Certainly it was no design of the atoms to place themselves in a particular order, nor did they decide what motions each should have. But atoms were struck with blows in many ways and carried along by their own weight from infinite times up to the present.

The highest summits and those elevated above the level of other things are mostly blasted by envy as by a thunderbolt.

Tis pleasant to stand on shore and watch others labouring in a stormy sea.

And part of the soil is called to wash away In storms and streams shave close and gnaw the rocks. Besides, whatever the earth feeds and grows Is restored to earth. And since she surely is The womb of all things and their common grave, Earth must dwindle, you see and take on growth again.

Sweet it is, when on the high seas the winds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the land on another's struggles.

Anything made out of destructible matter Infinite time would have devoured before. But if the atoms that make and replenish the world Have endured through the immense span of the past Their natures are immortal-that is clear. Never can things revert to nothingness!

And life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all.