But God, or Nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine discords put an end. Then earth from air, and seas from earth, were driven, And grosser air sunk from ethereal heaven. Thus disembroil’d, they take their proper place; The next of kin contiguously embrace; And foes are sunder’d by a larger space. The force of fire ascended first on high, And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky: Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire, Whose atoms from unactive earth retire; Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy, seeds along. About her coasts unruly waters roar, And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore. Thus when the god, whatever god was he, Had form’d the whole, and made the parts agree, That no unequal portions might be found, He moulded earth into a spacious round: Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow, And bade the congregated waters flow. He adds the running springs, and standing lakes; And bounding banks for winding rivers makes. Some part, in earth are swallow’d up, the most