Matter and Creation

When Pulter addresses God saying “Of nothing Thou didst me create,” she is endorsing God’s power in the face of major philosophical controversy in the seventeenth century. In the poem by Margaret Cavendish, for instance, she places endows a personified figure of Nature with some of the features usually assigned to God.

Margaret Cavendish, Nature Calls a Counsel

When Nature first the world’s foundation laid,
She called a counsel how it might be made.
Motion was first, who had a subtle wit,
And then came Life, and Form, and Matter fit.
First Nature spake: “My friends, if we agree,
We can and may do a fine work,” said she,
“Make some things to adore us, worship give,
Whereas now we but to ourselves do live.
Besides, it is my nature things to make,
To give out work, and you directions take.
Wherefore if you will pleasure have therein,
You’ll breed the Fates in housewif’ry to spin,
And make strong Destiny to take some pains,
Lest she grow idle, let her link some chains.
Inconstancy and Fortune turn a wheel,
Since both are wanton, cannot stand, but reel.
And as for moisture, let it water give,
Which heat suck up, to make things grow and live,
And let sharp cold stay things that run about,
And drought stop holes, to keep the water out.
Vacuum and darkness they will domineer
If Motion’s power make no light appear;
Wherefore produce a light, the world to see,
My only child from all eternity—
Beauty, my love, my joy and dear delight—
“Alas!” said Motion, “all pains I can take
Will do no good, Matter a brain must make,
And Figure draw a circle, round, and small,
Where in the midst must stand a glassy ball,
Without convex, but inwardly concave,
And in its middle a round small hole must have,
That species may thorough pass, and Life
May view all things as through a prospective.”
“Alas!” said Life, “whatever we do make,
Death, my great enemy, will from us take:
And who can hinder his strong, mighty power?
He with his cruelty doth all devour,
And Time, his agent, brings all to decay:
Thus neither Death nor Time will you obey.
He cares for none of your commands, nor will
Obey your laws, but doth what likes him still.
He knows his power far exceedeth ours,
For whatsoe’er we make, he soon devours.
Let me advise you ne’er to take such pains
A world to make, since Death hath all the gains.”
Figure’s opinion did agree with Life,
“For Death,” said she, “will fill the world with strife.
What Form soever I do turn into,
Death finds me out: that Form he doth undo.”
Then Motion spake: “None hath such cause as I
For to complain, for Death makes Motion die.
’Tis best to let alone this work, I think.”
Says Matter, “Death corrupts, and makes me stink.”
Says Nature, “I am of another mind:
If we let Death alone, we soon shall find
He wars will make, and raise a mighty power,
If we divert him not, may us devour.
He is ambitious, will in triumph sit,
Envies my works, and seeks my State to get.
And Fates, though they upon great Life attend,
Yet fear they Death, and dare not him offend.
Though two be true, and spin as Life them bids,
The third is false, and cuts short the long threads.
Let us agree, for fear we should do worse,
And make some work for to employ his force.”
Then all rose up: “We do submit,” said they,
“And Nature’s will in every thing obey.”
First Matter she materials in did bring,
And Motion cut, and carved out every thing.
And Figure, she did draw the forms and plots,
And Life divided all out into lots.
And Nature, she surveyed, directed all,
And with four elements built the world’s ball.
The solid earth she as foundation laid;
The waters round about as walls were raised,
Where every drop lay close, like stone or brick,
Whose moisture like to mortar made them stick.
Air, as the ceiling, keeps all close within,
Lest some materials out of place might spring.
And presses down the seas, lest they should rise
And overflow the Earth, and drown the skies.
For as a roof is laid upon a wall,
To keep it steady, that no side may fall,
So Nature in that place air wisely stayed,
And fire, like tile or slate, the highest laid
To keep out rain, or wet, else it would rot:
So would the world corrupt if fire were not.
The planets, like as weather-fans, turn round;
The sun a dial in the midst is found,
Where he doth give so just account of time
And measures all, though round, by even line.
But when the Earth was made, and seed did sow,
Plants on the Earth, and minerals down grow,
Then creatures made, which Motion did give sense,
Yet reason none to give intelligence.
But Nature found, when she to make Man came,
It was more difficult than worlds to frame;
For she did strive to make him long to last,
And so into eternity him cast.
Who in no other place could be kept long,
But in eternity, that castle strong.
There she was sure that Death she could keep out,
Although he is a warrior strong and stout.
Man she would make, but not like other kind:
Though not in body, like a God in mind.
Then she did call her counsel once again,
Told them the greatest work did yet remain.
“For how,” said she, “can we ourselves new make?
Yet Man we must like to ourselves create,
Or else he never can escape Death’s snare;
To make this work requires both skill and care.
But I a mind will mix as I think fit,
With knowledge, understanding, and with wit.
And Motion, you your servants must employ,
Which Passions are, to wait still in the eye,
To dress, and clothe this mind in fashions new,
Which none knows better how to do you,
That, though his body die, this mind shall live,
And a free will we must unto it give.
But Matter, you from Figure form must take,
And Man from other creatures different make.
For he shall upright go; the rest shall not.
And Motion, you in him must tie a knot
Of several motions, there to meet in one.
Thus Man like to himself shall be alone.
You, Life, command the Fates a thread to spin,
From which small thread the body shall begin.
And while the thread doth last, not cut in twain,
The body shall in motion still remain.
But when the thread is broke, he down shall fall,
And for a time no motion have at all.
But yet the mind shall live and never die;
We’ll raise the body too for company.
Thus, like ourselves, we can make things to live
Eternally, but no past times can give.

Cavendish, Margaret. "Nature Calls a Counsel, which is Motion, Figure, Matter, and Life, to Advise about Making the World", Margaret Cavendish's Poems and Fancies, Part I. Ed. Liza Blake. Updated June 2017, accessed 7 July 2018]

Lucy Hutchinson
Translation of Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura

God neuer aniething of nothing made;
But soe are mortall men restreind with dread,
As seing severall works in heaven, and earth,
And ignorant of the cause that gives them birth,
They thinke a power devine brings forth those things;
But grant that nothing out of nothing springs,
Then we shall soone perceive how things are made
And whence they flow, without deviner ayd.

Lucy Hutchinson, The Works of Lucy Hutchinson, vol. 1: The Translation of Lucretius. ed. Reid Barbour and David Norbrook, with Latin text by Maria Cristina Zerbino (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1.153-160