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

  This is the work of wind most turbulent.

  Besides, for a space of many miles the sea

  Breaks on the mountain’s roots, sucks back its waves,

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  And from this sea caves spread out underneath

  Right to the deep throat of the mountain, and through these

  It cannot be doubted that wind mixed with water

  Comes in from the open sea and penetrates it

  Deeply within, thus causing an explosion

  And upward blast of flame, throwing out rocks

  And raising everywhere great clouds of sand.

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  For on the topmost summit there are craters,

  The ‘mixing bowls’ as the Sicilians call them,

  To which we give the name of throats or mouths.

  There is also a number of things for which

  It is not enough to state one cause; we must

  Consider many, and one of them is right.

  For example, if from a distance you should see

  The lifeless body of some man, then all

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  The causes of death you might think well to mention,

  So that the one true cause of it be named.

  For though you could not prove that steel or cold

  Had caused his death, or disease perhaps, or poison,

  We know quite well that what has happened to him

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  Is something of this kind. And so we shall

  In many cases argue in this way.

  The Nile, the river of all Egypt, swells

  And flows across the fields in summertime,

  Unique among the rivers of the world.

  It waters Egypt through midsummer heats,

  Either because North winds oppose its mouth

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  In summer, which blowing at that time of year

  Are called Etesian, or ‘seasonal’;

  These blowing against the stream arrest its flow,

  And piling up the water fill its banks

  And hold up its advance; for there’s no doubt

  That these blasts coming from the Pole’s cold star

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  Do blow against the current of the river.

  For the great Nile comes from the land of heat,

  The south, where deep among the race of men

  Burnt black by sun it rises from the noonday.

  It may be also that a great sandbar

  Is heaped against the river’s mouths, confronting the flow

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  When the sea driven strongly by the winds

  Rolls the sand shorewards. In this way the river

  Has less freedom of exit, and the current

  Has a less easy downflow to the sea.

  Or it may be perhaps that heavier rains

  Fall on its source at the season of the year

  When the Etesian breezes of the north

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  Drive all the clouds into those parts together.

  You may be sure that when they have massed together

  Driven out towards the region of the noonday

  There they at length beating against high mountains

  Are crushed and with great violence compressed.

  Or deep within the Ethiopian highlands

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  Perhaps the river grows, when the hot sun

  Traversing all things with his burning rays

  Makes the white snows run down into the plains.

  I shall now explain the nature of the lakes

  And other places that are called Avernian.

  Firstly, the name Avernian is given

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  Because no birds can live within these places.

  For any birds that fly directly above them,

  Their wings’ oars all forgotten and the sails

  Let loose, and neck all limp and lifeless,

  Down they fall headlong to the ground,

  If it so happens that earth lies below,

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  Or into the water, if perchance a lake

  Of Avernus lies outspread. There is near Cumae

  A place like this, where the hills filled with sulphur

  Give off a pungent smoke fed by hot springs.

  There is another within the walls of Athens

  Right at the summit of the citadel

  Hard by the temple of Tritonian Pallas,

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  Where the crows never wing their raucous way,

  Not even when altars smoke with offerings;

  Such care they take to flee, not from the anger

  Of Pallas, as the Greek poets have sung,

  Because of that fateful vigil; but the nature

  Of the place itself produces this effect.

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  In Syria also there’s another place

  Like this, they say, where as soon as quadrupeds

  Have set foot on it, its natural potency

  Makes them to fall down flat, as if suddenly

  Slaughtered in sacrifice to the gods below.

  But all these things have a natural origin

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  And the causes that produce them are quite clear.

  Do not believe that in these regions lie

  The gates of Hell, and that the gods below

  Down to the shores of Acheron draw thence

  The souls of men, as the light-footed stags

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  By the breath of their nostrils are often thought to draw

  The tribes of creeping creatures from their holes.

  How far removed all that is from the truth

  Learn now; for of the true facts I try to speak.

  Firstly I say, as I have often said before,

  That in the earth are atoms of every kind.

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  Many that are in food bring life; and many

  Can strike us with disease and hasten death.

  And I have shown before that substances

  Vary in their power to support life

  In different animals, because of their different natures

  And different textures and atomic shapes.

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  For many noxious elements make their way

  Through the ears, and many through the nostrils

  Slip in that are injurious and prickly,

  And not a few touch tells us to avoid

  And sight to shun, or taste proclaims them bitter.

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  Next it is plain to see how many things

  Are violently hostile to the senses,

  Noisome and dangerous. First certain trees

  Have shade so dangerous that it brings headache

  If you should lie outstretched on the grass beneath.

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  And on the great high hills of Helicon

  There grows a tree whose flower can kill a man

  By the vile nature of its loathsome scent.

  And all these things, for sure, rise from the soil

  Since many seeds of many things Earth holds

  Mixed up in many ways, then separates and delivers them.

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  A lamp at night is extinguished, and its wick

  Sends out a pungent smell. If this assails

  The nostrils of some epileptic, prone

  To fits and foaming, at once it stupefies him.

  The heavy scent of beaver musk brings sleep

  To a woman; she falls back, the dainty work

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  Drops from her tender hands, if she has smelt it

  During the period of her monthly courses.

  And many other things there are that melt

  And loosen languid limbs throughout the body,

  And shake the spirit in its seat within.

  Again, if you stay too long in a hot bath

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  After a heavy meal, how easily

  You collapse on the seat amidst the steaming water!

  How easil
y the heavy fumes of charcoal

  Pass into the brain, unless we have taken water before!

  When burning fever has possessed the limbs,

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  The scent of wine is like a deadly blow.

  You can see that earth itself produces sulphur

  And lumps of asphalt, with its filthy smell.

  And when men follow veins of gold and silver

  Searching with picks the secrets of the earth,

  What smells Scaptensula breathes out from under!

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  What evil noxious fumes come up from gold mines!

  What do they make men look like, and what colours!

  Have you not seen or heard how speedily

  Men die and how their vital forces fail

  Whom the strong power of necessity

  Forces to labour at such work as this?

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  And so we see earth throws out all these vapours

  And breathes them into the open and ready sky.

  In this way also must Avernian places

  Send up to birds a deadly effluence

  Which rises from the earth into the air

  And poisons some part of the space of heaven;

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  At once then, when a bird has winged its way there,

  The unseen poison seizes it and checks it,

  And it falls straight down to the place that sends up vapours.

  And when it has fallen, the power of this same vapour

  Takes from its body what remains of life.

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  The vapour seems in fact to produce at first

  Some form of giddiness, then later when they have fallen

  Into the very fountain of the poison

  They must needs spew out life itself, enveloped

  All round about them by a mass of evil.

  Sometimes also this vapour of Avernus

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  Dispels the air between the birds and earth

  So that an almost empty space is left there.

  And when the birds come flying into this

  At once the thrust of pinions all is lamed

  And voided, and the effort of their wings

  On either side undone. When they can find

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  Nothing for wings to press on or support them

  Nature for sure compels them by their weight

  To drop, and through the almost empty space

  Lying, their souls breathe out through all the body’s pores.

  Water in wells grows colder in the summer

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  Because the earth is rarefied by heat

  And sends out into the air such seeds of heat

  As it itself contains. The more therefore

  The earth is drained of heat, the colder grows

  The water which lies hidden in the earth.

  And when in turn earth pressed by cold congeals

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  And grows together as it were, then by congealing

  It presses out of course into the walls

  Such heat as it may have within itself.

  Near to the shrine of Ammon there’s a spring

  That’s cold by day and hot at night, they say.

  Men wonder at this spring too much. Some think

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  It boils because the sun goes underground,

  When night has shrouded earth in dreadful dark,

  But this is very far removed from truth.

  Though the sun beat on water’s naked body,

  It cannot even heat the surface of it,

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  Hot though its blazing light above may burn;

  How then from under so much solid earth

  Could it boil water, fill it with its heat?

  Why, even through a house’s shuttered walls

  It scarce can pass, for all its burning rays.

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  What is the reason then? No doubt because

  The ground around the spring remains more porous

  Than the rest of the earth, and there are many seeds

  Of fire adjacent to the body of water;

  And when night’s dewy shades have covered the earth,

  At once the soil grows cold all through and contracts;

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  And in this way, as if squeezed in the hand,

  It presses out whatever seeds of fire

  It may possess into the spring, and these

  Make the water warm to the touch and steaming.

  Next when the risen sun has loosened the earth

  And made it porous as the heat penetrates it,

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  Back to their ancient seats the seeds of fire

  Return, and all the warmth that’s in the water

  Goes back into the earth; and for this reason

  The spring is cold during the light of day.

  Besides, the sun’s rays work upon the water,

  And when the light comes with the quivering heat

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  They make it porous, therefore it throws off

  The seeds of fire inside it, as often water

  Throws off the frost contained within itself

  And melts the ice and loosens all its knots.

  There is also a cold spring over which

  If tow be placed it often throws out flame

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  And catches fire at once. Likewise a torch

  Is kindled and shines out amidst its waters

  Wherever as it floats the breezes blow it.

  No doubt because there are present in the water

  A great many atoms of heat, and from deep down

  In the earth itself bodies of fire must rise

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  All through the spring, and breathing out abroad

  Come up into the air; though not so many

  As to heat the water of the spring itself.

  Besides, dispersed as they are, some force impels them

  To burst out suddenly through the water, and then

  Unite and gather together on the surface.

  We may compare the spring at Aradus

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  Which wells up with sweet water through the sea

  And cleaves a passage through the briny waves.

  In many other regions does the sea

  Give thirsty mariners a timely service,

  Gushing sweet waters out amid the salt.

  In this way therefore through that other spring

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  The seeds of fire break out and swarm abroad.

  And when they come together on the tow

  Or cling fast to the body of the torch,

  At once they ignite, since tow and floating torch

  Also contain many seeds of hidden fire.

  And if you bring a newly extinguished wick

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  To a lamp that burns at night, have you not seen

  It catches fire before it touches the flame,

  And that the same thing happens with a torch?

  And many other things blaze up at a distance

  By mere contact with heat, before the fire

  Comes close and swallows them. So this we must

  Believe to happen also in this spring.

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  Now I propose to discuss what law of nature

  Makes iron to be attracted by that stone

  Which the Greeks call magnet, naming it from its home,

  Since it is found within the Magnetes’ land.

  Men find this stone amazing, since it can make

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  A chain of little rings that hang from it.

  Five you may see sometimes or more hanging down

  In succession, swayed by a gentle breeze,

  Where one hangs from another, clinging beneath,

  And each from each learns the stone’s binding power;

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  So deep the penetrating force prevails.

  In matters of this kind you cannot
grasp

  The real explanation unless first

  Much is established; the approach must be

  Extremely lengthy, winding, roundabout.

  So all the more I crave attentive ears and mind.

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  In the first place, from all things that we see

  A constant stream of particles must flow

  And be discharged and scattered through the air

  That strike upon the eyes and provoke vision.

  Odours flow constantly from certain things,

  As cold from rivers, heat from the sun, and spray

  From waves that eat away the strong sea walls.

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  And always different sounds fly through the air.

  And a damp taste of salt enters our mouths

  When we walk by the sea; and when we watch wormwood

  Being mixed with water we sense its bitterness.

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  So does from all things always something flow

  And everywhere into all parts spreads abroad.

  And no delay nor rest is given this flow

  Since we constantly feel it, and all things always

  We can see and smell and hear the sound of them.

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  I now repeat, what my first book made quite clear,

  That the structure of all objects is most porous.

  To understand this fact is relevant

  To many studies, but in none more than this

  On which I now embark, it is most necessary

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  To establish that all objects which we see

  Consist of nothing but atoms mixed with void.

  In the first place, in caves the rocky roofs

  Sweat moisture out and drip with oozing drops.

  Sweat likewise oozes out from all our body,

  The beard grows, and hair on every limb and member.

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  Food is diffused all through the veins, increasing

  And nourishing the body’s furthest parts

  Even to the nails. Cold also and warming heat

  We feel to pass through bronze, we feel them pass

  Through gold and silver, when we hold full cups.

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  And through the stone dividing walls of houses

  Voices fly and smells, and cold, and the heat

  Of fire that even iron penetrates.

  Again, where the great corselet of the heavens

  Embraces us, the seeds of clouds fly in,

  And of disease that comes in from outside.

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  And storms arising from the earth and sky

  Fall duly back into the sky and earth,

  Since nothing exists without a porous texture.

  We add to this that not all particles

  Thrown off from objects have the same effect

  Upon the senses, and not all are suited

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  In the same way to influence other things.

  First, the sun bakes the earth and makes it dry;

  But ice it melts, and snow upon high mountains