others, who in that Age render'd themselves very illuftrious in the Republick of Rome. How Lucretius fpent his Time, how ftudioufly he improv'd it, let this Poem be Witness. That he fitted himself for the best Company, is evident by what Cornelius Nepos tells us of the great Intimacy between him, Pomponius Atticus, and Memmius: and no doubt but he was intimate likewise with Tully and his Brother, who make fuch honourable mention of him. 2 If we look into his Morals, we may discover him to be a Man fuitable to the Epicurean Principles, diffolv'd in Eafe and Pleasure, flying publick Imployment, as a Derogation to Wisdom, and a Difturber of Peace and Quietnefs; and avoiding those distractive Cares, which he imagin'd would make Heav'n itself uneasy. As most of the other Poets, he too feems to have had his Share in fenfual Pleafures; and if the Account, which Eufebius gives of his Death, be true, it will ftrengthen this Opinion. But it is hard to fay for certain what fort of Death Lucretius dy'd: nor is it much easier to determine in what Year of his Life his Death happen'd. Some make him die on the very Day when Virgil was born, in the fourty third Year of his Age, when Pompey the Great was the third Time Conful, and Cæcilius Metellus Pius was his Colleague; in the Year of the City 701. at which Time there were great Commotions in the Republick; For Clodius was then kill'd by Milo; Memmius and inany others, being convicted of Bribery, were banish'd from Rome into Greece; and Cæfar, who was then fourty four Years of Age, was laying wafte the Provinces of Gaul. According to Eufebius, he dy'd by his own Hands in the fourty fourth Year of his Age, being dementated by a Philtre, which, either his Miftrefs, or his Wife, Lucilia, for fo fome call her, tho' without Authority, in a fit of Jealoufic, Jealoufie, had given him; not with Design to deprive him of his Senfes, or to take away his Life, but only to make him love her. Donatus, or whoever was the Authour of the Life of Virgil, that goes under his Name, writes, that he dy'd three Years before, when Pompey the Great, and M. Licinius Craffus were both of them the second time Confuls. Others, who allow that, having loft his Senfes, he lay'd violent Hands on his own Life, yet place his Death in the twenty fixth Year of his Age, and believe that his Madness proceeded from the Cares and Melancholy that opprefs'd him on Account of the Banishment of his beloved Memmius: to which others again add likewise another Cause; the fatal Calamities under which his Countrey then labour'd: And indeed it is certain, that, a few Years before his Death, Lucretius was an EyeWitness of the wild Administration of Affairs in the Days of Clodius and Catiline, who gave fuch a Blow to the Republick of Rome, as not long after occafion'd its total Subverfion. Of thefe Commotions he himself complains in the beginning of his first Book, where, addreffing himself to Venus, he implores her to intercede with the God of War, to reftore Peace and Quiet to his native Countrey. Hunc tu, Diva, tuo recubantem corpore fancto There are yet some other Accounts given of the Time and Manner of his Death; but fince in fo great a Variety of Opinions we can fix on no certainty, nor determine which of them is true, it would would be lofs of Time to dwell any longer upon them. The only Remains, this great Wit has left us, are his Six Books of the Nature of Things, which contain an exact Syftem of the Epicurean Philofophy they were read and admir'd by the Antients: and, if Ovid could prefage, Carmina fublimis tunc funt peritura Lucreti, Lucretius lofty Song fhall live in deathless Fame, Till Fate diffolves at once this univerfal Frame. But because fome are in doubt concerning the Number of Books written by Lucretius, and believe that he writ more than fix, it will not be improper to convince them of their Errour. They ground their Opinion chiefly on a Paffage in Varro; which, fay they, makes it evident, that Lucretius left one and twenty Books, and that this is not the beginning of his Poem, which is commonly taken to be fo; fince Varro cites a quite different Verfe as the Beginning of it. The Paffage of Varro, which they alledge in favour of their Opinion, is in his fourth Book, De lingua Latina, where we find thefe Words: Loca Secundum antiquam divifionem prima duo, cœlum & terra: à qua bipartita divifione Lucretius fuorum unius & viginti Librorum initium fecit hoc: Etheris & terræ genitabile quærere tempus. Thefe Words indeed are very plain and pofitive; nevertheless I infift, that unless there were another Poet Lucretius among the Antients, who was Authour of the one and twenty Books fpoken of in that Paffage of Varro; and that there was, I own, no mention is made in any of the Records of An tiquity, tiquity, I infift, I fay, that there must be a Fault in the above Paffage of that Authour; and believe, that instead of Lucretius it was formerly written Lucilius. Whoever reflects on the following Reafons, will, if I mistake not, be of my Opinion. In the firft Place, it is believ'd upon good Grounds, that Varro writ that Treatife of the Latine Tongue about the Time that Cæfar was Dictator; or rather a little before: if fo, "tis highly probable, that Copies of Lucretius could not fo foon be got abroad: for he dy'd but in the fourth Year before the Dictatorship of Cæfar: and after his Death, his Poem of the Nature of Things was first begun to be corrected by his intimate Friend Tully: a Task which may seem to require fome time; and, it may be, even a longer than that, which pafs'd from the Death of Lucretius to the writing of that Treatife by Terentius Varro. Moreover; Faults of the like Nature were very frequent in the Writings of the Antients; where Lucilius, Lucretius and Lucullus, in like manner as Cœlius and Cecilius, and the like, were often put by Mistake one for another: Thus, for Example, Prifcian, lib. 18. obferves, that in Salluft. Hist. lib. 5. there was a Miftake of this Nature: At Lucilius audito Marium Regem Proconfulem per Lycaoniam cum tribus legionibus in Ciliciam tendere, &c. which that Grammarian thus corrects: At Lucullus audito Marium Regem Proconfulem, &c. For Salluft there treated of the War that Lucullus was carrying on against Mithridates. In like manner, Macrobius, lib. 3. Saturnal. cap. 15. M. Varro in lib.de Agricultura refert M. Catonem, qui Utica perijt, cum hæres teftamento Lucilij effet relictus, &c. I read, fays he, teftamento Luculli, &c. Macrobius nevertheless is there mirtaken in one thing: for, as Plutarch witneffes, Lucullus left not Cato his Heir, but only appointed him to be Guardian of his Son, as being his Unkle. b And And many the like Inftances might easily be pro duc'd. But to remove all manner of Objections concerning the Beginning of his Poem, and to evince beyond Reply the firft Book now extant, to be the firft Lucretius writ, befides the Invocation, with which, according to the Cuftom of all Poets, he begins his Poem, I will, in Oppofition to the above Paffage of Varro, produce the Authority of old Prifcian, who, after having faid, that Words of the first Declenfion form the Genitive Plural in arum, and by Contraction in ûm, by way of Example adds, Amphorûm for Amphorarum: Æneadûm for Æneadarum: For fo, fays he, Lucretius has it in his firft Verfe, Ita enim Lucretius in primo verfu : Æneadûm genitrix, hominum divûmq, voluptas. Befides; Is there the leaft Ground of Probability, that Lucretius ever writ above fix Books; fince not one of the antient Grammarians, or other Writers, neither Feftus, Nonius, Diomedes, Prifcian, Probus, Carifius, Donatus, Servius, Tertullian, Arnobius, nor Lactantius, who fo frequently bring Quotations from the fifth, fixth, and all the foregoing Books of this Poet, ever cite fo much as one fingle Verse from the feventh, eighth, &c? This, morally speaking, would be impoffible, had Lucretius written fifteen Books, of the Nature of Things, more than are now extant. This makes me the rather wonder at the Pofitiveness with which fome affert, that the feventh Book of Lucretius is prais'd in Prifcian; who nevertheless does not fo much as mention any fuch Book. Moreover: In my Opinion Lucretius himself fufficiently determines this Controversy: for, in his fixth Book, reminding his Reader of what he had been treating of in the firft, he fays, Nunc |