On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics)

by Ronald Melville

  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.

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  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.

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  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

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  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,

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  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.

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  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.

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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

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  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,

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  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,

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  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

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  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?

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  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

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  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

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  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;

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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—

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  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.

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

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  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,

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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

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  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,

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  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.

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  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;

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  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,

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  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,

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  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;

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  Nor could so oft the race of men repeat