Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/22

iv the Order of the Poem, but rather transcrib some Lines here, and there, as my Reflection shall suggest.

Nec circumfuso pendebat in aere tellus Ponderibus librata suis

Thus was the State of Nature before the Creation: And here it is obvious, that Ovid had a discerning Notion of the Gravitation of Bodies. 'Tis now demonstrated, that every Part of Matter tends to every Part of Matter with a Force, which is always in a direct simple Proportion of the Quantity of the Matter, and an inverse duplicate Proportion of the Distance; which Tendency or Gravitating is constant and universal. This Power, whatever it be, acting always proportionably to the solid Content of Bodies, and never in any Proportion to their Superficies; cannot be explain'd by any material Impulse. For the Laws of Impulse are physically necessary: There can be no, or arbitrary Principle in meer Matter; its Parts cannot move unless they be mov'd; and cannot do otherwise, when press'd on by other Parts in Motion; and therefore 'tis evident from the following Lines, that Ovid strictly adhered to the Opinion of the most discerning Philosophers, who taught that all things were form'd by a wise and intelligent Mind.

Jussit & extendi campos, subsidere valles, Fronde tegi sylvas

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