Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  Quin etiam repetunt a caelo atque ignibus eius

  et primum faciunt ignem se vertere in auras

  aeris, hinc imbrem gigni terramque creari

  785 ex imbri retroque a terra cuncta reverti,

  umorem primum, post aera, deinde calorem,

  nec cessare haec inter se mutare, meare

  a caelo ad terram, de terra ad sidera mundi.

  quod facere haud ullo debent primordia pacto.

  790 immutabile enim quiddam superare necessest,

  ne res ad nihilum redigantur funditus omnes;

  nam quod cumque suis mutatum finibus exit,

  continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante.

  quapropter quoniam quae paulo diximus ante

  795 in commutatum veniunt, constare necessest

  ex aliis ea, quae nequeant convertier usquam,

  ne tibi res redeant ad nilum funditus omnis;

  quin potius tali natura praedita quaedam

  corpora constituas, ignem si forte crearint,

  800 posse eadem demptis paucis paucisque tributis,

  ordine mutato et motu, facere aeris auras,

  sic alias aliis rebus mutarier omnis?

  ‘At manifesta palam res indicat’ inquis ‘in auras

  aeris e terra res omnis crescere alique;

  805 et nisi tempestas indulget tempore fausto

  imbribus, ut tabe nimborum arbusta vacillent,

  solque sua pro parte fovet tribuitque calorem,

  crescere non possint fruges arbusta animantis.’

  scilicet et nisi nos cibus aridus et tener umor

  810 adiuvet, amisso iam corpore vita quoque omnis

  omnibus e nervis atque ossibus exsoluatur;

  adiutamur enim dubio procul atque alimur nos

  certis ab rebus, certis aliae atque aliae res.

  ni mirum quia multa modis communia multis

  815 multarum rerum in rebus primordia mixta

  sunt, ideo variis variae res rebus aluntur.

  atque eadem magni refert primordia saepe

  cum quibus et quali positura contineantur

  et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque;

  820 namque eadem caelum mare terras flumina solem

  constituunt, eadem fruges arbusta animantis,

  verum aliis alioque modo commixta moventur.

  [780] Moreover they go back to heaven and its fires for a beginning, and first suppose that fire changes into air, next that from air water is begotten and earth is produced out of water, and that all in reverse order come back from earth, water first, next air, then heat, and that these cease not to interchange, to pass from heaven to earth, from earth to the stars of ether.

  All which first-beginnings must on no account do; since something unchangeable must needs remain over, that things may not utterly be brought back to nothing.

  For whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, at once this change of state is the death of that which was before.

  Wherefore since those things which we have mentioned a little before pass into a state of change, they must be formed out of others which cannot in any case be transformed, that you may not have things returning altogether to nothing.

  Why not rather hold that there are certain bodies possessed of such a nature, that, if they have haply produced fire, the same may, after a few have been taken away and a few added on and the order and motion changed, produce air; and that all other things may in the same way interchange with one another? “But plain matter of fact clearly proves” you say “that all things grow up into the air and are fed out of the earth; and unless the season at the propitious period send such abundant showers that the trees reel beneath the soaking storms of rain, and unless the sun on its part foster them and supply heat, corn, trees and living things could not grow.”

  Quite true, and unless solid food and soft water should recruit us, our substance would waste away and life break wholly up out of all the sinews and bones; for we beyond doubt are recruited and fed by certain things, this and that other thing by certain other things.

  Because many first-beginnings common to many things in many ways are mixed up in things, therefore sure enough different things are fed by different things.

  And it often makes a great difference with what things and in what position the same first beginnings are held in union and what motions they mutually impart and receive; for the same make up heaven sea lands rivers sun, the same make up corn trees and living things; but they are mixed up with different things and in different ways as they move.

  quin etiam passim nostris in versibus ipsis

  multa elementa vides multis communia verbis,

  825 cum tamen inter se versus ac verba necessest

  confiteare et re et sonitu distare sonanti.

  tantum elementa queunt permutato ordine solo;

  at rerum quae sunt primordia, plura adhibere

  possunt unde queant variae res quaeque creari.

  830 Nunc et Anaxagorae scrutemur homoeomerian

  quam Grai memorant nec nostra dicere lingua

  concedit nobis patrii sermonis egestas,

  sed tamen ipsam rem facilest exponere verbis.

  principio, rerum quam dicit homoeomerian,

  835 ossa videlicet e pauxillis atque minutis

  ossibus hic et de pauxillis atque minutis

  visceribus viscus gigni sanguenque creari

  sanguinis inter se multis coeuntibus guttis

  ex aurique putat micis consistere posse

  840 aurum et de terris terram concrescere parvis,

  ignibus ex ignis, umorem umoribus esse,

  cetera consimili fingit ratione putatque.

  nec tamen esse ulla de parte in rebus inane

  concedit neque corporibus finem esse secandis.

  845 quare in utraque mihi pariter ratione videtur

  errare atque illi, supra quos diximus ante.

  Adde quod inbecilla nimis primordia fingit;

  si primordia sunt, simili quae praedita constant

  natura atque ipsae res sunt aequeque laborant

  850 et pereunt, neque ab exitio res ulla refrenat.

  nam quid in oppressu valido durabit eorum,

  ut mortem effugiat, leti sub dentibus ipsis?

  ignis an umor an aura? quid horum? sanguen an ossa?

  nil ut opinor, ubi ex aequo res funditus omnis

  855 tam mortalis erit quam quae manifesta videmus

  ex oculis nostris aliqua vi victa perire.

  at neque reccidere ad nihilum res posse neque autem

  crescere de nihilo testor res ante probatas.

  Praeterea quoniam cibus auget corpus alitque,

  860 scire licet nobis venas et sanguen et ossa

  * * *

  sive cibos omnis commixto corpore dicent

  esse et habere in se nervorum corpora parva

  ossaque et omnino venas partisque cruoris,

  fiet uti cibus omnis et aridus et liquor ipse

  865 ex alienigenis rebus constare putetur,

  ossibus et nervis sanieque et sanguine mixto.

  [823] Nay you see throughout even in these verses of ours many elements common to many words, though you must needs admit that the lines and words differ one from the other both in meaning and in sound wherewith they sound.

  So much can elements effect by a mere change of order; but those elements which are the first-beginnings of things can bring with them more combinations out of which different things can severally be produced.

  Let us now also examine the homoeomeria of Anaxagoras as the Greeks term it, which the poverty of our native speech does not allow us to name in our own tongue; though it is easy enough to set forth in words the thing itself.

  First of all then, when he speaks of the homoeomeria of things, you must know he supposes bones to be formed out of very small and minute bones and flesh of very small and minute fleshes and blood by the coming together of many drops of blood, and gold he thinks can be composed of grains of go
ld and earth be a concretion of small earths, and fires can come from fires and water from waters, and everything else he fancies and supposes to be produced on a like principle.

  And yet at the same time he does not allow that void exists anywhere in things, or that there is a limit to the division of things.

  Wherefore he appears to me on both these grounds to be as much mistaken as those whom we have already spoken of above.

  Moreover, the first-beginnings which he supposes are too frail; if first-beginnings they be which are possessed of a nature like to the things themselves and are just as liable to suffering and death, and which nothing reins back from destruction.

  For which of them will hold out, so as to escape death, beneath so strong a pressure within the very jaws of destruction? Fire or water or air? Which of these? Blood or bones?

  Not one methinks, where everything will be just as essentially mortal as those things which we see with the senses’ perish before our eyes vanquished by some force.

  But I appeal to facts demonstrated above for proof that things cannot fall away to nothing nor on the other hand grow from nothing.

  Again since food gives increase and nourishment to the body, you are to know that our veins and blood and bones [and the like are formed of things foreign to them in kind]; or if they shall say that all foods are of a mixed body and contain in them small bodies of sinews and bones and veins as well and particles of blood, it will follow that all food, solid as well as liquid, must be held to be composed of things foreign to them in kind, of bones that is and sinews and matter and blood mixed up.

  Praeterea quae cumque e terra corpora crescunt,

  si sunt in terris, terram constare necessest

  ex alienigenis, quae terris exoriuntur.

  870 transfer item, totidem verbis utare licebit:

  in lignis si flamma latet fumusque cinisque,

  ex alienigenis consistant ligna necessest,

  praeterea tellus quae corpora cumque alit auget

  ex alienigenis, quae lignis exoriuntur.

  875 Linquitur hic quaedam latitandi copia tenvis,

  id quod Anaxagoras sibi sumit, ut omnibus omnis

  res putet inmixtas rebus latitare, sed illud

  apparere unum, cuius sint plurima mixta

  et magis in promptu primaque in fronte locata.

  880 quod tamen a vera longe ratione repulsumst;

  conveniebat enim fruges quoque saepe, minaci

  robore cum in saxi franguntur, mittere signum

  sanguinis aut aliquid, nostro quae corpore aluntur.

  cum lapidi in lapidem terimus, manare cruorem

  885 consimili ratione herbis quoque saepe decebat,

  et latices dulcis guttas similique sapore

  mittere, lanigerae quali sunt ubere lactis,

  scilicet et glebis terrarum saepe friatis

  herbarum genera et fruges frondesque videri

  890 dispertita inter terram latitare minute,

  postremo in lignis cinerem fumumque videri,

  cum praefracta forent, ignisque latere minutos.

  quorum nil fieri quoniam manifesta docet res,

  scire licet non esse in rebus res ita mixtas,

  895 verum semina multimodis inmixta latere

  multarum rerum in rebus communia debent.

  ‘At saepe in magnis fit montibus’ inquis ‘ut altis

  arboribus vicina cacumina summa terantur

  inter se validis facere id cogentibus austris,

  900 donec flammai fulserunt flore coorto.’

  scilicet et non est lignis tamen insitus ignis,

  verum semina sunt ardoris multa, terendo

  quae cum confluxere, creant incendia silvis.

  [865] Again if all the bodies which grow out of the earth, are in the earths, the earth must be composed of things foreign to it in kind which grow out of these earths.

  Apply again this reasoning to other things, and you may use just the same words.

  If flame and smoke and ash are latent in woods, woods must necessarily be composed of things foreign to them in kind.

  Again all those bodies, to which the earth gives food, it increases [out of things foreign to them in kind which rise out of the earth: thus too the bodies of flame which issue from the woods, are fed] out of things foreign to them in kind which rise out of these woods.

  Here some slight opening is left for evasion, which Anaxagoras avails himself of, choosing to suppose that all things though latent are mixed up in things, and that is alone visible of which there are the largest number of bodies in the mixture and these more ready to hand and stationed in the first rank.

  This however is far banished from true reason.

  For then it were natural that corn too should often, when crushed by the formidable force of the stone, show some mark of blood or some other of the things which have their nourishment in our body.

  For like reasons it were fitting that from grasses too, when we rub them between two stones, blood should ooze out; that waters should yield sweet drops, in flavor like to the udder of milk in sheep; yes and that often, when clods of earth have been crumbled, kinds of grasses and corn and leaves should be found to lurk distributed among the earth in minute quantities; and lastly that ash and smoke and minute fires should be found latent in woods, when they were broken off.

  Now since plain matter of fact teaches that none of these results follows, you are to know that things are not so mixed up in things; but rather seeds common to many things must in many ways be mixed up and latent in things.

  “But it often comes to pass on high mountains” you say “that contiguous tops of tall trees rub together, the strong south winds constraining them so to do, until the flower of flame has broken out and they have burst into a blaze.”

  Quite true, and yet fire is not innate in woods; but there are many seeds of heat, and when they by rubbing have streamed together, they produce conflagrations in the forests.

  quod si facta foret silvis abscondita flamma,

  905 non possent ullum tempus celarier ignes,

  conficerent volgo silvas, arbusta cremarent.

  iamne vides igitur, paulo quod diximus ante,

  permagni referre eadem primordia saepe

  cum quibus et quali positura contineantur

  910 et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque,

  atque eadem paulo inter se mutata creare

  ignes et lignum? quo pacto verba quoque ipsa

  inter se paulo mutatis sunt elementis,

  cum ligna atque ignes distincta voce notemus.

  915 Denique iam quae cumque in rebus cernis apertis

  si fieri non posse putas, quin materiai

  corpora consimili natura praedita fingas,

  hac ratione tibi pereunt primordia rerum:

  fiet uti risu tremulo concussa cachinnent

  920 et lacrimis salsis umectent ora genasque.

  Nunc age, quod super est, cognosce et clarius audi.

  nec me animi fallit quam sint obscura; sed acri

  percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor

  et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem

  925 Musarum, quo nunc instinctus mente vigenti

  avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante

  trita solo. iuvat integros accedere fontis

  atque haurire iuvatque novos decerpere flores

  insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam,

  930 unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae;

  primum quod magnis doceo de rebus et artis

  religionum animum nodis exsolvere pergo,

  deinde quod obscura de re tam lucida pango

  carmina musaeo contingens cuncta lepore.

  935 id quoque enim non ab nulla ratione videtur;

  sed vel uti pueris absinthia taetra medentes

  cum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circum

  contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore,

  ut puerorum aetas inprovida ludificetur

  940 labrorum tenus
, interea perpotet amarum

  absinthi laticem deceptaque non capiatur,

  sed potius tali facto recreata valescat,

  sic ego nunc, quoniam haec ratio plerumque videtur

  [904] But if the flame was stored up ready made in the forests, the fire could not be concealed for any length of time, but would destroy forests, burn up trees indiscriminately.

  Do you now see, as we said a little before, that it often makes a very great difference with what things and in what position the same first beginnings are held in union and what motions they mutually impart and receive, and that the same may, when a little changed in arrangement produce say fires and a fir?

  Just as the words too consist of elements only a little changed in arrangement, though we denote firs and fires with two quite distinct names.

  Once again, if you suppose that whatever you perceive among visible things cannot be produced without imagining bodies of matter possessed of a like nature, in this way you will find the first-beginnings of things are destroyed: it will come to this that they will be shaken by loud fits of convulsive laughter and will bedew with salt tears face and cheeks.

  Now mark and learn what remains to be known and hear it more distinctly.

  Nor does my mind fail to perceive how dark the things are; but the great hope of praise has smitten my heart with sharp thyrsus, and at the same time has struck into my breast sweet love of the muses, with which now inspired I traverse in blooming thought the pathless haunts of the Pierides never yet trodden by sole of man.

  I love to approach the untasted springs and to quaff, I love to cull fresh flowers and gather for my head a distinguished crown from spots whence the muses have yet veiled the brows of none; first because I teach of great things and essay to release the mind from the fast bonds of religious scruples, and next because on a dark subject I pen such lucid verses overlaying all with the muses’ charm.

  For that too would seem to be not without good grounds: just as physicians when they purpose to give nauseous wormwood to children, first smear the rim round the bowl with the sweet yellow juice of honey, that the unthinking age of children may be fooled as far as the lips, and meanwhile drink up the bitter draught of wormwood and though beguiled yet not be betrayed, but rather by such means recover health and strength; so I now, since this doctrine seems generally somewhat bitter to those by whom it has not been handled, and the multitude shrinks back from it in dismay, have resolved to set forth to you our doctrine in sweet-toned Pierian verse and overlay it as it were with the pleasant honey of the muses, if haply by such means I might engage your mind on my verses, till you clearly perceive the whole nature of things, its shape and frame.