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

So that the varying courses of the sun

  And wanderings of the moon, what force and cause

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  Impels them we can better understand,

  And in what way their light dies in eclipse

  And darkness brings o’er unexpecting earth

  As first they blink and then with open eyes

  View all again shining with brilliant light,

  I now return to the childhood of the world

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  And the soft fields of earth, and tell what first

  Into the shores of light they chose to bring

  Newborn, and offer to the fickle winds.

  In the beginning earth gave birth to plants

  After their kind, and ringed with shining green

  The hills and plains. The flowering meadows shone

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  With verdure. Then between the various trees

  A mighty race began, all galloping

  To be the first to shoot up into the sky.

  As feathers, hair, and bristles sprout from bodies

  Of animals four-footed and from birds

  Strong on the wing, so then the newborn earth

  First thrust forth herbs and shrubs, and then created

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  The mortal creatures in their generations,

  Of many kinds from many sources sprung.

  For animals cannot have fallen from the sky

  Nor creatures of the land come from salt pools.

  So it remains that earth does well deserve

  The name of mother which we give to her,

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  Since from the earth all things have been created.

  Even now many animals come up from earth

  Formed by the rains and warm heat of the sun,

  So it’s no wonder if many and larger ones

  Sprang and grew up when earth and air were young.

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  First the winged things, the varied race of birds,

  Were hatched from eggs in springtime, just as now

  In summer cicadas from their smooth round shells

  Crawl out in search of sustenance and life.

  For earth then first gave birth to mortal creatures.

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  In the fields were warmth and moisture everywhere

  And so wherever a suitable place occurred

  Wombs would grow, held by roots into the soil;

  These in maturing time young offspring broke

  Fleeing from moisture now and seeking air;

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  Then nature opened there the pores of earth

  And made it from its veins pour out a juice

  Like milk, as now when a woman has borne a child

  Her breasts fill with sweet milk since all the force

  Of nourishment in her flows into the breasts.

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  Earth furnished food for the children, warmth for their clothes,

  And herbs for bed all covered in soft down.

  The world when young knew neither freezing cold

  Nor scorching heat nor furious blasts of wind,

  For at the same pace all things equally

  Increase and reach their peak of strength together.

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  Wherefore again and again does earth deserve

  The name of mother given to her, for she

  Herself alone created the human race

  And at an appointed time herself produced

  All animals that range the mountains wide

  And fowls of the air in all their varied forms.

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  But since an end must come to all her bearing

  She ceased, like a woman worn out by old age.

  For time doth change the nature of the world;

  One state of things must pass into another;

  Nothing remains the same. All things move on.

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  All things does nature turn, transform, and change.

  One thing decays, grows faint and weak with age;

  Another grows, and is despised no more.

  So therefore time the whole nature of the world

  Changes, and one state of the earth yields place to another,

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  So that what it bore before it cannot bear,

  But can bear what it did not bear before.

  And many monsters in those days did earth

  Try to create, most strange in form and aspect,

  Hermaphrodites, halfway ’twixt man and woman

  Yet being neither, and cut off from both;

  And creatures without feet, or bereft of hands,

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  Some dumb and mouthless, some eyeless and blind,

  Some crippled, all their limbs stuck to their bodies,

  Unable to do anything, go anywhere,

  Nor avoid ill nor take what they might need.

  And other monsters of like kind earth made,

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  In vain, since nature scared away their growth,

  Nor could they reach the longed-for flower of age,

  Nor find food nor be joined in acts of Venus.

  For any things we see must needs combine

  Before by procreation living beings

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  Can hammer out the pattern of their kind.

  First they need food, then the life-bringing seed

  From limbs lying limp must find a way to flow;

  And male and female cannot join together

  Unless they have means to make their shared delights.

  In those days many breeds of animals

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  Must have died out, unable by procreation

  To hammer out a chain of progeny.

  All those that you see drawing the breath of life

  Either by guile or courage or by speed

  From the beginning of time have been preserved.

  And there are many which their usefulness

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  Has commended to us, entrusted to our protection.

  Courage has kept the savage lion safe,

  Cunning the fox and speed the fleeing stag.

  The dog, our faithful watchman of the night,

  And beasts of burden of all kinds, and sheep

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  With woolly fleeces also, and horned cattle,

  All these have man’s protection, Memmius.

  Gladly they fled the beasts of prey and sought

  Peace and good victuals without labour won

  Which we supply them in reward for service.

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  But those on which nature no such qualities

  Bestowed, no means to fend for themselves, no use

  That might persuade us to give them sustenance

  To live in safety under our protection,

  All these to prey or profit victims lay,

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  Bound by the shackles of their destiny

  Till nature brought destruction to their kind.

  Centaurs never existed, nor at any time

  Can there be creatures of a double nature

  Composed of alien limbs and twofold body

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  Such that the two parts live in balance together.

  And here is proof the dullest brain can grasp.

  First, the horse reaches its vigorous prime

  At about three years; by no means so the boy.

  For even at that age oft he will in sleep

  Seek the soft comfort of his mother’s breasts.

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  And later, when the horse’s strong limbs fail

  Wearied by age, and faint as life recedes,

  Then long-delayed the flower of boyhood comes,

  And youth begins, and clothes his cheeks with down.

  Think not therefore that Centaurs can be formed

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  From seed of man and horse that bears the rider,

  Or Scyllas, half-fish, girt with rabid dogs,

  And all the other
monsters of that kind

  Composed of members incompatible;

  Which neither reach their flower and prime of life

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  Together, nor fail as old age weakens them,

  Nor burn with Venus equally, nor join

  In the same habits, nor the same pleasures feel.

  In fact you may see that often bearded goats

  Grow fat on hemlock which to man is poison.

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  Again, since fire burns lions’ tawny bodies

  No less than all things made of flesh and blood,

  How could the Chimaera, three bodies joined in one,

  Lion in front, serpent behind, goat in the middle,

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  Belch from its body blasts of burning flame?

  Wherefore, if anyone pretends that beasts

  Of such a kind could have been brought to birth

  And made, when earth was young and heaven new,

  Relying on that empty concept ‘new’,

  Let him continue with his nonsense,

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  Let him believe that rivers ran with gold,

  That trees bore jewels for blossom, that a man

  Was born with such a mighty stretch of limbs

  That he could set his stride across the sea

  And turn the whole sky round him with his hands.

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  Though many seeds of things were in the soil

  At the time when earth first brought forth animals,

  That is no proof that beasts of compound form

  Could have been made, from alien bodies joined.

  Things which now spring abundantly from earth,

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  All breeds of plants, and crops, and smiling woodlands

  Cannot be interbred and woven together,

  But each proceeds on its appointed way

  And by fixed laws of nature stays distinct.

  And in those days the men that roamed the earth

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  Were hardier by far, as was most fitting,

  Since hard earth made them. Larger bones they had

  And solider, with stronger sinews fitted;

  And neither heat nor cold could readily

  Subdue them, nor strange food, nor ills of body.

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  Through many lustres of the circling sun

  They led their lives, wide-wandering like wild beasts.

  No sturdy arm then steered the curving plough,

  No one knew how to work the fields with iron,

  Or to set cuttings into the soil, or use

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  The hook to cut dead branches from the trees.

  What sun and rain had given them, what earth

  Created for them of her own accord,

  That was a gift enough to bring content.

  Mostly amid the oaks they stayed their hunger

  With acorns; and the berries which now you see

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  In winter on arbutus ripening red

  Earth then bore larger and more plentiful.

  And many other foods young flowering earth

  Then bore for them, hard foods, but food enough

  To meet poor mortals’ needs.

  Rivers and springs called them to quench their thirst,

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  As now in the high hills the waterfalls

  Call from afar the thirsting tribes of beasts.

  They made their homes amid the woodland realms

  Of nymphs, known to them in their wanderings,

  Where well they knew the living waters still

  Washed the wet rocks in their abundant flow,

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  Wet rocks, and dripped down o’er the verdant moss,

  Or bubbling up broke out across the plain.

  Nor yet they knew how to work things with fire

  Nor skins for clothes, the spoils of animals,

  But woods and forests and the mountain caves

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  They made their homes, and hid their uncouth limbs

  Beneath the bushes, when they must needs

  Seek shelter from the lash of wind and rain.

  They could not look to any common good

  Nor guide their lives by custom or by law.

  What nature gave a man for prey, he kept,

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  Taught that his own will gave him strength to live.

  And Venus coupled lovers in the woods;

  Mutual desire attracted them, or else

  The strength of man and overpowering lust

  Forced her, or else he won her by a bribe

  Of acorns or arbutus or choice pears.

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  And with their marvellous powers of hand and foot

  They hunted the beasts that roamed the woods and plains,

  With stones for missiles or with heavy clubs.

  Many they killed; from few they hid themselves.

  When night came o’er them, naked on the ground

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  Like bristling hogs they laid their woodland limbs

  And made a coverlet of leaves and branches.

  Nor, wandering frightened in the shades of night,

  Sought they with wailing loud the sun and day,

  But buried in sleep they waited quietly

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  Until the sun with rosy torch again

  Spread his new morning light across the sky.

  For since from childhood always to their sight

  Darkness and light returned alternately,

  This brought no wonder to their minds, no cause

  To tremble lest the earth be held in night

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  Perpetual, the sun’s bright light withdrawn.

  Much more they worried that the hours of rest

  Brought danger from marauding animals.

  Driven from home, they fled their rocky shelters

  At the approach of foaming boar, or lion,

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  And at dead of night they’ld yield their leaf-strewn beds

  In terror to their savage visitors.

  Nor did poor mortals much more then than now

  Leave the sweet light of life with sad lament.

  More often then one single man might die

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  Caught by wild beasts and torn, devoured alive,

  Filling the woods and hills with screams, seeing

  His living flesh buried in a living tomb.

  And those whom flight had saved with mangled bodies

  Pressed trembling palms over their ghastly sores,

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  Calling on Orcus with heart-rending cries

  Till cruel torments put an end to life,

  With none to help, not knowing what wounds need.

  But many thousands on the battlefield

  One day did not destroy, nor did rough seas

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  Dash ships and men together on the rocks.

  Then all in vain, all useless, all for nothing,

  The sea would rise and roar and then again

  Lightly lay down her empty threats. No one

  By quiet seas’ deceitful blandishments

  And laughing waves was e’er enticed to ruin.

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  The wicked art of seamanship lay hid.

  Then lack of food brought fainting limbs to death,

  Today, by contrast, plenty ’tis that kills.

  Then men unknowing poured poison for themselves,

  Today with greater skill they poison others.

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  And then, when huts and skins and fire they had got themselves,

  And woman joined with man had made a home,

  And laws of married life were known to them,

  And they saw loving children born to them,

  Then first the human race began to soften.

  Through fire their chilly limbs became less able

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  To bear the cold with sky for covering;
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  Venus sapped their strength; and children easily

  With winning smiles could break their parents’ will.

  And neighbours then began to join in friendship,

  Wishing to do no ill nor suffer harm,

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  And sought protection for their womankind

  And children, with stammering voice and gesture showing

  That pity for the weak is right for all.

  Not everywhere could harmony be born,

  But the most part kept faithful to their bonds,

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  Or else the human race had quite been lost

  In the old days, nor could its progeny

  Have passed till now through all the generations.

  As for the various sounds of speech, ’twas nature

  That made men utter them, and convenience

  Found names for things, rather as we see children

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  Driven to make gestures by their lack of speech

  And point with finger at things in front of them.

  For every creature feels the purposes

  For which he can use the power that lies in him.

  Before the budding horns sprout from its forehead

  A calf will use them, butting angrily,

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  And cubs of panthers and lions fight and scratch

  With feet and claws, and use their mouths to bite

  When teeth and claws have scarcely yet been formed.

  And birds of every kind we see place trust

  In their wings and seek unsteady aid from them.

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  Therefore to think that someone then allotted

  Names to things, and that men learnt words from him,

  Is folly. Why should we think that this man had the power

  To mark all things with voices and to utter

  The various sounds of speech, and not believe

  That others had the power to do the same?

  Besides, if others had not used these sounds,

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  Whence was the concept of this usefulness

  Implanted in him, whence first came the power

  To picture in his mind what he should do?

  And one man could not compel many and force them

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  That they should wish to learn the names of things.

  One cannot easily in any way

  Teach deaf men what to do. And to have sounds

  Unheard before all meaningless in vain

  Dinned into their ears, that they could not endure.

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  Lastly, what is so very wonderful

  If the human race, with vigorous voice and tongue

  Endowed, should mark things out with voices

  Differing according to their different feelings?

  Dumb cattle and wild beasts of every kind

  Make noises quite distinct and different

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  When they are gripped by fear or pain, or joy

  Wells up within them. And the evidence

  For this lies in plain facts well known to all.