Lucretius Carus De rerum natura. Interpreted and made English verse by J. Evelyn Esq;

ON MY Son Evelyns Translation OF THE FIRST BOOK of Lucretius.

IF Gulilaeus with his new found glass, Former Invention doth so far surpass, By bringing distant bodies to our sight, And make it judge their shape by neerer light, How much have you oblig'd us? in whose mind Y'have coucht that Cataraect w^ch made us blind, And given our soul an optick can descrie Not things alone, but where their causes lie? Lucretius Englished, Natures great Code And Digest too, where her deep Laws so show'd, That what we thought mysteriously perplext Translated thus, both Comment is and Text; This polisht ••ey opens and let's us in To her Conclave, Treasure and Magazin, Where she majestick in bright rays appears Unvail'd o'ch' Cloud of seventeen hundred years. That hoary mist of Ignorance is displaid And brought to light what lay involv'd in shade; By this your Sacred Clue severely led Her intricat'st Meanders we do tread. How spruce (thus trimm'd) Philosophy looks now, Which was morose before in beard and brow? What we abhorred then, we now embrace; A Nymph is seated in a Satyrs place, And hath a Palace for her gloomy School; That's a clear stream which was a muddy pool. With how much pleasure then we now rehearse, The crabbed'st part of learning in your verse, And with the Muses to this reed of thine We dance o're horrid clifts, we could not clime, Taking that wholsome pill with great de••ight, Which, until gilded thus, did so affright▪

Pedants ••arewel, this to our years affords That whole half-age we lost in learning words: Thus, in the worlds decline, the life of man (Was but an Inch before) is made a Span. Our infancy may now with milk and pap Suck in deep Science in our Mothers lap; Whilst at such ease to be both learn'd and wise Be but born English, and it doth suffice. The North-west-passage would not prove so swi••••, Nor make abridgement like to this your gift. In which to our immense content we find All that the Stagyrists envy burnt, refin'd. Thus to th'immortal glory of our Toung, This British Phoenix from those ashes sprung: The Atomes of those volumus lost in Greece (Gather'd at Rome) You have made Jasons fleece, Each grain whereof like the Elixar doth Fruitful projection in our minds bring forth▪ Of that rare skill which by the vulgar much Needs no•• be valued; nor by bulk, but touch. What we since him did pure invention deem Dilated memory, not wit doth seem; We now believe't demonstratively true Under the Sun, there's nothing that is new. And he that would no emptiness maintain Belyes himself, the Vacuum's in his Brain. Vain then it were to undertake to write All old mistakes; error is infinite. 'Tis thus, Inspir'd Lucretius, alone, Is th'Oracle of all that can be knowne; Steward to Fate, Creations Notary, Truths Register, Natures Secretary.

Proceed (dear Youth) and in thy noble Verse Perfect this Canon of the Universe, For great example to thy self prefix That Architect, which wrought from one to Six.

Richard Brown, Knight and Baronet.