Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius
Page 99
nec porro poterunt ipsi reprehendere sese,
aequa fides quoniam debebit semper haberi.
proinde quod in quoquest his visum tempore, verumst.
500 Et si non poterit ratio dissolvere causam,
cur ea quae fuerint iuxtim quadrata, procul sint
visa rutunda, tamen praestat rationis egentem
reddere mendose causas utriusque figurae,
quam manibus manifesta suis emittere quoquam
505 et violare fidem primam et convellere tota
fundamenta quibus nixatur vita salusque.
non modo enim ratio ruat omnis, vita quoque ipsa
concidat extemplo, nisi credere sensibus ausis
praecipitisque locos vitare et cetera quae sint
510 in genere hoc fugienda, sequi contraria quae sint.
illa tibi est igitur verborum copia cassa
omnis, quae contra sensus instructa paratast.
Denique ut in fabrica, si pravast regula prima,
normaque si fallax rectis regionibus exit,
515 et libella aliqua si ex parti claudicat hilum,
omnia mendose fieri atque obstipa necessu est
prava cubantia prona supina atque absona tecta,
iam ruere ut quaedam videantur velle, ruantque
prodita iudiciis fallacibus omnia primis,
520 sic igitur ratio tibi rerum prava necessest
falsaque sit, falsis quae cumque ab sensibus ortast.
Nunc alii sensus quo pacto quisque suam rem
sentiat, haud quaquam ratio scruposa relicta est.
Principio auditur sonus et vox omnis, in auris
525 insinuata suo pepulere ubi corpore sensum.
corpoream quoque enim vocem constare fatendumst
et sonitum, quoniam possunt inpellere sensus.
Praeterea radit vox fauces saepe facitque
asperiora foras gradiens arteria clamor,
530 quippe per angustum turba maiore coorta
ire foras ubi coeperunt primordia vocum.
scilicet expletis quoque ianua raditur oris.
haud igitur dubiumst quin voces verbaque constent
corporeis e principiis, ut laedere possint.
535 nec te fallit item quid corporis auferat et quid
detrahat ex hominum nervis ac viribus ipsis
perpetuus sermo nigrai noctis ad umbram
aurorae perductus ab exoriente nitore,
praesertim si cum summost clamore profusus.
[496] It must follow therefore that any one sense cannot confute any other.
No nor can any sense take itself to task, since equal credit must be assigned to it at all times.
What therefore has at any time appeared true to each sense, is true.
And if reason shall be unable to explain away the cause why things which close at hand were square, at a distance looked round, it yet is better, if you are at a loss for the reason, to state erroneously the causes of each shape than to let slip from your grasp on any side things manifest and ruin the groundwork of belief and wrench up all the foundations on which rest life and existence.
For not only would all reason give way, life itself would at once fall to the ground, unless you choose to trust the senses and shun precipices and all things else of this sort that are to be avoided, and to pursue the opposite things.
All that host of words then be sure is quite unmeaning which has been drawn out in array against the senses.
Once more, as in a building, if the rule first applied is wry, and the square is untrue and swerves from its straight lines, and if there is the slightest hitch in any part of the level, all the construction must be faulty, all must be wry, crooked, sloping, leaning forwards, leaning backwards, without symmetry, so that some parts seem ready to fall, others do fall, ruined all by the first erroneous measurements; so too all reason of things must needs prove to you distorted and false, which is founded on false senses.
And now to explain in what way the other senses do each perceive their several objects, is the nowise arduous task which is still left.
In the first place, all sound and voice is heard when they have made their way into the ears and have struck with their body the sense of hearing.
For voice too and sound you must admit to be bodily, since they are able to act upon the senses.
Again, voice often abrades the throat, and shouting in passing forth makes the windpipe more rough: when to wit the first-beginnings of voices have risen up in larger mass and commenced to pass abroad through their strait passage, you are to know the door of the mouth now crammed itself is abraded.
There is no doubt then that voices and words consist of bodily first beginnings, with the power to hurt; nor can you fail to know how much of body is taken away and how much is withdrawn from men’s very sinews and strength by a speech continued without interruption from the dawning brightness of morning to the shadow of black night, above all if it has been poured forth with much loud shouting.
540 ergo corpoream vocem constare necessest,
multa loquens quoniam amittit de corpore partem.
Asperitas autem vocis fit ab asperitate
principiorum et item levor levore creatur;
nec simili penetrant auris primordia forma,
545 cum tuba depresso graviter sub murmure mugit
et reboat raucum retro cita barbita bombum,
et iam Dauliades natae hortis ex Heliconis
cum liquidam tollunt lugubri voce querellam.
Hasce igitur penitus voces cum corpore nostro
550 exprimimus rectoque foras emittimus ore,
mobilis articulat nervorum daedala lingua,
formaturaque labrorum pro parte figurat.
hoc ubi non longum spatiumst unde illa profecta
perveniat vox quaeque, necessest verba quoque ipsa
555 plane exaudiri discernique articulatim;
servat enim formaturam servatque figuram.
at si inter positum spatium sit longius aequo,
aëra per multum confundi verba necessest
et conturbari vocem, dum transvolat auras.
560 ergo fit, sonitum ut possis sentire neque illam
internoscere, verborum sententia quae sit;
usque adeo confusa venit vox inque pedita.
Praeterea verbum saepe unum perciet auris
omnibus in populo missum praeconis ab ore.
565 in multas igitur voces vox una repente
diffugit, in privas quoniam se dividit auris
obsignans formam verbis clarumque sonorem.
at quae pars vocum non auris incidit ipsas,
praeter lata perit frustra diffusa per auras.
570 pars solidis adlisa locis reiecta sonorem
reddit et inter dum frustratur imagine verbi.
Quae bene cum videas, rationem reddere possis
tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola
saxa paris formas verborum ex ordine reddant.
575 palantis comites com montis inter opacos
quaerimus et magna dispersos voce ciemus.
sex etiam aut septem loca vidi reddere vocis,
unam cum iaceres: ita colles collibus ipsi
verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referri.
[540] Voice therefore must be bodily, since a man by much speaking loses a portion from his body.
Next roughness of voice comes from roughness of first-beginnings, as smoothness is produced from smoothness.
Nor are the first-beginnings of like shape which pierce the ears in these two cases: when the trumpet brays dully in deep low tones, the barbarian country roused echoing back the hoarse hollow sound, and when swans from the headstrong torrents of Helicon raise their clear-toned dirge with plaintive voice.
When therefore we force these voices forth from the depths of our body and discharge them straight out at the mouth, the pliant tongue, deft fashioner of words, gives them articulate utterance and the structure of the lips does its part in shaping them.<
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Therefore when the distance is not long between the point from which each several voice has started and that at which it arrives, the very words too must be plainly heard and distinguished syllable by syllable; for each voice retains its structure and retains its shape.
But if the space between be more than is suitable, the words must be huddled together in passing through much air and the voice be disorganized in its flight through the same.
Therefore it is that you can hear a sound, yet cannot distinguish what the meaning of the words is: so huddled and hampered is the voice when it comes.
Again a single word often stirs the ears of a whole assembly of people, when uttered by the crier’s mouth.
One voice therefore in a moment starts asunder into many voices, since it distributes itself separately into all the ears, stamping upon them the form and distinct sound of the word.
But such of the voices as do not fall directly on the ears, are carried past and lost, fruitlessly dispersed in air: some striking upon solid spots are thrown back and give back a sound and sometimes mock by an echo of the word.
When you fully perceive all this, you may explain to yourself and others how it is that in lonely spots rocks give back in regular succession forms of words like to those sent forth, as we seek our comrades straying about among the darkened hills and with loud voice call upon them scattered abroad.
I have seen places give back as many as six or seven voices, when you sent forth one: in such wise did the very hills dash back on hills and repeat the words thus trained to come back.
580 haec loca capripedes Satyros Nymphasque tenere
finitimi fingunt et Faunos esse locuntur,
quorum noctivago strepitu ludoque iocanti
adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi
chordarumque sonos fieri dulcisque querellas,
585 tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum,
et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan
pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans
unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hiantis,
fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam.
590 cetera de genere hoc monstra ac portenta loquontur,
ne loca deserta ab divis quoque forte putentur
sola tenere. ideo iactant miracula dictis
aut aliqua ratione alia ducuntur, ut omne
humanum genus est avidum nimis auricularum.
595 Quod super est, non est mirandum qua ratione,
per loca quae nequeunt oculi res cernere apertas,
haec loca per voces veniant aurisque lacessant,
conloquium clausis foribus quoque saepe videmus;
ni mirum quia vox per flexa foramina rerum
600 incolumis transire potest, simulacra renutant;
perscinduntur enim, nisi recta foramina tranant,
qualia sunt vitrei, species qua travolat omnis.
praeterea partis in cunctas dividitur vox,
ex aliis aliae quoniam gignuntur, ubi una
605 dissuluit semel in multas exorta, quasi ignis
saepe solet scintilla suos se spargere in ignis.
ergo replentur loca vocibus abdita retro,
omnia quae circum fervunt sonituque cientur.
at simulacra viis derectis omnia tendunt,
610 ut sunt missa semel; qua propter cernere nemo
saepe supra potis est, at voces accipere extra.
et tamen ipsa quoque haec, dum transit clausa domorum
vox optunditur atque auris confusa penetrat
et sonitum potius quam verba audire videmur.
615 Hoc, qui sentimus sucum, lingua atque palatum
plusculum habent in se rationis, plus operai.
principio sucum sentimus in ore, cibum cum
mandendo exprimimus, ceu plenam spongiam aquai
siquis forte manu premere ac siccare coëpit.
[579] These spots the people round fancy that the goat-footed satyrs and nymphs inhabit, and tell that they are the fauns by whose night-pervading noise and sportive play as they declare the still silence is broken and sounds produced of stringed instruments and sweet plaintive melodies, such as the pipe pours forth when beaten by the fingers of the players; the country-people hearing far and wide, what time Pan nodding the piny covering of his head half a beast’s oft runs over the gaping reeds with curved lip, making the pipe without ceasing to pour forth its woodland song.
Other such like prodigies and marvels they tell of, that they may not haply bethought to inhabit lonely places, abandoned even by the gods.
On this account they vaunt such wonders in their stories or are led on by some other reason; inasmuch as the whole race of man is all too greedy after listening ears.
To proceed, you need not wonder how it is that through places, through which the eyes cannot see plain things, voices come and strike the ears.
We often see a conversation go on even through closed doors, sure enough because the voice can pass uninjured through the winding openings of things, while idols refuse to pass: they are torn to shreds, if the openings through which they glide are not straight, like those of glass, through which every image passes.
Again, a voice distributes itself in all directions, since voices are begotten one out of another, when a single voice has once gone forth and sprung into many, as a spark of fire is often wont to distribute itself into its constituent fires.
Therefore places are filled with voices which though far withdrawn out of view yet are all in commotion and stirred by sound.
But idols all proceed in straight courses as soon as they have been discharged; and therefore you can never see beyond a wall, but you may hear voices outside it.
And yet this very voice even in passing through the walls of houses is blunted and enters the ears in a huddled state, and we seem to hear the sound rather than the actual words.
The tongue and palate whereby we perceive flavor, have not in them anything that calls for longer explanation or offers more difficulty.
In the first place we perceive flavor in the mouth when we press it out in chewing our food, in the same way as when one haply begins to squeeze with his hand and dry a sponge full of water.
620 inde quod exprimimus per caulas omne palati
diditur et rarae per flexa foramina linguae,
hoc ubi levia sunt manantis corpora suci,
suaviter attingunt et suaviter omnia tractant
umida linguai circum sudantia templa;
625 at contra pungunt sensum lacerantque coorta,
quanto quaeque magis sunt asperitate repleta.
deinde voluptas est e suco fine palati;
cum vero deorsum per fauces praecipitavit,
nulla voluptas est, dum diditur omnis in artus;
630 nec refert quicquam quo victu corpus alatur,
dum modo quod capias concoctum didere possis
artubus et stomachi tumidum servare tenorem.
Nunc aliis alius qui sit cibus ut videamus,
expediam, quareve, aliis quod triste et amarumst,
635 hoc tamen esse aliis possit perdulce videri,
tantaque in his rebus distantia differitasque est,
ut quod aliis cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum;
est itaque ut serpens, hominis quae tacta salivis
disperit ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa.
640 praeterea nobis veratrum est acre venenum,
at capris adipes et cocturnicibus auget.
id quibus ut fiat rebus cognoscere possis,
principio meminisse decet quae diximus ante,
semina multimodis in rebus mixta teneri.
645 porro omnes quae cumque cibum capiunt animantes,
ut sunt dissimiles extrinsecus et generatim
extima membrorum circumcaesura coërcet,
proinde et seminibus constant variantque figura.
semina cum porro distent, differre necessest
650 intervalla viasque, foramina quae perhibemus,
omnibus i
n membris et in ore ipsoque palato.
esse minora igitur quaedam maioraque debent,
esse triquetra aliis, aliis quadrata necessest,
multa rutunda, modis multis multangula quaedam.
655 namque figurarum ratio ut motusque reposcunt,
proinde foraminibus debent differe figurae
et variare viae proinde ac textura coërcet.
[619] Next the whole of what we press out distributes itself through the cavities of the palate and the intricate openings of the porous tongue.
Therefore when the bodies of oozing flavor are smooth, they pleasantly touch and pleasantly feel all the parts if about the moist exuding quarters of the palate.
But on the other hand, when they rise in a mass they puncture and tear the sense according to the degree in which they are pervaded by roughness.
Next the pleasure from the flavor reaches as far as the palate; when however it has passed down through the throat, there is no pleasure while it is all distributing itself into the frame.
And it makes no matter what the food is with which the body is nurtured, provided you can digest what you take and transmit it into the frame and keep the stomach in an equable condition of moistness.
I will now explain how it is that different food is pleasant and nutritious for different creatures; also why that which to some is nauseous and bitter, may yet to others seem passing sweet; and why in these matters the difference and discrepancy is so great that what to one man is food, to another is rank poison; and there is actually a serpent which on being touched by a man’s spittle wastes away and destroys itself by gnawing its body.
Again hellebore for us is rank poison, but helps to fatten goats and quails.
That you may know how this comes to pass, first of all you must remember what we have said before, that the seeds which are contained in things are mixed up in manifold ways.
Again all living creatures soever which take food, even as they are unlike on the outside, and, differing in each after its kind, an exterior contour of limbs bounds them, so likewise are they formed of seeds of varying shape.
Again since the seeds differ, there must be a discrepancy in the spaces between and the passages, which we name openings, in all the limbs and mouth and palate as well.
Some openings therefore must be smaller, some larger; some things must have them three-cornered, others square; many must be round, some many-angled after many fashions.