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

  Angry Molossian hounds, when first they draw back

  Their flabby jowls and bare their teeth and growl

  1065

  With rage suppressed, make sounds quite different

  From when they bark and fill the place with din.

  And when they lick their pups with loving tongue

  And toss them with their paws and nibbling them

  Pretend to make sweet tender mouthfuls of them,

  Far different then the playful yelps they make

  1070

  From when they howl abandoned in the house

  Or whimper cringing from the master’s whip.

  In neighing too, there is a difference

  When a young stallion in the prime of life

  Pricked by the spurs of winged love runs wild

  1075

  Among the mares, and from his flaring nostrils

  Snorts out his challenge to arms, and when he’s weak

  At other times and neighs with quaking limbs.

  Lastly, among the different types of birds,

  Ospreys, sea hawks, and gulls amid the waves

  Seeking their life and living from the sea,

  1080

  At other times make very different cries

  From when they are fishing and struggling with their prey.

  And some birds change their voices with the weather,

  As ancient ravens do and flocks of rooks,

  Or so they say, when they cry out for rain

  To bring them water, or summon wind and storm.

  1085

  Therefore if animals are caused by different feelings,

  Dumb though they be, to utter different sounds,

  So much the more and with compelling reason

  Must we suppose that men could in those days

  Mark different things by different sounds of speech.

  1090

  Now here’s an answer to another question.

  Fire was first brought to earth for mortal men

  By lightning. From this every flame has spread.

  For fire from on high fills many things, and makes them

  1095

  Blaze, when a stroke from heaven has kindled them.

  But also when a branching tree struck by the wind

  Swaying and surging leans against another,

  Fire is pressed out by the strong force of friction

  Until sometimes the gleam of flame springs forth

  As bough rubs bough and trunk rubs trunk together.

  1100

  Fire may have come to men from either cause.

  Then, to cook food and soften it by heat

  It was the sun that taught them, since they saw,

  Roaming the fields, how many things were softened

  By its strong rays and vanquished by the heat.

  And as the days passed, more and more they learnt

  1105

  To change their former life and way of living

  By new inventions and by fire, well taught

  By those pre-eminent in heart and mind.

  Kings founded cities and built citadels,

  Safeguard and refuge of their royal power.

  Cattle and lands they divided, giving to each

  1110

  According to his talent and strength and beauty.

  For beauty then was prized and strength had power.

  Next property was established and gold was found,

  And all the honour given to strength and beauty

  Was quickly lost, for ’tis the general rule,

  1115

  Where riches call, the strong and handsome follow.

  But if a man should guide his life by wisdom,

  His greatest riches are a frugal life

  And quiet mind. In that little there’s no poverty.

  But men instead sought after fame and power

  1120

  To make a firm foundation for their fortune

  And live in wealth a life of quiet content—

  In vain. Since as they strove to reach the heights

  They made a lonely path beset with danger,

  And from the summit like a thunderbolt,

  1125

  Envy struck them down to a Hell of shame.

  For envy as a rule like thunderbolts

  Is wont to strike the summits, scorching all

  That stand above the common range of things.

  Far better therefore is it in obedience

  To live a life of quiet than lust for kingdom

  1130

  And fell desire to hold the world subdued.

  So let them sweat blood, wearied by fruitless toil,

  Struggling along ambition’s narrow path.

  Since all their wisdom comes from others’ lips

  And they strive for things relying on what they hear

  From others, and ignore the evidence

  Of their own senses, it profits no more now,

  Nor ever will do, than it did before.

  1135

  Therefore the kings were killed, and in the dust

  The ancient majesty of thrones and sceptres proud

  Lay overthrown. The sovereign head’s great crown

  Bloodstained beneath the rabble’s trampling feet,

  All honour lost, bewailed its high estate.

  For men do eagerly tread underfoot

  What they have feared too much in former time.

  1140

  So things fell back to utter dregs and turmoil

  As every man sought power for himself.

  Then some men taught them to appoint magistrates

  With rights established and the rule of law;

  For mankind worn by a life of violence

  1145

  And weakened by its feuds, was ready now

  To yield to rules of law and binding statutes.

  For men in anger would avenge themselves

  More savagely than just laws now would suffer;

  And for this reason a life of violence

  Was viewed with utter weariness and loathing.

  1150

  Hence comes the fear of punishment that stains

  The prizes of life. For violence and wrong

  Enmesh a man and oft recoil upon him;

  Nor easily with calm and quiet mind

  Can he abide who violates the bonds

  Of peace established for the common good.

  1155

  Though he should keep it hid from gods and men,

  Yet he must wonder how his sin can stay

  Secret for ever, seeing that many men

  Talking in dreams or raving in disease

  Are said to have betrayed themselves, and brought

  Long-hidden crimes into the light of day.

  1160

  Let us now think why reverence for gods

  Has spread through mighty nations and filled cities

  With altars, and established solemn rites,

  Rites that now flourish in great states and places;

  Whence even now implanted in men’s hearts

  Comes that dread awe which over all the world

  1165

  Raises new temples to the gods, and summons

  The crowds that throng them on great festal days.

  These matters are quite easy to explain.

  The truth is then that in those early days

  Men in their waking hours and still more in sleep

  Had visions of gods, conspicuous in beauty,

  1170

  Of form surpassing and of wondrous stature.

  These they endowed with senses, since they seemed

  To move their limbs, and speak proud words, befitting

  Their splendid beauty and their mighty strength;

  And they gave them eternal life, because always

  1175

  The figures were renewed with form unchanged,

  And they thought indeed that figures of such strength

>   Could hardly be by any force subdued.

  Therefore they thought them past all measure blest

  Since none was troubled by the fear of death,

  1180

  And because also in their dreams they saw

  These wondrous beings do many miracles

  All without labour wrought or weariness.

  And men observed the order of the heavens

  And seasons of the year on their fixed course

  Turning, and could not tell the reason why.

  1185

  Therefore for refuge everything they gave

  To gods, their nod controlling everything.

  And in the sky they placed the gods’ abodes

  Since night and moon are seen to cross the sky,

  Moon, day, and night, and the stern signs of night,

  1190

  Night-wandering torches of heaven, flying flames,

  Clouds, sun, rain, snow, winds, lightnings, hail,

  And thunderclaps and mighty murmurings.

  Ah, wretched race of men, that to the gods

  Ascribe such things, and add fierce bursts of wrath!

  1195

  What groans they made for themselves, what wounds for us,

  What tears for generations still to come!

  It is no piety to show oneself

  Bowing with veiled head towards a stone,

  Nor to be seen frequenting every altar,

  Nor to fall prostrate on the ground, with palms outspread

  1200

  Before the shrines of gods, nor deluge altars

  With streams of blood from beasts, vow piled on vow.

  True piety is for a man to have the power

  To contemplate the world with quiet mind.

  When we look upward to the heavenly realms

  Of the great firmament, and see the sky

  Bedecked with sparkling stars, and when we think

  1205

  Of the sure courses of the sun and moon,

  Then in our hearts already worn with woes

  A new anxiety lifts up its head,

  Whether some power beyond all reckoning

  Hangs over us perchance, of gods, that make

  The bright stars in their varied courses move.

  1210

  The doubting mind is racked by ignorance

  Whether the world had a beginning, whether

  Some final end is set for it, when all

  The mighty bastions of the world no longer

  Can bear the forces of its restless motion,

  Or whether by power divine forever sure

  1215

  They glide eternal through the course of ages

  And scorn the power of time immeasurable.

  And what man does not quail with fear of gods,

  With shrinking mind and flesh creeping with terror,

  When the parched earth struck by a thunderbolt

  1220

  Trembles, and thunder rolls across the sky.

  Nations and people tremble and proud kings

  Shiver, limbs shaken by the fear of gods,

  Lest for some foul deed or contemptuous word

  The solemn hour of punishment be near.

  1225

  And when at sea a mighty wind and storm

  Sweeps o’er the waters some high admiral

  With all his legions and his elephants,

  What vows he makes to gods to send him peace,

  What prayers for gentle winds and favouring breezes!

  1230

  In vain, since oft the violent hurricane

  Drives him no less upon the reefs of death.

  So true it is that by some hidden power

  Human affairs are ground to dust, a power

  That seems to trample on the splendid rods

  And cruel axes, and hold them in derision.

  1235

  Then, when the whole world reels beneath their feet,

  And cities shaken fall or threaten ruin,

  What wonder if mortal men despise themselves

  And all the great and wondrous powers relinquish

  To gods, as governors of all the world?

  1240

  I now discuss how metals first were found.

  Copper and iron and gold and heavy silver

  And serviceable lead, these were discovered

  When fire upon high mountains had consumed

  Vast forests, or a bolt from heaven had struck,

  Or because tribesmen in some forest war

  1245

  Had fired the woods to scare their enemies,

  Or because seeing the bounty of the soil

  They wished to clear fat fields for pasturage,

  Or else they wished to kill the forest beasts

  And profit by their spoils, for pits and fire

  Were found of use for hunting before they learnt

  1250

  To fence a wood with nets and drive with dogs.

  Whatever the reason was that flaming heat

  With hideous roar burnt all the forest down

  Deep to its roots and baked the earth with fire,

  Through melted veins into hollows in the earth

  1255

  Would trickle a stream of silver and of gold

  And copper and lead, collecting; and when they saw

  These hardened and glowing with colour on the earth

  They would pick them up, charmed by their bright smooth beauty,

  And see that each was formed into a shape

  1260

  Printed like that of the hollow in the earth.

  Then the thought came to them that these things melted

  By heat could run into any shape or form,

  And into sharpest point or thinnest edge

  Be drawn by hammering, and so make tools

  1265

  To cut down woods and rough-hew timber, and plane

  Smooth planks, and bore and pierce and perforate.

  And they tried to make these things of gold and silver

  At first, no less than of bronze so tough and strong—

  1270

  In vain, since all their strength gave way defeated,

  Unable to bear so well the heavy labour.

  Then bronze was valued higher and gold sank low,

  Thought useless since its edge was quickly blunted.

  Now bronze lies low in the esteem of men,

  And gold has mounted to the highest honour.

  1275

  So with the rolling years times change for things.

  What once was valued has no honour now.

  Next follows something else, no longer scorned,

  Which day by day more keenly sought once found

  Is crowned with praise and honoured beyond belief.

  1280

  Now it is easy for you, Memmius,

  To understand by yourself the way in which

  The properties of iron were discovered.

  The ancient weapons were hands and nails and teeth

  And stones and branches torn from trees

  And flame and fire, as soon as they were known.

  1285

  Later the power of iron and bronze was found.

  The use of bronze was known before that of iron,

  Being worked more easily and more plentiful.

  With bronze they tilled the soil, with bronze they roused

  The waves of war, and sowed the withering seeds

  1290

  Of wounds, and made a spoil of flocks and fields.

  For all things naked and unarmed must yield,

  An easy prey, to men equipped with arms.

  Then gradually the sword of iron came forth

  And, the bronze sickle’s curving blade despised,

  With iron they began to cleave the earth.

  1295

  And in the dark uncertain fates of war

  Things were made equal on the battlefield.

  To mount a h
orse in arms, controlling it

  With reins and bit, the right hand freed for action,

  Came earlier than in a two-horsed chariot

  To chance the hazards of war; and the two-horsed car

  Came earlier than harnessing two pairs,

  1300

  And before armed men mounted scythed chariots.

  Next elephants with turrets on their backs,

  Snake-handed hideous beasts, the men of Carthage

  Taught to endure the dreadful wounds of war

  And all the mighty hosts of Mars embroil.

  Thus Discord bred one foul thing after another

  1305

  To bring new terror to the battlefield

  And day by day increased the horrors of war.

  Bulls too were pressed into the service of war,

  And they tried to send boars against the enemy,

  And sometimes they sent lions in front of them

  1310

  With trainers armed and cruel keepers, skilled

  To master them and hold them on the leash—

  In vain, since heated by the general slaughter

  Raging uncontrolled they threw the squadrons into turmoil

  Tossing their dread manes everywhere. The riders

  1315

  Quite lacked the power to calm the terrified horses

  And rear them round against the enemy.

  The lionesses hurled their frenzied bodies

  In all directions, leaping at men’s throats,

  Or snatching unsuspecting victims from behind,

  1320

  Dragging them mortally wounded to the ground

  Held fast by their strong teeth and curving claws.

  Bulls tossed their masters and trod them underfoot

  And gored the flanks and bellies of the horses,

  Striking upwards with their horns, and in their fury

  1325

  Tore up the earth. And boars with their strong tusks

  Savaged their allies, and bathing in their own blood

  The weapons broken in their reeking bodies

  To horse and foot alike dealt out destruction.

  Horses would shy and swerve to avoid the tusks’

  Fierce onset, or rear up and paw the air—

  1330

  In vain, since they were hamstrung and collapsed

  And fell, and spread their bodies on the ground.

  Even the animals that seemed tame at home

  They saw boil over in the heat of action—

  1335

  Wounds, shouting, flight and terror and tumult—

  And none of them would answer the recall.

  For all the different wild beasts fled away,

  As elephants often at the present time

  Will run amok when wounded by the steel,

  After they have turned their fury on their keepers.

  1340

  If in fact they did do this. For I

  Can scarce believe that in their minds no vision

  Or apprehension came that this would happen