Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  The wild olive delights the bearded she-goats as much as if the flavor it yielded were of ambrosia and steeped in nectar; but nothing that puts forth leaf is more bitter to man than this food.

  Again a swine eschews marjoram-oil and dreads all perfumes; for they are rank poison to bristly swine, though they are found at times to give us as it were fresh life.

  But on the other hand though mire is to us the nastiest filth, it is found to be so welcome to swine that they wallow in it all over with a craving not to be satisfied.

  There is still one point left which it seems proper to mention, before I come to speak of the matter in hand.

  Since many pores are assigned to various things, they must possess natures differing the one from the other and must have each its own nature, its own direction: thus there are in living creatures various senses, each of which takes into it in its own peculiar way its own special object; for we see that sounds pass into one thing, taste from different flavors into another thing, smells into another.

  Again one thing is seen to stream through stones and another thing to pass through woods, another through gold, and another still to go out through silver and brass; for form is seen to stream through this passage, heat through that, and one thing is seen to pass through by the same way more quickly than other things.

  The nature of the passages, you are to know, compels it so to be, varying in manifold wise, as we have shown a little above, owing to the unlike nature and textures of things.

  Therefore now that these points have all been established and arranged for us as premisses ready to our hand, for what remains, the law will easily be explained out of them, and the whole cause be laid open which attracts the strength of iron.

  First of all there must stream from this stone very many seeds or a current if you will which dispels with blows all the air which lies between the stone andiron.

  When this space is emptied and much room left void between, forthwith the first-beginnings of iron fall headlong forward into the void in one mass, and in consequence the ring itself follows and then goes on with its whole body.

  nec res ulla magis primoribus ex elementis

  1010 indupedita suis arte conexa cohaeret

  quam validi ferri natura et frigidus horror.

  quo minus est mirum, quod dicitur esse alienum,

  corpora si nequeunt e ferro plura coorta

  in vacuum ferri, quin anulus ipse sequatur;

  1015 quod facit et sequitur, donec pervenit ad ipsum

  iam lapidem caecisque in eo compagibus haesit.

  hoc fit idem cunctas in partis; unde vace fit

  cumque locus, sive e transverso sive superne,

  corpora continuo in vacuum vicina feruntur;

  1020 quippe agitantur enim plagis aliunde nec ipsa

  sponte sua sursum possunt consurgere in auras.

  huc accedit item, quare queat id magis esse,

  haec quoque res adiumento motuque iuvatur,

  quod, simul a fronte est anelli rarior aeër

  1025 factus inanitusque locus magis ac vacuatus,

  continuo fit uti qui post est cumque locatus

  aeër a tergo quasi provehat atque propellat.

  semper enim circum positus res verberat aeër;

  sed tali fit uti propellat tempore ferrum,

  1030 parte quod ex una spatium vacat et capit in se.

  hic, tibi quem memoro, per crebra foramina ferri

  parvas ad partis subtiliter insinuatus

  trudit et inpellit, quasi navem velaque ventus.

  denique res omnes debent in corpore habere

  1035 aeëra, quandoquidem raro sunt corpore et aeër

  omnibus est rebus circum datus adpositusque.

  hic igitur, penitus qui in ferrost abditus aeër,

  sollicito motu semper iactatur eoque

  verberat anellum dubio procul et ciet intus,

  1040 scilicet illo eodem fertur, quo praecipitavit

  iam semel et partem in vacuam conamina sumpsit.

  Fit quoque ut a lapide hoc ferri natura recedat

  inter dum, fugere atque sequi consueta vicissim.

  exultare etiam Samothracia ferrea vidi

  1045 et ramenta simul ferri furere intus ahenis

  in scaphiis, lapis hic Magnes cum subditus esset;

  usque adeo fugere a saxo gestire videtur.

  aere interposito discordia tanta creatur

  propterea quia ni mirum prius aestus ubi aeris

  1050 praecepit ferrique vias possedit apertas,

  posterior lapidis venit aestus et omnia plena

  invenit in ferro neque habet qua tranet ut ante;

  [1009] And nothing has its primal elements more intricately entangled or coheres in closer connection than the nature of stubborn iron and its coldness that makes you shiver.

  Therefore what I say is the less strange, that from among such elements as these bodies cannot gather in large numbers out of the iron and be carried into the void without the whole ring following.

  This it does do, and follows on until it has quite reached the stone and fastened on it with unseen bonds of connection.

  The same thing takes place in all directions: on whatever side a void is formed, whether athwart or from above the first bodies next it are at once carried on into the void; for they are set in motion by blows from another source and cannot by their own free act rise up into the air.

  Moreover (to render it more feasible, this thing also is helped on by external aid and motion) as soon as the air in front of the ring has been made rarer and the space more empty and void, it follows at once that all the air which lies behind, carries and pushes it on as it were at its back.

  For the air which lies around them always beats on things; but at such a time as this it is able to push on the iron, because on one side a space is void and receives the iron into it.

  This air of which I am speaking to you makes its way with much subtlety through the frequent pores of the iron to its minute parts and then thrusts and pushes it on, as the wind a ship and its sails.

  Again all things must have air in their body, since they are of a rare body and air surrounds and is in contact with all things.

  This air therefore which is in the inmost recesses of the iron, is ever stirred in restless motion and therefore beats the ring without a doubt and stirs it within, you know: the ring is carried in the direction in which it has once plunged forward, and into the void part towards which it has made its start.

  Sometimes too it happens that the nature of iron is repelled from this stone, being in the habit of flying from and following it in turns.

  I have seen Samothracian iron rings even jump up, and at the same time filings of iron rave within brass basins, when this Magnet stone had been placed under: such a strong desire the iron seems to have to fly from the stone.

  So great a disturbance is raised by the interposition of the brass, because sure enough when the current of the brass has first seized on and taken possession of the open passages of the iron, the current of the stone comes after and finds all things full in the iron and has no opening to swim through as before.

  cogitur offensare igitur pulsareque fluctu

  ferrea texta suo; quo pacto respuit ab se

  1055 atque per aes agitat, sine eo quod saepe resorbet.

  Illud in his rebus mirari mitte, quod aestus

  non valet e lapide hoc alias impellere item res.

  pondere enim fretae partim stant, quod genus aurum;

  at partim raro quia sunt cum corpore, ut aestus

  1060 pervolet intactus, nequeunt inpellier usquam,

  lignea materies in quo genere esse videtur.

  interutrasque igitur ferri natura locata

  aeris ubi accepit quaedam corpuscula, tum fit,

  inpellant ut eo Magnesia flumine saxa.

  1065 nec tamen haec ita sunt aliarum rerum aliena,

  ut mihi multa parum genere ex hoc suppeditentur,

  quae memorare queam inter
se singlariter apta.

  saxa vides primum sola colescere calce.

  glutine materies taurino iungitur una,

  1070 ut vitio venae tabularum saepius hiscant

  quam laxare queant compages taurea vincla.

  vitigeni latices aquai fontibus audent

  misceri, cum pix nequeat gravis et leve olivom.

  purpureusque colos conchyli iungitur uno

  1075 corpore cum lanae, dirimi qui non queat usquam,

  non si Neptuni fluctu renovare operam des,

  non mare si totum velit eluere omnibus undis.

  denique res auro non aurum copulat una,

  aerique aes plumbo fit uti iungatur ab albo?

  1080 cetera iam quam multa licet reperire! quid ergo?

  nec tibi tam longis opus est ambagibus usquam

  nec me tam multam hic operam consumere par est,

  sed breviter paucis praestat comprendere multa.

  quorum ita texturae ceciderunt mutua contra,

  1085 ut cava conveniant plenis haec illius illa

  huiusque inter se, iunctura haec optima constat.

  est etiam, quasi ut anellis hamisque plicata

  inter se quaedam possint coplata teneri;

  quod magis in lapide hoc fieri ferroque videtur.

  [1053] It is forced therefore to dash against and beat with its wave the iron texture; by which means it repels from it and sets in motion through the brass that which without the brass it often draws to itself.

  And forbear herein to wonder that the current from this stone is not able to set in motion other things as well as iron: some of these stand still by the power of their own weight; for instance gold; and others, because they are of so rare a body that the current flies through them uninterrupted, cannot in any case be set in motion; to which class wood is found to belong.

  When therefore the nature of iron lying between the two has received into it certain first bodies of brass, then do the Magnet stones set it in motion with their stream.

  And yet these cases are not so much at variance with other things, that I have only a scanty store of similar instances to relate of things mutually fitted one for the other and for nothing else: stones for instance you see are cemented by mortar alone; wood is united with wood so firmly by bulls’ glue only, that the veins of boards often gape in cracks before the binding power of the glue can be brought to loosen its hold.

  Vine-born juices venture to mix with streams of water, though heavy pitch and light oil cannot.

  Again the purple dye of the shellfish so unites with the body of wool alone, that it cannot in any case be severed, not were you to take pains to undo what is done with Neptune’s wave, not if the whole sea were willed to wash it out with all its waters.

  Then too is there not one thing only that fastens gold to gold, and is not brass soldered to brass by tin? And how many other cases of the kind might one find! What then? You have no need whatever of such long circuitous roads, nor is it worth my while to spend so much pains on this, but it is better briefly to comprise many things in few words: things whose textures have such a mutual correspondence, that cavities fit solids, the cavities of the first the solids of the second, the cavities of the second the solids of the first, form the closest union.

  Again some things may be fastened together and held in union with hooks and eyes as it were; and this seems rather to be the case with this stone and iron.

  1090 Nunc ratio quae sit morbis aut unde repente

  mortiferam possit cladem conflare coorta

  morbida vis hominum generi pecudumque catervis,

  expediam, primum multarum semina rerum

  esse supra docui quae sint vitalia nobis,

  1095 et contra quae sint morbo mortique necessest

  multa volare; ea cum casu sunt forte coorta

  et perturbarunt caelum, fit morbidus aeër.

  atque ea vis omnis morborum pestilitasque

  aut extrinsecus ut nubes nebulaeque superne

  1100 per caelum veniunt aut ipsa saepe coorta

  de terra surgunt, ubi putorem umida nactast

  intempestivis pluviisque et solibus icta.

  nonne vides etiam caeli novitate et aquarum

  temptari procul a patria qui cumque domoque

  1105 adveniunt ideo quia longe discrepitant res?

  nam quid Brittannis caelum differre putamus,

  et quod in Aegypto est, qua mundi claudicat axis,

  quidve quod in Ponto est differre et Gadibus atque

  usque ad nigra virum percocto saecla colore?

  1110 quae cum quattuor inter se diversa videmus

  quattuor a ventis et caeli partibus esse,

  tum color et facies hominum distare videntur

  largiter et morbi generatim saecla tenere.

  est elephas morbus qui propter flumina Nili

  1115 gignitur Aegypto in media neque praeterea usquam.

  Atthide temptantur gressus oculique in Achaeis

  finibus. inde aliis alius locus est inimicus

  partibus ac membris; varius concinnat id aeër.

  proinde ubi se caelum, quod nobis forte alienum,

  1120 commovet atque aeër inimicus serpere coepit,

  ut nebula ac nubes paulatim repit et omne

  qua graditur conturbat et immutare coactat,

  fit quoque ut, in nostrum cum venit denique caelum,

  corrumpat reddatque sui simile atque alienum.

  1125 haec igitur subito clades nova pestilitasque

  aut in aquas cadit aut fruges persidit in ipsas

  aut alios hominum pastus pecudumque cibatus,

  aut etiam suspensa manet vis aeëre in ipso

  et, cum spirantes mixtas hinc ducimus auras,

  1130 illa quoque in corpus pariter sorbere necessest.

  consimili ratione venit bubus quoque saepe

  [1090] And now I will explain what the law of diseases is and from what causes the force of disease may suddenly gather itself up and bring death-dealing destruction on the race of man and the troops of brute beasts.

  And first I have shown above that there are seeds of many things helpful to our life; and on the other hand many must fly about conducing to disease and death.

  When these by chance have happened to gather together and have disordered the atmosphere, the air becomes distempered.

  And all that force of disease and that pestilence come either from without down through the atmosphere in the shape of clouds and mists, or else do gather themselves up and rise out of the earth, when soaked with wet it has contracted a taint, being beaten upon by unseasonable rains and suns.

  See you not too that all who come to a place far away from country and home are affected by the strangeness of climate and water, because there are wide differences in such things?

  For what a difference may we suppose between the climate of the Briton and that of Egypt where the pole of heaven slants askew, and again between that in Pontus and that of Gades and so on to the races of men black with sun-baked complexion?

  Now as we see these four climates under the four opposite winds and quarters of heaven all differing from each other, so also the complexions and faces of the men are seen to differ widely and diseases varying in kind are found to seize upon the different races.

  There is the elephant disease which is generated beside the streams of Nile in the midst of Egypt and nowhere else.

  In Attica the feet are attacked and the eyes in Achaean lands.

  And so different places are hurtful to different parts and members: the variations of air occasion that.

  Therefore when an atmosphere which happens to put itself in motion unsuited to us and a hurtful air beg into advance, they creep slowly on in the shape of mist and cloud and disorder everything in their line of advance and compel all to change; and when they have at length reached our atmosphere, they corrupt it too and make it like to themselves and unsuited to us.

  This new destroying power and pestilence therefore all at once either
fall upon the waters or else sink deep into the corn-crops or other food of man and provender of beast; or else their force remains suspended within the atmosphere, and when we inhale from it mixed airs, we must absorb at the same time into our body those things as well.

  In like manner pestilence often falls on kine also and a distemper too on the silly sheep.

  pestilitas et iam pigris balantibus aegror.

  nec refert utrum nos in loca deveniamus

  nobis adversa et caeli mutemus amictum,

  1135 an caelum nobis ultro natura corumptum

  deferat aut aliquid quo non consuevimus uti,

  quod nos adventu possit temptare recenti.

  Haec ratio quondam morborum et mortifer aestus

  finibus in Cecropis funestos reddidit agros

  1140 vastavitque vias, exhausit civibus urbem.

  nam penitus veniens Aegypti finibus ortus,

  aeëra permensus multum camposque natantis,

  incubuit tandem populo Pandionis omni.

  inde catervatim morbo mortique dabantur.

  1145 principio caput incensum fervore gerebant

  et duplicis oculos suffusa luce rubentes.

  sudabant etiam fauces intrinsecus atrae

  sanguine et ulceribus vocis via saepta coibat

  atque animi interpres manabat lingua cruore

  1150 debilitata malis, motu gravis, aspera tactu.

  inde ubi per fauces pectus complerat et ipsum

  morbida vis in cor maestum confluxerat aegris,

  omnia tum vero vitai claustra lababant.

  spiritus ore foras taetrum volvebat odorem,

  1155 rancida quo perolent proiecta cadavera ritu.

  atque animi prorsum tum vires totius, omne

  languebat corpus leti iam limine in ipso.

  intolerabilibusque malis erat anxius angor

  adsidue comes et gemitu commixta querella,

  1160 singultusque frequens noctem per saepe diemque

  corripere adsidue nervos et membra coactans

  dissoluebat eos, defessos ante, fatigans.

  nec nimio cuiquam posses ardore tueri

  corporis in summo summam fervescere partem,

  1165 sed potius tepidum manibus proponere tactum

  et simul ulceribus quasi inustis omne rubere

  corpus, ut est per membra sacer dum diditur ignis.

  intima pars hominum vero flagrabat ad ossa,