Author: Poems and Fancies Research Assistant

Could we the several motions of life know,
The subtle windings, and the ways they go,
We should of unknown things dispute no more,¹
How they be² done, but the great God adore.³
But we with ignorance about do run                           5
To know the ends and how they first begun,
Spending that life—which God in us did raise⁴
To worship him and in his works to praise—⁵
With fruitless, vain, impossible pursuits
In schools, lectures, and⁶ quarrelling disputes.        10
We⁷ never give him thanks that did us make,
But proud⁸ as petty gods ourselves do take.

As darkness a privation is of light,
That’s when the optic nerve is stopped from sight,¹
So death is even a cessation in
Those forms and bodies wherein motions spin.
As light which cannot² shine but in the eye,                  5
So life doth only in a motion lie.
Thus life is out when motion leaves to be,
Like as³ an eye that’s shut no light can see.

Some think the world would fall and not hang so,
If it had any empty place to go.
One cannot think that vacuum is so vast
That the great world might¹ in that gulf be cast.
But vacuum is like to a² porous skin,                             5
Where vapor doth go³ out and air comes⁴ in,⁵
And since⁶ that vapor fills those places small,
We cannot think but they⁷ were empty all:
For were they all first full,⁸ they could not make
Room for succeeding atoms, place⁹ to take.                 10
Wherefore, if¹⁰ atoms pass and repass through,
They needs must¹¹ empty places have to go.¹²

If as we see the sea¹ doth run about
The earth, it leaves a space where’t first came out.²
For if the water were as much as land,³⁴
The water⁵ would not stir, but still would⁶ stand.
Which shows that though the water doth go⁷ round, 5
Yet is there still more land than⁸ water⁹ found.
But say the air that’s moveable without,
And¹⁰ thin, doth give it¹¹ leave to run about,
Or like a wheel which water makes to go:¹²
So air may cause the sea to move and¹³ flow.¹⁴          10
But if that air hath¹⁵ not room to move,
It cannot¹⁶ any other body shove.
Besides, what drives must needs be stronger far¹⁷
Than what it drives, or else it would not stir.¹⁸
If so, then infinites of strengths must be¹⁹                   15
In motion’s power, to move eternally.
But say all things run in a circle-line,²⁰
And every part doth to another²¹ join:
They cannot in each other’s places stir,²²
Unless²³ some places be²⁴ left empty bare.²⁵               20
For stop a wheel’s circumference²⁶ without,
Its²⁷ center too, it cannot turn about.
If breadth and depth were full, leaving no space,
Nothing could stir nor move out of its²⁸ place.²⁹

¹

The sea, which always constant² ebbs and flows,
Is like the hammer of a clock that³ goes.
For as it coming⁴ to the notch doth strike,
So water where ’tis empty doth the like.⁵
For when it flows, water⁶ is cast out still,                     5
And when it ebbs, runs back that place to fill.

If all the atoms, long, sharp, flat, and round,
Be only of one sort of matter found,
The hollow atoms must all empty be,
For there is nought to fill vacuity.
Besides¹ being several bodies, though but small,                 5
Betwixt those bodies there is nought at all.
For as they range about from place to place,
Betwixt² their bodies there is left a space.
How should they move, having no space between?³
For, joining close, they would as one lump seem.⁴             10
Nor could they move into each other’s place,⁵
Unless there were somewhere an empty space.⁶
For though their matter’s infinite as time,⁷
They must be fixed, if altogether join.⁸
And were all matter fluid, as some say,                                 15
It could not move, having no empty way.
Like water that is stopped close in a glass:
It cannot stir, having no way to pass.
Nor could the fishes swim in water thin,
Were there no vacuum⁹ to crowd those¹⁰ waters in.          20
For as they crowd, those waters driven up high¹¹
Must to some places rise¹² that empty lie.
For though the water’s thin wherein they move,
Yet none could¹³ stir if water did not shove.

Contracting and dilating of each part:
These are¹ the chiefest works² of Motion’s art.
But³ Motion can’t dilate nor yet contract
A body which is close, firm, and⁴ compact,
Unless at first an empty place be⁵ found,                            5
Wherein to⁶ spread those compact bodies round.
Neither can matter fluid contract so⁷ close,
But by contracting it some place must lose.

¹

The reason Earth attracts much like the sun,²
Is atoms sharp out from the Earth do come:³
From its⁴ circumference, like bees they rise,⁵
When⁶ from a swarm dispersed apart, each flies.⁷
And as they wander, meet with duller forms,⁸                 5
Wherein they stick their point, then back returns.⁹
For like¹⁰ a bee that’s loaden on¹¹ each thigh,
Hath a great weight and¹² cannot nimbly fly,
So when their points are loaded, heavy grow,¹³
Can¹⁴ pierce no further: backward must they go.¹⁵         10
And as their hives to Earth return again.
Thus by their travel, they the Earth maintain.

¹

When all those atoms which in rays² do spread
Are³ ranged long, like to a slender thread,
They do not scattered fly, but join in length,
And being joined, though small, add to their strength.
The further forth they stream, more weak become,⁴         5
Although those beams⁵ are fastened to the sun.⁶
For all those rays which Motion down doth send⁷
Sharp atoms are, which from the sun descend;⁸
And as they flow in several streams and rays,
They stick their points in all that stop their ways,             10
Like needle points, whereon doth something stick,
No passage⁹ make, having no force¹⁰ to prick.¹¹
Thus¹² being stopped, they straightways¹³ back do run,
Drawing those bodies with them to the sun.

¹

If porous atoms by the sharp are found,
They’re² born away on points,³ as prisoners bound.
But as they mount, atoms of their own kind
If chance to meet, straight help them to unbind.
For porous atoms, being soft and wet,                       5
When numbers meet, do⁴ close together get.
And being glut, they join together all:
By one consent they⁵ pull, and backward⁶ fall.
If they be round, in showering drops they join,⁷
And so return, as beads strung on a line.⁸                10
But if their figures different be from those,
Then like a thick and foggy mist it shows.