But in what ways matter converging once Established earth and heaven and the sea’s deeps, The sun’s course and the moon’s, I will set forth In order. For in truth not by design Did the primordial particles of things Arrange themselves each in its own right place With provident mind, nor verily have they bargained What motions each should follow; but because These primal atoms in such multitudes And in so many ways through infinite time Impelled by blows and moved by their own weight, Have been borne onward so incessantly, Uniting in every way and making trial Of every shape they could combine to form, Therefore it is that after wandering wide Through vast periods, attempting every kind Of union and of motion, they at last Collect into such groups as, suddenly Flocking together, oftentimes become The rudiments of mighty things, of earth, Sea and sky, and the race of living creatures. At that time neither could the disk of the sun Be seen flying aloft with bounteous light, Nor the stars of great heaven, nor sea, nor sky, Nor yet earth nor the air, nor anything Resembling those things which we now behold, But only a sort of strange tempest, a mass Gathered together out of primal atoms Of all kinds, which discordantly waged war Disordering so their interspaces, paths, Connections, weights, collisions, meetings, motions, Since with their unlike forms and varied shapes, They could not therefore all remain united, Nor move among themselves harmoniously. Thereupon parts began to fly asunder, And like things to unite with like, and so To separate off the world, and to divide Its members, portioning out its mighty parts; That is, to mark off the high heaven from earth, And the sea by itself, that it might spread With unmixed waters, and likewise the fires Of aether by themselves, pure and unmixed.