The Seeds of ThingsThe title of this book translates one of the many ways in which Lucretius names the basic matter from which the world is made in De rerum natura. In Lucretius, and in the strain of thought followed in this study, matter is always in motion, always differing from itself and yet always also made of the same stuff. From the pious Lucy Hutchinsons all but complete translation of the Roman epic poem to Margaret Cavendishs repudiation of atomism (but not of