But how the moisture first pervaded them
And how it fled the heat, we do not see.
The moisture therefore is split up into tiny parts
That eyes cannot perceive in any way.
310
Then too, as the sun returns through many years,
A ring on a finger wears thin underneath,
And dripping water hollows out a stone,
And in the fields the curving iron ploughshare
Thins imperceptibly, and by men’s feet
We see the highways’ pavements worn away.
315
Again, bronze statues by the city gates
Show right hands polished thin by frequent touch
Of travellers who have greeted them in passing.
Thus all these things we see grow less by rubbing,
But at each time what particles drop off
320
The grudging nature of our vision stops us seeing.
Lastly, whatever time and nature add to things
Little by little, causing steady growth,
No eyes however keen or strained can see.
Nor again when things grow old and waste away,
325
Nor when cliffs overhanging the sea are worn
By salt-consuming spray, can you discern
What at each moment each of them is losing.
Therefore nature works by means of hidden bodies.
Yet all things everywhere are not held in packed tight
In a mass of body. There is void in things.
330
To grasp this fact will help you in many ways
And stop you wandering in doubt and uncertainty
About the universe, distrusting what I say.
By void I mean intangible empty space.
If there were none, in no way could things move.
335
For matter, whose function is to oppose and obstruct,
Would at all times be present in all things,
So nothing could move forward, because nothing
Could ever make a start by yielding to it.
But in fact through seas and lands and highest heaven
340
We see before our eyes that many things
In many different ways do move; which if there were no void,
Would not so much wholly lack their restless movement,
But rather could never have been produced at all,
Since matter everywhere would have been close-packed and still.
345
And however solid things are thought to be
Here is proof that you can see they are really porous.
In rocky caverns water oozes through,
The whole place weeping with a stream of drops.
Food spreads to every part of an animal’s body.
350
Trees grow and in due time put forth their fruits,
Because all over them through trunks and branches
Right from the deepest roots food makes its way.
Sounds pass through walls, and fly into closed buildings,
And freezing cold can penetrate to the bones.
355
But if there were no void for bodies to pass through
You would not see this happen in any way.
Lastly, why do we see some things weigh heavier
Than others, though their volume is the same?
For if there is as much matter in a ball of wool
360
As there is in lead, the weight must be the same,
Since it is the function of matter to press downwards.
But void, by contrast, stays forever weightless.
Therefore a thing of equal size but lighter
Declares itself to have more void inside it,
365
But the heavier by contrast makes proclaim
That it has more matter in it and much less of void.
Therefore there is beyond doubt admixed with things
That which we seek with keen-scented reasoning,
That thing to which we give the name of void.
And here I must forestall what some imagine,
370
Lest led astray by it you miss the truth.
They say that water yields to scaly fish
Pressing against it, and opens liquid ways,
Because fish as they swim leave space behind them
Into which the yielding waves can flow together;
And that likewise other things can move about
375
And change their place, though every place is filled.
All this is based on reasoning wholly false.
For how, I ask you, shall the fish advance
Unless the water gives way? And how shall the water
Be able to move back when the fish cannot move?
380
Either then all bodies must be deprived of movement,
Or we must say that void is mixed with things,
So that each can take the initiative in moving.
My last point is this: if two moving bodies
Collide and then bounce far apart, all the space between them
385
Must be void until it is occupied by air.
And however quickly air flows in all round,
It cannot at once fill all the vacant space;
It must fill first one place and then the next
Until it gains possession of the whole.
If anyone thinks that when bodies have sprung apart
390
What happens is that the air becomes compressed,
He’s wrong; for in this case a void is made
That was not there before, and likewise
A void is filled which previously existed.
Air cannot be compressed in such a way;
395
Nor if it could, could it, I think, without void
Shrink into itself and draw its parts together.
Wherefore whatever pleas you may advance
To prolong your argument, yet in the end
You must admit that there is void in things.
And many another proof I can adduce
400
To scrape up credit for my arguments.
But to a mind keen-scented these small traces
Suffice: from them you’ll grasp the rest yourself.
As mountain-ranging hounds find by their scent
The lair of beast in leafy covert hid
Once they have got some traces of its track,
405
So one thing after another you by yourself
Will find that you can see, in these researches,
And penetrate all unseen hiding places
And draw the truth from them.
But if you are weary and find the going too hard
410
There’s one thing, Memmius, I can safely promise you:
Such bounteous draughts from springs o’erflowing drawn
With sweetest tongue my well-stored mind will pour
That first I fear slow-moving age will creep
Over our limbs and loose the bonds of life
415
Before the full store of my arguments
On any single thing has filled your ears.
But now, to pick up the thread of my discourse,
All nature, as it is in itself, consists
Of two things: there are bodies and there is void
420
In which these bodies are and through which they move.
The senses which are common to men declare
That body has a separate existence.
Without faith firmly founded in our senses
There will be no standard to which we can refer
In hidden matters, giving us the power
To establish anything by reasoning.
425
If there were no place and space, which we call void,
&
nbsp; Bodies could not be situated anywhere
And they would totally lack the power of movement,
As I explained a little time ago.
Now here’s a further point. Nothing exists
430
Which you could say is wholly distinct from body
And separate from void—a third nature of some kind.
For whatever exists must in itself be something;
If touch affects it however light and small
It will increase the amount of matter by much or little,
435
Provided it does exist, and swell its sum.
But if it is intangible, and cannot prevent
Anything anywhere from passing through it,
Doubtless it will be what we call empty void.
Besides, whatever exists will either act on things
440
Or else react to other things acting on it,
Or it will be such that things can happen in it.
But without body nothing can act or react
And nothing can give place save emptiness and void.
Therefore apart from void and matter no third substance
Can remain to be numbered in the sum of things,
445
Neither one that falls within the range of senses
Nor one that mind can grasp by reasoning.
For you will find that all things that can be named
Are either properties of these two things
Or else you can see that they are accidents of them.
A property is something that cannot be separated
450
Or removed from a thing without destroying it.
As weight to rocks, wetness to water, heat to fire,
Touch to all bodies, intangibility to void.
But slavery, by contrast, poverty and riches
Freedom, war, peace and all such things
455
As may come and go but leave things in their essence
Intact, these, as is right, we call accidents.
Time likewise does not exist by itself,
But a sense follows from things themselves
Of what has been done in the past, what now is present,
460
And what in addition is to follow after.
And no one has a sense of time distinct
From the movement of things or from their quiet rest.
Moreover, when they say that Helen’s rape
And Troy’s defeat in war are facts, we must be careful
To see that they do not drive us to admit
465
That these things have an independent existence,
Arguing that those ancient generations
Of whom these great events were accidents
By time irrevocable have all been borne away.
For whatever is done must be an accident
Either of the whole earth or of some place in it.
470
Moreover, if no matter had existed
Nor room or space for things to operate,
The flame of love would never have been fired
By Helen’s beauty deep in Paris’ heart
Nor kindled blazing battles of savage war.
475
No wooden horse unmarked by sons of Troy
Spawning the midnight Greeks from out its womb
Had set the towers of Ilium aflame.
So you may see that events never at all
Exist by themselves as matter does, nor can
Be said to exist in the same way as void.
480
But rightly you may call them accidents
Of matter and of place in which things happen.
Material objects are of two kinds, partly atoms
And partly also compounds formed from atoms.
The atoms themselves no force can ever quench,
485
For by their solidity in the end they win.
Though it is difficult to believe that anything
That is completely solid can exist.
For lightning passes through the walls of houses,
And likewise sound and voices; iron glows
White hot in fire, and boulders burst apart
490
In the fierce blaze of heat; the solidness
Of gold grows soft and melts, the ice of bronze
Is overcome by fire and liquefied;
And warmth and piercing cold both seep through silver
As when in solemn rite we hold the cup
495
We feel both when dewy water is poured in.
So nothing in the world seems really solid.
But yet, because true reason and nature itself
Compel, be with me, while I demonstrate
In a few verses that there do exist
Bodies that are both solid and everlasting,
500
Which we teach are seeds or primal atoms of things
From which now all creation has been made.
First, since we have found that nature is twofold,
Consisting of two widely different things—
Matter and the space in which things happen—
505
Each must exist by itself unmixed with the other.
For where there is empty space, which we call void,
There matter is not; and where matter takes its stand
There in no way can empty void exist.
Therefore primal atoms are solid and without void.
510
Again, since void exists in things created,
There must be solid matter surrounding it,
Nor could you prove by truthful argument
That anything hides void, and holds it within it,
Unless you accept that that which holds is solid.
And that again can be nothing but an assembly
515
Of matter, able to hold the void inside it.
Matter therefore, which is absolutely solid,
Can last for ever, though all else be dissolved.
Then further, if there were nothing void and empty,
520
The universe would be one solid mass.
On the other hand, unless there were definite bodies
Able to fill the space each occupies,
Then everything would be vacant space and void.
An alternation then of matter and void
Must clearly exist, the two quite separate,
Since the universe is not completely full
525
Nor yet completely empty. So definite bodies
Exist which distinguish empty space from full.
And, as I have just shown, these can neither be broken
By blows struck from outside, nor inwardly
Pierced and unravelled; neither can they be
Attacked and shaken in any other way.
530
For without void it is clear that nothing can
Be crushed or broken or split in two by cutting;
Nor can it let in moisture or seeping cold
Or penetrating fire, all forces of destruction.
535
And the more void a thing contains within it
The deeper strike the blows of those assailants.
Therefore if atoms are solid and without void,
As I have shown, they must be everlasting.
Besides, had matter not been everlasting,
540
All things by now would have returned to nothing,
And the things we see would have been born again from nothing.
But since I have shown that nothing can be created
From nothing, nor things made return to nothing,
The primal atoms must have immortal substance
545
Into which at their last hour all things can be resolved
And furnish matter to renew the world.
So atoms must be solid si
ngle wholes;
Nor can they be in any other way
Preserved intact from endless ages past
Throughout eternity to make things new.
550
Consider this also: if nature had set
No limit to the breaking of things, the atoms of matter
Would have been ground so small as ages past
Fragmented them, that nothing in due time
Could ever have been conceived from them and brought
Into the full maturity of life.
555
For we see things can be dissolved more quickly
Than reconstructed. Therefore what past years
And bygone days of all eternity
Had broken up before now, dissolved and shattered,
In time remaining could never be made new.
560
But as it is, a certain end is given
Of breaking, since we see all things renewed,
And fixed times stand for things after their kind
In which they can attain the flower of life.
And here’s another point. Though atoms of matter
565
Are completely solid, yet we can explain
Soft things—air, water, earth, and fire—
How they are made and what force works in them,
When once we see that void is mixed with things.
But on the other hand, if atoms are soft,
570
No explanation can be given how flints
And iron, hard things, can be produced; for nature
Will utterly lack a base on which to build.
Their pure solidity gives them mighty power,
And when they form a denser combination
Things can be knit together and show great strength.
575
Moreover, if no limit has been set
To the breaking-up of bodies, nevertheless
You must admit that after infinite time
Bodies do survive of every kind of thing,
Not yet attacked by any form of danger;
580
But since by definition they are breakable,
It is inconsistent to say they could have lasted
Through time eternal struck by endless blows.
Again, since a limit has been set
For the growth of things and for their hold on life,
585
Each after its kind, and since it stands decreed
What each by nature can do and cannot,
And nothing changes, but all things are constant
So much that every kind of bird displays
Its own specific markings on its body,
590
They must for sure consist of changeless matter.
For if the primal atoms could suffer change,
Under some strange compulsion, then no more
Would certainty exist of what can be
And what cannot, in a word how everything
Has finite power and deep-set boundary stone;
595
Nor could so oft the race of men repeat
On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Page 6
