Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  Divided up, since off from one another

  New voices are engendered, when one voice

  Hath once leapt forth, outstarting into many —

  As oft a spark of fire is wont to sprinkle

  Itself into its several fires. And so,

  Voices do fill those places hid behind,

  Which all are in a hubbub round about,

  Astir with sound. But idol-films do tend,

  As once sent forth, in straight directions all;

  Wherefore one can inside a wall see naught,

  Yet catch the voices from beyond the same.

  Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel,

  Present more problems for more work of thought.

  Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth,

  When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food, —

  As any one perchance begins to squeeze

  With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked.

  Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about

  Along the pores and intertwined paths

  Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth

  The bodies of the oozy flavour, then

  Delightfully they touch, delightfully

  They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling

  Enclosures of the tongue. And contrariwise,

  They sting and pain the sense with their assault,

  According as with roughness they’re supplied.

  Next, only up to palate is the pleasure

  Coming from flavour; for in truth when down

  ‘Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is,

  Whilst into all the frame it spreads around;

  Nor aught it matters with what food is fed

  The body, if only what thou take thou canst

  Distribute well digested to the frame

  And keep the stomach in a moist career.

  Now, how it is we see some food for some,

  Others for others....

  I will unfold, or wherefore what to some

  Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others

  Can seem delectable to eat, — why here

  So great the distance and the difference is

  That what is food to one to some becomes

  Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is

  Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste

  And end itself by gnawing up its coil.

  Again, fierce poison is the hellebore

  To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails.

  That thou mayst know by what devices this

  Is brought about, in chief thou must recall

  What we have said before, that seeds are kept

  Commixed in things in divers modes. Again,

  As all the breathing creatures which take food

  Are outwardly unlike, and outer cut

  And contour of their members bounds them round,

  Each differing kind by kind, they thus consist

  Of seeds of varying shape. And furthermore,

  Since seeds do differ, divers too must be

  The interstices and paths (which we do call

  The apertures) in all the members, even

  In mouth and palate too. Thus some must be

  More small or yet more large, three-cornered some

  And others squared, and many others round,

  And certain of them many-angled too

  In many modes. For, as the combination

  And motion of their divers shapes demand,

  The shapes of apertures must be diverse

  And paths must vary according to their walls

  That bound them. Hence when what is sweet to some,

  Becomes to others bitter, for him to whom

  ’Tis sweet, the smoothest particles must needs

  Have entered caressingly the palate’s pores.

  And, contrariwise, with those to whom that sweet

  Is sour within the mouth, beyond a doubt

  The rough and barbed particles have got

  Into the narrows of the apertures.

  Now easy it is from these affairs to know

  Whatever...

  Indeed, where one from o’er-abundant bile

  Is stricken with fever, or in other wise

  Feels the roused violence of some malady,

  There the whole frame is now upset, and there

  All the positions of the seeds are changed, —

  So that the bodies which before were fit

  To cause the savour, now are fit no more,

  And now more apt are others which be able

  To get within the pores and gender sour.

  Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey —

  What oft we’ve proved above to thee before.

  Now come, and I will indicate what wise

  Impact of odour on the nostrils touches.

  And first, ’tis needful there be many things

  From whence the streaming flow of varied odours

  May roll along, and we’re constrained to think

  They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about

  Impartially. But for some breathing creatures

  One odour is more apt, to others another —

  Because of differing forms of seeds and pores.

  Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees

  Are led by odour of honey, vultures too

  By carcasses. Again, the forward power

  Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on

  Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast

  Hath hastened its career; and the white goose,

  The saviour of the Roman citadel,

  Forescents afar the odour of mankind.

  Thus, diversly to divers ones is given

  Peculiar smell that leadeth each along

  To his own food or makes him start aback

  From loathsome poison, and in this wise are

  The generations of the wild preserved.

  Yet is this pungence not alone in odours

  Or in the class of flavours; but, likewise,

  The look of things and hues agree not all

  So well with senses unto all, but that

  Some unto some will be, to gaze upon,

  More keen and painful. Lo, the raving lions,

  They dare not face and gaze upon the cock

  Who’s wont with wings to flap away the night

  From off the stage, and call the beaming morn

  With clarion voice — and lions straightway thus

  Bethink themselves of flight, because, ye see,

  Within the body of the cocks there be

  Some certain seeds, which, into lions’ eyes

  Injected, bore into the pupils deep

  And yield such piercing pain they can’t hold out

  Against the cocks, however fierce they be —

  Whilst yet these seeds can’t hurt our gaze the least,

  Either because they do not penetrate,

  Or since they have free exit from the eyes

  As soon as penetrating, so that thus

  They cannot hurt our eyes in any part

  By there remaining.

  To speak once more of odour;

  Whatever assail the nostrils, some can travel

  A longer way than others. None of them,

  However, ‘s borne so far as sound or voice —

  While I omit all mention of such things

  As hit the eyesight and assail the vision.

  For slowly on a wandering course it comes

  And perishes sooner, by degrees absorbed

  Easily into all the winds of air; —

  And first, because from deep inside the thing

  It is discharged with labour (for the fact

  That every object, when ’tis shivered, ground,

  Or crumbled by the fire, will smell the stronger

  Is sign that odours flow and part away

  From inner regions of the things).
And next,

  Thou mayest see that odour is create

  Of larger primal germs than voice, because

  It enters not through stony walls, wherethrough

  Unfailingly the voice and sound are borne;

  Wherefore, besides, thou wilt observe ’tis not

  So easy to trace out in whatso place

  The smelling object is. For, dallying on

  Along the winds, the particles cool off,

  And then the scurrying messengers of things

  Arrive our senses, when no longer hot.

  So dogs oft wander astray, and hunt the scent.

  Now mark, and hear what objects move the mind,

  And learn, in few, whence unto intellect

  Do come what come. And first I tell thee this:

  That many images of objects rove

  In many modes to every region round —

  So thin that easily the one with other,

  When once they meet, uniteth in mid-air,

  Like gossamer or gold-leaf. For, indeed,

  Far thinner are they in their fabric than

  Those images which take a hold on eyes

  And smite the vision, since through body’s pores

  They penetrate, and inwardly stir up

  The subtle nature of mind and smite the sense.

  Thus, Centaurs and the limbs of Scyllas, thus

  The Cerberus-visages of dogs we see,

  And images of people gone before —

  Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago;

  Because the images of every kind

  Are everywhere about us borne — in part

  Those which are gendered in the very air

  Of own accord, in part those others which

  From divers things do part away, and those

  Which are compounded, made from out their shapes.

  For soothly from no living Centaur is

  That phantom gendered, since no breed of beast

  Like him was ever; but, when images

  Of horse and man by chance have come together,

  They easily cohere, as aforesaid,

  At once, through subtle nature and fabric thin.

  In the same fashion others of this ilk

  Created are. And when they’re quickly borne

  In their exceeding lightness, easily

  (As earlier I showed) one subtle image,

  Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind,

  Itself so subtle and so strangely quick.

  That these things come to pass as I record,

  From this thou easily canst understand:

  So far as one is unto other like,

  Seeing with mind as well as with the eyes

  Must come to pass in fashion not unlike.

  Well, now, since I have shown that I perceive

  Haply a lion through those idol-films

  Such as assail my eyes, ’tis thine to know

  Also the mind is in like manner moved,

  And sees, nor more nor less than eyes do see

  (Except that it perceives more subtle films)

  The lion and aught else through idol-films.

  And when the sleep has overset our frame,

  The mind’s intelligence is now awake,

  Still for no other reason, save that these —

  The self-same films as when we are awake —

  Assail our minds, to such degree indeed

  That we do seem to see for sure the man

  Whom, void of life, now death and earth have gained

  Dominion over. And nature forces this

  To come to pass because the body’s senses

  Are resting, thwarted through the members all,

  Unable now to conquer false with true;

  And memory lies prone and languishes

  In slumber, nor protests that he, the man

  Whom the mind feigns to see alive, long since

  Hath been the gain of death and dissolution.

  And further, ’tis no marvel idols move

  And toss their arms and other members round

  In rhythmic time — and often in men’s sleeps

  It haps an image this is seen to do;

  In sooth, when perishes the former image,

  And other is gendered of another pose,

  That former seemeth to have changed its gestures.

  Of course the change must be conceived as speedy;

  So great the swiftness and so great the store

  Of idol-things, and (in an instant brief

  As mind can mark) so great, again, the store

  Of separate idol-parts to bring supplies.

  It happens also that there is supplied

  Sometimes an image not of kind the same;

  But what before was woman, now at hand

  Is seen to stand there, altered into male;

  Or other visage, other age succeeds;

  But slumber and oblivion take care

  That we shall feel no wonder at the thing.

  And much in these affairs demands inquiry,

  And much, illumination — if we crave

  With plainness to exhibit facts. And first,

  Why doth the mind of one to whom the whim

  To think has come behold forthwith that thing?

  Or do the idols watch upon our will,

  And doth an image unto us occur,

  Directly we desire — if heart prefer

  The sea, the land, or after all the sky?

  Assemblies of the citizens, parades,

  Banquets, and battles, these and all doth she,

  Nature, create and furnish at our word? —

  Maugre the fact that in same place and spot

  Another’s mind is meditating things

  All far unlike. And what, again, of this:

  When we in sleep behold the idols step,

  In measure, forward, moving supple limbs,

  Whilst forth they put each supple arm in turn

  With speedy motion, and with eyeing heads

  Repeat the movement, as the foot keeps time?

  Forsooth, the idols they are steeped in art,

  And wander to and fro well taught indeed, —

  Thus to be able in the time of night

  To make such games! Or will the truth be this:

  Because in one least moment that we mark —

  That is, the uttering of a single sound —

  There lurk yet many moments, which the reason

  Discovers to exist, therefore it comes

  That, in a moment how so brief ye will,

  The divers idols are hard by, and ready

  Each in its place diverse? So great the swiftness,

  So great, again, the store of idol-things,

  And so, when perishes the former image,

  And other is gendered of another pose,

  The former seemeth to have changed its gestures.

  And since they be so tenuous, mind can mark

  Sharply alone the ones it strains to see;

  And thus the rest do perish one and all,

  Save those for which the mind prepares itself.

  Further, it doth prepare itself indeed,

  And hopes to see what follows after each —

  Hence this result. For hast thou not observed

  How eyes, essaying to perceive the fine,

  Will strain in preparation, otherwise

  Unable sharply to perceive at all?

  Yet know thou canst that, even in objects plain,

  If thou attendest not, ’tis just the same

  As if ‘twere all the time removed and far.

  What marvel, then, that mind doth lose the rest,

  Save those to which ‘thas given up itself?

  So ’tis that we conjecture from small signs

  Things wide and weighty, and involve ourselves

  In snarls of self-deceit.

  SOME VITAL FUNCTIONS

  In these affairs

  We crave
that thou wilt passionately flee

  The one offence, and anxiously wilt shun

  The error of presuming the clear lights

  Of eyes created were that we might see;

  Or thighs and knees, aprop upon the feet,

  Thuswise can bended be, that we might step

  With goodly strides ahead; or forearms joined

  Unto the sturdy uppers, or serving hands

  On either side were given, that we might do

  Life’s own demands. All such interpretation

  Is aft-for-fore with inverse reasoning,

  Since naught is born in body so that we

  May use the same, but birth engenders use:

  No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born,

  No speaking ere the tongue created was;

  But origin of tongue came long before

  Discourse of words, and ears created were

  Much earlier than any sound was heard;

  And all the members, so meseems, were there

  Before they got their use: and therefore, they

  Could not be gendered for the sake of use.

  But contrariwise, contending in the fight

  With hand to hand, and rending of the joints,

  And fouling of the limbs with gore, was there,

  O long before the gleaming spears ere flew;

  And nature prompted man to shun a wound,

  Before the left arm by the aid of art

  Opposed the shielding targe. And, verily,

  Yielding the weary body to repose,

  Far ancienter than cushions of soft beds,

  And quenching thirst is earlier than cups.

  These objects, therefore, which for use and life

  Have been devised, can be conceived as found

  For sake of using. But apart from such

  Are all which first were born and afterwards

  Gave knowledge of their own utility —

  Chief in which sort we note the senses, limbs:

  Wherefore, again, ’tis quite beyond thy power

  To hold that these could thus have been create

  For office of utility.

  Likewise,

  ’Tis nothing strange that all the breathing creatures

  Seek, even by nature of their frame, their food.

  Yes, since I’ve taught thee that from off the things

  Stream and depart innumerable bodies

  In modes innumerable too; but most

  Must be the bodies streaming from the living —

  Which bodies, vexed by motion evermore,

  Are through the mouth exhaled innumerable,

  When weary creatures pant, or through the sweat

  Squeezed forth innumerable from deep within.

  Thus body rarefies, so undermined