880
For then it would be natural that corn
Ground by the millstone’s crushing strength would show
Some signs of blood or other substances
Which find their nourishment within the body;
And that, when we rub stone on stone, then blood should trickle,
And grass and water likewise should emit
885
Drops sweet and flavoured like the milk of sheep.
And often too when clods of earth are crumbled
One should see various plants and corn and leaves
Lurking in miniature amid the soil.
890
Lastly, when wood is broken one should see
That ash and smoke and tiny flames lie hid.
But plain facts show that none of this occurs.
It follows therefore that one sort of thing
Is not mixed with another in this way.
No. But seeds common to many things
In many ways must needs lie hid inside them.
895
‘But often on great mountains’, you will say,
‘It happens that the high tops of tall trees
Are rubbed together, forced by strong south winds,
Until they blaze in bursting flower of flame.’
900
Agreed. But fire is not implanted in the wood,
But there are many seeds of heat which the friction
Concentrates, to make the forest fires.
If flame were hiding in forests ready-made,
Not for one moment could the fires be hid,
905
But everywhere they’ld burn the woods, turn trees to ashes.
Now do you see the point I made before,
That often it is a matter of great importance
How these same atoms combine, in what positions
They are held, what motions they give and take,
910
And that these same by quite small mutual changes
Can make both fires and firs? As the words themselves
Consist of elements a little changed
When we say fires or firs with different sounds?
And if you cannot explain the things you see
915
Without inventing tiny parts of matter
Endowed with the same nature as the whole,
This reasoning puts an end to all your atoms.
They’ll simply shake their sides and rock with laughter,
And salt tears run in rivers down their cheeks.
920
Come now, and learn what follows, and listen to it
More keenly. I know how dark these matters are.
But the high hope of fame has struck my heart
Sharply with holy wand and filled my breast
With sweet love of the Muses. Thus inspired
With mind and purpose flourishing and free
925
A pathless country of the Pierides
I traverse, where no foot has ever trod.
A joy it is to come to virgin springs
And drink, a joy it is to pluck new flowers
To make a glorious garland for my head
From fields whose blooms the Muses never picked
To crown the brows of any man before.
930
First, since of matters high I make my theme,
Proceeding to set free the minds of men
Bound by the tight knots of religion.
Next, since of things so dark in verse so clear
I write, and touch all things with the Muses’ charm.
In this no lack of purpose may be seen.
935
For as with children, when the doctors try
To give them loathsome wormwood, first they smear
Sweet yellow honey on the goblet’s rim,
That childhood all unheeding may be deceived
At the lip’s edge, and so drink up the juice
Of bitter medicine, tricked but not betrayed,
940
And by such means gain health and strength again,
So now do I: for oft my doctrine seems
Distasteful to those that have not sampled it
And most shrink back from it. My purpose is
With the sweet voices of Pierian song
945
To expound my doctrine, and as it were to touch it
With the delicious honey of the Muses;
So in this way perchance my poetry
Can hold your mind, while you attempt to grasp
The nature of the world, and understand
The great design and pattern of its making.
950
And now, since I have shown that primal atoms
Completely solid unimpaired for ever
Fly everywhere around, let us unfold
Whether or not there is a limit to their number.
Likewise the void which we have found to exist,
Or place or space, in which all things occur,
955
Let us see whether its extent is limited
Or stretches wide immeasurable and profound.
We find then that the universe is not bounded
In any direction. If it were, it would need to have
An extremity. But nothing can have an extremity
Unless there is something outside to limit it,
960
Something beyond to bound it, some clear point
Further than which our senses cannot reach.
Now since we must admit that there is nothing
Beyond the sum of things, it has no extremity.
Therefore it has no end, nor any limit.
Nor does it matter in what part of it
965
You stand: wherever a man takes his place
It stretches always boundless, infinite.
Suppose moreover that the whole of space
Were finite, if one ran right to the edge,
Its farthest shore, and threw a flying lance,
970
Which would you rather say, that hurled amain
It flies straight on, as aimed, far far away,
Or that something can check it and block its path?
One or the other you are bound to choose.
But each cuts off your escape route, and compels you
975
To concede that the universe continues without end.
For whether there is some object that can thwart
Its flight, so that it cannot reach the boundary,
Or whether it passes straight on unimpeded,
Its starting point is not the boundary.
And I’ll pursue you further, and I’ll ask,
980
Wherever you may place the furthest shore,
What happens to the lance? The upshot is
That nowhere in the universe can be
A final edge, and no escape be found
From the endless possibility of flight.
And here’s another thing. If all the space
In the universe stood shut in on all sides
985
By fixed and certain boundaries limited,
The store of matter everywhere by now
By its own solid weight borne down, compressed,
Would all have flowed together to the bottom,
And nothing could happen under the vault of heaven,
No sky at all could be, not light of sun,
Since all the sum of matter in a heap
990
Would lie, through ages infinite sunk down.
But as it is, no rest for sure is given
To primal atoms, since there is no bottom
No base at all, on which they can as it were
Accumulate and set up their abode.
Always in everlasting motion all things move
995
In every part, and from below supplies come in
Of matter, summon
ed from the infinite.
Our eyes tell us that one thing bounds another.
Air fences in the hills, the mountains air,
And land sets bounds to sea, and sea to lands,
1000
But nothing outside it bounds the universe.
Therefore there is a vast abyss of space
So wide and deep that flashing thunderbolts
Can neither in their courses traverse it
Though they may fall through endless tracts of time,
Nor by their travel make one whit the less
The distance still to go. So huge extends
1005
Capacity of space on either side,
No bounds at all, no limit anywhere.
Further, nature prevents the universe
From setting any limit to itself.
Body is bounded by void and void by body,
1010
Thus in their interchange the universe
Is infinite, or else one of the two,
If the other does not bound it, by itself
Must stretch away alone illimitable.
Since space is infinite, so must matter be.
Else neither sea nor land nor the bright realms of heaven
Nor race of men nor holy forms of gods
1015
Could stand for one brief fraction of an hour,
For matter, its close union all shattered,
Would rush dissolving through the mighty void
Or rather it could never have grown together
So as to form anything, since thus dispersed
It could never have been brought to form a union.
1020
For certainly not by design or mind’s keen grasp
Did primal atoms place themselves in order,
Nor did they make contracts, you may be sure,
As to what movements each of them should make.
But many primal atoms in many ways
Throughout the universe from infinity
Have changed positions, clashing among themselves,
1025
Tried every motion, every combination,
And so at length they fall into that pattern
On which this world of ours has been created.
And this preserved through cycles of the years
When once set going in appropriate movements
1030
Causes the rivers to refill the sea,
The greedy sea, with lavish waters, and earth
Warmed by the sun’s caress renews its fruits.
And all the race of animals springs up
And grows; the gliding fires of ether live.
And this they could by no means do, unless
1035
A store of matter from the infinite
Could spring, from which in turn in season due
All that is lost could be made good again.
For just as living creatures lacking food
Lose flesh and waste away, so must all things
Decay, as soon as matter, for some reason
Turned from its course, has ceased to be supplied.
1040
Whatever world atoms have combined to form
Blows from outside cannot preserve entire.
They can strike it frequently and hold back a part
Till others come and keep the whole filled up;
1045
Yet sometimes they must needs rebound, and give
The primal atoms space and time for flight
To freedom from the union they have created.
Wherefore again and yet again I say
That atoms in great numbers must come up;
Indeed the blows themselves must fall away
1050
Unless the supply of matter is infinite.
One thing you must reject from all belief,
Good Memmius, is the theory which some hold,
That all things press towards the centre of the universe,
And that for this reason the world stands fast
Without impacts from outside, and that the top
1055
And bottom are not free to move in any direction,
Since everything is pressing towards the centre—
If you can believe that anything rests upon itself—
That all the heavy things below the earth
Press upwards and rest upside down upon it,
Like images of things reflected in water.
1060
And likewise they contend that animals
Wander about head downwards and cannot fall
Off from the earth into the sky below
Any more than our bodies of themselves can fly
Upwards into the regions of the sky;
That when they see the sun, the stars of night
1065
Are what we see, and that they share the hours
Of the wide heavens alternately with us,
And pass nights corresponding to our days.
But error has given these false ideas to fools,
Embraced by them with reasoning askew.
For since the universe is infinite,
1070
There can be no middle. And even if there were,
Nothing could stand there, because it is the middle,
Rather than fly apart for some different reason.
For all the place and space which we call void
Through middle, through non-middle, must give way
1075
To things, wherever their movements take them.
Nor is there any place where bodies can go
And lose their weights, and stand still in the void;
Nor can void make resistance to anything
But as its nature demands it must give way.
1080
Therefore things cannot by this means be held
In combination, mastered by their longing for the middle.
Besides, they do not claim that all bodies press
Towards the middle, but only those of earth and water,
The liquid of the sea and the great waves
1085
That pour down from the mountains, and those things
That as it were an earthly frame contains.
They tell us by contrast that air’s thin breaths
And hot fires are all borne away from the middle;
That all the ether twinkles with the stars
And the sun’s flame feeds on the sky’s blue pastures
1090
Because fire flying upwards from the middle
Gathers together there; and tall trees, they say,
Could never bring high branches into leaf
If food did not rise upward from the earth.
[8 lines missing]
But if it were the nature of air and fire
To move always upwards, then there is a risk
That suddenly the ramparts of the world
Would burst asunder and like flying flames
Rush headlong scattered through the empty void,
And in like manner all the rest would follow,
The thundering realms of sky rush down from above,
1105
Earth suddenly withdraw beneath our feet,
And the whole world, its atoms all dissolved,
Amid the confused ruin of heaven and earth
Would vanish through the void of the abyss,
And in a moment not one scrap be left
But desert space and atoms invisible,
1110
For at whatever point you first allow
Matter to fail, there stands the gate of death.
And through it all the crowding throng of matter
Will make its exit and pass all away.
And so, led firmly on, without great toil
You will understand these matters well and truly.
For one thing makes another clear; and night
1115
&nb
sp; Won’t snatch the path from you until you have seen
Right to the heart of nature’s mysteries,
So surely things will kindle light for things.
BOOK TWO
A joy it is, when the strong winds of storm
Stir up the waters of a mighty sea,
To watch from shore the troubles of another.
No pleasure this in any man’s distress,
But joy to see the ills from which you are spared,
And joy to see great armies locked in conflict
5
Across the plains, yourself free from the danger.
But nothing sweeter is than this: to dwell
In quiet halls and lofty sanctuaries
Well fortified by doctrines of the wise,
And look thence down on others wandering
And seeking all astray the path of life—
10
The clash of intellects, the fight for honours,
The lust for wealth, the efforts night and day
With toil and sweat to scale the heights of power.
O wretched minds of men! O hearts so blind!
How dark the life, how great the perils are
15
In which whatever time is given is passed!
Do you not see that Nature cries for this,
And only this, that pain from out the body
Shall be removed away, and mind enjoy
Sweet sense of pleasure, freed from care and fear?
Therefore we see that human nature’s needs
20
Are small indeed: things that take pain away,
And such as simple pleasures can supply.
Nature herself demands nothing more sweet,
If golden statues of young men be lacking
Whose hands hold flaming torches through the house
25
Providing light for nightly revellings,
If with no gleam of gold or flash of silver
The hall shines bright, if no lyre echoes round
High gilded ceilings and fine panelled walls,
So long as men, lying in company together
On the soft grass beside a flowing stream
30
Beneath a tall tree’s shade, at little cost
Find pleasure for their bodies; most of all
When weather smiles and the season of the year
Scatters the meadows and green lanes with flowers.
And fevers leave the body no more swiftly,
If figured tapestries and purple sheets
35
Are what you toss on, than if you have to lie
With plain plebeian blanket on your bed.
Wherefore, since our bodies profit nothing
From riches or noble birth or glory of kingdom,
We must believe our minds also gain nothing.
Unless perchance the sight of mimic war
40
When your fine legions throng the great Parade
Strong in auxiliaries and cavalry,
Alike in arms, alike with ardour fired,
On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Page 8
