Indeed things we can see, if some great distance
315
Divides them from us, oft conceal their movements.
You see sheep on a hillside creeping forward
Cropping the fresh green grass new-pearled with dew
Where pastures new invite and tempt them on,
And fat lambs play and butt and frisk around.
320
We see all this confused and blurred by distance,
A white patch standing still amid the green.
And when in mimic war the mighty legions
Fill all the plain with movements far and wide,
And sheen of armour rises to the sky;
325
Earth flashes with bronze; the tramp of marching feet
Resounds on high; the hills struck by the noise
Throw back the echoes to the stars of heaven;
And wheeling horsemen gallop, and suddenly
Charge, and shake all the plain with their attack—
330
And yet among high mountains there’s a place
From which they seem to stand still, motionless,
A flash of brightness on the plain below.
Now let us consider the qualities of atoms,
The extent to which they differ in their shapes
And all the rich variety of their figures.
335
Not that there are not many of the same shape,
But all by no means are identical.
Nor is this strange. For since their multitude
As I have shown has neither sum nor end,
Not all, for sure, must be the same in build
340
As all the rest, nor marked by the same shape.
Consider the race of men, and silent shoals
Of scaly fish, fat cattle, and wild beasts,
And all the varied birds that throng the waters
By joyful lakes and streams and river banks,
345
And flock and fly among the pathless woods.
Take any one you will among its kind,
And you will find they all have different shapes.
This is the only way the young can know
Their mothers, and the mothers know their young.
350
And this we see they do; no less than men
They recognize each other readily.
For oft in front of noble shrines of gods
A calf falls slain beside the incensed altars,
A stream of hot blood gushing from its breast.
The mother wandering through the leafy glens
355
Bereaved seeks on the ground the cloven footprints.
With questing eyes she seeks if anywhere
Her lost child may be seen; she stands, and fills with moaning
The woodland glades; she comes back to the byre
Time and again in yearning for her calf.
360
Nor tender willows nor meadows lush with dew
Nor those sweet rivers brimming to their banks
Can charm her mind or ease the sudden care,
Nor sight of other calves in happy pastures
Divert her mind and lift the care away,
So does she seek what was her own, her darling,
365
So steadfastly the child she knows so well.
And tender kids with trembling voices know
Their horned mothers well, and playful lambs
The bleating ewes. So each as Nature bids
To its own udder scampers back for milk.
Lastly, consider corn of any kind.
370
Not every grain you’ll find is quite the same,
But through their shapes there runs some difference.
So likewise all the various shells we see
Painting the lap of earth, the curving shore
375
Where waves beat softly on the thirsty sands.
Therefore again and yet again I say
That in the same way it must be that atoms,
Since they exist by nature and are not made by hand
To the fixed pattern of a single atom,
Must, some of them, be different in their shapes.
380
With this in mind it is easy to explain
Why the fire of lightning penetrates much further
Than our fire does which springs from earthly torches.
For you could say that the heavenly fire of lightning
Is finer, being composed of smaller shapes
And therefore passes through apertures impassable
385
By our fire sprung from wood and lit by torch.
Besides, light passes through a pane of horn, but rain
Is thrown off. Why? Because the atoms of light
Are smaller than those that make life-giving water.
390
And though we see wine pass quickly through a strainer,
Yet olive oil by contrast lags and lingers;
No doubt, either because its atoms are larger
Or they are more hooked and more closely interwoven,
And therefore cannot separate so quickly
395
And trickle through the holes each one by one.
And here’s another thing. Honey and milk
Rolled in the mouth have a delightful taste;
But bitter wormwood and harsh centaury
400
Quite screw the face up with their loathsome flavour.
So you can easily see that smooth round atoms
Make up things which give pleasure to our senses,
But, by contrast, things that seem harsh and bitter
Are more composed of atoms that are hooked,
405
Which therefore tear their way into our senses,
And entering break the surface of our bodies.
There is conflict between those things that strike the senses
As good or bad, because their shapes are different.
The strident rasping of a screeching saw
You must not think consists of elements
As smooth as melodies musicians shape
Waking the tuneful lyre with nimble fingers.
Nor must you think that atoms of the same shape
Enter men’s nostrils when foul corpses burn
415
As when Cilician saffron o’er the stage
Is freshly cast, or when a near-by altar
Exhales the perfumes of Arabia.
And colours too, whose beauty feeds the eye,
Cannot be composed of atoms similar
To those that prick the pupil and force tears,
420
Or bring through ugliness disgust and loathing.
For everything that charms the senses must
Contain some smoothness in its primal atoms.
But by contrast things that are harsh and painful
Are found to have some roughness in their matter.
425
Some atoms are rightly thought to be neither smooth
Nor altogether hooked, with curving points,
But rather to have angles projecting slightly;
These tickle our senses without harming them.
Of such kind are wine-lees and piquant endive.
430
And fire with heat and frost with cold have teeth
That bite our senses in quite different ways,
As touch in each case indicates to us.
For touch (by all the holy powers of heaven!),
Touch is the body’s sense, whether from outside
435
A thing slips in, or something inside hurts us,
Or pleasure comes when something issues forth
In procreative acts of Venus, or when some blow
Upsets the body’s atoms and we feel
Disordered by their ferment—and for proof
440
&nbs
p; Hit yourself anywhere with your own hand!
So atoms must have widely different shapes
Since they can cause such varying sensations.
Again, things that seem hard and dense must be
Composed much more of atoms hooked together
445
Held tight deep down by branch-like particles.
First in this class and in the leading rank
Stand diamonds, well used to scorn all blows.
Next come stout flints and the hard strength of iron
And bronze that fights and shrieks when bolts are shot.
450
But liquids in their fluid composition
Must consist more of atoms smooth and round.
You can pour poppy seeds as easily as water,
The tiny spheres do not hold each other back,
And if you knock a heap of them they run
Downhill in the same way as water does.
455
And all those things you see that in an instant
Disperse, like smoke or clouds or flames, must be,
If not composed entirely of smooth round atoms,
At least not hampered by a close-knit texture,
So they can sting the body and pass through stones
460
Without adhering together. So you can see
That all things of this kind that prick the senses
Are made of atoms sharp but not enmeshed.
And some things too can be both fluid and bitter,
Like the salt sea. This should cause no surprise.
465
For, being fluid, it consists of smooth round atoms,
And rough ones are mixed with them, thus causing pain.
There is no need for them to be hooked together.
You must know that they are round as well as rough
And so can roll and also hurt the senses.
470
It can be shown that Neptune’s bitter brine
Comes from a mixture of atoms, rough with smooth.
There is a way to separate them. You can see
How the sweet water, when the same is filtered
Through many layers of earth, runs separately
Into a pit and loses all its saltness.
475
The atoms of nauseous salt are left on top.
Since being rough they adhere more to the earth.
Now I have explained this I will link a fact
Associated with it and gaining credence from it:
That atoms have a finite number of shapes.
480
If this were not so, then inevitably
Some atoms will have to be of infinite size.
Within the small space of a single atom
There can be no large variety of shapes.
Suppose that atoms consist of three minimal parts,
485
Or make them larger by adding a few more,
When you have taken those parts of a single body
And turned them top to bottom, changed them right and left,
And have worked out in every possible way
What shape each order gives to the whole body,
490
Then, if you wish perhaps to vary the shapes,
You must add other parts; thence it will follow
That if you wish to change the shapes still further
The arrangement in like manner will need others.
Therefore novelty of shape involves
495
Increase in size. And so you cannot believe
That atoms differ infinitely in shape
Or you will make some have enormous magnitude,
Which I have proved above to be impossible.
Were it not so, the Orient’s richest robes
500
And gleaming silks of Meliboean purple
Dyed with the hues of shells of Thessaly,
And peacocks’ golden breed of laughing beauty,
All, put to shame, would pale before new colours.
Myrrh’s scent and honey’s taste would be despised,
The swan’s sweet song, the high-wrought melodies
505
Of Phoebus’ lyre would vanish, crushed and silent.
Always there would be something more excellent.
And as we see good things would yield to better,
So turning back, they might give way to worse.
Things might well come successively more filthy
510
And foul to eyes and ears and mouth and nostrils.
Since this does not occur, but things are bound
By limits at each extreme, you must admit
A limit too for matter’s different forms.
The path that leads from fires to icy frosts
515
Also is finite, and the way back is finite.
There are heat and cold and middle temperatures
Between the two which make the range complete.
A finite distance governs their creation,
And two points mark the extremes at either end,
520
Where flame scorches the one and frost the other.
Now I have explained this I will link a fact
Associated with it, and gaining credence from it:
That atoms which are made of similar shapes
Are infinite in number. Since the variety
525
Of shapes is finite, then of necessity
The number of similar shapes must be infinite,
Or else the sum of matter would be finite,
Which I have proved it not to be, and in my verses
Have shown that the universe is held together
From infinity by particles of matter
In endless chain of impacts everywhere.
530
You can see that certain animals are rarer,
And nature grants them less fertility;
Yet other climes and places, distant lands,
Breed many of that kind, to swell the total.
535
Of quadrupeds among the first we see
Snake-handed elephants, where India
Lies safe behind a wall of countless thousands,
Of ivory, a rampart none can pass.
So huge the number is of those great beasts,
Of which we see but very few examples.
540
Let me concede this too: let us suppose
One thing exists alone, unique from birth,
That has no likeness in the whole wide world.
Unless there is an infinite supply
Of matter to conceive it, give it birth,
545
It would have no chance of ever being created,
Still less of growth and further nourishment.
Let us assume also that a finite number
Of atoms generative of one single thing
Exists, dispersed at large through the universe,
Then whence, then where, by what force, in what way
Shall they combine and meet in that vast sea,
That alien turmoil of endless matter?
550
They have no means, I think, of union ever.
Observe, when some great flotilla has been wrecked
How the sea throws up pieces everywhere,
And scatters thwarts, ribs, masts, yards, oars adrift,
And every shore along the coast can see
555
Stern-posts a-floating, warning mortal men
To shun the snares and violence and guile
Of the false faithless sea, and never trust
A calm sea’s smiling treacherous blandishments.
So, if you once decide that certain atoms
560
Are in number finite, through all time they must be tossed
And scattered on conflicting tides of matter,
Unable ever to join and form connections
Or stay connected or to grow by increase.
But plain fact shows that both these things do happen:
565
Things can be born, and being born can grow.
Therefore it is obvious that an infinite number
Of primal atoms exists of every kind
So as to maintain the supply of everything.
Thus never can the motions of destruction
Prevail for ever, entombing life for ever,
570
Nor can the motions of creation and growth
Forever keep intact what they have fashioned.
Thus the war waged between the primal atoms
Is fought from infinity on equal terms.
Now here, now there, the vital powers in things
575
Vanquish and in turn are vanquished. The funeral dirge
Blends with the wailing of the infant child
When first newborn it sees the shores of light.
No night has followed day, no dawn a night,
That has not heard, mixed with those fretful cries,
Laments that march with death and death’s dark obsequies.
580
Now here’s another thing you should keep signed and sealed
And locked and treasured in your memory:
That there is nothing, among all things visible,
That consists of one kind of atom only;
Nothing that is not a mixture of elements.
585
The more qualities and powers a thing possesses,
The more it tells that it has great quantity
Of different atoms and of varied shapes.
Firstly, the earth holds atoms in itself
From which the springs, their coolness welling forth,
590
Continually renew the boundless sea.
It holds those atoms too whence fires are born.
The surface of the earth in many a place
Is set alight and burns, while from deep down
The fires arise that kindle Etna’s fury.
Further, it holds the means to raise bright crops
And joyful orchards for the race of men,
595
And rivers too and leaves and joyful pastures
For creatures of the wild that range the hills.
Therefore the earth and earth alone is named
Great Mother of the Gods, Mother of beasts,
And procreatress of our human frame.
Of her of old the Grecian poets sang
600
Learned in ancient lore; a goddess she
In chariot seated by two lions drawn;
Teaching thereby that the world’s mighty mass
Hangs fast in space, and earth cannot rest on earth.
They yoked wild beasts to show that stubborn children
Must be subdued by parents’ loving care.
605
Upon her head they set a mural crown
Because established safe on chosen heights
Well fortified she bears the weight of cities.
On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Page 10
