Book VII · 50

That which has grown from the earth to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns.¹³ This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.

All that is earth-born gravitates earthwards,

Dust unto dust; and all that from ether Grows, speeds swiftly back again heavenward;

that is, either there is a breaking up of the closely-linked atoms or, what is much the same, a scattering of the impassive elements.